After spending 5 years in Bangalore, I embarked on a final
motorcycle trip out of the city on 1st April. Well, “final” for the
near future at least. I completed the ride today, on 2nd April and
reached Pune, my new home. For those who don’t know, I got a new job here and
decided to bring along my bike and some luggage for the first few days until I
find a place to live in.
Bangalore was love at first sight for me and grew on me
since that first day when I stepped out of the train in 2011. The city has also
grown me as a person by giving me a taste of life as a bachelor. I became very
comfortable, finished post-graduation, found a job and stayed there for 3
years. Every stage has been filled with lovely people and awesome experiences.
I have no regrets on any front – professional or personal. I made full use of
my time there to travel around too.
Time came to shift though, and I was torn between a desire
to stick around and a craving to get out of yet another comfort zone. The latter won out and here I am, 840 kms away
in a completely new city and I look forward to all the fun and challenges it
throws at me with some optimism and a bit more trepidation (cynic that I am).
My mother had described this ride as “not a regular ride,
but a migration ride”. In all senses, I agree with her. The objective of the
ride was not fun, but actually to migrate. I carried more luggage than I ever
did. And I treated it as a migration ride too, which might explain the
relatively-short length of this blog and the lack of pictures.
The day before the ride was unique, yet traditional. I had
farewell drinks with my friends. But I had to prepare my entire luggage for the
eventual shift, so it wasn’t a regular “throw stuff in a bag and start riding”
kinda deal that is the norm for me. In between all this and an early start at
5, I just managed to get a few hours of sleep. The day’s riding was till
Belgaum, 500 kms away. I have done such distances before so I wasn’t too
concerned. The heat, however, made things very different for me. I was consistently drowsy and no amount of
singing or shouting helped. I took a few power naps along the way, and managed
to reach Hubli by lunch time. There were 100 kms more to go and I needed a beer
and lunch before I could I even think of riding further. I searched for a
resto-bar for some time and didn’t find any. I gave up on the idea of beer and zeroed
in on a restaurant tucked into a corner on the main highway itself. Surprisingly,
they served beer. Unsurprisingly, they didn’t accept cards. Once again, I got
back into the town of Hubli to search for an ATM. Quite a bit of exploration
was required before I found one. After all this riding around in the beastly
afternoon heat, the first sip of a chilled Tuborg gives an unparalleled feeling
of joy and satisfaction. I chatted for a while with a Ninja 600 rider who was
heading to Goa and remarked on the large numbers of Harley riders we observed
heading towards Bangalore all through the day. Probably an event of some sort.
After lunch, it was just hardcore riding till Belgaum where
I stayed in the same hotel we had stayed in during the Belgaum-Amboli Ghat
ride. The sheer contrast of the landscapes never escaped me. The predominant
colours during that ride were green (of the land) and grey (of the sky). This
time, they were brown and blue, respectively. Nevertheless, I lounged around in
the AC room for a while before heading to Ajanta Café which had provided us
with an excellent breakfast during the earlier ride. I polished off a misal
paav and a masala dosa and headed back to the hotel for a well-deserved sleep.
Day 2 riding was marked by a slightly late start at 7,
similar landscapes and weather and a juice break on the way where the shop
owner said that riders like me seemed a little mad to him, as we seemed to
be unaware of more effective means of transportation. I explained about passion
and priorities to him and may have convinced him that we were way worse than ‘a
little mad’. Important point to be noted: when I mentioned ‘psychology’ as my
field of work, his confused face cleared up.
Hopefully, Pune will bring more awesome rides and thus allow
me to write better blogs in the coming few months!
Cheers!
