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Pure Pleasure Off roading, breaking a myth in India and catching up with the bengal tiger

I rode through Odisha on the NH 326. The stretch was more of an off-road experience, pure pleasure. I simply stood to enjoy the music of the engine revving. I saw a safe place to camp at around 4 pm. So thrilled that I might find more, I kept riding deeper through the forests but it got dark by the time I found another. The headlight runs on the dynamo, dimming every time I reduced the throttle, making it impossible to ride fast or even have a view of the surroundings to set camp.

In the middle of nowhere, I met a few Tibetans stuck with one of their bikes not starting. I checked the bike, looked like there was a block in the carburettor. When I started talking to them, turned out one of the guys was from Bylakuppe! I towed their bike for a few kilometres to help them reach a garage. 

As I rode ahead to realise It was Ganesh pooja that day and I was served with mildly spiced Kichidi as dinner by the townspeople who were celebrating. They made sure nobody went hungry that night. I slowly started to feel the tiredness and was getting irritated as I kept riding ahead looking for someplace to camp. Finally, around 9 pm I found a place, neat and flat with a layer of grass. I set up camp and crashed. 

Puri was 100 kilometres away. But, I came across a ferry service, that allowed me to take the bike onboard the boat. I reached the ferry station, loaded the bike and enjoyed the boat ride. After getting off, I still had another 15 kilometres to Puri.

Upon reaching Puri, the first thing I did was to head to the government weed shop. It felt like breaking a myth for the whole country. I looked online about where and how to buy some, someone had suggested trying the Shivalika of Andhra. I reached the market square to ask a person about the shop and he replied, "To smoke or to drink?" I said "to smoke" and he simply pointed his finger at the store. 

As I walked to the shop, about 20 people sat around in small groups, chit-chatting in a trance, filling up their chillum and passing it to each other. I bought some for 100 rupees, he gave me so much that it would've cost me at least 500 in Coorg or Bangalore, the buds looked properly harvested. 

Earlier, on the ferry, I had tried to find a stay through Couchsurfing and had got in touch with Promotesh. He said he couldn't host me that day but we decided to meet in the evening anyway. I found a room for 300 rupees, dumped my luggage and rolled a Joint. That evening at around 6 we met at the beach. The place was so crowded I insisted he take me to a calmer side and he rode me further ahead. I rolled a joint, he didn't smoke; He said he could host me the next day in Bhubaneshwar where he was doing his graduation, but not today because he was living with his parents.

I told him, I’ll take a walk back. He left and I started walking on the beach towards my room. I saw friends, families, couples, and people of all ages having a good time on the beach in the evening. I smoked another joint at the beach. So stoned, I forgot my slippers, went back to find them, missed them again in a chaat shop, found them and walked back to sleep. 

The next morning I rode towards the Sun temple in Konark where I saw some boys whom I had met earlier on the ferry. The temple is a chariot like structure, majestically carved by the sculptors. I tried to imagine how they could create such architecture. The incredible amount of time and manpower, to lift up rocks, put them in place, and the time taken to sculpt. 

That evening I reached Bhubaneshwar and stayed with Promotesh. I prepared Chicken for them, all of us sat together and ate dinner along with rice. I enjoyed the company and conversation while I ate. Then rested.

Around 8 am the next day, my bags were packed and loaded on the Platina. With a goodbye, I moved towards Nandankan zoo and left for Kolkata. The zoo is huge with a hundred varieties of species but the safari was inside a manmade park. With the cyclone Feni last year, most of the trees had been uprooted and the winds had simply wiped off the place. Even Promotesh had mentioned yesterday about not a single coconut tree surviving the winds. The zoo had lost a lot of nature and wildlife too with animals caged to death. I’m sure without the cages they would have definitely moved to safety. 

 Reaching Kolkata after two days, I was hosted by my dear friend Ankit Roy. Bugger stayed with us in Coorg a few months back. I contacted him and he guided me to his place. On the way, I visited the Dakshineswar Kali temple where Vivekananda is said to have meditated to Goddess Kali, but the temple was closed. I left and decided to come back later. 

Ankit had stayed with me at my homestay in Coorg. After losing his father, he wasn't feeling very well and had gone for a holiday to Kodaikanal, where he met Vibin, who is now running Meadows. When Ankit told him that he wanted to visit Coorg, Vibin Etta recommended me to him and was connected. He had brought some magic mushrooms along. We camped at the backwaters with my friends and popped them. The drug took us closer to the clouds on that full moon night overlooking the beautiful backwaters in front of us.

Ankit now lived alone in a 2 bedroom apartment in one of the posh localities of Kolkata. My Bengal tiger buddy welcomes me with some perfectly harvested marijuana. We just smoked and lazed that day and the following days as well at his friend's place. His place felt so comfortable I was kinda getting settled there. I did a day trip to the Sundarbans, unable to go through the mangroves as it cost too much. I came back and stayed at his place and decided to move towards Darjeeling.



Somewhere on the highway to Jeypore in Odisha 


On the ferry to Puri


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