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Its my Gang of friends and another home away.

I was back in my country and soon started feeling pity and sad with all the crowd and the fast-paced life in my motherland. I knew that I had one of my homes at Siliguri and I started riding in that direction. I called Sanam but was not reachable, Samarpan wasn't audible on the phone either. So I just got there and stopped beside Sanam's house. 

His father walked towards the road while I was parked. I asked, Sir pehechaana? He says "kyon nahi par aapka sathi nahi hai." 

"Huh, kya Sanam nahi hai?" 

( I asked if he recognised me and he says why not and said, but your friend isn't here)

He had gone to attend a wedding in Nepal with his mother. When I decided to move on, Samarpan walked in. I asked him what's up with his phone and he said his mike was screwed. We decided to meet the rest of the gang, Dewash, Antony and his brothers. Dumped my luggage in Samarpans house, where I met his mom, a wonderful woman who was wheelchair-bound for a few years due to a stroke. She only spoke her own language and nobody else in her family wanted her anymore. Samarpan took care of her like his daughter while his father wouldn't bother. He had no hopes of making a life for himself.  

While we sat on the roadside, chatting in the evening, this guy comes running. It was Sanam. Bugger escaped from his mom halfway, had a good time with his girlfriend in Gangtok and was back home when the money got over. We were delighted to meet each other again. Then we planned to move on to the next level, as they decided to spend the night in a watchtower. We picked up some booze and walked to the watchtower in the middle of paddy fields. Most of the crop had been harvested and many were forced to harvest prematurely because of the elephant menace. We had what we needed for a fun night and it really was one. 

Except for one thing, holding on to the damn support less ladder every time, trying to take a leak.

The next morning we came down the watchtower. Sanam took me to his house and made breakfast since his mom wasn't back yet. We all went swimming in the river nearby and had a great time. That night I had no option but to sleep at Sanam's house. With the reputation he had in his house, it was very awkward for me to stay. Luckily when we reached home they were all asleep, so we went straight to the room and pulled the blankets over us.

I was set to leave the next day but my luggage was in Samarpan’s house, my bike at Dewash's house and I was roaming like it was my own village. Sanam forced me to have breakfast at his house and asked his mother to prepare Maggi. The way she reacted, I definitely did not feel like eating. They were speaking in their language but I could understand that his lifestyle and attitude pissed her.  She asked me if I would eat rice? I said, Sure. Something wasn't letting me eat there so I managed to sneak out to Samarpan's house saying I would be back before the food was ready and went to load my luggage. I ate a bowl of rice at Samarpan's house, prayed for his mother and asked Samarpan to tell Sanam that he forced me to eat there. We met on the road while Sanam was waiting angrily and I apologised to him and blamed it on Samarpan. They bid me a goodbye and I rode towards Varanasi. The Holy City of India. 

It was a 600-kilometre ride through Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. I camped two days, got the front brake fixed as I happened to stop at a hotel next to a garage and kept riding fast through the sad areas of our country where everything was polluted. From the food, they eat to the water they drink and the air they breathe. Most people still commuted on bicycles, grew their own grains and lived on them. I saw a little girl running to school shivering from the cold unable to afford a sweater while I was fighting to beat the same cold with at least 3 layers of clothing. I realized why people from there are known to be rigid, I understood. 

The Highway was a four-lane well-maintained road mostly used by Trucks and Transports, the land is vast and dry. Once I happened to go off the highway into a village, There was so much crowd there, I wonder how they managed to live. While passing a tea shop I stopped to order one asked a person nearby about the livelihood of the people? Their food habits? since I see any hotel around. He said, there was hardly any employment. With so much population and the land being dry they hardly managed to eat twice a day. People normally ate puffed rice or puri with tea for breakfast before going to work and in the evening with the money earned, they cooked a meal for the family. There were only a few brick factories that ran and every day they selected people from a crowd requesting work.


Related videos

https://youtu.be/-F_P9dj7lSo

https://youtu.be/N07XbbHtPPs

https://youtu.be/Dqeeza7-_qk

Photo Gallery

Antony's Family harvested crops.

Somewhere beside the Bihar, UP highway.




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