I have left bits of me in various places that I can visit anytime in the blink of my eye. As I rode on towards Dharamshala, I understood that the best part of my journey was over and I was coming back into senseless civilization and meaningless lives.
I found a place to dump my luggage in a small crowded town and went out to visit the Dalai Lama monastery or the Kalachakra Temple. The place was lit with numerous lamps and was glittering like gold. The streets were filled with their traditional style of art and craft.
The next day I started riding to Vaishno Devi temple in Jammu. My intention was to touch the last state on the north and The Kutch of Gujarat on the west before returning home. After riding through the day, I reached Katra around 6 PM, I got my pass to enter the temple, left my luggage in a locker and started hiking. When I saw food being served, i ate and continued to climb. This was where I realised I had become numb. I didn't feel any pain and was simply rushing ahead passing people in my own trance.
After waiting for an hour, I was able to catch a glimpse of the three stones in the holy shrine, Mahakali, Mahalaxmi and Maha Saraswathi with the water flowing continuously through the rocks. On the spiritual side, there was a feeling of satisfaction, coming down the hill, there was a feeling of bliss. On reaching my bike around 3 AM after a 13-kilometre trek, I went to the locker and found out that it opened only after 6. My finances were low, I tried to rest near the bus station, but realised without proper rest the next day would be trouble. I found a sharing room at 250 and crashed beside another man.
I left Karta in a hurry since my phone wouldn't work in Jammu and I was in no condition to buy a new sim card for a day. After 5 hours of sleep, I woke up and moved out collected my luggage and rode out of Jammu. I reached a junction where to my left was the road to Srinagar and Leh, I had just enough to reach back. I took a right turn and started riding down.
On my journey down, I mostly slept in my tent beside the highway. The traffic, Pollution, and plastic waste everywhere started making me feel disgusted. I didn't buy any water bottles throughout my ride, just picked bottles from the road and filled wherever I found water. Sometimes when the bottles gave up or fell off the bike. I simply picked another and filled.
With Kutch on the maps I was riding through Punjab and Rajasthan, There was nothing worth to visit nor I felt like exploring another place, it was just wide highways, people and pollution, I was coming down fast. Mahesh, a 27-year-old Biochemist Scientist hosted me in Jodhpur. Some people I met guided me to Karni Mata Temple, known as the temple of Rats and said It was auspicious to sight a white rat. I was just lucky enough to see one. Visited a site of Indus valley civilization and a Gow Shala, Shree Krishna Gopal Gauseva Samiti at Nagaur.
I reached the beautiful Kutch just when the sun was setting. I camped on the deserts of Kutch and ate my bread and omelette, which i picked for dinner. I had to push myself to wake up early to see the sunrise but reached the watchtower just when people were starting to walk back. Wasting no time I continued riding home.
Nearing Ahmedabad I sent Joy a message. Joy from Guwahati! luckily, he was in Anand and looked happy to host me. It was around 12 noon when I called him to realise he was another 275 kilometres away. I ate a super brunch at M.K. Mevada Hotel and twisted the throttle to reach his house around 6 PM. Wow, it's Joy. The pleasure of being welcomed with a drink of whisky was a joy indeed. Joy was living with his mom and wasn't new to me. I had lived for nearly two weeks in his room in Guwahati while waiting for my voter's id. He had a friend along, Akshay, a neighbour's son in his 12th standard. We drank while his mom made us some grand Gujarati food. Oh, I missed good food.
After Jammu, I was riding down fast covering an average of 300 odd kilometres every day making me dead tired and weak, without a good sleep or a good meal. His house felt at home. I spent 3 days eating, drinking and savouring some tasty Gujarat delicacies. Joy and Akshay took me around the city and to the grand Amul factory. I extended a day, enjoying too much of the comfort, unable to say goodbye.
That night around 10 PM, I got a call. Someone asking for me, if I was in Anand. I said yes. He said he was my fan. I said what!? I stood shaken, happy and drunk. All at the same time. He said, he was following me on social media for few months and when he saw my check-in at Anand, he wanted to meet me and even rode that late to catch up. Dhaval Pandey and his friend, two young men in their post-twenties came and asked me about the ride and my life. We had a good conversation before it was too late for them to leave. He suggested I could camp at a beach before Mumbai.
On the next day, I was back on the four-lane national highway cruising towards Kolhapur, to meet my destined brother from the road, the one who took me to the eastern border of India, Shohab Sheikh. At the blink of my eye i had That moment when we parted at Assam on the longest bridge of India, The Bupen Hazarika Setu.
Picture gallery
Joy In Peace.
My only fan. Dhaval Pandey
Sunrise at Kutch.
At Karni Mata Temple
Joys Mother.
Auspicious White rat At Karni Mata Temple
Somewhere in Gujurat
At Karni Mata Temple
Mahesh's House in Jodhpur
Somewhere in Rajastan.
Camping in Punjab.
The Super meals at MK Mevada Hotel.
At Mahesh's House in Jodhpur.
At a museum near Indus Valley Civilization.
Sunrise at Kutch.
Karni Mata temple.
Rann of Kutch
At a museum near Indus Valley Civilization.
The food festival, at Jalandhar in Punjab.
At a museum near Indus Valley Civilization.
My space at Joys house in Gujurat.
A picture from the Highway.
At a museum near Indus Valley Civilization.
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Thankful to them all, Thankful to the One! metta
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