I have started on a new journey and its only the journey that I want to enjoy.
So folks, this one would be told only through pictures.
Here we go.........................................................
This is how it started at 05.45 on a Saturday morning. My whole colony was fast asleep. This is me at the start of it
For all the night creatures of Delhi, below sights are. For those who have not ventured out in the night in Delhi, take a look……
Then we stopped for morning tea while waiting for others to arrive. Its good to have a cup of tea that early in the morning. Though summers have arrived way too early this year but it was chilly in the morning. People who think that only call center executives do a night shift, for them here is an eye opener. The chai-waala was just 14 yrs old doing a night shift in front of Anand –vihar bus-stand.
Manish and Yusuf arrived. He was dressed rather conservatively so we had to make him change his clothes. For more explicit pictures of him, you’ll have to read his blog. Though I am not sure if he will be releasing them soon.
Anyways both the bikes were on the road while sun had decided to come up a little bit
Couldn’t let the sun go like this. Here’s the morning sun for you……….
We had decided to take a stop at the first dhaba on road and have our breakfast. But before doing that, breakfast for our bikes was needed. So we stopped first to get them their food……
After they had their fill, both bikes were back on road. Take a look at the road as well and the country side along it. Morning fog was there and the air had a chillness in it.
We couldn’t keep ourselves away from the green fields and decided to become Sharukh. We were searching for a “Sarson ka Khet” like in DDLJ but then one of us said its not the season for sarson. So we had to satisfy ourselves with a wheat field………………..
Obviously while we were posing we forgot that it was somebody’s field we are standing in. The farmer cam and we had to run…………..
Anyways after a close shave from the owner we reached the dhaba we were lookin for. Was time to have our breakfast…
The dhaba we reached was this………Also I couldn’t help notice a strange thing. Whoever had written the direction for not to enter without permission also had the sense of telling people who to take permission from, if you want to enter. Wish that kind of sense come to educated India as well. :P
We had “Kullad ki chai” after a very very long time. Couldn’t stop myself from clicking this one………..
Well we finished the chai in no time……..I wanted to click one more………………..
Its not that we didn’t eat anything. I couldn’t remember what we ate so you can find that yourself……..
After both the bikes and the bikers were well fed., we were ready for the road…….a little laughter before we went ahead……………..
And ashirvaad from “Shri Naresh Bhagwaan” we set off for our journey. You must be wondering who is “Naresh Bhagwaan!!!”. Well here you go……………
So we set our horses on the road again……….
Suddenly we remembered that we haven’t had anything sweet after a wonderful breakfast. Well we decided to get some for ourselves and that’s when the sugarcane fields came in handy………………….While two of us decided to steal the sugarcanes, me and Himanshu got busy in some photo shoot.
Young thieves entering and returning successfully….
While Himanshu was getting himself clicked……….
We couldn’t repeat the morning incident so I was keeping an eye open for the farmer as well……..
Anyways the mission to get sweets was successful and we started riding to find a suitable place to sit, relax and enjoy our loot…………………….Finally we found one such place…………………
The next hour was spent sitting on mango branches and eating sugar canes. So nobody bothered to click any pictures. The smell was so sweet. Air was heavy with the pollination for mangoes and the shade was so cool that few off us even dozed off for a while. Then finally we said goodbye to this beautiful place and managed to click one before leaving…………….
After this we started riding. The NH-24 here was real smooth and we had no problems running at a steady speed of 85 Kmph. But then we had to stop again because of these sights……………
These pics are of the “Ghadmukteshwar Mandir” and The ganga ghat along it. You could see the vast expanse of Ganga, also known as “Ghad Ganga” here. We offered our prayers to the life-giving water of Ganga and teek to road again. It was amazing to find a McDonalds here(the only one we saw all through our journey). We would have gone in to get a burger or two, but it clearly stated “NO ENTRY”. So we gave it a pass………
As I have already told you that the road here was butter smooth. So I decided to give Avenger a little push. Surprisingly it touched 100kmph without a sneeze………….
Obviously riding it at that speed, we left Manish and Himanshu behind. Way behind I would say. And we reached Moradabad Toll Office about 30 minutes before them. A call placed on Manish’s number confirmed that they’re going to take atleast 45 minutes to reach us. So we decided to take a break and wait for them. Offcourse we were not sitting around idle. We did some clicks…………..
The second bike arrived and without delay we started riding again. It was lunch time and we all were feeling hungary. So again we decided that we will not stop until we reach a nice road-side dhaba. It was already decided that we are not going to have our lunch in a restaurant in any town or city that came in our way. It had to be a road side dhaba. Finaaly we found one and boy!!! Did we crashed into it, You bet we did
We had full lunch. And by full I mean full. We were starving so much that again I couldn’t click any more. Nor can anybody else. The taste was real yum and we topped it of with chai’s. The “chacha “ who served us was real cool. Here’s a pic of him……………..
We reached Ramnagar at around 19:00. When we went to get our safari booked, we were told that all the bookings for the morning were already done. The options we had was to stay somewhere in Ramnagar for the night, get our safari booked in the morning at 04:00 am and then wait till 14:00 to get started. Well we thought why to wait for people to take us to an adventure. And then we thought that thinking…..such a waste of time!!!. So we decided to ride on……….
Ride on into the night and reach Nainital. So here we go………………………………..
If morning had brought us sun than night gave us the gift of a beautiful moon…………………………….
We rode for about 2 hours into the night. Its was going up and we could only see as far as the headlights of our bikes went. It was like playing a video game with all the twists and turns. Riding like this again made us hungry but there was only darkness on both sides of the road. All who come from the countryside know that night come a little too early in those areas and 21:00 pm is like 01:00 am there. We had not hoped to find anything until we reached Nainital but to our amazement and our stomach’s delight we found this…………………………
Again for all those who think only call-center executives work at night, please consider this………His name is Pamkaj and he is 09 years old. He was doing a night shift to help his dad take care of the shop. We watched IPL match with him while we ate magi and chai……………..
Pankaj wanted to get his photo clicked before we rode again…..so we took this. I even asked him for his e-mail id and promised to send this pic to him. He don’t have a email id right now, probably doesn’t even know what I was talking about….I but wish one day he’ll have one
So we bade our goodbyes to Pankaj and his shop to ride again. We rode until we saw Nanital. The pic wouldn’t be able to capture how it really looked like in the night, but it did look like somebody had scattered loads of chiny pearls in the night. From where we saw it, we were able to look at both. The million starts above and uncountable starts below!!!!
And……..
Nainital’s reflection in the lake…………………
We reached the chowk. While I and Manish were arranging for some lodging, Himanshu decided to fool around……….
She was looking at him all the time………
Anyways, we were able to find a decent room for the night and decided to sleep. I was the first to wake up next morning. This is the first shot I took……………….
Here’s a look at the three smart bikers ready to take on the world…………………..in their sleep off-course…………
We got ready for one more day of riding and clicking away. While riding we came to this place which I am sure you all might have seen, when going to Nainital. This is called the suicide point and rightly so. If you jump from here you wouldn’t touch a thing before 250 fts. Anyways it was a thrill for all of us to get on the top of it.
Here’s Manish contemplating a jump himself. He changed his mind when Himanshu pointed out the the missing parachute from his back and I convinced Manish that the things he has on both sides are called ARMS not WINGS……. ….
Here’s him thinking of jumping……………….
But then I asked him to fan out his arms and try to move them up and down, see if he is able to fly!!!!!
Anyways he came down after we started throwing stones at him. Then I decided to take some rest. The best ever sofa I have sat on till now…………………….
There was enough space for one guy to stand…..but ………..
And here’s Yusuf doing a Ranbir Kapoor on the sucide point.
But then he decided to sit back and relax………………………
Just like Himanshu…………………………..
And below are the two guys whom you have always seen in formal shirts and pants….dedicated to the guys they were………..and are…………………
Anyways we decided to move ahead. Our original plan was to reach Corbett fall before lunch, but while driving down we saw a dirt road going up the hill. So we decided to turn our bikes in that direction. It was a no road show and we didn’t stop until we reached the stop. You can see both the bikes taking rest under the shade over the hilltop……..
There I saw these beautiful wild flowers. The original size is not more than a 50 paise coin. But they deserved to be clicked…………………..
While I was busy taking pictures of the wild flowers, the two thorns decided that they are more photogenic than the flowers, so I had to click them……………….just for the comparison take a look……………………….
When I refused to click them further, Yusuf became a little emotional and jumped from the hill. I had to click him(it could have been his only pic for a long time. His foot had to pay the price later for this dare devil-ness………………..
We spent around an hour fooling around on that hill top. There are many other pics that were clicked. To see all of them you’ll have to visit my piccassa album. Anyways we again took to the road which by the way looked like it just jumped out of a calendar……………………….
We didn’t stop until we finally reached Corbett waterfall. It was awesome and had an amazing affect if you look at it while standing under a hot sun overhead………………………
Well Yusuf and Manish decided to jump into the waterfall as soon as we reached there……………….
Then the big crocodile decided to enter………………………………
Himanshu needed some persuasion………………
But started collecting god-knows-what right after he jumped into the pool………………….
While the others were having fun, the crocodile was clicking these pictures……………………….
We spent a good part of three hours after which we had our lunch at a roadside dhaba and then didn’t stop anywhere until we reached Delhi………….
This was the final meter reading after we reached my place………………………
Well to tell you the truth I am not sure if I can say this is the best outing I have ever had in my life but when the great list would be written, it surely would be counted as THE FIRST EVER of its kind for me. Six hundred eighty two pictures and six hundred seventy one kilometers will not be able to define what we all felt for those not counted moments but.........
I can tell you for sure that the best moments were those when none of us had the time to click them …………..
And the last picture of this road trip………………………………………………….
The only words coming to my mind are……………………
“Main akela he chala tha janib-e-manzil magar,
log milte gaye aur karwan banta gaya”
[I set out alone for my destination, but people kept joining me along the way and formed a multitude].
I can tell you for sure that the best moments were those when none of us had the time to click them …………..
And the last picture of this road trip………………………………………………….
The only words coming to my mind are……………………
“Main akela he chala tha janib-e-manzil magar,
log milte gaye aur karwan banta gaya”
[I set out alone for my destination, but people kept joining me along the way and formed a multitude].
