A Toast to the Coast

                                                             

Well, after a short hiatus I was back on my bird for the next ride. Probably my last ride before my exam comes up. I had recently got my bike serviced only to be prepared for this short dash to a beautiful coastal town. It was a Sunday. For some, a day to catch up on some more sleep. The all important additional 5 minutes that invariably ran into hours eventually. But I had a very early start. I left home at 05:30 to assemble at the Royal Enfield Showroom at Nerul. It was supposedly a ride termed as Valentine’s ride. I was told that a ‘female pillion’ would add more memories to the ride. Considering that, it was a sad start for me as I had nobody to get along. I was only hoping & praying that I was not the only loner in the group. To my surprise, I was the 2^nd person to assemble at the showroom. Another Thunderbird (Red in colour) stood there with 2 helmets dangling from the handlebar. I told myself, the time has come to feel miserable. The 1^st couple on a red Thunderbird (Valentine effect) all ready to cosy up for the entire ride.  Two guys approached the bike and introduced themselves to me. I heaved a sigh of relief when I was told that they plan to ride on that bike.

    A few minutes later, the showroom manager came in and opened the shutter to a loud clatter. A collection of these beautiful handcrafted machines stood inside tempting all of us to buy another Royal Enfield. Soon one thump followed another and a total of 15 bikes assembled side by side. The company’s regional manager was the one we were waiting for. As soon as he came and geared up, we assembled in a single line and turned on the ignition and woke up the neighbourhood as usual, before we began our journey. Before I forget, the start was more than satisfying as all the 15 riders were loners (barring the red one and of course the showroom manager and regional head riding together with the mechanics). We proceeded along the Uran JNPT road. A route I had never been on before. It was a single lane road with big trailers running along on one side and mammoth containers stacked up at the container stations visible on the other side. The biggest challenge was to overtake a slow moving container. Every few meters there was a sharp turn and the never ending trailer ahead of us literally blinded us. After passing through the truck dominated stretch we came to the local village roads. After following those trucks endlessly we thought we could now shift up the gears and speed up. But before we could even think, we found another set of authentic Indian road blocks. Cattle strewn all over the road, blissfully chewing. I’ve always wondered... Don’t their jaws ever stop???? After carefully avoiding their horns which were more frightening than ours’ (despite the sound) we progressed further and thankfully at a higher speed.

   We were wound by the twists and turns that continued throughout the rural stretch before we finally reached our 1^st point of assembly, the toll naka just before the dangerous yet scenic NH17. NH17 was a killer stretch with the maximum number of accidents in the recent past. The ride was definitely not a race but this route had sent my heart racing. Enchanting scenery on both sides of the road but a single lane without dividers meant more focus on the road. Each time I had to overtake a vehicle ahead I had to peep in to avoid oncoming traffic at the same time ensure no one rams me from the back and I don’t ram the vehicle in front. Looking in the mirrors was a challenge with the sun reflecting sharply and blacking you out completely. But thankfully our wingmen did a fantastic job to ensure we had minimum difficulties in making progress along this narrow highway. We were forced to stop along the road as one of the riders had some battery troubles. It was probably the best place to have a breakdown. The scenery left us hypnotized. You could see farm land as far as your eyes could. The trees were completely shed off all their leaves. At the end, was a train passing by, making it a perfect postcard shot. After the brief halt we marched on, to finally stop for breakfast at the all important Vadkal naka. It was a busy junction and a gang of 15 thumpers surely caught the attention of the locals. A dose of hot vada pav, misal pav and cutting chai, we all were fully recharged. The ride was getting tougher as the sun was hitting us hard. All the protective gear suddenly became a big burden as we were sinking in our own sweat. Another hour into the ride and a mechanical failure brought us to a stop. The rear brakes on the showroom bike began to wear off. At that point we had enough of our gear. We all unzipped our jackets and rode along feeling the wind rushing through our bodies. The final stretch was probably the best. We just rode along parallel to the beach. We had the coconut trees lined up on one side making it green and the deep blue sea on the other side, a sheer visual delight. We finally stopped at a place where we could just park and spend some time in the beach. The bikes rested along with us, before each of us got into our swimming trunks and made a dash to a much needed splash. The water was chilled even though the sand was burning. I just sat in the water thinking of my ideal girl. I was so deeply lost in those romantic thoughts that I actually felt as if she was sitting right beside me. As the waves gushed in the thoughts began to take a beautiful shape till I was hit by some kind of a twig. Alas!!! All those dreams came to an abrupt end.

    I cleansed myself and was ready for lunch. We all hoped for a really royal spread as hunger pangs had taken control of our bodies. Before we could imagine the dishes we would be served, we faced a puncture. We cursed that nail which penetrated the tyre to our hearts’ content as we all were succumbing to hunger. We finally split up and 1 group headed for lunch & the remaining 4 riders were attending to the puncture. To make things worse 3 riders including me lost our way and ended up going 15 kms away from the restaurant. The wingman with us lost his cool and gave a piece of his mind to the lead rider for not halting at the important junction. We finally managed to get together and had lunch at about 16:00. Before the laziness kicked in we started our return journey.

The same curvy roads wore a completely different look in the evening. It was bustling with people who had come to shop at the bazaars which cropped up along the streets. As twilight approached I couldn’t resist but imagine “what if my dream girl was pillion to me?? The only missing element in this beautiful ride.” May be next time... I thought. I rather forced myself to think that way as I just couldn’t stop imagining. Well, the thoughts started fading off slowly along with the sunlight and my focus had to be on the road as there were no street lights. I nearly had a freak accident at a blind turn when suddenly out of nowhere a cat decided to cross the road. I missed it probably by the length of its own whiskers. I thought for a moment it was either that feline or me that was going to survive that night. I had no room to brake and had I braked hard I would have surely fallen off and been run over by the vehicle behind me. That’s when I told myself “thank God my dream girl wasn’t sitting behind me”.  The beams of our head lights curled around the meandering roads and guided us safely back to our final assembly point. Most of us had become restless to get back home. I was facing a massive headache throughout the return journey due to the delayed lunch.

  A final group photo was shot and we went our separate ways. As I rode back home the entire day was playing in my head like a tape recorder on loop mode. The new friends, the beach, the love struck ME, and of course what would this ride be without an RE.