Adventures of Venom!!!

For those of whom wondering where have I been: there was long break. The post explains half of it!

This post comes in a little late – actually a lot late – but that’s what happens when you are back to work after a 15 day break!!!!!!

I had truck loads of thoughts running in my head, but I had vowed that I will not write about anything else, till the time I have finished the post on my trip!!!!

Venom, VS and me! The three of us set out for some adventure. And before you ask – who’s Venom? Let me tell you, Venom is the new love in VS’s life. Venom is the bike – a beautiful silver-coloured Royale Enfield.

OK, so now the trip – the biking trip! Yes, we did it, finally! After months of planning and anticipation, it’s already over and it feels great. Though it leaves us with a desire for another longer one and NOW, but I guess the 2nd trip will have to wait for sometime.
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THE PREPARATION:
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There was a lot of thinking and preparation put to this plan. It started from choosing the route. We knew we had to start from Mumbai, coz that’s where we live. But where to go and how, needed route planning. The 1st thought was to do Himachal via Rajasthan and Delhi and it spanned for 3 weeks. But then the “cool” boss butted in and shortened the leave to 2 weeks.
The plan had to change. Himachal had to be struck out of the plan.

Finally we agreed on

Mumbai – Anand – Ahmedabad – Mt. Abu – Jodhpur – Jaisalmer – Jaipur – Delhi – Agra – Delhi – Jaipur – Ajmer - Pushkar – Udaipur – Vadodara – Mumbai.

Then the work began

1. Buying helmets (while you are in the city the pillion rider doesn’t wear a helmet, but it surely is needed on the highway)
2. The “how to carry luggage on the bike” discussion, which led to the purchase of a saddle bag (I had never even heard of such a thing’s existence before this day)
3. “How to carry my clothes in that saddle bag? It’s so small” – such questions are almost always met with VS’s icy stare, which means – “Shut Up”. And so, I knew all I could carry was 3 bottoms and 7 tops.
4. Then came the spare parts for the bike – including the extra tyre tubes!!!! Needless to say that the spares took up almost half the available space. OK, I am down to 2 bottoms and 5 tops now.
5. Purchase of glucose and Tang, and a small First Aid box (very essential)
6. Collection of my skin care products – let me tell you – nothing's more important for you (if you are a girl) than sunscreen on such a trip!!!!!
7. Getting glares done for VS with power, so that he can wear them while riding during the day (he wears spectacles, remember!!)
8. Remembering to keep the hot water (rubber) bottle for back aches.

THE TRIP BEGINS:
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Day 1: 12th November 2007


We started at 6.00 am. This was an achievement in itself, considering that we had partied till 2.00 am the night before.

Trip meter set to Zero.

The 1st break came almost immediately – around 9.00 am for breakfast - at Kamat’s on way to Surat. The 1st day of riding can be tough. My bums were already hurting and I was begging for a break.


At around 2.00 pm I was tired and dozing off (yeah on the bike). I ate VS’s brains out till he stopped by at a road side tapri for a break. I promptly lay down at one of the benches, much to VS’s embarrassment.

I had to drag myself up to the bike within 15 minutes, coz VS threatened me (with a straight face) that he was going ahead with the trip and I could catch the 1st flight back! (And I was like – yeah rite, this tapri is the swankiest of the airports, rite!!!!)

At around 3 PM we were nearing Anand. OK…for the curious ones who are wondering ‘Why Anand??’ … Anand is a small town in Gujarat famous for AMUL MILK. And as to why we were visiting it, VS has graduated from BVM engineering college in Anand. SO I wanted to relive his memories with him.


By now I had created a ruckus about VS not letting me ride the bike. Finally I succeeded and VS handed over Venom’s control to me. (Thats an achievement, and those who know what a control freak VS is, will agree)

We reached Anand by 400 PM. It was a beautiful experience watching VS in full action around his campus. Telling me stories related to every nook and corner of the building, showing around the hostels, the canteen, the mess, the dhaba, the shady theatre where they spent hours watching porn movies – all of it. Lovely!!!! Worth the back breaking ride.

At about 600 PM, we proceeded towards Ahemedabad. It was getting dark and riding on the highway after dusk can be dangerous. I was obviously scared. I wish to spend many more years with VS and have kids by the dozen!!!

It was complete darkness all around us by 645 pm - 1st realization of "Shit man! We should have gotten the headlight replaced by the Halogen one”. We almost had a disaster when VS tried to get on the shoulder of the road to let a speeding car pass. Before we could realize the shoulder had metamorphosed into a pavement!!!!! We missed it a fraction of an inch!!!!! Heart beats pacing and with a sinking feeling of what could have happened – there was silence for the next 15 minutes. We didn’t speak with each other for what seemed like ages.

We got to Ahemedabad at around 800 PM, safely and decided to take a night halt at a friends place. My shoes had given way by then – thanks to the silencer! Once in the city, we were fairly relaxed (though the bums were emphasising on every muscle they had - if they have any under all that fat!!). We spent some time looking around for shoe shops. Couldn’t manage to buy any shoes – I either didn’t like them or they didn’t have my size!!!!

930 PM we were at Mitul’s place happily chit chatting about our 1st day and the plans for the remaining days. Had nice home cooked food and dozed off like logs.
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Day 1 ends. Trip Meter reads 573... 12 more days to go....