Prequel - Part 2
The
(Backup) Plan
On 10th August 2018, the WhatsApp group’s name was
changed from ‘Megham Poothu Thudangi’ (the clouds have started flowering) to
‘Thira Vannu Thudangi’ (the waves have started coming). The former represents
the ‘big trip’ to Meghalaya, while the latter represents the booster that was
being planned to Dhanushkodi-Rameshwaram. Yes, Dhanushkodi was the booster. It
happened in September 2018. Khan backed out due to a friend’s marriage and
Thomas (Seban), our junior from MCC joined us on that trip. It was quite a
memorable one. I rode from Pondy to Trivandrum, my hometown. It was my longest
ride till then, that too a night ride. It was meticulously planned. I was
supposed to start from Pondy at 6:30 PM, but I made an early start, 10 minutes
early and reached home at 7:50 AM, the next day; interestingly 10 minutes
before the estimated arrival time, which was 8 AM. The Shenkottai-Trivandrum
route was quite a scenic one. Later, Mahesh joined me in Trivandrum and we rode
to Madurai, where Thorappan joined us (he had come to Madurai from Bangalore).
Thomas too joined us there. As we parted ways after the booster, we were quite
motivated for the big one.
Dhanushkodi was the
booster.
Soon Khan and Mahesh did a Trivandrum-Chennai ride. Then came
Gokarna in December 2018. Initially Mahesh, Thorappan, Khan and I were in for
the trip. Later, Khan and Thorappan backed out. Mahesh and I did it on our own.
Now I realize that Mahesh has done trips with all the three of us at some point
of time, before the big one. I’ll not go into the details of Gokarna. Mahesh
was on his FZ25 and me on Batman. Like all trips, this too was a memorable one,
particularly the beach trek. You can watch this video to catch a glimpse of our
Gokarna beach trek.
On 16th Feb, a new member joined the family –
Atom. Yes, Thorappan brought a Duke390 to his garage. Of course, the ‘big trip’
was coming soon and we were gearing up for it. In March, the WhatsApp group’s
name was reverted back to ‘Megham Poothu Thudangi’. We kind of made up our
minds for mid-September. The WhatsApp group became very active with the
planning. I do not remember how we had actually fixed Meghalaya as our
destination. A very long time back, Mahesh had done extensive research and
written notes on all the seven-sister states and made a presentation to us.
Mahesh is doing a course in 'tourism' and he had to plan an itinerary as an
assignment. Guess what, the presentation he made to us was his assignment. We
had finalized Meghalaya for reasons I don’t remember. For quite a long time,
Cherrapunji, Living Roots Bridge and Khaziranga National Park kept recurring in
our WhatsApp chat.
On
16th Feb, a new member joined the family – Atom.
The initial plan was to ride to Meghalaya, explore the state,
ride back to Guwahati and parcel the bikes back from there. I was given the
assignment of finding out about the possible parceling options. I did a bit of
research and shortlisted a few private couriers. However, the prices
weren’t affordable. Indian Railways is very unpredictable – like the arrival of
its trains. There is no guarantee that our bikes would reach us back in good
condition. People have had very bad experiences with the Railway Parcel
service. However, some have been lucky as well. We had to try our luck. We
enquired whether we could parcel all the bikes on the same train and travel in
the same train as well. But we got to know that it was very unlikely – four
bikes being parceled on the same train. In fact, there wasn’t any assurance
about even two bikes going on the same train – it all depended on the space
available in the luggage compartment on that particular day, it seems. To keep
all risks at bay, we decided to travel on separate trains. Every Wednesday, we
had trains from Guwahati to all our locations – South Kerala, Chennai,
Bangalore and Mumbai. Tickets were available as well. Thus, the return plan was
getting fixed.
We even explored options such as renting bikes from Guwahati
or riding to the interior parts of North East and perhaps parceling the bikes
from places like Silchar. But all these alternate plans had some practical
issues which would take us back to our initial plan.
On 11th June 2018, we started the countdown – 88
days more! We had to plan the budget, find/save the amount, buy riding gears,
equip the bikes and what not. Mahesham started working as a Zomato delivery boy
in his free time. During our WhatsApp conference calls we would boost him up
(rather pull his legs) saying that the world would remember him for his
dedication. Mahesh gave us a surprise on July 4th. He sent us the
picture of a receipt which showed that he had booked a 2019 model Bajaj
Dominar. Didn’t I tell you – this guy is known for such surprises! Well, we had
another surprise in store for us – the Assam-Meghalaya floods. Yeah, the floods
worsened by mid-July and we had to have a back-up plan.
Thus came Sikkim.
What started as a back-up plan, soon became the plan.
Thorappan was particularly interested in Sikkim. He got the contact of an agent
there, who would arrange the permits for us. He came up with an attractive
itinerary as well. He had a dedicated notebook for the trip, where he made
notes about the places to visit in Sikkim, distance between the spots etc.
Sikkim required us to travel a few hundred kilometers less, when compared to
Meghalaya. It would also give as an extra day. This made us to explore the
possibility of a return ride. We soon came to a unanimous decision that we
would be riding back from Sikkim. The dates were decided as well – 7th
to 21st September. Mahesh would ride from Thiruvalla to Pondy on the
5th. Thorappan would ride to Pondy from Bangalore on the 6th,
after his day shift. Khan too would start from Mumbai on the 6th. He
would meet the three of us on the 7th, somewhere near Vijayawada.
Thorappan
had a dedicated notebook for the trip.
As the days neared, the thrill and excitement filled us.
Video calls became more frequent. We started procuring our riding gears and equipping
our bikes. Oh yes, on the 1st of August the newest member joined the
gang – Mahesh’s Aurora green Dominar. The team was complete now! The planning
and preparation gathered pace and things were going pretty well. But where’s
the fun without a setback. Thorappan’s leave wasn’t approved for the requested
dates. We had to postpone the trip by a week. Fortunately, the shift was okay
for the rest of us. Mahesh alone would be missing a few many classes in
college. By now you are quite familiar with Mahesh and I needn’t tell you
whether those classes would bother him.
On the 1st of
August the newest member joined the gang – Mahesh’s Aurora green Dominar.
The trip officially began on the 12th of
September, when Mahesh started from Thiruvalla. His drama began on the evening
of 11th itself – frequent updates about the delayed packing, his
plans of going to sleep at 8 PM, waking up at 4, starting at 5 and so on. He
did go to bed by 9 PM; however, there was no news from him until 6 the next
morning. Apparently, he woke up with a troubled stomach and got delayed.
Anyways, he reached Pondy around 7 in the evening.
Khan started from Mumbai on the 13th. He had a
terrible start apparently. It was pouring down heavily in Mumbai and he had a
tough time on the road on his first day. He had started in the evening after
his work and managed to cover 300 odd kilometers by midnight.
Khan
started from Mumbai on the 13th.
Thorappan should be reaching Pondy latest by 9 PM on 13th.
Did he reach? Well…
(to be continued…)
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