Prequel - Part 1_The Eight of Us

Prequel - Part 1

The Eight of Us

                        ‘Sikkimasikkimasa’ has a long history. We need to travel a couple of years back. In fact, I don’t remember when exactly we started planning for our trip. (Who are ‘we’? You’ll come to know soon.) Of course, it was after I started working, which means after July 2017. The WhatsApp group which was created for the trip came into existence on 14^th November, 2017. So, let’s assume we started planning in the winter of 2017. Winter sounds cool, but for Pondicherry or the south, winter is just less heat compared to the summers. Anyways, in the winter of 2017, things were a lot different. I didn’t know how to ride a bike – the gear shifting and all that. It had been only a year since I learnt how to ride a scooter. I owned a Mahindra Rodeo scooter, aka Mayilvahanam. Mayilvahanam was a hero/heroine (I don’t know; you decide). We have had our fair share of memories together – road trips to Chennai, Bangalore and Wayanad. Yes, you read it right, Wayanad; looking back, I feel sorry for Mayilvahanam. It was a courtesy question by Mahesh, “porunno njangade koode [joining us?]” which led to Wayanad. It is still a mystery how we survived – both Mayilvahanam and I. It was a couple of days before the Wayanad trip that I brought a new member to my garage – a 2003 model Hero-Honda (they weren’t divorced back then) Passion. Mahesh was here – I’ll formally introduce Mahesh in a while – and he was the one who chose the bike, hereafter Kuyilvahanam, and taught me the Q-B-R-V (you can read it as ABCD; I’m trying to assert the philosophy that the letters needn’t be taught in any particular order) of bike riding. Let me introduce Mahesh then.

                       Mahesh is not actually Mahesh. Yet, I call him Mahesh Bhavana (fondly Maheshammm…). Those of you who have watched ‘Maheshinte Prathikaram’ (Malayalam movie) can relate to the name. Yes, there is a reason why I call him so. Mahesh, my classmate and ‘chunk buddy’ from Madras Christian College, took his own sweet time to finish the course (not revealing the number of years, for safety reasons). Me being his ‘chunk buddy’ kept motivating him and in 2016, when ‘Maheshinte Prathikaram’ released, the phrase ‘Come-on-dra Maheshe’ was an instant hit and I found it useful to motivate my Mahesh as well, thus giving him the name Mahesh Bhavana. Mahesh Bhavana is one of the four riders in the Sikkim trip.

                        In November 2017 (the winter of 2017) Mahesh was here in Pondicherry. It was his first major trip after he got his new bike – Yamaha FZ 25. He rode from Thiruvalla to Pondy and I joined him from Palakkad. What was I doing in Palakkad? It was our Sunhar ji’s ‘nikkah’. The winter of 2017 was indeed very eventful. Sunhar ji, for those of you who don’t know him, was my roommate back then. I’ll not talk much about him here; might write a book on him some time later. Maybe, I’ll describe him in a sentence – he is a well-read person; he could read blurbs behind books and give a lecture on the book, giving us an impression that he had read the whole book at least thrice. To put it simple, Sunhar ji is mass! Yeah, so I was returning from Sunhar ji’s wedding, which was in Koikkod; I got down at Palakkad (abandoning Jerry who was with me on the train) and joined with Mahesh from there. We rode to Pondy and a couple of days later Mahesh was to ride to Wayanad. On the day of his departure, as he loaded his bags onto the bikes, he asked me (I’m sure he would have regretted that later on) the courtesy question, “you joining?” “I would have, if only I had a bike like yours!” replied the poor me. “Your Rodeo can do the job, why not!” Things escalated from there on. I made a quick call to my coordinator at work, “I would like to attend a friend’s brother’s marriage in Wayanad. Can I?” (If you are wondering whether I lied, nope, it was our dear friend Valath’s brother’s wedding!) I had to be in a school till noon and Mahesh had to unpack his bags and wait for me! Poor him! Thus Wayanad happened.

Mayilvahanam in Ooty, enroute Wayanad

                   

                  Ommachan, aka Thorappan (not sure how he got this name), met us in Wayanad. He was on his way from Bangalore to Thiruvalla. Back then, he had a Yamaha FZ, customized to the fullest. Thorappan joined Infosys after Madras Christian College and got his bike soon after. He was already a matured rider when we met him in Wayanad – having completed around 1 lakh kilometres on his FZ. Thorappan is the third rider in the Sikkim trip.

                          Thorappan met us in Wayanad and from there Mahesh and Thorappan rode together to Thiruvalla. It was their first ride together and they seemed to have liked it. I rode back to Pondy, with Abjayan pillion. Needless to say, the Wayanad trip was the actual trigger to think big.

                          The winter of 2017 and the first two months of 2018, I spent time with Kuyilvahanam, learning how to ride a bike. Soon I started to dream about a new bike. In fact, there was a plan to buy a new bike by February 22^nd, 2018, and do the ‘big ride’ sometime in the second half of the year. But, Feb flew by. March too seemed to whizz away; but I decided to make a move. I booked a 2018 model Yamaha FZ version 2.0. I wanted to get the bike on the 22^nd of April, ‘22’ being my favourite number. Guess what, 22^nd April was a Sunday and hence I settled for 20^th April, Friday. The next one month was spent finding money for the bike (yes, I had some savings and plenty of lenders in my contact list). Srinivasa Motors would call me every week (from mid-March), informing me that my bike was ready for delivery. I had to keep telling them that they had to wait till April 20^th – of course I had to give my lenders time! Finally, I decided to pre-pone the delivery by a day – 19^th April, Thurday (not out of Friggaphobia, but out of excitement).

                          Let’s go into the specifics of 19^th April’s events. (Of course, alongside the four hoomans, the four bikes play central characters in this story.) So, 19^th April 2018 - it was a tightly packed day at work. Our CEO was visiting and we had a marathon meeting going on. I had to be at the showroom before six. The Accounts section closes at six. Sunhar ji started getting calls from the dealer from 5 PM onwards. (I had given his number as the alternate one and for some unknown reason, they chose to call on his number). The meeting didn’t seem to end either. Imagine me sitting through that meeting! Finally, at around 7 PM, Sunhar ji and I reached Srinivasa Motors and completed the formalities to get the bike. The delivery guy kept two lemons underneath the tyres, for reasons you know. I got onto the bike. The delivery guy gave me some instructions and asked me to start the bike. Sunhar ji was ready with the phone to capture our first moments. As you might know, the gear system on an FZ is different from that of my Kuyilvahanam. It made me all the more nervous. I started the vehicle and shifted to first gear. Apparently (and out of anxiety, I promise) I released the clutch too soon. The lemons were safe. The delivery guy asked me to relax. This time, we did it; but the lemon in the front was still safe – lucky lemon! I named him ‘Batman’ (not the lemon; my bike). He (yeah he) is matte black (limited edition – officially known as Darknight) and he somehow reminds me of Batman. Hence.

My first moments with Batman (note that lucky lemon in the front)

                          The next few months were adventurous, with me doing quite a few road trips with Batman – Velankanni, Ooty, Mysore, Rameshwaram and Gokarna. (Watch a video summary of our first one year: Tales on Wheels) Velankanni and Mysore were solo trips. Thorappan and Jerin were there on the Ooty trip. Thorappan and I, sitting in that Swiss tent in a tea estate, had discussions on ‘the big trip’. The destination of the ‘big trip’ wasn’t decided back then. We just knew it would be ‘big’. As the WhatsApp chat shows, we planned for a short ‘booster trip’ in September 2018.  Thorappan, Mahesh, Khan and I were shooting names of destinations for the booster. Ah, let me introduce Khan, the fourth and final rider. Khan is also a friend from the MCC days. He studied in MGR University, Chennai. Well, Khan is an established rider, having done a Leh-Ladakh some time back. He owns a Himalayan – the best of the lot (best - back in 2018; because Mahesh is known for surprises).

                 Thus, I have introduced the eight of us – four hoomans and four bikes. However, two of them wouldn’t be joining us for the trip (the big one), while two others would be joining the story soon.

(to be continued...)