When We Went Biking!!

When Pandeyji flew down (with little help from Jet Airways) from Kolkata last weekend to grace Bangalore with “their” (I’ll be doomed if I dare use “his” with Pandeyji) majestic presence, we, along with Ankur, had a little reunion of our own. Though we were not even half of our esteemed and infamous (of course!) group, but still we managed to have our own good time. We tried to re-live as much of those golden 21 months as possible. Then only I decided that I’ll write more about my IMT exploits in my blog. And here is one of the bestest trip we had!!


“McLeodganj or Kasauli?” asked Himanshu. “I’m OK with anywhere” I replied. “Then Kasauli it is and we start at 2:30 am and we have 3 hours to pack our bags” declared Himanshu. But after sometime I asked a question: “ How far is Nainital from here?” “Almost the same- around 300km”. “Then why don’t we go to Nainital?” “Hmm..Lets go to Nainital” said everyone.

Whole summer of 2009 (when we all were doing our summer internship), we planned for a bike trip to Laddakh. We had decided that we’d go just after our summer internship’s internal viva. But we needed around a week off (or bunk) from the college which was not possible and so our Laddakh plan remained only a plan. To cover up for the Laddakh trip, we decided to go on a shorter trip and finally (after much deliberation), Nainital was the place finalized.

We started at around 2:45 in the morning for Nainital. 4 bikes. 7 enthusiasts. It was decided that we’d take a break after every 50-60km of drive. The national highway there is so good that you wont believe that you are driving on the roads of a state that is always amongst the states lacking infrastructure standards in the country. But the best stretch is 70-80 km drive from Rampur to Haldwani. It’s so beautiful that it can give tough competition to all those picturesque songs of Bollywood shot in Europe! And then from Haldwani, its 50km curvy drive on the mountains. It’s more fun to drive on the mountainous-curvy roads than on the silky highways!

We reached Nainital at around 12:30 PM. Took a hotel and got ready for a walk on the Mall road (why every hill station has a Mall road?). Did some boating in the "Tal” from which city got its name. Visited Naina devi’s temple and Gurudwara. Went to sleep early as we had not slept in last 40 hours.

So you are thinking what a boring description I’m giving of this trip? Well, the fun starts now. Few of the super-hits of that trip are as follows:

➢ I woke up next morning when Kakke kept banging the door: “Sharma, oye sharma, darwaza toh khol pra” Main bola:“ki hoya?”. Kakke bola” chal mall road ghoom ke aate hai subah-subah”. Maine kaha ”chal nikal yaha se, maine nahi jaana, neend aa rahi hai”.I slept again. But just after 30 minutes, again a bang on my door. I started abusing before even opening the door. It was kakke only, as expected. Before I could say anything, he said “chal oye, poori road wich soni-soni kudiyaan hai”. That was enough to wake me up. We took Himanshu with us and roamed for around 1 hour but could not see a single (single) girl. Whole time kakke spent defending himself. Till this day, he maintains that he saw those beautiful girls and that we are “manhoos”.

➢ I was discussing with Ankit (Kakke’s roomie) that since how long he has been driving a bike. He said from only last 2 months. I left the topic there only. After few hours, when we stopped at a Dhaba, during our return journey, I started teasing Kakke that he and Ankit are partners (you know those article 377 types). Kakke kept denying and , obviously, abusing me. But I said Ankit has told me the same. Kakke said “Bula ussko aur abhi pooch mere saamne”. I called Ankit and asked “oye, tune kab shuru kiya?” Ankit said very enthusiastically” arre abhi 2 maheene hi huye hai”. And then you can guess what happened with Ankit;)

➢ Harsh was the pillion and I was driving. The speed was almost 90Kmph. I asked Harsh something but he did not reply. I asked him again but no answer this time as well. I slowed down the speed and asked again. Then I panicked and shouted fourth time and brought the speed to 20kmph. Then Harsh said “ Haan bol”. I asked him if he slept or what. He said no. Well, this “no” was coming from a guy who got the title of “Sleeping beauty of the class” during awards night. I stopped the bike and asked him again “sahi bol”. He said” I was thinking that we are going round and round and round while driving a bike”. I said “saale, tu so gaya tha aur ye tera sapna tha”. Well, he still argues that he didn’t sleep but there’s no taker of his argument. During the remaining journey, I kept asking him something every now and then just to avoid any further occurrence of the same. Imagine your pillion sleeping when bike is at 90kmph!

➢ This one is the hit of the trip. Pandeyji “were” driving Enticer with no pillion. As I mentioned earlier, It was decided that we’ll stop after every 50-60km. But God knows what happened, Pandeyji decided to have some other plans. “They” did not stop anywhere for almost 100kms and that left everyone surprised and tensed. As Pandeyji had not crossed anyone and “they” “were” no where to be seen. We all were worried. Especially Teju, who did not know to drive a bike and was a pillion for the whole trip of about 650kms. He was sitting behind Himanshu and Himanshu had to stop when Teju said “ Bhai ab main aur nahi baith sakta, dukaan ki haalat kharaab hai, rok le ab rest karte hai. Lets wait for Pandeyji here only”. So, we all were waiting for Pandeyji to arrive. And finally, “they” did arrive. Kakke was standing next to me when Pandeyji “were” taking off the helmet. I think, Pandeyji sensed the mood of the public (everyone was ready to shout at Pandeyji), and the expressions which came on the face of Pandeyji can give all the actors a run for their money. And then came the best dialogue of the trip from Kakke “ Ye issne banayee bechaaro type shakal taaki koi chillaye na iss pe”. It was so fitting!

There are many more that I can write. For example, when Ankit said he has dropped one of his Cameras at the same spot in the lake few years back, Harsh trying to get the bike (with full speed) off the stand when there was a big brick below the rear tyre and above all: Kakke did not smile in single pic!

This trip is one of those things I can’t thank IMT enough for. Well, if there’s any of my hit (was it?), you can write that in the comment.

I Have Dreams

Disclaimer: I’m not inspired by MLK’s historic speech to write this blog.

You can name any number of people or things if someone asks you “What’s closest to you?” Few names quickly come to our mind. Of people. Of our possessions. Of our achievements. But I believe the closest thing to you is your Dreams. Aren’t they?

Dreams are personal. Very personal. I mean, how many people are there with whom we can share all our dreams? There is always one or two which we won’t share with anyone. Dreams are reflections of our fantasies, our wishes, things that we cannot achieve and things which we can achieve and will achieve in future. There’s no confined spectrum for dreams. And that’s the best thing about dreams. We can let our imagination to fly high in those moments when its only us and our dreams. Some of my favorite dreams over the years are:

• First on the list is the one where I’m the best batsman of the history and have scored a triple century in ODI’s and broken Lara’s record of 501 in first-class cricket at least 10 times (most of them against Pakistan). I can bowl as well. Have taken all 10 wickets many times (who’s Kumble btw?). I’m the best fielder and have ran-out batmen from the boundary after directly hitting the stumps. I don’t endorse carbonated drinks (as in reality also I don’t like them..burp…). I use my position to make people donate for different social causes. I have an opinion about everything and I don’t play diplomatic about them. I’m the one who lashes out at media for its silliness. And yeah, people listen to me.

• Second on the list is of a politician. I’m the most admired personality in the country. I take decisions. Tough ones. I’ve jailed all the crooks practicing the politics of fear (religion, region, caste). I’ve solved most of the problems my country is facing (Kashmir, poverty, terrorism, Maoism, Pakistan and to an extent China). Have taken India on the path of prosperity. Now, the Americans dream of going on an Indian onsite assignment. India is the best country in the world.

• Third on the list is the greatest movie director ever. I have directed many blockbusters. Top actors can give their right hand to act in my movie. And I occasionally act to bag all the awards.

And the list goes on. Our dreams are caricatures of what we wanted to achieve, what we want to achieve and what changes we want around us. Some of those represent spark that was never converted into a wildfire. Barring the politician one, the remaining two are those that had some spark. I played cricket at district level and have written, directed and acted in several plays. Hey you IMTians, you are witness to my portrayal of frustrated customer and top militant (I still have those 50+ chits of compliments with me as souvenir..hehe).

The most fascinating characteristic of our dreams is that they allow us to change the unwanted endings of some realities. Obviously, not everything has happened the way we wanted it to. For those few moments only, we live our 'un-lived' dreams. Of course, we are living many of our other dreams and some of those are the ones that others (parents, friends etc) wanted us to live.

Today, I’ve those things of which I dreamed some day. In that sense, I’m living my dreams. And then there are some dreams that I’ll live in coming days. But there are some unfulfilled (impractical?) ones that became nightmares but are softer now with time. And we all make our compromises. Or say accept the reality?