For me and you - Part 6

I am standing in the garage again looking at my bullet. Its all loaded up. Anjali got into the act yesterday night and made sure that I had everything packed in perfectly. What I would do without her, I dont know. Its amazing how from being scared and anti biking a couple of months ago, she has slowly supported me and supported me more everyday. With arrangements, travel gear etc. She even went and bought me a proper leather jacket. All these thoughts run through my mind as I stand there in my riding gear, helmet in my hand looking at the bike. I give one final tug at the saddlebags and get on to the bullet. I am going to make my dream come true. After all these years. After all these months. After facing opposition from everyone around me, I finally have come to the day where I take the biggest ride of my life.

Mani is waiting outside my gate. I am amazed as to how little he has packed. He just stands there nonchalantly and flicks his cigarette away as I ride out of the gate. Two riders riding out towards the goal that bikers around the world wish to have in their list of biking achievements. I feel very light in my heart and a sense of joy at gunning towards the dream.

We are in ranipet now where we have stopped for a cup of tea. The sun is just about rising, waking the rest of the world. The experience of having a tea by the roadside early in the morning is surreal and I have been reintroduced to this little joy today. I feel good, and i am raring to go further. The body is holding well so far. My biggest fear is that somewhere midway to leh, the body will give up on me and I will end up making an idiot out of myself. But for now, that thought is pushed into the background as we get onto the bike and ride towards the next stop, bangalore.

After having having successfully taken the outer ring road around bangalore and heading towards kurnool, we have stopped at a small restaurant for lunch. We have made good time and I just spoke to Anjali just now to let her know that I am ok and still in one piece. She seems calm now. I was more surprised to see 4 missed calls from ravi. He after initial worries had been gung ho about me riding to leh and had even started a blog to write about my adventures. He was more worried as to if i was ok and where i was and all. The role reversal between him and Anjali after the ride started is amusing to say the least for me.

Mani has spoken little on both of our stops so far. He seems to have a twinkle in his eyes and a knowledge as to say that great things were gonna come to him. He is riding an almost identical standard bullet like mine. It is newer, but you couldnt tell that by the way my bike looks and shines in the afternoon sun. Our target is to ride up to kurnool today or ride till 8pm to and see how far that takes us. And so we saunter out of the restaurant and get on our bikes. Next stop, hopefully, closer to kurnool.

We ve stopped at ananthapur which is little before kurnool as i was finding it very difficult to ride on the highway in the dark. We have checked into a small hotel here and I ve settled into my room with mani in the room just down the hallway. I now finally know that I have been spoilt with comforts in the last 30 years and suddenly going back to being a youth is getting to be a bit of a shock for me. In all my travels in the last few years, i ve never been in a hotel that was less than 4 star, had food that wasnt served in the best dishes in the best restaurants, or tea with a choice of less than 4 varieties. I am in a hotel that is as dirty as it looks shady but its the best this lil town has to offer. I ve had food without a care for how it was served and i had that wonderful roadside tea. On top of it all, i feel happy. A sense of looking forward to tomorrows ride. I feel sleep hitting me, the kind of dreamless sleep that you get after a gruelling but a fulfilling day.

to be continued..