The preparations for making it to my first RM started well before the registrations opened... It all started when it was struck to me after being part of the Madras Bulls family, that there are actually two RMs, one is the RM RM, and other one, the Real RM, the bullet club's RM. The feeling of meeting so many like minded NoMads and their bullets didn't even gave me time to make any decision. There was no decision taken .. I always knew that i had be there in Kolkata, No matter what !!
Well..."No matter what" turned out to be a real matter. All of my so called sound plans went tatter batter with office priorities converging with personal priorities. Couldn't let go any one of them and decided to do both of them together. I knew it wasn't going to be easy as i would be carrying all the instruments for testing and Laptop along, but as i said, "No Matter What"...
With many until last day jitters, scrapping the earlier plan to ride solo on 15th Jan, I finally made to it meeting point at Koyembedu on 19th Jan at 4 o'clock. No one can imagine and nothing can be compared, to how happy i was, realizing that i had finally made it to ride with Madras Bulls as a group to RM.
I was glad to see all 13 rider's all saddled up. The riders were :
Day 1 ( 19th Jan):
I had some apprehension when the guys were planning for first day stay at Vizag which was some 800 km (on map) from Chennai.. and whatever i had learned from my previous group riding experience, i was sure we couldn't do more than 50kmph on average. That meant we had to ride for atleast 15 hours, atleast !!
With the 750 km on map turning out to be 850 km, it was an uphill task. The task seemed to be all the more difficult with few guys doing this long distance for first time and it was going to test biker's nerve and bike's heart.
But, then i decided to give all this gyan a finger and just ride. What a wise decision..ha ha ha.
We started at 5 o clock and rode along with tea_pee_sutta break at every 100 km and the morning chill soon fade away with scorching sun shining overhead. The straight, long, butter smooth road fueled by early morning wake up calls slowly started making me dizzy (read sleepy). The tea breaks were the only relief and really to look up to with nothing exciting happening around.
I like Amar's story the best. He felt sleepy on bike has had dreamt of talking to his broker and fixing with him a deal to buy/ sell a house, Holy Shit !! he even bargained the price. I dont know how long his conversation was, that was scary stuff indeed. Amit too listened his daughter talking to him...
Soon we had Aditya, his wife, Sim and Mamada catching up with us and quick hi fives were thrown here and there.
The lunch break was at Vijaywada and the ride continued thereafter again with nothing noteworthy till it was about to go dark and we had reached somewhere near Rajmundhry.
The ride thereafter was all mix of skill, luck and covering each other's back after a parental scolding from Shantanu to maintain discipline and common ( road ) sense. This made everyone go serious and a bit tense ( for the first time since we started) for the time he was talking. I think, the ride fatigue was getting on boys and the pep talk made everyone realise that we had still a bit of distance to cover before we say, " I feel tired!".
Now with all driving on left and with exception of Shailesh's Bullets conked headlight, everyone was safe at Vizag by 10 o'clock.
A quick stop at the first booze shop and a road rash style follow to VizeRoys guy saw us hitting a night shelter (courtesy VizeRoys ) at 11 o'clock. Few were hungry, few sleepy and i was too tired for both. Ashok managed to get some Biryani from a 5 star hotel and the beer was perfect medicine to tired body.
A usual evening group chat of "I shouldn't be alive type" didnt sound interesting may be i was too tired (or nothing really exiciting happend.. I wont complain for that though, its better to get bored than to listen to scary incidences).
Another incidence worth mention which i really did not fit in above paras, was regarding my speakers. Yes Speakers. I had got myself speaker to listen to in case i feel sleepy and to entertain during breaks. Had it fixed on to my luggage by bungees and seemed to be fine with guys enjoying it at the first break we took. Just before we entered into Vijawada, the bad patch took hit on speaker and it went flying across the road. A few kind onlookers bought it back to me and with guys quite ahead i stacked it in my jacket. Some how it turned ON later in the day during post lunch ride, in the noise of wind and thump of so many short bottle silencers it was not even audible. At the first tea stop, I see Shantanu staring at me. I knew what had happened. He was upset by speakers being On and i agree, he had every right to be upset, though it wasn't intentional. Said Sorry Shaktiman.
To all New MadrasBull's rider's, No listening to Music when riding. Why? I think, If you can listen to music while riding, you are not giving music the attention it desrves :-).
But seriously, it increases probability of untoward incident and it was a mistake carrying it along. I packed it in my luggage later and its still in there (havent unsaddled yet :).
Day 2 ( 20th Jan):
Early morning tea and banging on doors followed by time killing breakfast and saddling up saw us leave Vizag after 10 o'clock.
The road's were exactly as Rusty's BhavishyaVani.. the road after Ichchapuram were suddenky turning into single and surprisingly had tar speed breakers on concrete road. Incredible India (pun intended) !!
Met Inddiethumpers at Lunch and somewhere hidden Mumbaikar in me was happy and proud. Few known faces made me nostalgic ( though its still not a year that i moved to Chennai from Mumbai).
We had booked a acco at Bulagaon so as to enjoy Chilka lake and sea food. But the later updates from Gyani people informing that there's nothing at Chilka made us change our decision and we decided to crash in at Bhubhaneshwar. The narrow miss i had with a pig running blind behind a truck was nothing as compared to Laxmi's scary incidence of truck coming head on and he thinking it to be on other side of divider till it was 5 meter close.
Thanks to the wonderful wonderful Chilka roads , my bungee snapped and if it had not been for Laxmi, i would have had diificult time. It was all dark and the lorries were coming head on to hit us which Laxmi bravely signalled to move aside!
Overall, it had been a good day to ride with lot of potholes and bad roads to devoid us from sleep and keeping us always in action.
A little bit of sun-less evening ride and we were thumping in at Bhubhaneshwar. With good food, booze and lot of "I shouldn't be alive" stories made a delightful evening.
Day 3 ( 21st Feb):
The day started with same tea calls and nature's call. Found Bhubhaneshwar to be a nice town (not city) with not many sky scrapers and delightfully the sun rise was visible from 2nd floor.
The ride started by 8 o'clock and had our first pit stop for break fast not far off. Had local chinese style Dosa, guess they had schezwan ingredients in it :)
We continued to ride on a mix of good, bad, better, worse roads and enjoying togetherness.
Suddenly the road turned wide and smoooth, irresistible it was not to speed and off we went. It was then that the scariest thing happened ( and no it was not Vivek's race with Shantanu).
I was at third position with Shnatanu and Amit leading me and i was followed closely by Deepak. I saw a cow quitely grazing on median; but suddenly as Shantanu passed by the cow went crazy and started dancing right there. I knew i was going to have a crash landing straight into the cow's tummy and prepared myself to ensure minimum damage. But then the cow dodged me (maybe knowing that i was better prepared) and jumped right over my front wheel, i was relieved. Or should i say, i was about to be relieved, Knowing that i would have hit the cow and to save me from getting rolled over by his bike, Deepak made the decision to cross over from left and the next moment i saw Deepak hitting the cow, BANG !
(Photo Courtesy: David)
Cow and Deepak both fell on the road and i decided to cover Deepak from getting rolled over by a truck and waved to Shantanu to get back and help Deepak. He had a few bruses, but i had seen him crash into the cow's ribs shoulder first and was afraid if it was hit too bad. We tested his bike to be fit to ride condition and he sporting ( and bravely) continued to ride. Worth mentioning is the fact that, the cow took more time to get up that Deepak.
At the next stop we with help from Inddiethumper guys straightened out his footrest over a cup of tea.
It was dark by the time we hit the Delhi highway and the bus drivers didnt let us drive. One of those was an errant fellow who i guess had promised his wife that he will kill atleast two Madbull riders before he gets back home. He was driving as if West Bengal Govt had paid him to measure breath of road. That was scary stuff. We decided to break and re group. That also gave us time to talk to EasternBulls and find a way to accos booked for us.
We finally managed to land at the desired loaction safe and perfect.
The rest of MadrasBulls who were riding in north east soon joined us and it was a gala celebration. A celebration to mark our existence. Yepee.. yahoo !! A lot of thump and lot of things to catch up with for all of us .. and now time to finally take a bath with warm water and rest peacefully.
Tomorrow was going to be a big day. The Rider Mania entry.. which is so special and the culmination of all the efforts we had put in. Obviously sleep that night was only for dreaming about that.
Day 4 ( 22nd Jan):
It was a beautiful morning with Rajith and Unni joining us, it was all the more fun. These guys did the Chennai Kolkata ride in two days flat. Wow!!
(Photo Courtesy: Venky)
After a brief pep talk on what is lined up at RM and what to do and what not to do, we were all set up for the group photo.
Very quickly after that we rolled on to the mega event. It was great feeling to be riding in such large group and see people admiring us with eyes of appreciation, jealousy and also ridicule. It didn't matter to us we were happy for what we were. ( That's what Shantanu Said to one guy who came zip zappin' of some splendor and asked Shantanu , "Who are you?" and Shantanu goes " I am myself !" Very apt answer.)
As i was thinking of what all i had "managed" to make this happen, suddenly my bike lost its beat and grrrr....
it stopped. With all bullets speeding behind i somehow managed to move aside and realised there was some snag in electricals. Shantanu followed by Dodo, Cherian and some other fellows stopped by to sort out the problem. A quick check indicated a short circuit somewhere, so we decided to toe my bike and get it done at the RM service point.
I had tears in my eyes and had it not been Dodo toeing me and Jenny at 90kmph, the tears would have rolled down the cheeks. I was dejected and disappointed. I had reached till that place with not even a single problem and suddenly at this point of time, a short circuit was something unimaginable and frustrating. But as i said the toeing speed kept me far from these thoughts and i was just trying to balance myself.
It was the depressed mood or the tears in my eyes or simply the toeing speed, i didn't hear to what Dodo wanted me to do. He asked me to overtake a truck after 15 seconds of the start of toeing exercise. I couldn't do that and Dodo lost his confidence in me.
Soon we stopped and cherian asked me to take Dodo's bike while Dodo take's Cherian's and Cherian takes mine...whatever a relay race you may say :-)
(photo courtesy: David)
I never wanted to do that and felt like saying, No... I can. But with other guys already far ahead and me running out of option decided to accept whatever was coming my way.
A stop to regroup saw all the bikes along with Jenny. It was decided that we will have a different entry style and we will toe our bike as a RM entry special. Man, I was happy. At least Jenny got the honor. May be that was better that me riding her. She got all the attention and i was happy for her.
(Photo Courtesy: Aditya Bedre)
An eventful ride indeed and definitely memorable for sure.
What followed for the next 48 hours in the city of joy was fun, excitement, entertainment and above all a celebration of brotherhood and passion.
Since i had clubbed my office stuff with this ride (sincere thanks to my Boss and colleagues), i stayed back for another week in Kolkata while the other madbulls took off at their pace and convinience.
I started my return journey on 2nd Feb, but more on that later sometime.
Till then keep thumpin'
Well..."No matter what" turned out to be a real matter. All of my so called sound plans went tatter batter with office priorities converging with personal priorities. Couldn't let go any one of them and decided to do both of them together. I knew it wasn't going to be easy as i would be carrying all the instruments for testing and Laptop along, but as i said, "No Matter What"...
With many until last day jitters, scrapping the earlier plan to ride solo on 15th Jan, I finally made to it meeting point at Koyembedu on 19th Jan at 4 o'clock. No one can imagine and nothing can be compared, to how happy i was, realizing that i had finally made it to ride with Madras Bulls as a group to RM.
I was glad to see all 13 rider's all saddled up. The riders were :
1) Shantanu
2) Amar
3) Deepak
4) Prat
5) Ashok
6) Harish
7) Lakshmi - CBZ
8) Gopanand
9) Gasket - Karthi
10) Sailesh
11) Vivek
12) Amit
and also a Delhi ka banda
13) Rusty
Day 1 ( 19th Jan):
I had some apprehension when the guys were planning for first day stay at Vizag which was some 800 km (on map) from Chennai.. and whatever i had learned from my previous group riding experience, i was sure we couldn't do more than 50kmph on average. That meant we had to ride for atleast 15 hours, atleast !!
With the 750 km on map turning out to be 850 km, it was an uphill task. The task seemed to be all the more difficult with few guys doing this long distance for first time and it was going to test biker's nerve and bike's heart.
But, then i decided to give all this gyan a finger and just ride. What a wise decision..ha ha ha.
We started at 5 o clock and rode along with tea_pee_sutta break at every 100 km and the morning chill soon fade away with scorching sun shining overhead. The straight, long, butter smooth road fueled by early morning wake up calls slowly started making me dizzy (read sleepy). The tea breaks were the only relief and really to look up to with nothing exciting happening around.
I like Amar's story the best. He felt sleepy on bike has had dreamt of talking to his broker and fixing with him a deal to buy/ sell a house, Holy Shit !! he even bargained the price. I dont know how long his conversation was, that was scary stuff indeed. Amit too listened his daughter talking to him...
Soon we had Aditya, his wife, Sim and Mamada catching up with us and quick hi fives were thrown here and there.
The lunch break was at Vijaywada and the ride continued thereafter again with nothing noteworthy till it was about to go dark and we had reached somewhere near Rajmundhry.
The ride thereafter was all mix of skill, luck and covering each other's back after a parental scolding from Shantanu to maintain discipline and common ( road ) sense. This made everyone go serious and a bit tense ( for the first time since we started) for the time he was talking. I think, the ride fatigue was getting on boys and the pep talk made everyone realise that we had still a bit of distance to cover before we say, " I feel tired!".
Now with all driving on left and with exception of Shailesh's Bullets conked headlight, everyone was safe at Vizag by 10 o'clock.
A quick stop at the first booze shop and a road rash style follow to VizeRoys guy saw us hitting a night shelter (courtesy VizeRoys ) at 11 o'clock. Few were hungry, few sleepy and i was too tired for both. Ashok managed to get some Biryani from a 5 star hotel and the beer was perfect medicine to tired body.
A usual evening group chat of "I shouldn't be alive type" didnt sound interesting may be i was too tired (or nothing really exiciting happend.. I wont complain for that though, its better to get bored than to listen to scary incidences).
Another incidence worth mention which i really did not fit in above paras, was regarding my speakers. Yes Speakers. I had got myself speaker to listen to in case i feel sleepy and to entertain during breaks. Had it fixed on to my luggage by bungees and seemed to be fine with guys enjoying it at the first break we took. Just before we entered into Vijawada, the bad patch took hit on speaker and it went flying across the road. A few kind onlookers bought it back to me and with guys quite ahead i stacked it in my jacket. Some how it turned ON later in the day during post lunch ride, in the noise of wind and thump of so many short bottle silencers it was not even audible. At the first tea stop, I see Shantanu staring at me. I knew what had happened. He was upset by speakers being On and i agree, he had every right to be upset, though it wasn't intentional. Said Sorry Shaktiman.
To all New MadrasBull's rider's, No listening to Music when riding. Why? I think, If you can listen to music while riding, you are not giving music the attention it desrves :-).
But seriously, it increases probability of untoward incident and it was a mistake carrying it along. I packed it in my luggage later and its still in there (havent unsaddled yet :).
Day 2 ( 20th Jan):
Early morning tea and banging on doors followed by time killing breakfast and saddling up saw us leave Vizag after 10 o'clock.
The road's were exactly as Rusty's BhavishyaVani.. the road after Ichchapuram were suddenky turning into single and surprisingly had tar speed breakers on concrete road. Incredible India (pun intended) !!
Met Inddiethumpers at Lunch and somewhere hidden Mumbaikar in me was happy and proud. Few known faces made me nostalgic ( though its still not a year that i moved to Chennai from Mumbai).
We had booked a acco at Bulagaon so as to enjoy Chilka lake and sea food. But the later updates from Gyani people informing that there's nothing at Chilka made us change our decision and we decided to crash in at Bhubhaneshwar. The narrow miss i had with a pig running blind behind a truck was nothing as compared to Laxmi's scary incidence of truck coming head on and he thinking it to be on other side of divider till it was 5 meter close.
Thanks to the wonderful wonderful Chilka roads , my bungee snapped and if it had not been for Laxmi, i would have had diificult time. It was all dark and the lorries were coming head on to hit us which Laxmi bravely signalled to move aside!
Overall, it had been a good day to ride with lot of potholes and bad roads to devoid us from sleep and keeping us always in action.
A little bit of sun-less evening ride and we were thumping in at Bhubhaneshwar. With good food, booze and lot of "I shouldn't be alive" stories made a delightful evening.
Day 3 ( 21st Feb):
The day started with same tea calls and nature's call. Found Bhubhaneshwar to be a nice town (not city) with not many sky scrapers and delightfully the sun rise was visible from 2nd floor.
The ride started by 8 o'clock and had our first pit stop for break fast not far off. Had local chinese style Dosa, guess they had schezwan ingredients in it :)
We continued to ride on a mix of good, bad, better, worse roads and enjoying togetherness.
Suddenly the road turned wide and smoooth, irresistible it was not to speed and off we went. It was then that the scariest thing happened ( and no it was not Vivek's race with Shantanu).
I was at third position with Shnatanu and Amit leading me and i was followed closely by Deepak. I saw a cow quitely grazing on median; but suddenly as Shantanu passed by the cow went crazy and started dancing right there. I knew i was going to have a crash landing straight into the cow's tummy and prepared myself to ensure minimum damage. But then the cow dodged me (maybe knowing that i was better prepared) and jumped right over my front wheel, i was relieved. Or should i say, i was about to be relieved, Knowing that i would have hit the cow and to save me from getting rolled over by his bike, Deepak made the decision to cross over from left and the next moment i saw Deepak hitting the cow, BANG !
(Photo Courtesy: David)
Cow and Deepak both fell on the road and i decided to cover Deepak from getting rolled over by a truck and waved to Shantanu to get back and help Deepak. He had a few bruses, but i had seen him crash into the cow's ribs shoulder first and was afraid if it was hit too bad. We tested his bike to be fit to ride condition and he sporting ( and bravely) continued to ride. Worth mentioning is the fact that, the cow took more time to get up that Deepak.
It was dark by the time we hit the Delhi highway and the bus drivers didnt let us drive. One of those was an errant fellow who i guess had promised his wife that he will kill atleast two Madbull riders before he gets back home. He was driving as if West Bengal Govt had paid him to measure breath of road. That was scary stuff. We decided to break and re group. That also gave us time to talk to EasternBulls and find a way to accos booked for us.
We finally managed to land at the desired loaction safe and perfect.
The rest of MadrasBulls who were riding in north east soon joined us and it was a gala celebration. A celebration to mark our existence. Yepee.. yahoo !! A lot of thump and lot of things to catch up with for all of us .. and now time to finally take a bath with warm water and rest peacefully.
Tomorrow was going to be a big day. The Rider Mania entry.. which is so special and the culmination of all the efforts we had put in. Obviously sleep that night was only for dreaming about that.
Day 4 ( 22nd Jan):
It was a beautiful morning with Rajith and Unni joining us, it was all the more fun. These guys did the Chennai Kolkata ride in two days flat. Wow!!
After a brief pep talk on what is lined up at RM and what to do and what not to do, we were all set up for the group photo.
Very quickly after that we rolled on to the mega event. It was great feeling to be riding in such large group and see people admiring us with eyes of appreciation, jealousy and also ridicule. It didn't matter to us we were happy for what we were. ( That's what Shantanu Said to one guy who came zip zappin' of some splendor and asked Shantanu , "Who are you?" and Shantanu goes " I am myself !" Very apt answer.)
As i was thinking of what all i had "managed" to make this happen, suddenly my bike lost its beat and grrrr....
it stopped. With all bullets speeding behind i somehow managed to move aside and realised there was some snag in electricals. Shantanu followed by Dodo, Cherian and some other fellows stopped by to sort out the problem. A quick check indicated a short circuit somewhere, so we decided to toe my bike and get it done at the RM service point.
I had tears in my eyes and had it not been Dodo toeing me and Jenny at 90kmph, the tears would have rolled down the cheeks. I was dejected and disappointed. I had reached till that place with not even a single problem and suddenly at this point of time, a short circuit was something unimaginable and frustrating. But as i said the toeing speed kept me far from these thoughts and i was just trying to balance myself.
It was the depressed mood or the tears in my eyes or simply the toeing speed, i didn't hear to what Dodo wanted me to do. He asked me to overtake a truck after 15 seconds of the start of toeing exercise. I couldn't do that and Dodo lost his confidence in me.
Soon we stopped and cherian asked me to take Dodo's bike while Dodo take's Cherian's and Cherian takes mine...whatever a relay race you may say :-)
I never wanted to do that and felt like saying, No... I can. But with other guys already far ahead and me running out of option decided to accept whatever was coming my way.
A stop to regroup saw all the bikes along with Jenny. It was decided that we will have a different entry style and we will toe our bike as a RM entry special. Man, I was happy. At least Jenny got the honor. May be that was better that me riding her. She got all the attention and i was happy for her.
An eventful ride indeed and definitely memorable for sure.
What followed for the next 48 hours in the city of joy was fun, excitement, entertainment and above all a celebration of brotherhood and passion.
Since i had clubbed my office stuff with this ride (sincere thanks to my Boss and colleagues), i stayed back for another week in Kolkata while the other madbulls took off at their pace and convinience.
I started my return journey on 2nd Feb, but more on that later sometime.
Till then keep thumpin'
wonderful writeup.. thanks for sharing.
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