Pankaj trivedi

14th January 2010

Day 5 – The most amazing birthday I've had – Partied with animals!!
Little Rann of KutchhDistance traveled: 40 kmDamages for the day: Still remains undamaged!!
It was a cold night, and one of the two blankets I covered myself with was down, leaving me frozen like a kulfi.It's my birthday!! Any guesses who was among the first ones to wish me? I’m sure it's not who you could have ever guessed. A DOG!! Yes, a dog sniffed and woke me up licking my face as though I was a cake made for him. It kissed my face leaving it sparkling with saliva. This surely was the first birthday wish of its kind!!
I term them to be the most memorable birthday kisses I have ever got!!! I went to the open-air, hot water bathroom with hope to feel clean again. It was a sulfur spring, I believe. To my surprise I wasn’t the only one using this natural open-air bathroom. Buses full of people visiting from Surat, a nearby town, were already here before me. Generously leaving back layers of shampoo froth and soapy foam. Disgusting!!!! I made up my mind -- I was not going to bathe here and get myself into any hygiene related troubles. So tracing the source of the water, I filled bottles and bathed at a cleaner spot outside the mess. Finally feeling fresh and clean I was ready to begin a happy day!! I decided to spend my birthday with an unusual audience -- 500 cows -- but did not cut many cakes. I enjoyed myself feeding them fresh grass, cleaning up the cowshed, playing with calves... I was having fun! It was like having an animal party specially hosted for meBeing Makar Sankranti, the temple attracted a huge crowd of
devotees. Soon enough it was lunch time. The kitchen hosted meals for more than 500 people. Everyone that came here did their little bit helping to prepare the meals. Some making chapattis, cutting vegetables, washing utensils... I could see team work in totality.
Post lunch I went back to the animal jamboree and saw a cow giving birth to a new born calf. It was an amazing experience to see how a new life came into being, bonding with its link to the world. The cow licked the calf, cleaning it up with so much affection. This is a part of the initial mother-child bonding, where the calf identifies the mother with all its five senses. The wobbly-legged calf took its first steps into the world for survival and independence. I was totally consumed by this experience.
There were too many people here, being a festive day. Most of them saw me with curiosity and were wondering what I was doing here with my bike and camera. So many questions and conversations they had with me in the course of the day. I was missing some quiet time by now, so I decided to ride away into the desert to gain some peace and tranquility. I was one with the silence, breeze and vast openness of the desert enjoying the chemistry I had with my bike.
Soon I came to the salt pans, here I saw three lady workers colourfully clad in their traditional clothes. Striking up simple conversations with them over a dish (adari) of black tea, I realised that there was so much ignorance and innocence amongst people in such remote areas. They had no clue about where Mumbai was located; they thought it was some nearby village and I chose not to disrupt their beliefs. I wonder if they know there is a whole wide world outside of where they dwell.

Soon I was out of there. Happily I reunited with my bike, enjoying the ride back lost in the silence of the desert at the sunset hour.

I was now feeling the chills in the breeze!! Dinner was done and I was ready to mark the end of day five under the dome of stars, laying there on the charpoy, warm under the blankets.

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Pankaj trivedi

Day 6 Rann of Kutch to Junagadh



Rann of Kutch ( Vasda dada temple) to Junagadh

Distance travelled: 400 km
Route Taken: Palaswa – Lakadia – Maliya – morbi – bamanbore – Rajkot – Gondal - Jetpur Junagadh
Damages for the day:
Rs 600 - Fuel
Rs 40 – Lunch
Rs 10 – Tea
Temple Donation (X amount not to be mentioned)

Day 6
The night was spent at the dormitory of cows, with special sound effects as a bonus. Early in the morning, as I lay there on the charpoy, I woke up feeling a huge thud on my legs and I was tossed around to an angle, the result of being butted by a cow. Not to worry, that was a cow style Good Morning!! It was a cow looking straight into my face, demanding to be petted. Happily, I responded to the demand and obliged. Soon there was another calf pulling my blanket out. Now I was wondering, did I look like another cow or something like that? I wasn't allowed to stop petting them... every time I did I was butted as a reminder -- hey, get busy, you have work to do! Luckily it was time for grazing, so all the cows happily left the shed and I was spared the work assigned.
I enjoyed the warm shower at the sulfur spring with no audience today. It was time to pack up and get going. People at the mandir showed so much affection, wanted me to stay back and did not want me to leave the place. I thought of a perfect situational song, Musaafir hoon yaaron, naa ghar hai naa thikana, mujhe chalte jaana hai Ok, now today I am in a filmy mood. I had to move on and so I gratefully thanked them for all the support, love, affection and care they offered during my stay, making it truly memorable, and started for the journey ahead to my next destination, Meduk mountain. I reunited with my bike and set off again enjoying the ride on the desert land, this time losing my way to Palaswa. The salt makers guided my way to the right direction.

I moved on, but after riding a distance of eight kilometres there was no visible road ahead, as it had rained about a fortnight ago. Due to this, the soil had loosened up. The tractors using the path had left grooves on the sand making it difficult to ride on. I decided to ride on the desert leaving the path. For a bit, I did think of turning back but somehow decided to keep going. The ride got worse, tyres now sank in the sand making it difficult to balance. Another problem was, I was off road with road tyres on the bike, the weight of the luggage had the rear tyre spinning in circles.

After riding like this for about twenty five kilometres, it got a little better. Now at a crossroad junction with not a soul visible till the horizon I was left wondering where to go. Guided by instinct, I decided to move straight ahead. The desert is full of illusion. I was seeing things that seemed to be there but that did not exist in reality. Mirages and delusions took me by surprise. I saw water way ahead of me, and something that appeared like an animal on the road turned out to be a stone in reality. I was looking for the mountains, hoping they were not another illusion. Finally after riding on for a bit finally I got a glimpse of the Meduk Mountain!! It was only trust in the universe and my instincts that guided my way to the mountain.

Here on the Meduk Mountain, I know only one person lives in the Vanu dada temple. I wanted to spend one more night here, being one with the vastness of the desert. So I decided to put up at the temple. There were three men in the temple, each greeting me in a different language. One of them spoke English, the other in Hindi and the third in Gujarati. Before I knew it, I was forced into taking a multi-linguistic crash course in philosophy. In a twenty minute conversation I made the journey of several eras. They told me tales and quotes of Swami Vivekananda to Socrates and Narsi Metha to Kabir. Did I even ask for it? By now, I was developing an allergy to this disconnected philosophy class conducted in three different languages. I wanted to run out of there, and I was on the bike and on my way to the next destination. I had just saved myself from insanity!
I had two options now. One was to head to Venu Village and option two was Palaswa. I decided to go with the second one. Reaching the village was a task too tough. Due to the road conditions, riding on the sand with so much weight on the bike was getting more and more difficult. It was hard to balance, so I stood up on the foot raise. I somehow managed to go on and saved myself from falling, keeping the focus on the front wheel



I kept riding till I reached the highway to Rajkot.
The four lane roads were good for a ride. The speedometer showed 110 kmph. I was enjoying both the breeze and speed. While riding, I saw windmills spinning at high speeds due to strong winds. But these same strong winds weren't favourable with the aerodynamics of the bike and this left the bike swinging from left to right. The bike was cruising at a constant speed of 90-100 km/ph covering a distance of 40 km.

The wind had calmed down, yet another problem arose. This time it was nature’s biggest mistake, left at the mercy of making judgments on basis of a faulty brain.

It was a newly opened road. The people here had an unclear concept of a four lane highway. We had vehicles coming from all directions in all the lanes turning anywhere at anytime. Were they thinking that the government generously made two roads for them both to be used simultaneously? I was paranoid seeing speeding trucks and vehicles coming from the opposite direction in the same lane I was going in, that too at such high speeds. What happened to the traffic sense and rules? There were people turning up at their own free will in any direction of their choice. I was hoping I'd get out of there soon, preferably alive. This was a challenge for me. It became extremely important to be absolutely focused if I had to be safe and alive.

I reached Rajkot and rode to Junagadh. Fortunately with a reference from my friend Kalpesh, I put up with Bharat bhai for the night. We had a good time conversing over dinner. I am very thankful to Bharatbhai and his family for being such wonderful hosts.

On reaching Junagadh, I was caught by five men in uniforms for the Xenon lights. It took time for them to understand why I had them on. I had to get down to explaining them about me touring India and riding on highways at night. They were convinced by the given explanation and soon let me go. This was an eventfully action packed day six!

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rachitkohli

Great going Pankaj.. Been following you & its truly exciting..!!
Wish you a fantastic journey ahead & I hope you bless us with such wonderful LIVE updates..
ANd yeah, WIshing you a Belated Happy Birthday.. It was unique..!!

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..»».. I will rather ride my Bike thinking about God, then sitting in a Temple thinking about my Bike.. »»..

Mumbai - Leh - Mumbai June '09 :On xBHP: Ride With me to Leh

Blog : Mumbai - Leh - Mumbai : 21 Days, 6500kms. Journey to Heaven..June'09

GreatIndianRide - West India on a 110cc for over a month

2nd, Mumbai-Leh-Mumbai : July'11 (blog coming soon)

satyenpoojary

Thats a lot fo writing and a lot of riding
Going through it slowly but surely! Super nice.... and btw Thats called as Kawasaki Good Morning (cow-as-saathi good morning)

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tourer_kashif

Fantastic Stuff

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46wannabe

Super thread by a super-man!

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10 Commandments:
1)Thank thy God for being alive.
2)Thou shalt respect one's own life and the live's of other road users.
3)Thou shalt respect one's own bike.
4)Love thy bike as thy self.
5)Always wear safety gear.
6)Alcohol is a strict NO!
7)Thou may lust after thy neighbour's bike specially if its of the R1 kind!
8)Thou shalt ride with 'ultra-most' care and caution when on Indian roads.
9)Thou shalt never leave the engine running at long traffic halts.
10)Thou shalt follow all of the above.

shawaiz khan

bro, i read first paragraph only and enjoyed all the picture so all picture are nice and don't know about write up except first paragraph and that was good...

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Pankaj trivedi

Hey rachit thanks for following my thread buddy you really inspire me to regularly put forth my experience on this forum looking forward to catch up with u once i return

Hehe well Said Hell yeah its alot of riding But the kind of species we have evolved into and the common passion tht we have, you know the more we ride the more we yearn that this road never ends

Thanku Thanku buddy

Hehe i aint a super man....but yeah i have a super opportunity and have been blessed with the right kind of contacts to be able to do what i always wanted thanks buddy ur comment will surely show its effect(ofcourse positive ) in my documentary

Hmm...hopefully i shal upload a video by tomorrow Thanks

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rachitkohli

Dude, you are real inspiration. Its really great to keep an eye over your posts & blog for the updates. As we all are bikers, we see places through each others rides, Dont we..!!
It will be my pleasure to meet you once you are here. Will surely meet up man.!

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..»».. I will rather ride my Bike thinking about God, then sitting in a Temple thinking about my Bike.. »»..

Mumbai - Leh - Mumbai June '09 :On xBHP: Ride With me to Leh

Blog : Mumbai - Leh - Mumbai : 21 Days, 6500kms. Journey to Heaven..June'09

GreatIndianRide - West India on a 110cc for over a month

2nd, Mumbai-Leh-Mumbai : July'11 (blog coming soon)

varun_r15

Thats an excellent thread..
kudos

"Its Different"

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