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**Aryan** · 11-21-2010, 11:15 PM

Topic Approved.

Oh boy, I am tuned already!

**eliksir** · 11-22-2010, 12:58 AM

awesome prologue.

**rubber_stamp_champ** · 11-22-2010, 12:30 PM

The Glory Quest

Prologue
While the world was running behind the Mecca of bikers, it was the time to do something different. The season where every biker seems to race against time to do the Delhi-Manali stretch and commence the journey of their lifetime thereon, was the time when I was frustrated from the 24x7 job. Finally I made my mind and decided to ride. Of course, the first option would be Ladakh! But because of unknown reasons, the charm of Ladakh failed to behold my attention and I never felt like riding reaching the top of the world and the top, for me, would be mountaineering up to the Everest.

Brainstorming was done and several destinations including Madhya Pradesh, Goa, Rajasthan and many more were thought upon. But one fine day I read about the adventures of a Ninja across the Golden Quadrilateral. “Oh my god, is this possible?” I said to myself. The guy has done really a good job. Right then and right there I narrowed down upon riding across the motherland and raiding the Golden Quadrilateral. Asked a couple of friends out of which three wanted to ride along but they eventually backed off because of some or the other reason as the case has always been. But the preparations and everything else did not go as smooth as it might seem on the surface.
Being born in a family who abides by the rules of the conservative society comes with a hell lot of disadvantages. Most of Indian bikers would know and agree to what I want to say. The matter was discussed with family members long before and neither an agreement nor a refusal was clear. However, as 7.11.2010 approached I started preparing for the journey and started collecting the essentials including the tool kit, riding gears and some similar stuff. 5th of November proved to be the day of judgment. The matter was kept forward to one of my maternal uncles. He himself being an adventurous person did not refuse but instead me on not doing it solo.

Furious and hurt, I decided to give up biking, packed my riding gear, foot pump, engine oil and kept it in the store room. The bike was not touched for the next two days and finally my family sat and talked over with me. They were assured of no risk being involved and to my surprise; I had a green signal from my family! They in fact started helping me with my packing, checking out the routes, the alternative means of transport, accommodations and everything else.

A slight shift in the date and the new date of the commencement of the journey was decided as 8.11.10. Finally it was the D day when I was to embark for a journey of a lifetime and the longest one as of now.

Chapter 1

8.11.10: Delhi-Varanasi

The sleep last night was sufficient enough to wake me up at around 4, post which I freshened up and had my breakfast in no time. While the family members were still sleeping, I donned the riding gear, checked the entire stuff once again, prayed to god for my wellbeing and by 5.00 I was off for the big ride! Being a Sunday and an early hour of the day, not much traffic was there on the road and I easily breezed off and exited Delhi in no time. The onset of winters brings along prolonged darkness and a chill that chills you to the core. Inspite of wearing the fox body armor and a wind cheater the cool breeze was freaking me and I was eagerly waiting for the sun to come up and bless me with some much needed warmth. Rode continuously for about 100 km on low speed as it was still dark and I did not want to take the risk in the beginning itself. Keep my calm and stopped at around 7.00 am and the first lot of the pics were clicked on the beautiful NH2.

After capturing some memories and a much needed susu break, it was the time to move on. Only 200km from Delhi, crossing Agra was no pain and soon after the first break I bypassed Agra and what I saw after that was simply mind blowing.

As soon as you cross Agra, a 6 lane highway greets you with wide stretches of lonely and butter smooth roads. Although the traffic density was pretty less, I still maintained a saner speed of around 80-90kmph as it was just the beginning of the day and you never know when would a child or any individual, for that matter, would jump on to the road taking you for a surprise. With speeds under hundred, people had enough time to stare at the alien who was riding a vertical eyed monster. Anyhow, Beautiful roads continued and I could comfortably keep my bike over hundred as I desperately wanted to cross Kanpur by 11.00-12.00.

Abiding by the plan, I comfortably bypassed Kanpur without a single wink of fatigue. Hats off to NHAI for maintaining such roads! One major advantage of the Golden Quadrilateral is you need not enter the city if that’s not your destination, you bypass all and if you continue to bypass all the cities, you’ll reach the starting point!

It has been a trend on the Indian highways of people jumping on the tarmac and riding/driving on the wrong side. Having done a couple of rides on NH8 and NH1, I’m pretty much accustomed to the scenario. However, what I saw after Kanpur was completely different and insane. People whole heartedly and cordially sharing both sides of the road! Don’t dare to ride in the fast most lane of one side of the highway as it is reserved for the oncoming traffic! This way, people move on the “wronger” side of the wrong side! Anyhow, stopping at a couple of times and taking memorable pictures, I reached Varanasi at around 4.30 in the evening.
Some pics from the ride:

Ride Stats:

Total Distance: 819km
Time Taken: 11.30 hours
Fuel Cost: Rs.1864
Road conditions: Awesome
Problems Faced: None
Accident Averted: A couple of them
Accident Met With: None

**aargee** · 11-22-2010, 12:34 PM

Congratulations on your success, though you were in Chennai, we couldn't meet. I guess your's should be the first P220 to have done a GQ successfully in the country.

One major advantage of the Golden Quadrilateral is you need not enter the city if that’s not your destination, you bypass all and if you continue to bypass all the cities, you’ll reach the starting point

That's how all the western countries highways are layed out. Unfortunately, our Govt took good old 50 years to learn this simple trick.
PS - The highways in the west were constructed atleast in 60s & 70s.

**rubber_stamp_champ** · 11-22-2010, 03:55 PM

Originally posted by aargee View Post

Congratulations on your success, though you were in Chennai, we couldn't meet. I guess your's should be the first P220 to have done a GQ successfully in the country.

Ya even I think so...

And I hope its true!!!

**sheelpriye** · 11-22-2010, 04:14 PM

Hmmm, a good thread to keep myself hooked post bluevolt's thread.

The P-220 in silver looks so nice.

Please bring on the rest

**rubber_stamp_champ** · 11-22-2010, 04:37 PM

Originally posted by sheelpriye View Post

Hmmm, a good thread to keep myslef hooked post bluevolt's thread.

The P-220 in silver looks so nice.

Please bring on the rest

Thanks for the appreciation bruv...Well I'll try my level best to post the entire thing as soon as possible, but you know how the job at the airport is...shifts!!!

still lets see how soon can I satisfy your hunger for more

**bluevolt** · 11-22-2010, 07:31 PM

The logs are coming, great! Look forward to more... Fantastic job, Karan.

**rubber_stamp_champ** · 11-22-2010, 07:34 PM

Originally posted by bluevolt View Post

The logs are coming, great! Look forward to more... Fantastic job, Karan.

Thanks for the appreciation bruv!!

All this motivates me to do more!!! May be the GQ in 100 hours!!!

**pranjalshukla** · 11-23-2010, 01:22 AM

awesome!

we all know that was not easy though for a biker its more enjoyable
p220 is a good cruiser

congratulations on your successful completion
hope to see more from you

cheers!

**Abhishek B** · 11-23-2010, 01:25 AM

That route is so familiar to me. I have covered that route many times now & roads are sure bliss.... I, for the fact, love new flyover which enables you to cross Kanpur in no time. Earlier, it was mayhem to cross Kanpur.

But... well done brother.

**jd666** · 11-23-2010, 01:41 AM

great trip! waiting for more!

**rubber_stamp_champ** · 11-23-2010, 02:53 PM

Chapter 2

2.1 8.11.10: Varanasi

The city is in a deep shit! This is the first line that comes to my mind when I think of Varanasi. I mean, what else you would think off when you find kilos and tones of cow dung, human excreta and dog poop acting as a centerpiece of the road. The place where people have no driving sense, the place where the rickshaw pullers and tuk-tuk drivers are the king of the road and the place where every corner is shared by garbage dump and cows, that is Varanasi!

People from around the globe crave to soak up the rich culture and tradition of India and Varanasi is most probably the city that they actually land up. But what impression does the oldest city of India casting on its onlookers? Sorry to say, I could not find the slightest of hint of Indian culture, save burning the dead bodies along the “sacred river” and dumping the remains in the same. Although I spend one and a half day in the city, I could not find much attractions that could interest me and those which did attract me, kept me away because of the maddening traffic and pathetic conditions. One place I really wanted to visit was the Bharat Mata Mandir. Now this is something one of a kind. It boasts a big map of India carved onto marble and the distances/scale is extremely close to accurate, as the studies and surveys have shown.

Talking about the so called “charming” ghats along the banks of the river, all you get to see are limping boats, a couple of touts and tones of shit. I being an Indian was not able to withstand the smell of cow dung that the air was filled up with, what would the tourists think?

2.2 9.11.10: Varanasi

The day started early. The plan of waking up early to capture the beautiful sunrise over the river was deliberately put off. After all, one needs to sleep a bit. And that’s what I did, slept a bit; reason…pigeons!!! Stretch an arm from the guest house I stayed at and you could touch the house opposite side of the “street”. And the owner of the house had an affinity for pigeons and he did have many! So flying them up as a daily exercise, calling them, whistling and shouting started early and were enough to wake me up.

After a nice two hour afternoon nap, I woke up at around 5.00pm, strolled down the city streets and what happened after that changed the entire impression that I had about the city. Went to the much talked about “Dashashwmedh Ghat”, the main ghat where the aarti takes place. The aarti began at around 6.00pm and it was simply breathtaking. Just imagine a person, not visiting the temples, standing for an hour to watch that wonderful piece of the religion! This was an eye opener for me. However, I did a blunder of not bringing the camera along as I thought it to be somewhat similar to that of Haridwar, crowded, chaotic and under the hands of money-minded priests. Nibbled on a humble dosa and got 4 samosas packed for the next morning.

Chapter 3

10.11.10: Varanasi-Kolkata

An extra couple of hours sleep helped me wake up fresh without feeling lazy at around 4.45am. Freshened up and was all set to roll!

While I did face some problem in exiting the city, it was not that bugging as one of a passerby guided me up to the highway. This is the real feel of India, where people are helpful and they care even for strangers.

Soon I was on the open stretches of the great NH2, but kept the bike between 80-100kmph as it was still dark and I did not want to risk the entire ride. Another reason to keep the revs low was to extract maximum kilometers out of a liter as the bike was returning poorly. However, how long would the “mileage” bug could hold me back? Therefore, the throttle was let off and soon I was doing over 100kmph.

As I have mostly ridden in the Northern region of the country, the landscape along the highway was an entirely new sight to me. The regular eucalyptus trees soon gave way to the palm and banana trees, it was simply a treat to the eyes. Taking frequent breaks and soaking up the beautiful landscape, I crossed Bihar and Jharkhand unknowingly. Somewhere in Bihar, I stopped for a quick photo session and a guy came to me and was curious to know about the ride. Talked to him a bit and he got into politics talkie about Nitish, Congress and what not. Still he offered me to come along and have a cup of tea at his place to which I humbly refused and moved on.

The Jharkhand-West Bengal Border was a pain to cross through as only a narrow stretch of road was left vacant for the vehicles to pass through and the rest was occupied with parked trucks. The road condition was also not up to the GQ standards as a lot of potholes dot the entire stretch. A few kilometers into West Bengal and I came across the under construction Durgapur Steel Plant to which I could not resist clicking a pic.

Started looking for a decent and reasonable looking restaurant along the highway and to my surprise, there are numerous restro-bars along the highway! What do they think they’re trying to do? A couple of guys would stop by in one of the bars, gulp some drinks down and go driving on the highway? Anyhow, I did find a restaurant and had an ok (rather funny) meal there. Post meal, decided to stop only in Kolkata.

Soon it was hardcore Bengali and not many people know Hindi. So it was becoming more and more difficult for me to talk the way to Park Street, the place where I was supposed to find a place to stay.

Finding a place to stay was real pain. Being one way at most of the places, it becomes really difficult to reach your destination. One miss and you have ride all the way through this road, and then take a right from that signal, take that slip road and there you have that building. And this is what happened to me, I crossed the Park Street unknowingly and then I had to all the way through don’t know which road adding some good 10 kilometers to the ride. Finally at around 5.30pm I was there in the Victoria Guest House.

Some pics from the ride:

Some rest and I wanted to explore the nightlife of this bustling imperial city. Stepped out of the guest house with the camera and started walking and clicking pictures of whatever pleased me. The streets, the buildings and everything else.

Was back with a tummy full of scrumptious double egg roll and clicked some photographs of the view from the room.

**Haroon** · 11-23-2010, 03:22 PM

Nice ride, pics & very lively story from a bikers heart.
Thanks for sharing.

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The Glory Quest

The Glory Quest

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