Re: Home run!

"Living on Earth is expensive, but it does include a free trip around the sun every year."

Knowing this for a fact, the rider had to make do with the fact that the remainder of his journey would be in hostile conditions. So he set onwards from Rajahmundry at 7 AM.
The next destination was Anakapalle. This route supposedly saves time by bypassing Vizag and merges into the highway at Srikakulam.

Roads were arrow straight and boring. Occasionally, APSRTC buses would play racer with our guy. It is irritating when buses race ahead at 90 kmph and then don't give way. I mean, that is the most comfortable cruising speed for a motorcyclist, but then there was no option other than drop behind or surge ahread at 100+ for a few km so that the bus vanishes out of sight so that normal speeds could be resumed again.

On the way to Anakapalle.



Soon Anakapalle was reached at. Sygic offline maps guided to the bypass route through state highways and then the dormancy of straight highways was lost, for a good reason for some amount of time. Soon, the route was full of trucks.

The rider wasn't able to comprehend how does this route save anyone time? Almost everybody had taken the Vizag bypass.

On stopping at a small bakery, curious onlookers asked a variety of questions and gave boot loads of gyaan.

1. Why ride from KA to JH?
2. Why not fly?
3. The bike may be giving only 20 kmpl so the trip is expensive?
4. Does the rider have a permit to ride in AP? (bull crap this mentality!)

Finally, a friendly trucker gives the much needed inspiration and says that Bhubaneshwar can be reached in the evening and wished good luck.

The last few km in the State Highways were bad in patches. Somehow, Srikakulam was reached at.

The only friendly places enroute were those milestones which served as a seat.





There was no obstruction at all from anyone (as expected). But on reaching Behrampur, a police convoy stopped the rider for checking papers. They said it was recently attacked by naxals and they were checking everyone with a non OD/OR registration plates. Needless to say, they were highly amused to hear that the bike had come from Bangalore and was going to bokaro.

Boring roads continued thereafter all the way till Bhubaneshwar. Stopped at one place to click the sunset. This was after crossing Chilika.



Soon, rains and crosswinds started and it was a perfect WTF moment. Took the rider 2.5 hours to cover 90 odd km. Reached Bhubaneshwar late at 8:15 PM and then got lost.
Somehow our tired rider reached KIIT and met his lovely sister who had been informed some time back about the trip. She was super happy.

Also, mighty thanks to Siddhant for getting much sought for air filters for the bike. Also, sincere apologies to Siddhant, Anupam and Sambit for being late and not being able to be a part of the G2G meet. But, doing 1.5k km in heat and rain at much lesser speeds (read 90ish kmph) takes time.

A huge shout out to Bibhu for arranging the stay in Cuttack and spending some time together.

The next day would be grueling yet exciting. Exciting it would be was known since the destination was home and with only 550 km to do, our wannabe Rossi had targeted reaching home by 5 PM!

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Nice snaps Divya Bhai!

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Hehe - the new writing style is growing on me dude..!!

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DS Bhai.. you are giving the itches to take my bike out for a long ride.. Damn.. cravings are difficult to let go without fulfilling them.. this is it, my one day ride to Dun is finalized

Thanks to you

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Thanks dada!

He he... Coming from you, I am humbled!


My pleasure!

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Day 3 had the rider only 550 odd km to travel.
He had chalked out the route already and he only had to cross the states Odisha and West Bengal on that day to be home.

For most people out there, travel becomes a strategy for accumulating photographs. Even our rider likes clicking a lot, but this trip was different. It was less about view points, rather he was travelling for travel's sake.
AND whenever he wanted to get his pic clicked, he'd end up getting annoyed. Why?
Because, when you hand someone a camera, why do they act like you just asked them to dissemble a bomb? They take it and they're like, "What do I do … I don't really … ha-huh …"
Yeah, it’s the button on the top right where it always is since the beginning of effin' time!

Anyways, long story short, almost no pics on day 3. But adventures? Hell yeah.
Decent roads to bad roads to no roads to filthy off road; day 3 had it all. Halfway into day 3, if the rider took an x-ray of his weiner, he probably wouldn't have seen a bone!

Cuttack to Balasore was fine. Covered in 3.5 odd hours. Roads were progressively getting bad with every passing kilometer.
Soon, the rider was in Didi's land and did he not curse her? Balasore to Kharagpur via AH45 is some 120 km out of which 98-99 km have no roads. There are diversions every 400 m (as per the board on EVERY straight) for almost 100 km. All diversions are made of loose sand/soil/mud.

Took our rider almost 4 hours to cover this bit! Needless to say, was he furious! Somehow, he reached Kharagpur outskirts and threw himself in a dhaba. He was in no mood to have lunch because he wanted to be home ASAP as well as he was so tired that hunger had no place in his mind. Anyways, 4 glasses of sugarcane juice went down the throat and thereafter rest for about an hour.

Adventures however continued. Kharagpur to Bankura is through (un-barricaded and without a divider) State Highway and the road width is like 20-22 feet max. Still you see buses flying past from both directions! Utter chaos and madness. Yet everyone seemed comfortable at that pace for it was only our hero who seemed to be agitated with the road mannerisms of other people.

Tired and to the extent of panting for lack of drinking water (no shops en route), he decided to stop near a group of homes. Luckily, there was a shop behind the 2nd building in the group which had cold water bottes. Thanking his stars, he mixed the remianing ORS in the bottles and rode off!

Bankura came and so did the rider's irritation with West Bengal's roads containing pebbles embedded in tar. Either, have a fully tarred road or a fully concrete road. Why have a mixture of concrete + tar + stones/pebbles throughout a city? The ride was very very uncomfortable!

Thankfully, the torture ended at about 4:30 PM. No, he didn't reach home as planned. He crossed Bankura and he only had one more checkpoint to reach; Purulia! He was aware that it is a naxal prone area. He switched on Google Maps to guide him to his destination, but it stopped working 10-12 odd km into the journey. However, Sygic Offline maps helped, albeit it made the rider take a U turn and then take some road through fields, alleys, rail tracks etc, he knew he was on the right path because the board said: "Purulia - 63 km".

With barely 100 odd km left (from home), something unthinkable happened! The bike stalled and refused to start. It was 5:30 PM and the rider was in the middle of a naxal infested zone. With barely 6-7 houses around, the area was only a jungle. Tata Docomo had no connectivity but Idea worked. Called a few xBhpians and others. Nobody picked the (distress) call. The mere thought of getting stranded in that area froze our rider!

He thought he may have to inform his family before something bad happens.
You got to be careful if you don’t know where you're going, because you might not get there!

Re: Home run!

Too eager for the next part sir! Bring it on fast

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The road condition in West Bengal has remained like that only! Utter madness and chaos save a very few places.
Nice write up. Waiting for the rest.

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Nice write-up Divya bhai...Aur dikhao pics. BTW, It was some 25kms before Tuni, in the Rajahmundhry-Vizag section, where I had that incident. And then the rest is history.

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Dada, but the Durgapur Expressway is fantastic. Loved it. But within Kolkata the city roads are horrible. Manholes are placed right in the middle of the roads. Tarmac is being laid over and over again without leveling out this manholes and results are sudden manhole created potholes, enough to bend rims if you're not cautious. Absolute example of how bad a road can be designed. Also, sudden change of plans and the roads which are smooth in the morning can be a nightmare while returning from office.

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Somehow missed your update yesterday. Is that a commercial break at naxal zone [emoji35] ? Come on, bring it soon. [emoji4]

Sent from Tin Box using Pigeon carrier.

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Stranded in a Naxal infested zone with a dead engine !! That's intense suspense man !! What an epic cliffhanger...!! Definitely waiting for the next one.

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Stranded in a Naxal infested zone with a dead engine !! Now you are coming with high dope and action thriller. Tell us whats next.

Apna John Abraham hero nikla ekdum(Trans: He comes out to be hero John Abraham)

Re: Home run!

Thanks for the patience guys!

Arnab, I'd like to know what happened in the Vizag stretch.

Saquib bhai, the name is Jaan Ibrahim.

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So the bike was dead! And the rider was out cold, in fear of the unknown.
He had learned over the years that when one's mind is made up, this diminishes fear; knowing what must be done does away with fear.

The problem here was, he was clueless what had happened and why. So, the troubleshooting began!

Saddlebags were removed. Battery seemed fine. Its connections were fine. The console was working. Headlamps were working.
But the starter would only go kirr kirr and the motor wouldn't turn over. For some reason, the rider assumed that maybe the air filter is choked due to excessive dust when he was riding in near Kharagpur area. But sadly, the nut was jammed badly and it did not budge.

To add to his misery, people staying in the few houses nearby came out and started observing the drama, nobody willing to lend a helping hand. After about 5 min of struggle trying to pry open the air filter box, our rider gave up and asked a lady nearby for water and some sugar and salt. She brought the same unwillingly. With the home made ORS solution down his throat, he began unpacking his saddlebag to search for his toolbox.

Out goes the lower right fairing and the battery and the starter relay. Spark plug was fine, no fouling detected. It was barely 4k km old. Starter relay was fine, the fuses were fine. What on earth was stopping the bike from starting then?
Deeper troubleshooting gave an area of concern. A wire going into the starter relay appeared to have snapped off and only a couple of strands of wire were holding the same. So, the wire was cut and taped with an extra wire from spares box. Battery fit back, spark plug cleaned and fit back.

He tried starting the bike. Kirrrrrr...... Khat! Nope! It was almost 5:55 PM and the restlessness was growing within. After a small nudge at the starter relay and re-tightening of battery terminals, a second attempt was made and voila! The bike came to life.

Now, our rider had ONLY ONE thing on his mind. The bike isn't getting turned off until he reached home. Further diagnosis if needed would be carried out either at the SVC or at dad's preferred mech.
So, the last leg was a mixture of sitting on the seat at an angle to caress the already numb backside or on the edge of the tank or standing on the pegs over potholes.

There must have been hundreds of craters till Purulia town was reached. High beams and insects combined with potholes were testing his patience and he was cursing everyone in sight with the choicest of words without remorse.

Finally, the last 40 km were completed and he reached Chas. It is the outskirts of Bokaro Steel City. Our rider heaved a huge sigh of relief and stopped at a lassi joint to freshen up; read toilet and then actually drink lassi. In this process, he completely forgot his oath of not switching off the bike. The thought struck while peeing and the pee stopped midway!

He rushed outside without even drinking lassi and attempted to crank the bike. It came to life. He realized that lassi could wait, but the bike may not give a second chance. Also, the chain was running completely dry and it was worrying him too.
A bike with a rattling right handlebar plus loose noisy chain plus a dying starter mechanism could be an ultimate recipe for disaster.

Anyways, the next 7 km were completed and he was in familiar territory. He had reached the 80 ft tall tower of excellence. It is Bokaro's landmark. It had to be clicked but the traffic was dense.
Somehow he managed one decent pic on his phone and sped towards home, which was less than 4 km away!

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When i was reading this I was like "oh shit! Will the bike start now?!"
Superb writing sir! Wonderful

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Awesome narration Divya bhai :thumbup:

Sent from my XT1022 using xBhp Connect mobile app

Re: Home run!

Superb narration!