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After eagerly waiting for over a month, finally the day i.e., 13th September, 2015 arrived for our next g2g trip to Gangani, West Bengal. I woke up at 4 o’clock with “Extreme ways” in the background. I had hardly any sleep, as the discussions for the ride kept going on till 12.30. As usual, took my phone off charge and went to the washroom. There were more than 100 unread messages in the group, as many hadn’t slept. Went through the conversation, took a bath, readied myself and the bike, and left for the meeting point. There were three meeting points, one for the people of south Calcutta, one for the northerners, and one final point at NH6. There was some construction work going on near the first point, so the time of departure was extended by fifteen minutes. We left at 6.15, reached the point on NH6 by 7. The people from the north were delayed too, as one of the members overslept, and they didn’t want to leave him behind.
Finally, after the whole group met, tea and boiled eggs were consumed along with a photo shoot to mark the beginning of the journey, biggest since the revival of this chapter in December ’14, with 15 riders.
As there were many new riders, marshalling was required, Mark on his NS and Arjyo on his RC390 took the responsibility.
While Mir on his Apache 160 led the group,
I tailed it on my Duke 390.
The ride began at 7.30ish am. We left for Kolaghat, where we were to fill up our bellies.Had a typical Bengali breakfast, and after another round of photo shoot, we were on our way to Gangani, the Grand Canyon of West Bengal.
The ride was mostly on the NH6, hence butter smooth. The lead was great, marshalling wasflawless, everything was perfect, till we took a shortcut. That treacherous 4km ride over the floating road, I can never forget. I say floating, as the road was not made of mud or tarmac, but of stone chips. The speeds were reduced from 80-90 kmph to 20-30 kmph. That so-called road led us to the beautiful NH60. As they say, to reach heaven, you have to pass through hell. And heaven it was, beautiful roads through lush green forest. This called for another photo shoot/butt break. After taking photographs and videos, we left for Gangani, which was not far.
We passed through empty tolls, busy markets, railway crossings, after a few lefts and rights, a change was seen. The tarmac below us changed itscolor from black to red. We had reached Gangani. This was gorgeous. Blue sky, few green plants and lots of laalmitti(red soil). A spot was chosen, bikes were parked, all the cameras were out, and the wanderer in us took us to different places. After roaming around, we took some rest on the bank of river Shilabati.
But, as the climate there was hot and we were all out of water, we had to leave early. By 2pm, we had left for Kolkata. After finding a nice little shop, we all had some refreshments which Sohel had brought with him. But seeing so many bikes together in a small town is not normal. Many were exotic for them. People started crowding, this was a signal for departure. All of us were tired, I didn’t feel like riding anymore, but once we hit the tarmac, energies were regained.
After crossing that floating road again, we reached NH6, nothing much happened on the way back. Till we saw the black clouds ahead of us, and soon it started raining. As a rule, we stopped at the nearest suitable location, rain proof gears came out, but as it was not raining heavily, we decided to keep moving, but at reduced speeds. Marshals kept swinging front and back, for the group had to move ahead safely. And soon the rain stopped, but the roads were still wet, so we maintained the speeds, and I led them to the Sher-E-Punjab Dhaba for chai break, which is customary when you are on NH6. The sun was going down, and we had to hurry up, as home was still a couple of hours away. It was dark, and getting impossible to ride in a group, but we tried our level best. Around 7pm, we reached a fork, where the group again split into two, one headed towards Vidyasagar Setu, one towards Dankuni, and soon the ride ended.
This was perhaps the best ride we had as a group till now. The brotherhood is what kept us safe. Just a few months ago, I did not even know them, and now they take care of me like elder brothers. People ask me to drop the name of xBhp from our group, to have our own identity. I can’t, we can’t, we won’t. This is what identifies us, what defines us, what unites us. I, for one, feel proud for xBhp, Kolkata chapter.
Write up Credit - Saurabh Rai
Photo Credit - Debdeep, Mir and Mark
Video Credit - Arjyo
Video link of our ride
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