Finding my soul on 2 wheels -1

Prologue

“The chilly wind will not stop and the incessant downpour  adds to the cold. The deluge has washed away the road at many places. In addition to the apprehension which every blind turn brings, there is a high probability of the tyres slipping in the boulevard. Slightest of error will bring me close to the river which I have been admiring from this high altitude and in rather precarious circumstances. But there is still too much to see and marvel at, the joy of riding in the rain, the delight of every morning. So I just  move on and on……..”

Chapter 1 (Reaching Arunachal)

“Only a biker knows why a dog sticks his head out of a car window.”

When I boarded the Garib Rath express to Guwahati I had one thing in mind ,I wanted to do a Dilli.But I guess this Chaiwala had betted a fortune on waking me up. It was not that disturbing feeling of a bug singing songs in your ears but a knock on the head to wake up. The tea smelt good, probably it had gathered some aroma from the passing tea fields. I would say aroma because it was devoid of milk and little less heated than what we call lukewarm. So in one word the tea only had aroma.

If you have seen the secret inspirational documentary you will understand how strong desire formulates into results. Ask me how this trip happened and the answer I have is strong desire. At least you will agree that there is frequency between two people and you keep on bumping into those with whom your frequency matches. This is the reason why I have named the blog as serendipity and serendipity it was when one of my close friends (In fact one of the very few from the fairer sex) was in Kolkata. I may forget the umpteen beverages we may have had together but a cup of coffee in a packed railway station is something I would cherish for a long time to come. Stepping on the train I was both happy and thankful that we met.

It feels like the sets of the movie, “Before Sunset” as my train speeds towards Guwahati. The only difference is that there is no beautiful lady on the other side, in fact there could have been one. When I boarded the train there was a lady and her daughter already sitting on my allotted berth. The lady to me,”beta aap agar akele ho to is seat pe chale jao please.” At that very moment another female walks in and the lady repeats the same sentence to her. I had no choice but to pick one seat while the other chose one. All I can say is,”Bhagwaan aakhir kab tak kaat te rahoge?”

The last 2 hours of your journey towards Guwahati is very scenic. It reminds me of one  post that Moli wrote while  traveling on the same route. Assam and Arunachal Pradesh are two states where one can see the tropical rain forests. I verified the fact later but at that moment in the train I knew this has to be an evergreen forest. As far as you can see it was all green and if you strained your eyes a little more you could see a brown outline of mountains covering this magnetic green. I went a step further and strained my ears to listen the mountains calling me. So it was how I reached Guwahati reading a book and occasionally admiring the reflections of the sky in the clean streams. 

Do you remember the temperature change we experienced on entering the main gate of our college? It is exactly the same feeling when one enters the Bandardewa check post towards Itanagar.The distance from this gate to Moli’s place was 30 km and I was overcome by an inexplicable excitement. The hug seemed so familiar, seemed we had met just yesterday. We slept for half of the day and then met the other 2 biker friends. Later in the evening we had a game of football reminiscing of the numerous evenings we had spent doing the same.

P.S. Much of this was scribbled on a national highway when Moli was busy taking some video shots.

Revisiting Arunachal

Last time when some of my friends and me visited Arunachal something great happened.We discovered FIKARNOT and soon it became a religion for us. This time I am planning to bike in the mystic beauty of Arunachal and then narrate the stories to my readers here.It's a long 14 day trip away from all the clutter.Was reading a book by Swami Vivekananda where he says that knowledge is the ultimate goal in life.In the land of the Buddha I hope to attain some more peace and understand the truth.

I have tried to simplify my life a lot in the past few years.I have got some groans and lost some contacts in the quest.Have also realized that after sometime we must try and give back to the society everything that we have taken from it.Our successes happened because someone guided us and things happened favorably for us but it does not imply that the rickshaw puller cannot achieve the same.I wavered again from the central theme.So it will be a break from emails, news and phone calls. A break from the horrible traffic and insane people.

Last summer i played soccer in Kargil and lazed around Ladakh. A half an hour nap by the Pangong lake was something I would always remember for it had the feel of that solitude which I am thriving for.Carrying my football studs and would catch up with some soccer at Itanagar(courtsey Moli Bhai.).

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Everything is green and submarine

You may boast of all the food joints in your city but you can never comprehend the fun of living in a city where you get ready made joints. 

When Johnny walked and people danced

It’s almost 2 years since graduation and probably one thing which I still miss the most is  the hostel roof top.I would always love to have a hostel re-union  on GRT(Ganga Roof Top).There are very few places which are associated with all your good and bad moments of life. For most of my friends and me our hostel terrace was one such place. One night you would be lying all alone on the terrace gazing at the stars and other night dancing on the weirdest of Bollywood songs(Saat samandar paar stuff).A place where you had candle night dinners  and  you tasted bidi too. Remember all those exotic brands we devoured, especially all those monitors MGMs and sandpipers. The joy of peeing from such heights is one of the many things that money cannot buy. Terrace was for all trivial matters like break ups to the serious ones like Moli’s dance (Teri aadaon pe marta hun). In a nutshell most of 4 years of our lives happened here.

So why all this talk today ?  

Had one of those terrace evenings with friends today.I had the 43% poison in my cupboard for quite sometime and had saved it for one of these days.We sat on the top of a 12 storey building under construction and had rains for ambiance.As the liquid started walking in our systems we shifted gears from Metallica to songs from Karan Arjun.When it started walking really fast it was the time to dance on all time hit Dance numbers like: Tip Tip barsa paani and I am a Disco Dancer.Felt great to be back to the old job of bar-tending.A perfect celebration for an awesome day.

Every moment of this party I was reminded of you all and all those moments.Oh God!!, once again to dance with my college friends in this rain

A Day to remember and other updates

Had my first taste of professional football today when our team played against Mecon F.C. No doubt this was a moment to cherish as I had always wanted to play at this level. But what happened in the second half was something I had never thought of in my sweetest of dreams. A special someone joined us and played mid field for the entire second half. The special one was Subodh, member of the Indian Football Team. Though we ended on the losing side we played our hearts out and some goal keeping lapses cost us the game. Even Subodh congratulated us on our effort. 

I accept that I am a product of the Indian middle class mentality.After passing my standard 10th I said in an interview that I would like to do my Engg from some reputed college and was lucky enough to get into IIT Madras.Probably that was the only option I had.The take away from today's match was that I want to see a day when kids take up football as a profession, where there is a better place for football players and not every sports shop is filled with Cricket bats.A nation which is crazy about cricket would save a lot of time following a 2 hour football game.Another realization was how strength is an important criteria with every sport.In the first few minutes of the game i came head to head with a rather lanky looking winger and a touch was enough to realize the importance of  strength.I love football and I have played the game whenever I got a chance.In fact I should write it the other way , I created all the chances to play the game against all odds.Meet me sometime I will tell you stories about football and believe me I will always tell you about this day.

Life has been at its very best in the last 4 months.You will always know the best days of your lives and I know I am going through this phase.In short last few months was about studying and playing soccer.Studying something which I really love and the sport is like life.Wrote the CFA  level 1 two days back and did really well.Met few of my college friends and had beer after a really long time.I can totally empathize with 2 of my friends who are working in Gujrat.The beverage never tasted so sweet in my life, in fact there is a sweetness to patience which you should taste sometime.

I am leaving for a 14 day bike trip to Arunachal next week and I know it will be more awesome than the last experience.Got an MBA offer from IMT -G where I will be studying for a year in Dubai and for a year in India.I am looking forward to this, let's see what happens.So what's up with you guys ?