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.