Motorcycle Travelogue: Thoughts off the Road (Ride to Chikkamagaluru)

“The only Zen you can find on the tops of mountains is the Zen you bring up there.”
~Robert M. Pirsig

The Bikes

85 kmph… 90… 95… 100… The wind feels stronger at these speeds. There is a hum of the air beating past you. The terrain flows smoothly out of view. The throttle is planted and the engine is running in full power. Along the stretch that extends a few kilometers in length, you can see bikers at a distance. An occasional car zips by doing a comfortable 150. You smile… you have been inside that box before…

The day had started before dawn. The preparations had started days ago. 8 riders, 2 days, 600 Kms. Narrowing down on the place itself took its time… The permutations of Road, Weather, Stay etc were all weighed in and the place, Chikkamagaluru was finalized. For long drives, riding a motorcycle may not be comfortable for most people. Thankfully, there are used cars in san diego that can make car ownership more attainable. Those who are planning to buy a new or used vehicle should find a dealership that has passed auto dealer bond requirements by state. When planning a road trip, be sure to schedule a wheel alignment or have your car fully inspected.

Like most well planned things, something unexpected has to go wrong and it did. A fuel issue on one of the bikes delayed the start by an hour. Then a missed turn split me and another rider from the lead pack. 20 Kms down the road we realized our mistake and turned back… We hadn’t completed even 5% of our journey and we had lost a couple of hours. But thats the beauty of a Biker’s Road Trip… No time is truly lost or gained as long as you are on the road…

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Past Victories…

Sometimes, there are moments when I feel extraordinarily pleasant about being in a situation. Sometimes, these situations seem too good to be true, they make me wonder if I am in a dream and am going to rudely wake up or if I am the subject of a prank.

Sometimes, I know deep down that the moment is genuine and yet there is a part of me holding me down, telling me in a whisper ‘dont get carried away’. Yet it is so hard not to feel happy about it and so hard not to give yourself a pat on the back and tell yourself “that was good”.

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The Kid…

The one thing that is common between my sister, my cousins and me is that we all joined school a year earlier than most children. In India (atleast in the mid 80s) children joined school when they were three years old, so frankly I have no idea why my parents decided to usher me into my initial schooling when I was two. Oddly that one decision dictated a lot about what sort of friends and peers I would have for the rest of my life…

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The Namesake…

I dont know of a better way to start talking about the last twenty five years of my life, than to talk about the one thing that has been with me for almost every single moment of that time…

What would you say if I ask you “who are you?” Most people to whom I have asked the truly philosophical question, have always chosen to respond with a similar answer… Their name.

My parents have always been strong believers in astrology… From the moment I was born one of their biggest concerns was to know what my future held for me and how to improve it. Even now, twenty five years later they jump at the first opportunity to ask questions to respected astrologers(not those fancy guys that come on tv) about how my current “time” is.

Apparently the time and place of my birth sort of determined my name(this procedure is extremely common in my family). Under the consultation of an astrologer who determined the mathematical positions of the planets at the time of my birth, my name had to start with the syllable “Cha”.

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The 25 Chronicles…

I have always wanted to write my autobiography. It doesn’t matter if it ever got published or if anyone other than me ever read it… What matters to me is to write it, to do that journey back in my mind to places I had been, scenes I had seen, people I had met and … Read more