Day 3 - 23rd Dec 2008

Romantic Illusions of a ride are one part, the other basic foundational rule when on the road is what we bangaloreans refer to as the adjust maadi phenomenon with the pride of place and emphasis on the prefix swalpa .. This night however was getting to become a jaasthi(more) adjust maadi types...With Sobbbas bhickeying in the background, poor me was trying all kinds of yoga poses inside the sleeping bag to get warm… No roof above and a water body, dew soon began settling on my sleeping bag making it heavy and me pretty much cold…the visions of the morning sun kept my sleep deprived brain sane but with imagination was running riot nevertheless …the slightest sound in the water threw up Pirates of the Caribbean movie visions and water creatures arising out of the Brahmaputra…the sound of boats passing by brought along loud whispers of attack plans on our ferry anchored close by and me turning into Orlando Bloom's father cracking awake from a fossil to face the pirates…man to octopus human…ok… somewhat man to mammal like creatures on the river bank…three of them who even snored like humans with the leader's head cloistered in a smelly crown. It couldn't be so closed my eyes tight trying to shake off the fertile imaginations of a sleep deprived brain and cold body and turned the first one to realize it was Sobba Singh ..the crown was his two smelly shoes as pillows…following my ear to the snores, the next two were ID'ed as Jani and Sanjeev ! Goooood Morning…60 kph!

The first respondent was Satish…and he was to become my ever so loved treasure dump hunt companion and this would be his first treasure dump site inspection hunt without me. A good site found and job done, it took some time to wake up the others with the mightiest effort going into waking up the leader of the sea mammals. The river was engulfed in fog and the ferry crew were ready and set sail as soon as we boarded. The leader of the crew was the owner of the ferry and while I was chatting with him about his business model and cost of operation, Nikki summoned for the Christmas morning ceremony for cutting the rich in rum cake baked in Mumbai and brought to North East to have us reel under rum effects.

Passing small islands en route the ferry over misty waters, we made our first halt for the owner of the ferry to attend to some business where we tried to get some tea and failed. The next stop was supposed to be an island to see the endangered golden langur's which was cancelled as the fog made the sailing difficult and we were not in a mood to wait for the sun to come out. Soon back at the starting point of last night we made payments and bid adieu to the ferry crew and lugged our sleeping bags and mats to the main road in search of a commute to Phalton bazaar. A mini city bus was flagged down and we managed to cramp ourselves in between the rows of the seats with the sitting commuters staring up at us as if we were aliens descended from Pluto. Only Sat Rao was in comfort zone and the rest were looking somewhat under pressure…It was soon clear why when we reached sun city and the pressured souls ran off to find toilets. From then on, it was a easy day and I rested along with others from Bang Gang and caught up on precious sleep lost in Pirates land last night while some others went to get their steeds ready for the next day's ride at Sharma's garage.

At around 10 AM, Biren came to check on us. He was supposed to stay with us overnight lest his in laws emotionally black mail him out of the ride at the last minute. Biren and me went shopping for a new pair of shoes for his first long ride which had him tense and excited. I visited the ATM to draw money for Biju , Sanju and myself from our respective cards and pins and on my way back also bought a memory card for my camera which turned out to be a good decision though slightly more expensive buy.

Back at the hotel, everybody was here and there. Biju was there at his new in-laws place – the Kerala Bhavan. Jay was here watching the elections results in his home state. I wanted to sleep before the Royal Rhinos joined us for the evening. Rest who were at Sharma's returned and by evening all the bikes were lined up on the footpath with Sobbas bike still being fixed by Vinod.
The Rhinos arrived exactly at 7PM. Gaurav and few others excused themselves owing to bike repairs. The entire bang gang was escorted by Imu and his fellow club members to the scheduled meeting point. It was on the roadside where their other members were waiting. After an introduction round they were pondering on what next and somebody came up with the idea of having tea at a joint close by. I was tailing Imu who along with one more guy was leading and I soon realized that the entire pack riding behind me was missing. After waiting for them for sometime we decided go in search of them only to find them parked on the roadside. What happened was that Biren's bike wanted to stay back in his home state and had a flat and much of the time was spent in fixing his puncture and this time was used to have a cup of tea from a near-by bakery. Imu's next POA was to take us to an Antique bike and car collector near by. It was a short ride and his collections were lined up as soon as we entered the neighborhood. There were old cars parked in the entire street till his small thatched small house. It was such a fantastic treat to watch varied collection of bikes and cars at a place one least expected under no shelter …not to be missed for anything. The collector was an employee of Assam Electricity Board and his goal was to set up a museum to display his collections. Photo Ops and chit chat later, we headed back to Suncity to an unchanged humdrum. Sobba's bike was still being fiddled around and the balcony overseeing the street was occupied by the Gaurav and others.
We bid bye to Rhinos and went to the balcony where the food was served. The chicken at least was out of the world and just when I was going to dig into my plate a sudden commotion downstairs had us all on alert. What followed next reminded me of the new years eve at Landmark Inn during our previous anniversary ride.

By the time I reached downstairs the shutter was down and 2 guys were captured by 60kph and Sanjay was walking like Gabbar Singh prowling and growling. Apparently while Bhabi was walking up the stairs four guys misbehaved with Mrs Gabbar who raised her voice and chased them along with the hotel guys who managed to catch 2 while the other 2 escaped.
Sanjay came to know about the whole incident and vented his anger on the caught twosome. I was half frozen to see him beat the shit out of these buggers as they passed the blame on the other 2 who escaped and told us that one of them was just a driver and the other had just accompanied them… The one who posed as the driver took us to the car parked on the roadside and called owner, a call which was promptly disconnected by the owner post which he asked us to keep the Keys till the owner came for it himself. Sanjay and Biren who had gone to lodge a police complaint came with an Inspector - a short funny guy with a big stomach - and his 2 constables. The first thing the constable did was to slap the 2 of them..as if Sanjay's beating wasn't enough. He boasted about his efficient Phalton Bazaar police and not a single bomb explosion in the area in spite of threat by militants and took the two back with him. All our bikes were parked inside the hotel compound and strict instructions were given to the security guard to keep the gates closed. It took sometime for everybody to get back to normal and assemble for the ride debrief. My deprived taste buds eyed the chicken plate which I had left as the high voltage action packed thriller incident ensued. Debriefing was followed by food packets distribution to be carried along which would last us for the entire ride.

What started off as a dull day ended up with pure bambaiya style action for honor… So there you see, its never what it seems like at 60 kph…and thank god now it was time for what we set out for …hitting the road…escaping the phalton bazaar madness was number one on my agenda and I suspect everybody else's as well …adjust maadi..ok da…so much jaasthi adjust not ok da