Day 4 - 24th Dec 2007

Am I in Haridwar ? that's the first thought on Christmas eve morning as I woke up to "Om Jai Jagadish" aarti . Bewildered I turned around to stare into the face of my bedfellow ..argh..i could not have gone to hardiwar with him! I closed my eyes to get some perspective and opened them again to full reality , this was the same dingy hotel and orange bulbs in the daylight…shit! the aarti rung out again , what is it ? and as my ears followed the song more closely ..Before I could investigate further , the rest of the gang too was being woken up by the same aarti. It had the same effect on some others. In no time we were up and ready to go. The aarti of course was going on regardless in gaps of a few minutes!I came out to investigate and ran into Pravo minus hair..shakaal avatar , if not Haridwar this could be Tirupati where Pravo donated his hair I laughed to myself but we both followed the noise trail which led to a peacefully sleeping Bapu amidst the loudly ringing alarm of Om Jai Jagadish Harein…

That's how the day 4 but the day 1 of the actual ride started ! It will end pretty peacefully as you will read on to know but for now I was amidst a crackling bazaar , next to titli , under the glaring scrutiny of passerbys who circled like a pack of vultures watching as bikes were getting loaded. The 5 riders from Royal Rhinos led by Imu had already declared their intention to ride with us upto Khaziranaga to apparently 'learn a thing or two of riding from us".Do I know any better than them? I thought..Nah…they better watch Jani only… Karen bid us adieu and we were on our way.

Being on the saddle after several months , after Uttaranchal this was my first big ride, felt really odd.. The only way out of the initial squeamishness was perhaps to take it real easy so I kept at a peaceful pace following a Royal Rhino biker out of Guwahati town A small ghat section road full of potholes and loose gravel was laid out before us. I felt a slight wobble in the rear wheel and ignored the premonition to my long break from riding. I was wrong and I found the rear tyre had less than required air at the first petrol and air group stop and needed to be tended to. This was my first "wake up and be alert , you are on the road now my dear" personal alarms.

Paranthas at a roadside hotel in a small town made for breakfast and Sobba bike repair routine was continuing as a perpetual exercise as he took off in search of a welding shop along with a Rhino and Pravo. SatRao was his funny self and turned up with a new asset - a Page 3 goggles which perfectly fitted inside his balaclava and his helmet. We still see him sporting it in his office parties and sometimes 60kph Blore meets ;-)..Approving smiles to him, Paranthas and lots of tea later, we slowly started riding towards Khaziranga leaving behind the tail who waited for sobbas welding appointment to be met.

The landscape had changed to paddy fields, an occasional thatched huts with ponds upfront. This was the real Assam I used to see in some of the Assamese movies telecast every Sundays at 1.30 PM when I was in school. We entered a district head quarters called Payong from where the Rhinos bid us bye and returned back to Guwahati. The ride had begun to sink into me by then and I was almost leaving city life behind but still wasn't quite alert as a rider outght to be.. Bapu and I became the interim tail as Sobba had yet to catch up. At one point Bapu stopped to take a leak and the others were out of sight before he finished his business. The simple joy of ripping wiped away all doubts as Bapu and me raced up a small climb uphill, right at the periphery of Khaziranga forest . The gang was spotted parking at a view point shelter with hoardings of Khaziranga festival. From the view point we could spot some deers (no rhinos yet) and had to be satisfied with the human Rhino (Sobby who had caught up by then) in his white and black leather riding gear closely resembling a real one. We hit the road again after a short snack stop.

I was still a bit dull but getting into the groove. Lead Jani kept sighting animals literally where none were visible to our naked eye (especially to my bespectacled eyes) and we stopped often to follow his gaze. Water buffalo was the first one.. I could just see the water but was too wary to admit so nodded in the affirmative ' yeah yeah I see it too' . Next one I saw i.e. a rhino pair in a field about 200 meters from the road. Vinod and Pravo where the brave ones who got close up shots but were alarmed when the rhinos ear was straight and pointed which indicated its intention to charge….We rushed back to our bikes and dispersed quickly when a passer by in a jeep informed us that Sec 144 was imposed in the area and a gathering of more than 4 people would get into legal trouble. Next spotted was a mother and a baby rhino just a few meters from the previous rhino sighting followed up with a rhino sighting on a "Welcome to Khaziranga national park" hoarding J.

It was just 6 PM but it was dark already and the search for accommodation led all to a dormitory with a lawn in the front, Jani took out his Video camera to capture the Full moon. Biju, Sanju and me went off to check on the morning elephant Safari but unfortunately elephant safari was sold out and we were told to go on a Jeep safari which would have to be arranged only in the morning. Biju and me then went in search of a Cake and some Limbu / Khanda. Could not get the Cake but khanda and limbu were bought in abundance from a nearby hotel where we also got a free earful of tiger attack stories. The gang meanwhile had settled in for the night with a small booze session on the lawns…I had my dinner and it was quite surprising but was so sleepy so early in the night.. and that's what I did.. sleep . There was no Om Jai Jagdish Aarti and I remembered id forgotten to tell bapu to switch is alarm off for tomorrow morning. I needed to stay grounded in Assam you see J