I have been on the road since January the 18th, 2015. Started from Ahmedabad, been to almost as many as 17 states, numerous cities, exotic locations, small villages, mind-blowing roads, people, food, experiences, and what not. Many of my friends are looking up to me for the kind of life I have today, saying I am living the dream. They keep checking for my posts on social media, and keep tabs of my escapades. They do not fall short of telling me how proud they are of me and what I am doing with my life. They go to the extent of branding me an inspiration. Being trapped in their careers and corporate lives, they look to me as someone who, finally, has found a way not to get lost in the wide world out there. They call me up more frequently these days, in comparison to my prior life when I was more free, and ask me of my latest experiences on the road.
But has it been easy? I can not really answer to that question earnestly.. No good adventure, they say, starts, or ends for that matter, on a note that 'everything went as planned'. No Sir, it did not. And unplanned experiences have a peculiar way of knocking on your forehead right about the moment you think everything is actually going as planned. The open road, with a million dollar view, a mild breeze, and a good song in your head, your motorcycle vrooming at 90 and suddenly you have a puncture in the middle of nowhere. Whats next, you are dragging that 200 kilos mammoth uphill, hoping to spot a puncture-wala down the road. And a puncture, I'd say, is easy. Those are perhaps the smallest of hurdles you find on the road. An engine that just spluttered to a stop, that might be a bigger issue. But problems, also, have a peculiar way of presenting a solution in your face, sometimes in 5 minutes, some times in 5 hours, but eventually they always do. So are these hurdles really so troublesome? Not really. What then is the more difficult part of the journey, you might ask?
Unfortunately, the problems with being on the open road are quite similar in many ways, to the job I get back to every alternative month. And that is the isolation. Isolation from your family; isolation from your friends; isolation from your loved ones. That has got to be one of the top problems that I have been living with in the past 8 months. Yes, they are just a call away. But isn't the same. Yes, they understand the nature of my work, and the passion for my ride, and my love for them hasn't ceased, so hasn't their's. But still, it isn't the same. Yes, the long wait to meet them is totally gonna be compensated the moment I meet them, and that is a good enough consolation. But still, it isn't the same.
The ride has blessed me with so many new friends that I have almost lost count. How could I have not, some of them I do not even know the names of. A face that lingers in my memory, for a good deed they did to me, a selfless gesture with which they touched my life, is all that I treasure deep in my heart, perhaps for a really long time, if not forever. And that is something not everyone is blessed with. Not everyone has a similar chance to do such a thing, I am completely aware of that. And yet there is something, that pinches you time and again, reminding you of the gone-by days, the close ones, the good old days. It's definitely not the same.
But this ride, sure has given me one thing that I will, forever cherish in my life. It makes me happy. It gives me hope. More on that next time. Time for a bidi.
Till next then.
Ciao
But has it been easy? I can not really answer to that question earnestly.. No good adventure, they say, starts, or ends for that matter, on a note that 'everything went as planned'. No Sir, it did not. And unplanned experiences have a peculiar way of knocking on your forehead right about the moment you think everything is actually going as planned. The open road, with a million dollar view, a mild breeze, and a good song in your head, your motorcycle vrooming at 90 and suddenly you have a puncture in the middle of nowhere. Whats next, you are dragging that 200 kilos mammoth uphill, hoping to spot a puncture-wala down the road. And a puncture, I'd say, is easy. Those are perhaps the smallest of hurdles you find on the road. An engine that just spluttered to a stop, that might be a bigger issue. But problems, also, have a peculiar way of presenting a solution in your face, sometimes in 5 minutes, some times in 5 hours, but eventually they always do. So are these hurdles really so troublesome? Not really. What then is the more difficult part of the journey, you might ask?
Unfortunately, the problems with being on the open road are quite similar in many ways, to the job I get back to every alternative month. And that is the isolation. Isolation from your family; isolation from your friends; isolation from your loved ones. That has got to be one of the top problems that I have been living with in the past 8 months. Yes, they are just a call away. But isn't the same. Yes, they understand the nature of my work, and the passion for my ride, and my love for them hasn't ceased, so hasn't their's. But still, it isn't the same. Yes, the long wait to meet them is totally gonna be compensated the moment I meet them, and that is a good enough consolation. But still, it isn't the same.
The ride has blessed me with so many new friends that I have almost lost count. How could I have not, some of them I do not even know the names of. A face that lingers in my memory, for a good deed they did to me, a selfless gesture with which they touched my life, is all that I treasure deep in my heart, perhaps for a really long time, if not forever. And that is something not everyone is blessed with. Not everyone has a similar chance to do such a thing, I am completely aware of that. And yet there is something, that pinches you time and again, reminding you of the gone-by days, the close ones, the good old days. It's definitely not the same.
But this ride, sure has given me one thing that I will, forever cherish in my life. It makes me happy. It gives me hope. More on that next time. Time for a bidi.
Till next then.
Ciao
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