प्रवास कसा सुरू झाला माहित नाही. कुठे आलो आहे हेही माहीत नाही. इथे येऊन पोचलो आहे हे तर खरे... पण इथे येण्यासाठीच निघालो होतो? ज्या रस्त्याने चालत आलो तोच रस्ता इथे घेऊन आला की.... की प्रवसात चकवे होते? कळत नाही. कळायला मार्गही नाही. मग सगळेच असे अनिश्चित असताना शाश्वत काय? तो रस्ता? तो प्रवास? ते चकवे? ... मी?
इथे कोणती लाट घेऊन आली?
मला हे किनारे कुठे ज्ञात होते?
I never caught up to football the way I did to rugby 🏉. The most common comment I have heard about the game of rugby outside the nations where it is popular is that it’s a rough game involving bashing each other. But still there was something about the game that just grabbed my senses. I watched Invictus couple of days ago and recalled that another sports movies that I liked was Remember the Titans. That was based on American football a game that’s a distortion of rugby (not the only distortion I know of). Or I should say the plot was on the backdrop of American football.
Realization of why I like rugby more than the more popular football a.k.a soccer dawned on me when I heard the following lines in the movie Invictus.
“Football is a gentleman's game played by hooligans, and rugby is a hooligan’s game played by gentlemen."
It takes courage, after having been slammed to the ground, to just forgive the offender get up and start running again. Long live rugby.
Recent happenings have jagged the memory and invoked the nostalgia. Rajasthan trip was the last long bike trip I have done and it is not blogged. Just to put it on record I am attempting a photo/video blog.
Da Romans decided to do a big one in the December of 2010. The unique thing about the trip was the fact that mine and Bandya's better halves decided to join in. Thanks to my US visiting friend Mohit, I had a spare Bullet Electra and Swapna decided to ride it. While she was used to riding two-wheelers including bikes, this was going to be her first long ride and that too on Bullet. The trip lasted for 8 days on bike and a day in bus, starting on Saturday 18th December 2010.
Da Romans:
The gang comprised of myself on my Enfield Thunderbird, my wife Swapna on Bullet Electra, Bandya (Suryakant) and his wife Anima on Enfield Thunderbird and Raja and Ankush on Pulser 180.
Day 7 : 24th Dec 2010 : Mandar - Abu Road - Palanpur
Odometer Reading
(KM)
Arrive
(HH:MM)
Depart
(HH:MM)
Place
1957.4
-
11:40
Mandar
1992.1
12:30
12:40
Girwar
2007.1
13:05
13:40
Abu Road
2010.1
13:55
15:40
Abu Road Town
2065.3
17:30
13:20
Palanpur
107.9
5:50
Day Total
Day 8 : 25th Dec 2010 : Palanpur - Ahmadabad
Odometer Reading
(KM)
Arrive
(HH:MM)
Depart
(HH:MM)
Place
2065.3
-
11:35
Palanpur
2137
13:00
13:20
Mehsana
2147.3
13:35
13:45
Tea Break
2199.3
14:35
14:40
Ahmedabad
2213.6
15:20
-
Ahmadabad Station
148.3
3:45
At Ahmadabad railway station we loaded our bikes in the train to Pune and took a bus in the evening to reach Pune, eventually reaching home on Day 9.
The bike trip was cut short mainly due to two reasons. On Day 6 just before Mandar, Bandya's bike slipped on a gravel filled road and Anima was injured, thankfully not very serious injuries. On day 7, Bandya decided to move towards Palanpur with Anima in the Jeep while others decided to reach Palanpur via Mount Abu, the trips last planned destination. That's when the Electra developed electrical problems. A mechanic spent 3 hours in Abu Road to no avail. We decided to move to Palanpur amidst the issues with the bike. Next day in Palanpur, I did figure out the problem with ignition switch contacts and put in a temporary fix which worked well and bike gave no trouble till Ahmadabad. Swapna and Anima went ahead in a bus and at Ahmedabad we decided to go by bus given the situation at hand.
Nonetheless it was the longest trip for me and a first one for and with Swapna. It was surely very memorable one.
If you are on my or Swapna's Facebook contacts you can check-out the snaps there.
