The BoP Abhaneri Ajgars

I went to India in March 2012 to participate in the CA Campus Hiring Program to hire fresh Chartered Accountants for my organization...It was supposed to be just a 2-days trip so I decided to take one leave and include a 1-day Motorcycle Ride with My Club Comrades as well…Visiting India and not going for a Bike Ride, well that can’t be a possibility with me! This was going to be another special ride for me…a special destination (one which we couldn’t conquer the last time) plus the first Bike Ride for me as a Married Man! ;)

But destiny had some other plans...

Cut to Year 2011...

I had planned a BoP Club Ride to Abhaneri (Rajasthan) in February 2011 during my India Trip then and that ride also didn’t get materialized as we got stuck on NH-8 due to very heavy fog...so we settled for a Bakar Session at the Neemrana Baoli instead...

The Bakar session at the Neemrana Baoli was one of the best in our Club's history nonetheless and all of us enjoyed like mad!!!We had named the ride as The BoP Abhaneri Ajgars and we settled for The BoP Neemrana Naags…

The Ajgars were forced to transform into Naags…

This is me: Just after the ride started on the left and during the BBB Session on the right ;)

My Blog Post on that Ride: http://cheguevaraontheroad.blogspot.com/2011/03/bop-neemrana-naags.html

For the uninitiated; details about Abhaneri:

It has the deepest step well in the world - Chand Baori and that's why we chose this destination.

Information Links:

http://www.indiamarks.com/chand-baori-the-deepest-step-well-world//#

http://www.jaipur.org.uk/excursions/abhaneri.html

http://escapenewyork.blogspot.com/2007/10/abhaneri-step-well-rajasthan-india.html

Location:

http://wikimapia.org/8668418/Chand-Baoli-Step-Well-Chand-Baoril

Cut to Year 2012...

I reached India on 23-March-12 morning, reached home, had my breakfast, started my bike and went straight to Zaheer Bhai's shop to get my bike serviced and make it ride-ready...I had ordered a Sans Goldstar Exhaust for my bike and was excited to finally enter the Sans World  and Zaheer installed it...

Saurabh Katar's SANS Goldstar Silencer

Reached home and spent time with my family and all excited for the Bike Ride the next day...

Clicked the customary 1st pic of the Speedometer which I always take before starting a ride at my home...and off I went to the Leisure Valley Park in Gurgaon which is our club's traditional starting point for all Rides to Rajasthan...

The Ajgars

 This was definitely going to be a big ride not for the distance but for the number of riders for sure! 11 riders signed up for this and 10 turned up as well! Zaheer had to unfortunately drop out at the last moment as his bike had a flat tyre & there was no way he could find a puncture repair shop open at 5 AM in the morning; it was extremely sad as I love riding with him plus he rarely gets opportunities to ride these days…then there were Himanshu Rawat & Ankit Gupta who was making his BoP Debut with this ride! Sanket Tomar aka KunwarJi was also back in India & got back to the roads with this ride! Last but not the least it was great to see Varun Doegar as well in his full biking gear! Once again Diptinder was sorely missed….

The Ajgars were:

1. Himanshu Rawat on his TBTS 350
2. Varun Doegar on his TB 350
3. Aasish Francis on his near-vintage RE Standard 350
4. Ankit Gupta on his RE Classic 350
5. Rohan Kaushik on his RE Classic 500
6. Sanket Tomar aka KunwarJi on his RE Electra 350
7. Deepak Chauhan on his Pulsar 220
8. Adit Sharda on his Pulsar 220
9. Dhruv Malik on his Pulsar 220
10. Vihas Gupta aka Jaanu (planned to join the ride in Abhaneri)
11. Che on The Mighty One

I was meeting KunwarJi after a very long time as he was away in Ireland I asked him “Baal bade safed ho gaye tere”…pat came the reply in his signature nonchalant manner “Bachpan se hi aise hain”!!! And for a change & very rarely….I was lost for words…that’s what KunwarJi does to people without battling an eyelid!

After the welcoming, meeting-greeting, sutta sharing and the Rider Formation Pics, we started to conquer Abhaneri…hoping to be second time lucky!

Getting Ready!

 The Ride started at 6 AM and by 7 AM we were hungry already so we decided to stop for some Chai-Snakes-Naashta...

We started with Chai-Namkeen and then saw Fresh Aloo-Chhole Sabzi and Bread Pakodas getting ready; as expected we could resist that temptation so decided to wait till they got ready...the Bakar session started while our Breakfast was getting ready…we also encountered one of the dirtiest public toilets near this joint which was duly visited & commented by some of the Ajgars!

And the wait was worth it…They tasted superb and we gobbled up innumerable number of plates!!!

As expected, Deepak was the star of the show in this session! He gobbled up some 5-6 plates of Bread Pakodas and was always more than eager to help others finishing their plates too! As we all know “woh bahut kam khaataa hai” ;)

We left the Breakfast Joint towards the Tijara Road and me & one of my comrades overshot a right turn so one other comrade on his P220 came from behind and asked us to take a U-Turn and the IDIOT me didn't look in my rear-view mirror and tried taking a right and then it happened.........

One very smart & fast villager was coming on his Bajaj Platina at full blast speed of 80-90 kmph and he hit my bike on the right side of my handle with full velocity...he then slid towards the middle of the road for some 20-odd feet very systematically...keeping his head safe and sliding on his feet and then he hit the road on his right shoulder...And obviously he wasn't wearing any helmet and the way he slid he looked very experienced in such adventures! and even better; he had a shy smile on his face too…My right KTM Glove got torn but it saved me from any major injury to the hand....the mudguard came off and the right fork-arm also broke...I couldn't move my bike even an inch...as the front tyre got stuck...

Soon the rest of my comrades and a small crowd joined us...we removed that guy & his bike from the road and got him to the side too...he had one wound on his right arm and some minor bruises on his knees...2 of my comrades took him to a small hospital nearby, he got 3 stitches and also some other minor repair-work...

He told them that he doesn't want to go to the Police as he had no Bike Papers and yes no Driving License too! They also got a precautionary X-Ray done to assess any other major damage to his shoulder; luckily there was none...They paid his medical bills and then he left for his village with his friend...

All this while the rest of us were busy in our Bakchodi session and my ride had pretty much ended by then considering the damage done to my bike...2 comrades then went towards Dharuhera to get a Pick-Up to carry my bike back...Francis took the lead here & a big thanks to him for that gesture!

And then Deepak Chauhan blurted out the dialogue of the ride…he said “accha hua Jha Paaji jo pehle naashta kar liya aur fir accident hua warna badi dikkat ho jaati bhukh ki”…in normal circumstances any rider who just had a ride-ending accident would have mouthed some choicest abuses but then BoP Rides are not normal but very-very special…all I could do was to burst out laughing at Deepak’s candid honesty and his lack of apparent appetite! ;)

I also decided to go with the bike travelling in that pick-up and the rest of the comrades continued with their ride...it was a very sad moment for me as I was so excited & geared up for this ride and to conquer Abhaneri in my second attempt but then maybe it wasn’t in my destiny! Even worse was leaving my comrades and the Rajasthan Roads behind…this was the first bike ride which I couldn’t complete after starting it! Maybe I would be third-time Abhaneri lucky!

We stopped just before the Toll Plaza and then the driver went to get another pick-up for the bike to be loaded onto it as his pick-up was a Rajasthan vehicle and he did not have the necessary papers to get it through to Delhi; I waited for some 15 minutes, in the meantime a security guard came and requested me to lend my phone to him as he had to talk to his parents in Bihar and he did not have the talk time in his phone so I gave it to him and he had a nice & long conversation with his parents back home…I felt happy in connecting the family with my humble Mobile Phone!

Then the new pick-up came and we transferred the bike to it...I reached Rangpuri in Mahipalpur at Zaheer's shop and then unloaded the bike; he was very disappointed that my ride had to be abrupted like this...he repaired my bike in some 1-1.5 hours and then I left for home...

It was a sad day for me but I still enjoyed whatever time I spent on the road with my comrades....the breakfast was awesome and I was lucky that no major damage happened to me or that guy...so all is well that ends well…

But I had a wonderful time travelling in all kinds of vehicles in such a short period of time which was the highlight for me!!! And surely provided some consolation J

Here is the list:

22nd March Evening                 My friend's Chevrolet Tahoe in Kuwait (Home to Airport)

22nd March Night                    Airbus A330-300 (Kuwait to Doha)

23rd March Morning                Airbus A320-200 (Doha to New Delhi)

23rd March Morning                Tata Indigo (T3 to Gurgaon)

23rd March Morning                Royal Enfield Electra (Gurgaon to Mahipalpur)

23rd March Afternoon             DTC Tata Bus (Mahipalpur to IFFCO Chowk)

23rd March Afternoon             Ford Fiesta Classic (IFFCO Chowk to DLF Phase -1)

24th March Morning                Royal Enfield Electra (Gurgaon to Dharuhera)

24th March Afternoon             Mahindra Maximo (Dharuhera to Delhi Border)

24th March Afternoon             Tata Pick-Up (Delhi Border to Mahipalpur)

24th March Afternoon             Royal Enfield Electra (Mahipalpur to Gurgaon)

The ride started on a high & ended on a tragic note but I am sure the upcoming rides would not end on a similar note! And I would conquer Abhaneri soon…

Plus I could not meet Jaanu , that was another huge miss for me! This is what I missed too - BBB Sessions, watching the World Record breaking Baoli and the open roads! … L 

And this is what I faced while sitting in that pick-up… :D

The 5th BoP Anniversary Ride is right round the corner and hope it would be an equally brilliant ride as our previous Anniversary Rides!

Till the time we meet again…ride safe and have safe sex…

Che would be back on the road again…

Hasta la Victoria Siempre…

Jai BoP!