My Bucket List...

While Watching the movie “Bucket List”, I thought of making my own list of things which I would like to do before I die…I know I am just 27 and a half years old but you never know how much days God has granted me to grace this Planet Earth and I wanna live every moment of it without any regrets, I have had no regrets till date and I hope that I wont have any even I am going through the last moments of this Life !!!

As Morgan Freeman said in the movie, I pray to God that when I die… “My eyes are closed and my Heart is open”…this is my only prayer to God…
And now the List…. (Not in any particular order) :

1. Visit Santa Clara, Cuba at The Che Guevara Mausoleum where his mortal remains were finally laid to rest.

2. Visit Kargil, Drass and Tololing where hundreds of our brave Indian Soldiers attained Martyrdom fighting the enemy and the weather in the Kargil War of 1999.

3. Meet Sachin Tendulkar once atleast !!!.

4. Plan & Execute a long All-India Trip for my Parents.

5. Gift my Brother an Omega Sea Master Watch and a SUV.

6. Travel on the India Golden Quadrilateral Ride on my Bike.

7. Support atleast 100 kids’ Education.

I am sure this list is gonna increase as the days go by but one thing would remain constant all that while, I would try my fuckin best to achieve everything that I have mentioned above as none of the items in the list is outrageous and over the top !!! (I HOPE)

Che would be back again...

Hasta la Victoria Siempre...

Talaash...

Today early morning...while I was riding towards my Yoga Class...these lines came to my mind...and thought of penning them and posting them on my Blog...pretty amateurish but them being my first original lines...Please allow me some Leeway !!!

TALAASH...

Woh kehte hain ki humne waqt ki nazaakat ko na samjha…
Humne to badzaat mohabbat hi ko na samjha…

Woh kehte hain ki unhone ruswaai nahin ki hai…
Humko to unhone har dam sirf tanhaai hi di hai…

Mohabbat aur Zindagi ka farak bahut dhoondhe na mila…
Wafa aur Jafa ka farak har kooche mein mila…

Jab yaar hi aise mile to raqeeb kya dhoondhta main…
Raakh mein ashrafiyan dhoondhta tha main…

Unhone jeene ke naye maayne dhoondhe hain…
Hum kambakht to bas zindagi aur maut ke farak ko dhoondhte hain…

Ab na koi raah…na manzil dhoondhta hun main…
Jeene ke naye aayaam bas dhoondhta hun main…

The Spiritual Junkies

41 Hours of Fun, 12 Hours of Biking Madness, 600 Kms clocked, 2 new buddies, Beer at 3 different places, riding on 2 most famous bridges of India, convincing a boy who had ran away from his home to go back and the River Side Peace & Tranquility….I could not have asked for more from our Rishikesh Ride !!!

The Ride started at 5:30 AM on Saturday 19th April from Delhi and ended at 10:30 PM on Sunday 20th April 2008…4 Bikes…5 buddies with 1 very very happy pillion !!! The heroes of the ride were Me, Negi, Dips, Chaddha and TJ(the Pillion)…We started from South Extension on a pleasant morning at 5:30 AM and soon were up and running, picked TJ (Dips’ Buddy) en-route and stopped at a Highway Dhaba for breakfast which included Butter-Dripping Paranthas, Hot Tea and loads of slow service to boot !!! The guy serving us had still not woken up from his deep slumber and we had to shout at him to serve food to we hungry souls !!! The best part was the guy cleaning the chairs in a very very slow motion, I lost my patience and jumped in-between to show him how to do it !!! but sadly he was least interested and nonchalantly walked away to my utter disbelief…

We started again with a promise that we would stop again at the next beer joint to refresh ourselves…there was a huge Traffic Jam on the way due to a Railway Crossing but we smart riders cleared it quite quickly and stopped at a beer joint but sadly there was no beer available…we didn’t lose heart and trusted the Government of India and the Beer Companies to clear the Liquor Licenses and to stock the joints with Beer respectively and soon our beliefs turned into reality and we saw a shop serving Chilled Beer and we hounded the shop and impatiently asked him to give us poor thirsty souls some chilled beer and he obliged quite happily and also giving us some Namkeen to eat it with the Beer !!! What amazing service in the middle of the Highway !!! we were soon done, our tummies flowing with beer and decided to go straight to Rishikesh without any long stops to save time…

By 1 PM we were in Rishikesh and headed straight to Shivpuri for Rafting…sadly due to some medical thingy I have been advised by my Doctor not to do Rafting but I was happy being a part of the Gang…clicking snaps and doing my non-stop blabbering !!! the guys soon finished with the haggling for the rates and started our descent towards the River Bank to get dressed up in their Helmets and Life Jackets and after loads of time wasting by the Rafting Organizers were soon rowing away to Glory !!! I picked up my excitement levels and soon headed to the riverside to sit on the rocks and do some soul-searching with the relaxing Water Sounds and cigarettes to help me concentrate !!! after relaxing for around 45 minutes I headed straight back to Rishikesh to eat a very late lunch at 5:30 PM and also to sit by the riverside again…I landed at the extremely famous “Chotiwala Dhaba” for a sumptuous lunch of a Deluxe Vegetarian Thali which consisted of 12 Food Varieties !!! Quite cheap at just 100 bucks…I met a old British Couple and chatted with them for another hour or so discussing myriad topics ranging from the Traffic & Pollution in India, Bike Rides, How British Tea is made and also the amazing food which we get here !!! it was a great time we spent and bid farewell and then I headed straight to the River side to observe the hundreds of people who come to the city and enjoy in their own different ways…there were so many emotions around me of devotion, despair, happiness and the bliss of newly wed couples…and amongst them was a kid sitting on the stairs crying profusely with his head covered up in a towel for some good 10-15 minutes…I just could not control myself and walked straight upto him to talk to him and to know what made such a young kid so sad…and the thing which rattled me was a bag lying next to him through which I suspected that he had possibly ran away from his home…it was tough convincing him to talk to me…but slowly he opened up and I got to know that he had a major fight with his Dad over his performance in an engineering entrance test to the most elite Engineering Institutes of India and he was so depressed and broken up that he decided to run away with just 130 bucks in his pocket and few of his clothes…I tried all means to convince him and cheer him up…at times throwing imaginary stories of people succeeding even after so many failures !!! he slowly and surely got interested and I succeeded in getting his Dad’s Mobile Number and was lucky coz he was in Rishikesh looking frantically for his son and had rushed from Haridwar for him…talked to his dad and broke the happy news to him and soon they met again…they both thanked me and I wished the Kid the very best of luck…felt really good to be a part of a happy ending !!! then to enjoy even further I took a Boat Ride on the River Ganges with so many cheerful kids around me playing with water and eating candies and soon got lost in the Irony of life !!! one kid so sad and a host of others playing away to Glory !!!
Then I was joined by the rest of the Gang who had a ball of a time while Rafting and they were also dead hungry and we were again back to the Dhaba where I had amazing noodles and the rest of the Gang gobbled up the filled-to-the brim Thalis in no time at all…Chaddha enjoyed his Lassi gleefully and all of us were on seventh heaven after the satisfying meal…then we started the task of finding a very cheap hotel for our night halt and succeeded in finding a decent room at 350 bucks each with Negi sacrificing himself to sleep on the floor !!! what an amazing guy…I would not be able to pay up for his sacrifice ever…Negi if you are reading this…YOU ROCK MATE !!! then me and Negi went to search for beer but our bad luck…it was the day of some meaningless elections it was a Dry Day so we decided to sleep without beers in our belly but me and Negi still had a drink !!! so what it was cane sugar juice…we still enjoyed our drinks for the night !!! then it was all the way TJ’s show for the next 1 hour before we slept !!! he was all over us with stories from the US about the good times he had at Mardi Gras in New Orleans and his other adventures undertaken whilst exploring some interesting aspects of the American Way of Life !!! all of us really got excited and while this was taking place Dips was fast asleep least interested in the lousy erotic shit we were raving about and soon we also decided to hit the beds to have a nice sleep before starting the day ahead refreshed for a long ride back home !!!

Morning was the usual…we slowly leaving our beds and getting ready before heading to another Dhaba to enjoy another bout of Paranthas and Lassi !!! then we picked up our bikes and headed straight to the Laxman Jhoola to ride our beasts on the bridge and scare people away !!! then we had a good long round of the city and seeing people all around ogling at our bikes !!! after riding on the Ram Jhoola and clicking snaps we headed back to the Hotel to pay the bills and picked up our stuff and hit the highway to start the ride back home…TJ bid us goodbye as he headed to Dehradun to meet his cousin there…once again our next stop was a beer joint only !!! we met inform of IIT. Roorkee and enjoyed street shop juice and snacks and went to a dingy bar for our share our beer and then a nice little cozy restaurant for our lunch…the fist non-vegetarian meal in 2 days…really enjoyed the food and started again…the heat was bad…and especially the dust on the UP roads made the ride quite arduous…but still the whole experience of riding drives all the troubles away anyway…and we all care little about the quality of roads and the dust…atleast I do !!! after that I again wanted to have some more beer and stopped at a highway beer joint but we were disappointed as the Beer was flat and warm…drank just half bottle each…Negi was really sad and agitated !!!

Then we had a long 100 kms ride and stopped at a Dhaba for tea and chips…the crowd at the Dhaba was so loud and boisterous that we could not even talk…the moment they left we were so relieved not to hear the cries and shouts of so many people at the same time !!!after that the first and the last mishap of the trip…my bike’s petrol got over without any warning and my bike was just dead...Negi the Great again obliged with some fuel from his bike and we started again towards Delhi amidst maddening Traffic…honking of vehicles and zillions of Marriage Functions on the way !!!

By 10 we hit the Delhi Border after a an extremely satisfying Trip…the trips had all highs and no lows to talk about…I got 2 new buddies in Dips and TJ…and lest I forget…Chaddha is my MBA junior and he has had a Bullet since year 2000 and this was his first Bike Ride !!! and I am damn sure he wont forget this in years to come…

The next ride which I would plan would be most probably to Jim Corbett National Park and I really expect atleast 7-8 riders the next time to multiply the fun and interact and make new friends !!!

You can view the pics of the ride at http://picasaweb.google.com/jha.nishant/TheSpiritualJunkies?authkey=To8K1b4_JKg and http://picasaweb.google.com/diptinder.chhabra/BullsOnParadeToRishikesh

Till then…Cheers & Safe Riding…Enjoy Life & Take Care….

Che would be back again on the road !!!

The Haunted Spookies

“One never forgets his/her first love/kiss/sex/bike ride/tattoo”…I made up this one to make my opening line eye-catching…having bought my Royal Enfield Electra on 15th March 2008 was so eager to get a taste of riding it on the National Highways of India…soon started searching on the net for places around Delhi off NH-8 and Bingo!!!...hit a golden jackpot (Google Zindabad!!!)…BHANGARH…Yes that was the place I wanted to go…a haunted town in the middle of nowhere…some 180 kms away from Gurgaon(that myth got shattered when we finally reached…more details later)…lets continue with the opening paragraph !!!OK I cut the crap and start with the real story now…

The Heroes of this trip were me, Nitin Negi and Pravin Kora…the two props were 2 Royal Enfields both embellished with Che Guevara stickers. Infact I call my Bike “The Mighty One” inspired from the Norton 500 which Che and Alberto Granado rode during their famous South American Motorcycle Diaries…Pravin was a pillion rider and I am sure he is never gonna repeat this mistake ever if he is sane (which I have my doubts about !!!)

We met at 6:45 AM on Friday the 21st March 2008 at the Iffco Chowk and started our trip…soon we hit the biggest fu@#$ Traffic Jam we had ever seen…almost 8-10 kms of Mess due to a fu@#$ huge trailer falling right in the middle of the Highway and blocking roads on the both sides…but our navigator Kora was perfect in his job finding a way out of the mess for me & Nitin and soon we hit an open patch and were roaring again…we stopped on Dhaba to satisfy our empty tummies and soon finished 5-6 stuffed paranthas in no time…had cigarettes and tea and obviously loads of BAK about our careers and some global shit and started again…

Then it was an amazing ride on the Toll Road on NH-8 which we enjoyed a lot overtaking some slow cars and giving way to the faster ones…it went on and on till we hit the Sariska Road and suddenly Negi decided to stop for Pravin (the official photographer of our ride) to take some pics and absorb in the yellow & dry natural beauty surrounding us…we took our bikes towards a hill and started taking snaps…clicking snaps in front of our beasts and taking turns to click (we wanted all 3 to be in focus!!!)…then we started again and then after some time we found a Theka on the road and then some silent looks towards each other and we stopped and enjoyed the not-so-chilled Kingfisher Beers in a makeshift shed cum bar (obviously free of cost !!!) and again the Bak session followed with Negi discussing his College Glory Days and Pravin with his global bull-shitting and me just feeding them with words…as I was getting soaked in the beer (mentally…don’t imagine me bathed in beer)…we started again after asking for the way towards Bhangarh and got to hear the same old 6 words line: “aage hi hai isi road pe”…

On the way Negi’s bike had a minor issue but the master engineer found a way out with a screw driver he got from a roadside shop…its another point that I could not understand a single fu@#$ word coming out of the Local mechanic’s mouth!!!Pravin was at it again…clicking some “Real-Life” pics of innocent Rajasthanis enjoying Hukka and Tea…I guess the “The Getting Clicked Obsession” is a Pan-Indian one and not just restricted to fair damsels…

We hit the road again and then Negi was at it again…he said lets have some more beer…lucky guys we were….found a Theka right in a middle of a sleepy village…picked up this time very chilled Kingfishers…hats off to Mr. Vijay Mallya’s distribution reach…Kudos to the Debonair Business-Man !!! there was this guy drinking Bonnie Scot whiskey at 3 pm on a hot afternoon quite merrily…maybe gulping down his parental or marital woes but was OK talking to 3 nerds who had come all the way from Delhi to visit a Haunted Fort…yes that’s the kind of looks and glares we got from people each time we asked for directions…I missed my good-old college days of Bonnie Scot and gulped some 3-4 shots right from the bottle…with Pravin also joining in…and Negi advising me to chill and don’t go overboard…and me always a good guy agreed and didn’t drink much…we wished the people there good bye and headed towards the last road towards the “Holy Grail” we were looking for…The Bhangarh Fort…some 280 kms from Gurgaon and not 180 as we had thought initially)…

We parked our bikes outside the main gate and entered with company of Langurs and Monkeys (they were so happy to find their 3 lost friends)…believe me people it’s a fu@#$ amazing place and the feeling is seriously pretty strange…Negi was at his best…imaging how the people lived there and all…the normal nostalgia which hits people when they see some old fort…Kora started clicking snaps again merrily and both of us were admiring the place…there are I guess 5-6 temples there…with beautiful carvings and stone murals…but without any statue…I guess some bugger stole them away to Sotheby’s or Christie’s to auction them off to some rich white a$$hole…we had picked 3 beers and went to the top of the fort and started sipping and once again “BAK” followed…and plans of staying overnight or not…where to have food…remember nothing to eat since 9 in the morning…just alcohol residing in our hapless tummies….and it was almost 6 PM…

Moved out of the Fort finally against our wishes as there is a strict warning board which says that nobody can stay inside the Fort after Sunset due to some superstition shit…we followed that Dictum and started to thump again…soon we were in a hustling-bustling Village market…not much hope of food there so thought of moving on and finding a decent dhaba to eat….then the first oh-so-near mishap of the trip…a small helpless goat came running toward my bike and I could not brake in time and I ran over it…fu@#$ all sorts of things started moving in my mind…people beating the hell out of me and me paying them to save my a$$…but that small yet fu@#$ strong goat just got up and ran away…as if saying “F@#$ this speckie guy”…I can take trucks in my stride…what’s this black bullet got to do with me !!! We heaved a sigh of relief and moved on…on an endless road which never seemed to end…on the way saw 4-5 Holika Dahan Fires and people dancing away to glory…kept riding…and then Negi’s masterpiece…this DCE engineer thought that in a Village Petrol Pump they would accept his Credit Card…I mean for them, Visa is an Airport thingy and not some plastic card…as a good Samaritan & a buddy helped him out and for him rolled out crisp Gandhis and got his beast filled…we kept moving on and on without any luck of hitting the highway…soon it became pitch dark and not surprisingly no village had any thing remotely like Electrical power…just some tiny flames flickering slowly…the roads were desolate and we were really feeling damn hungry…it was almost 8 PM.Finally Lady Luck smiled on us and we found “Fouji Da Dhaba”….which “Negi the Genius” renamed “The 10 kms from Highway Dhaba”…had the most amazing dinners of our lives…just not in terms of the flavour and the amount of red-chilly thrown in the food but also in terms of the love with which the guy served us, the speed of making rotis and the satisfaction levels it took us to…almost equal to Mt. Everest in terms of height…the bill amount was a huge surprise…just fu@#$ 84 bucks…I almost fell down laughing from the comforts of the Khaat or Chaar-Paai…we paid that guy a heavy amount of tip which he quickly slipped in his pocket to avoid his owner gorging a share out of it…rested there…had tea…had a Bak session with some villagers about Life in general…Negi enjoyed “Chillam” with them and the villagers were so proud of his smoking prowess wrt the chillam…Negi didn’t show off but I am sure he would have felt proud in his mind !!!

We left the Dhaba with our tummies filled…satisfaction and happiness levels sky-high and with a hope that the NH-8 is just 10 kms away…believe me that was a fu@#$ big kick…soon we saw the 8 lane highway…and off we zoomed…it was extremely chilly…never imagined in our wildest dreams about the cold winds which would hit us from left-right and centre…and we 3 in our half sleeves t-shirts and jeans…but we had to move on and face the menacing traffic on the highway with valor so forgot about the chill anyway…after around 80 kms of non-stop biking stopped on a dhaba again to take a break and have tea…there was this shitty Mithun movie playing and the volume was painfully loud and some people laughing as if they are watching Tom and Jerry cartoon but our Negi was not to be left far behind…he also started watching the movie…I was like what the f@#$…has this guy gone bonkers…but finally the very very loud Altaf Raja song finally moved our rock-music buff away from the scene…and we started again to reach our homes without stopping on the way and reaching our final destination…

It was almost 1 AM in the night when we reached Gurgaon…waited for Negi to show up but I guess he moved directly towards his home in Delhi…I dropped Kora and reached my home…the last stretch of around 80 kms was extremely tough for me…my hands were shivering…my reflexes had gone almost dead…my thighs were paining crazily but the man himself Che Guevara was egging me on from up above to move on like him…I was wearing his tee to get inspiration as well…(not that I need it…he is always in my mind anyways)…and poor old Kora’s a$$ was on fire anyway after a loooooong trip of 570 odd kms on the thick stone-like pillion seat of my bike…

But when I finally reached my home and saw my odo meter the feeling got over me…570 kms on the road…20 hours of non-stop crazy biking exhilaration…it was a feeling I won’t be able to forget in time to come…

The trip had a majority of ups and with the exception of that strong goat our ride was without any mishap…God is Great!!!

Thanks a lot to Negi and Kora for being a part of my first biking extravaganza and I am sure there are lots and lots of such rides to follow and I would be back with another Ride Story…till then Ciao…

Check out the pics of the ride at http://picasaweb.google.com/jha.nishant/TheHauntedSpookies?authkey=QKzFL4BmzMg