It has been 14 years since I bought my first bike and i started to learn to ride with this new bike. Then, a bike in hand was to impress girls in college and for daily commuting purpose, never thought of it as a tourer to explore the beautiful places this country has to offer. Slowly and steadily passion for riding grew in me and I started to do short rides closer to my house in Mumbai. My first ride was on New Years Eve of 1999 to Palghar and it was also my first ride outside Mumbai city. We were riding at night, I had 2 more riders accompanying me on this ride and at a distance of 120 kms it was a long one for me, furthermore the roads were dug up and work was on to make the new Mumbai-Ahmedabad 4 lane highway. The helmet on my head was the only safety gear I had on me then, the roads were filled with dust and huge trailers and trucks with high beam lights on were blinding me on this ride. The word safety had gone for a complete toss, riding almost blindly I was all over the road and moreover I being a novice in long rides wasn’t really feeling very confident doing my first night ride. I parked myself on the side of the road and for a moment i thought of heading back home. But my riding buddies convinced me to follow their red tail light religiously and ride on further. After a good 5 hours we reached palghar at 11pm in the night and I just felt lucky reaching safely to our destination. The next morning we started our journey back home and even though it was a day ride, this time I made sure I was safe, slow and riding in the extreme left hand side of the road. The previous night it was the hurry to reach the destination, but the next day I was really enjoying my ride, I was learning to explore like a true traveller. We were riding by this riverside on a very narrow road and it was a breeze riding down this road as it had rarely any motorists, but lot of bullock carts. We were taking breaks between our ride to click pictures and enjoy the beauty around. Since, at that time we had the cameras with rolls in it, we had to make sure the picture clicking session was limited to the best clicks and only us with the bike posing against the picturesque backdrop. Riding at a slow place and with a lot of breaks in between, I would like to say “by god’s grace” we all reached home safely from my first long trip.
Since then on it was no looking back for me, I have done many a rides/drives to places like Goa, Chennai, Dehradun , Myosre,Matheran, Mahableshwar, Daman, Ganpatipule, Lonavala, Pune, Khandala, Mangalore, etc. I would say I had the contentment of exploring almost every road in North, West and South region of this country and every riding experience has boosted my confidence further. Riding sets me free and helps me explore and discover new places, people and new things. Everything that you do not get to do in your daily routine life, I get to do when I am out riding to new places. I never knew there were so many beautiful countrysides, rivers, hills, beaches, greenery, monuments or for that matter even some amazing cuisines, till I went out riding. You meet new people on your riding trips and get to be familiar with the various cultures this country has to offer.
The first long ride of my life was an absolute learning experience of riding on the highways. In India, your experience of riding in city limits is immaterial when it comes to riding on our national highways. In city you have red lights, zebra crossings, traffic police etc to control you’re riding manners, but on highways there are none of these. Moreover, in India drivers/riders do not like to follow the speed limits, so it’s a free driving/riding zone for all. You will find all kind of idiots and animals jaywalking on the highways and big slow moving vehicles that should be on the left side of the road never follow rules. Therefore all the safety depends on how you ride/drive on highways; you cannot depend on anyone else, one small mistake and you are history. Safety gears on you when going out for long rides are also of utmost importance. Helmets, hand gloves, anklet shoes and a thick jacket will always keep you safe.
Ride Bad, Ride Hard and Ride Safe and nothing will compare to the simple pleasure of a good ride cos there is something about riding that makes you feel like something, even when you aint a thing.
No comments:
Post a Comment