[preetam_KORG]

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DAY 3

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Kolkata – Maithon – Garpanchkot – Kolkata via Burdwan, Durgapur, Asansol
Roads Taken: NH2
Total Distance: 620 Kms
Total Riding Time: 18 Hours

Quick Quip:
As soon as I had caught up on some sleep on the day I reached, I had taken Bee to the ASC and got him done up. The small crash en route had also somewhat affected the front rim and the disc plate and the wheel was jamming up.
‘Taal removal’ was done and the overall service cost was about 1200 INR.





4th of January, 2014, we had a reunion.





Kunal, I have spoken about earlier. He is the guy to the extreme right.
Rest of them in order (L to R) are as follows:

• Sagnik (Drummer) in the background
• Dodo (Bassist) in the foreground
• Ujan (Lead Guitars)
• Suman (Vocals), and
• Yours Truly.

If you do not understand where all this band stuff is coming up, we were all part of a band, OMM (Omniscient Music Mantra) when these guys were in Bangalore.

We had done some shows and just at the time when we were starting to get noticed, life came calling.

For all of them.

All at once.

They left.

I was left to rot. Well, not rot, but then definitely alone.

I kept playing. Solo.

My most recent stint was at Bak Bak Bar with my other band, Divine Raaga. It was a kickass show.



Now, on with the story. . .



I stay put at Kunal’s place on the night of 4th January, because I had a ride with Naked Wolves, Kolkata on 5th Morning.
Naked Wolves, as some of you will know is the Pulsar 200NS Owner’s group.

We have chapters at the following places:

• Bangalore
• Chennai
• Mumbai
• Pune
• Delhi & NCR
• Kolkata
• Kerala
• Mangalore, and
• Indonesia

A quick search for Naked Wolves India on facebook should lead you to some links.


Onwards . . .


We were supposed to ride to Maithon at the wee hours of dawn.

I left Kunal’s place at precisely 2:45 a.m. and headed towards Vidyasagar Setu where I was supposed to meet the rest of the wolfpack.
At last count, 6 people should have been there. I reached at 3:18 a.m. and parked.





As expected, the place was empty.
This is one thing that I do not like about people in Kolkata, no one ever turns up on time.
The people are very nice and amicable, but even the already lagging IST is a spot of bother for most of them.
I called up Rahul, the pack leader at Kolkata and asked for his whereabouts.
He would take atleast 30 minutes to come.


The wait began.


The Kolkata police is nowadays a big pain in the backside. Kolkata has historically never been a bike friendly state and with the current affairs of rape and eve-teasing on the rise, the police have now become doubly alert as to who is present where at what time. For a vehicle from a different state, the bother is more than double.


However, I kept waiting, keeping a close watch in the surroundings for someone or something suspicious.
At almost 4’o clock, Rahul arrived with one more NW member, Nirjan.

The rest of them were nowehere to be seen, and were not on their way either. They were not coming. And then there were 3!
So we ploughed on into the night.

We were welcomed by a white fireblade just at the beginning of the journey who zoomed past. But he slowed down a safe distance later, and rode alongside me for some time. He was going to Haldia. Thumbs up done and we went our separate ways.

Immediately we encountered thick fog and had to stop. There was no way in hell that we were riding through that. The temperatures were very low, read 5 degrees, like on day 2.

I thankfully had double gloves time. The inner gloves were a simple stroke of brilliance!
The gloves that wicket-keepers use inside their main gloves did the duty quite well.

The newspaper trick also made good, and all the boys were ready to ride again.
Thankfully the fog evened out and by 6:00 a.m. we were at Shaktigarh.





Shaktigarh. A place famous for “lyangchas.”
These are traditional Bengali sweets, and I won’t post a photo because my thread will be saliva strewn!
Nor will I try to explain.

Early breakfast done we headed towards Maithon.
The roads were quickly covered, and we stopped enroute to get some bungee cords for my fellow riders.
Their backpacks were wighing down heavily on their back.

We reached Maithon in double quick time.
And parked.








Readers,
This day is probably not going to be as exciting as any of the other days in this whole trip. However I can promise you that this is the lull before the storm. Literally, as well as figuratively.


Onwards…


Rahul and Nirjan saw a spot somewhere up there and a quick scout later, they decided that it was an apt area for a quick offroad trail.





And so they did a celebratory burnout.





Like a good boy, I stayed put and did not bother.








PS: I don’t like off-roading on my bike. I don’t get the point. If I had a 1200XC Adventure or a R1200GS, maybe I would. However…


A quick photograph later, they had had enough.





And came down.











Rahul said wheelies were his specialty and he wanted to pull some.
Like a gentleman that he is, Bumblebee remained unfazed. :P








NOTE to MODS:
This was a deserted/closed section of the road and was a controlled environment. The rider was in full protective gear when the stunt was undertaken.


Once all the showoff stuff was over, I was getting bored and wanted to ride some more.
So we took a slight detour, joined the main highway and headed towards a place called Garpanhckot.
What lay ahead was kept under wraps from me, I did not really know why.
We reached this place and it looked somewhat like this.




A broken patch of road I thought to myself, I should be alright.
Bumblebee gave me a confused grumble.
I had enough fuel, so I thought I’d give it a try.

The road ahead started going bad.
And then, the roads just, stopped.





What looks like cobbled pathways here, were actually loose boulders. Some were so sharp that it could easily take a tyre off.
I was not feeling right, and was getting hot headed. To top it off, the other two had normal road tyres, and had zoomed ahead. My phone had no network and the bike was getting really hot.
I was cursing Rahul and Nirjan under my breath, they knew that I had medium compound Pirellis and in this kind of condition I was way out of my league. Bumblebee’s radiator had come of 4 times by now, and I was going uphill. The roads had no signs of getting better.





Finally I caught up with the two of them, and literally ordered them to stop.





Expressed my position with choicest expletives that a Bengali dictionary withholds (trust me, there are quite a few of them) and headed back down. I had no clue of how far we were from the top and I didn’t want to know either.





The roads I had encountered on those tyres are evident in this photograph below.





Once back down, I heaved a sigh of relief, checked the bike for damages of any sort, found none and vowed to myself to not do this kind of thing ever again.





I profusely apologize to bumblebee for the same and he was really cross, and showed just 2 bars of fuel remaining.

When I looked back, I could see what we had scaled! No to the peak but about 500 metres remaining.





While coming back, we stopped at a fuel bunk, filled to the brim as fuel was cheaper in Jharkhand, and headed for the Maithon Dam to cool off for a bit.





I attended to nature’s call once again here at a fire station and headed back home.
After initially toying with the idea to stay put for the night, we decided to call it day at where we had begun, and headed home.

En-Route I snapped up the brilliant sunset!





Reached home at 9:30 p.m. and under a warm blanket, called it a day!

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END OF DAY 3

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[ecenandu]

What a wonderful travelogue, absolutely loved it. Very well written as well.

BTW Preetam, I think you are not wearing the knee guards correctly. I also have the same and it is to be worn under the pants and not outside. If worn outside, it could easily come off during a fall.

[Rakkum13]

Great! BTW, why do I get the impression that the tread on your tyres is worn? Sincerely hope I'm wrong.

[agnimidhun]

Preetam,

I just read all the 7 pages in your post in one shot and it feels just awesome to read about - cant imagine how good it would be if I do it myself - No words - you just INSPIRE.

The details of your gear can be made into a reference I guess - detailed and included all that is required (at least as per me). The new paper funda to keep warm was a new thing to me but it is simple and brilliant.

My hometown being Vizag, I can relate to the accident. The traffic & the way of driving at NH-5 highway and internal roads can to the least be said to be pathetic

Did refer to any maps (online / offline) while driving ?

Thanks,
Midhun

[SujAce]

Originally Posted by preetam_KORG

Attachment 1210803


Preface:

God is an amazing artist.

The world is his canvas and well, the easel has colors that we can only think of.

Hey Preetam, dude, your post is amazing. And that opening photo, just speechless - the colors and the combinations, well, what to say!!!

And your detailed post was well written. Hope you enjoy many more hours on the road, enjoying the beauty that is India.

And hope you are blessed with a Scoo-lsar by Nov'14

[Amogh Barakol]

People never arrive on time , anywhere in India . A punctual person is one in a million in our country , and because of the chronographically challenged many of us turn into the same kind of people !
The kind of love you show to your bike is what i used to have with my first vehicle ever : A Honda Dio . Lately the fire has been burning not so bright as it used to . However , i do have plans for a refreshing new look for Eleanor ( Yes , its from Gone in 60 seconds !) So never stop treating Bee like the way you do now ! Ride on Brother .

[saadat1992]

Amazing Write up. Totally hooked to it, read it in one go!
Cant wait for the rest.

[SaurabhSaran]

Preetam, hats off to you for doing this long journey! Rated 5 Star

Waiting for the report of rest 12 days now.

Your bike's registration number plate shows KA-51-EE-531 but as far as I know (please correct me if I am wrong) that now a days 4 digits of registration number are printed on the RC e.g. 0531 by the transport authorities and we need to put all the numbers on the license plate or it is written like KA-51-EE-531 only on your bike's RC.

-
SS

[SKavuri]

All superlatives are already used by other, so I will just say: you inspire me!
I had zillion reasons to keep putting off a much shorter car drive, what you did is truly inspiring.
The introduction made it sound easy but further read (particularly day 2) made it clear it wasn't such a "smooth ride" after all! Admire your grit.
As an elder I don't want to heap too many praises (which is not good for you), I would rather bless you: Jayee bhava!

I would like to echo two things pointed out by other readers:
-Worth letting Bajaj know this. One could always use the sponsorship, though it might take the fun out of being your master and a lonely rider.
-Quit smoking. Now.
I know you acknowledged both.

[Rakkum13]

Originally Posted by preetam_KORG

2. c) I have no idea of that, it would be really helpful if you have any place to check!

Hi Preetam, pl try to get your feat recognized by Limca Book of Records
http://www.limcabookofrecords.in/set_a_record.aspx
http://www.limcabookofrecords.in/rules.aspx

[_raVan_]

What an amazing travelogue! Might probably be one of the best in here

Awaiting your further account of the trip. Rating the thread 5*s.

[aashish.shah]

Originally Posted by preetam_KORG

Thanks Ashish!
Are you a part of NW?
And Leh when? I am going this June!

Have sent a request to join NW Chennai / India, hopefully will become a part of the group and will get to meet you soon .

It's still WIP on Ladakh trip. Will keep you posted bro.

[bj96]

Originally Posted by preetam_KORG

...
Day 1:
Bangalore - Rajahmundry : 896 Kms
Day 2:
Rajahmundry – Kolkata : 1110 Kms
...

Just one word. Respect!

The longest I have driven in a day is Pune to Nagpur, about 730kms, that too in a car and was thinking it is an achievement.

Keep riding and be safe.

-BJ

[Soumyajit9]

Baap re !!! You are one crazy boy !!

Day 2 - Did you check your surroundings, before landing on the ground for the relief ? You sure, there weren't any bugs around ??

Day 3 - I am still wondering, what were the choisest automobile expletives, the Bee must have used for you, for straining him so much !!

Ride Safe buddy. Hope the next day brought some more crazy fun ! I am hooked onto this thread. Keep revving....

[fazonater1911]

Respect To You, Preetam_KORG

The travelogue is just amazing! I just cant imagine the amount of will power and perseverance that you have to have achieved this feat. Frankly speaking, if it was me i would have chickened out.

Nice write-up brother. Well done!! I will closely watch this thread.

PS: I have voted for you on True Wanderers