Amritsar - Harike Pattan

Dutta with his fatbaby

I met Tejas Dutta in 2009, when he joined our bike group for the Zanskar ride. A shippy by profession, I found him a stable, grounded and a reasonable guy with no qualms about life. The 55 degree engine room of the ship probably straightened out the ripples, I don't know..... but he's a decent fellow to be with; talks sensible. He called me a week back, off the ship, buck in pocket and youth raring to go. I was all game.

The weather is a screw this time of the year. If it don't rain its sultry as hell, you sweat like a pig; and if it rains, no fun riding. For sure, the HOG needed some air and the moment I saw Dutta on his modified RE, it was a done deal. His RE pipes were loud as ever, and this time around he had modified the frame of the bike; made it a bit more lower, a bigger tank, big rear tyre, nice paint job....... and made a small fatbaby for himself. Good job done Dutta. The destination was still an issue, and with news of landslides in Manali and Shimla and the disastrous cloud burst at Leh; the mountains were out. Where to go..... was the question making rounds in my head, which finally halted before the end of the day. I had heard of Harike Pattan in Punjab, a place where rivers Beas and Satluj meet. Further the wetlands of Harike Pattan are also famous for the ample opportunity they provide for serious bird watchers. I was keen. But when we came to know that Tejas had never visited Golden Temple or for that matter most of the Punjab; we had to re-consider. Amritsar was fine by me as it would give an opportunity to take HOG to the temple (the spiritual me), but parking it was a concern. Captain Suresh addressed this problem, and fixed up with one of his friends in Amritsar wherein we could park the HOG and then go to the Golden Temple. So we were set for Amritsar and for now, Harike Pattan had taken the backseat.

Kick off point

7/Aug/2010, 0600 hrs was set as the kick off time. The bikes had been fueled up the previous night, and we hit the road with military timing. The weather was optimistic, sun was rising and the ride for the day looked promising. Just across Mohali, crossing the Balongi barrier, the HOG hit its first 1000 kms. It was a moment, it was registered, and it now has been documented. Early birds, we skipped the traffic chaos across Kharar and Kurali and soon hit Ropar. The ride from Ropar to Balachaur was green as ever and HOG was kept in check by Dutta's RE, which was crying out loud trying to keep up. We maintained visibility distance throughout, although I was tempted at times to pull the throttle. We did Phagwara in good time, and it was a treat ride with minimal traffic blues and good weather. A halt was made on NH1, right after crossing Phagwara giving Tejas time for his breather and me to call Saahil Sofat. Saahil is an Army officer's son, and is doing his engineering degree from a college in Jalandhar. He had recently joined our biking entourage, which during the latest Spiti ride met with an unfortunate accident. Since I was busy with the delivery of HOG, I could not join them. Our another new member; Mr. Abrol, was lost in that freak accident, while the founder of the group; Col. Raina, now recovers in command hospital with compound fractures to his leg. When I met Saahil, for his age and what he had been witness to, I found him balanced on his feet. He was in a state of shock after having witnessed death, but was stable and composed; a good trait. I wanted to look him up on our way, but there was no response on his mobile, so we carried on. The construction company Soma Isolux, has killed the charm of riding on that stretch of NH1, with diversions all over the place for road widening. Jalandhar bypass too is overseeing new flyovers being constructed; a lot of activity since I last came. Again; after Kartarpur, the road scene has changed completely and now you no longer find NH1 downsizing to a small garden bridge near Raiyya; instead, there is a flyover. The HOG had turned a lot of heads by now and testimony to this bears Tejas Dutta, who was having balcony view of neck tilting HOG effect on the locals.

At Golden Temple

The famous Nijjer Farms near Amritsar have opened up a Subway outlet on the highway, where we stopped for our breakfast. Meal in, I set about tying up with Col. Sangwan, Captain Suresh's contact in Amritsar, asking him for directions to his place. Shortly thereafter the owner of the farms joined in and asked me if he could click a few pictures of the bikes, which I said yes to. In my following conversation with him, I asked about directions and road conditions from Amritsar to Harike Pattan. From what I heard, it sounded plausible that we return via Harike Pattan if we were able to maneuver our way through Amritsar in time. His measure for road conditions sounded good and directions fairly simple. So we could do Harike Pattan, provided we were judicious with time. Saying our good byes, we were on our way and entered Amritsar at 1010 hrs. The new flyover saved us 20 minutes, and we were bang in the center of the city heading towards Colonel's house. A thorough gentleman, Col. Sangwan welcomed us and advised where to park the HOG. He instructed us further about the local conditions, and about the road to Harike Pattan, if at all we were to make our return from that route. Shortly thereafter, we pushed off towards Golden Temple on Dutta's bike. The sanctum sanatorium was majestic as ever, with faith and devotion at its utmost display. We spent two hours in the complex giving Dutta his time to click and me explaining him relevance of the place as we went about. Owing to weekend, the rush was on the higher side. We returned to pick up the HOG, expressed our gratitude to Col. Sangwan, and were on our way to the Golden Temple at 1330 hrs; back again for the photo op. Tejas was questioning the wisdom of taking HOG through the extremely tight passageways that lead to the Golden Temple, given the rush of the hour and the day. And I was not going back without exposing HOG to the heart of Amritsar, to the political seat of the Khalsa, and without Indianizing it in those narrow galis of Amritsar. The journey had to be complete and so we went. I had not even parked the bike when two people approached with quizzical faces. It took us 2 minutes to figure out angle for a shot, but by then we had a crowd of 25-30 at our hands. You could'nt tell them to stop, they were just too many, and all asking their own questions. I asked Tejas to take whatever shot he could, lest we get mobbed. Two clicks, and we were gone before things got out of hand.


250 kms since morning, the HOG had gulped 16 liters of its fill and we were back at the fuel station for refill.  On our way to Taran Tarn the roads were good, traffic was usual, and folklore was total BHAU. Taran Tarn (the most troubled place during militancy) came and went; we took our lefts, we took our rights, we crossed the railway crossings and reached the bridge called Harike Pattan. We parked the bikes next to the police picket at the start of the bridge and took time to compose our outlook, as dust and smoke were writ large on our faces. Standing at a way off the bridge, I could not make out where the rivers Satluj and Beas met, but yes, Harike Pattan has massive wetlands. A gurudwara stands across the bridge........ the bridge which has potholes too many and takes at least 10 minutes to cross its 31 spans.

At Harike Pattan

Coming from Taran Tarn, at the beginning of the HARIKE PATTAN bridge, there exists a bird sanctuary on the left. Although we never went inside, it seemed to be in a run down condition. We accustomed ourselves to the area and the PP men at the picket, who were now keenly observing the bikes. Many a calls were missed on my mobile, so I was making up to them as Tejas went trigger happy with his DSLR. It was humid, and beads of sweat on face were making beeline to drop at underlying grass. We spent 45 minutes at the location, and were on the move again. Thereafter, we crossed a village settlement on the road by the name of Makhu and headed towards Zira. The speeds were in the range of 80-90 kms/hr and Tejas was well on my tail. The road was black top and dry all the while but then there was this patch, where there were deep potholes full of water. I was following a car, so the approach of that patch was not visible to me, but when it came I just went over it. For Tejas, I heard him brake, and then I heard him fall. The rear views confirmed it........ he was down. I parked HOG and walked up to him, hoping he was OK and his bike was motorable. Tejas was fine but the fatbaby tank dented, leg guard broke, head light broke, foot rest broke, side indicator broke and seat tore; all in a fraction of a second. High speed fall... it was nasty, and Tejas was visibly crushed. For all the passion, time and effort that had gone into modification, this was sad. It took him a while to fathom the extent of damage, but we did'nt have much time at hand with day closing up and darkness setting in...... we had to get going. We were 160 odd kms from Chandigarh and it was 1715 hrs already. Tejas was silent, his confidence was shaken and his fatbaby was broken. We straightened out a few things with hand and made his bike motorable enough to resume our journey.

Initially it was difficult to set my hand at speeds of 40 kms/hr but Tejas was priority, and I had to ensure that he was following up close. It really took time for my mind to settle down. There was greenery all over with  paddy in full bloom, and I was sure that it was something very new for Tejas. Our priority now had changed, and it was more of completing the trip safe, than to stop and capture shots at available photo ops. The weather was packing up and we were just short of hitting the Ludhiana-Moga highway, when it started to rain. We took refuge in a photo studio shop, run by a bunch of youngsters at periphery of the village. While I mingled with them as a local, Tejas was counting his bruises. There were none; thanks to the riding gear he wore, he just had a sore thigh which took hit during the fall. The ingredients were falling in place for the adventure ride; a bike broken, rider injured, shaken confidence, messy weather and long way to go. Luckily the weather opened up shortly and we resumed our return. Jagraon crossed and we reached Ludhiana outskirts where I had planned to bypass Ludhiana, take right onto the canal road, hit Doraha and onto NH1. NH1 was my preferred route than Samrala road because, it was a divided road and with Tejas's bike without light we would avoid oncoming traffic. I swore in that very breath, when I found that the bypass road had been closed for some stupid reason. We had to cross Ludhiana through the middle and come onto NH1 through its worst part; Dhandari Kalan. The traffic was mad, and with the evening downpour, we had to make our way through water clogged streets without any sign of a street light. The lane widening work at NH1 further slowed the progress, and by 1945 hrs we had made it only till McDonalds, Doraha. The last we had eaten was at Subway and Dutta was having headache for missing his meal, plus he was riding without his eye gear....... a stop was mandatory. Burgers and french fries in the belly, 3 hours over the accident, the confidence was up. It was 2015 hrs and folks back home although worried, were told that it would get late, but we would come.

By now riding at slow speed, checking for two eye brow lights of Dutta's bike in rear view, had become my new routine, and surprisingly I was enjoying it. Its a different feeling with the knowledge of the power that you hold, the power that you may unleash, yet remaining calm giving you the much solicited control over it. It was so settling. I was reminded of a dialogue of the movie MAQBOOL, wherein Om Puri & Naseerudin Shah play the role of cops and say, "SHAKTI KA SANTULAN BAHUT ZAROORI HAI". It was a quote in effect. At our own pace, and our own sweet time, we got off NH1 and treaded on Sirhind - Chandigarh road; the road where I have spent 4 years of my college life and whose features to me are like the back of my hand. It was late, traffic was minimal and we were riding slow and steady........ lovable setting. We culminated the ride with bikes rumbling back home at 2245 hrs after having covered 530 kms in the day.

I disembarked from the HOG........... and I was aware about the heritage, the engineering, the effort and the passion gone into making of a HOG, about what Americans mean when they say, "Riding from coast to coast". The very thought was refreshing. 


In essence, the ride was TOTAL and the first true ride on HOG with a bit of thrill, a bit of adventure, a bit of reality and a bit of spirituality. Am sure there would be many to come. Its a start.