The Renuka remembrance

(This writeup was done sometime back - posting today)

I had been to Renuka Lake in April this year while it was pretty hot and I had a lot of water vaporized outta me. The discovery of the ride was a junction wherein one road diverts towards Shimla and the other towards Renuka ji. So this Sunday as beautiful weather presented itself, I had the option of doing this ride and find a new route to tread. Largely, sitting in Chandigarh, thinking of places to go, there wont be many options popping in head but then I guess one has to just go for it and find new routes, new excitements, new fulfillments.

BUY PEPSI stop

It is such a bore to find people around you bogged down, not able to move; very few for reasons and majority not wanting to........lost it, given up. They are just fit in that die cast of things where everything is planned, how the Saturday gonna be, how the Sunday gonna be. They can be soooo a dampener. Maybe I am in the wrong age group doing the wrong thing in the wrong part of the world, but bollocks, this time I would not ask anyone to come along and be by myself. Google maps is a good thing, it can show you the majority of routes, or at least it can tell you that this destination course is possible or no. But by and large it is not to be considered as the only source for mapping the route, as for me, it became just another reason to go. Shut the laptop, washed up, geared up and I was off. Things could not have been more simpler, where you just say that I am going to ride and thats it, you're off. What more could one ask for.

Weather at Renukaji junction

The weather was a bit warm, but partial clouds here and there kind of loosened it up and it was comfy. You cross Barwala, Naraingarh and hit Raipur Rani and somehow on this stretch, I have many a times encountered a whole damn tree fallen across the road, blocking traffic both sides. There was this time, I was returning from Dehradun with purchase of camp gear in the middle of the night, and as if being stuck in jam for 3hrs, crossing car in 3 feet gushing water was not enough for the day, there was this stupid tree fallen in the middle of the road. The memories of the night flashed by in a moment. But this day, I followed a taxi making detour into a village and then turning back onto the road, bypassing the afflicted area. So yea, we passed through the Haryanvi village, with Jats sitting on takhtposh along road and making their TAAU observations; we passed through the kuccha track between the fields, and yea the HOG is Indianizing. Industry or no industry, Kala Amb remains the same with 500 pounder craters right in the middle of the roads, the MC dont give a hoot till the time you are paying your tax to enter Himachal Pradesh which dont offer you pleasantries on arrival either. Things are pretty much the same across the line......just that they pull their act together around 5 kms into their territory. The weather by now was cloudy and the bike was banking good. Moreover, if at all it rained I would have been more concerned about me getting wet than the chrome...... so I'm kind emerging from the so called CHROME FOBIA and turning normal. Nahan as a city, you dont even get to know when it started and when it ends. For the name it carries, its pretty small or so it seems. The best part was, the last time I came it was barren mountatins, with dry shrubs ready to catch fire at the mention of letter "F", and now it was all so green, garden fresh, sprinkled with water. It was an amazing change to the same place and being witness to it, brought about that touch of life to things.

Courtesy E71

We (means me & the HOG) soon came across the Shimla-Renuka ji junction and this time I took left, towards Shimla. About the junction, I stopped to have my fill of Pepsi (Coke was not available in Nahan) and catch hold of time, things that had happened over the last couple of hours. The weather was something very much contrary to the beliefs of sissy's down in the planes, it was comfy cool, a bit foggy so as to speak. I could not help but put across text message to Vinny aka Charles Sobhraj who ditched citing awful weather........there you go buster. The road thereon was pretty much the same, offering a pot hole every now and then. We soon came across another junction, where a road diverted towards Badu Sahib gurudwara. Badu Sahib gurudwara is famous for Akal Academy with sizable students on roll. As a kid, I might have been there once but I really dont recall anything. Now seeing the junction, a new ride presented itself and I registered it for some other day. The surroundings were really lush green, the HOG was responding well and all the calm and serene gave us the much sought time for communicating with the other. She said she would be a nice machine, till the time I used it for myself......... and the other half is not difficult to guess. Things become problematic when people distract your attention by doing all the overtures of amazement and somewhere, you kind of lose the core principle, the core idea of having it.... which is the ride. The HOG's message was pretty clear, if I was to be a monkey doing tricks at tips of others, I was to consider my propriety over her temporary......very temporary. We parked along the road and I ungeared myself as HOG clinked to cool. It was calm, very peaceful, chirping sounds of birds, grazing buffalos on hills, HOG on my right and me on the road....legs stretched out. That was some LIVING right there. As momentary as it was, this one wild bull who was challenging with his sounds all the while, was not taken seriously until this chap actually made his way down the hill, onto the road and charged towards the us. Yea..... we had made inroads to his kingdom. I did'nt expect it and was immediately on my feet, ready for action whilst maintaining eye contact. He made his detour and walked past, as we stood our ground.

The wreck the rains had imposed on the place, was evident from ample landslides cleared en-route. Short of Kumarhatti, the road was being widened so a lot of tipper trucks, slush and mud....meant a lot of careful riding. The tyre treads on the HOG are minimal, so when maneuvered through slush, it acts tricky. Because of the high torque, slightest of throttle takes the rear wheel out of line..... so a bit of caution through slush. Came Kumarhatti, came Dharampur, Parwanoo, Kalka, Pinjore and then came the mighty jam after crossing the HMT factory. So it turned out to be a meeting place with Malvinder Punia on his Suzuki Intruder, as we exchanged hellos in the middle of the road surrounded by cars, as the conditions so permitted. Malvinder turns out to be from Chandigarh, and just like me was a big frusto who could'nt take it any more, given the deluge of last 10 days. So the first weekend with a bright sun, he was out....just like me. He was coming from Kasauli, Barog and places, and was returning when we met. We shared similar views on the bike culture in the city, and I was as glad to find a guy who just wants to ride, as was he. Before parting, Malvinder and I exchanged numbers with soon to meet gestures.

The timing of the ride was perfect, I mean the start and the end and by the conclusion of it, the ride was a find of Malvinder. The ride saw HOG doing its 2000 kms near Saraha, with total coverage of 212 kms and Nahan Kumarhatti stretch accounting for 72 kms. It was nice and now I am google mapping my way over and over again to find unchartered routes, doing permutation of going from here and coming from there the entire Himachal.

Godspeed!