Long Due

Long overdue it was to the point that my mind was most obedient this morning knowing full well that potency of its excuses (logical and illogical) had expired. I believe the last I rode was immediately before or after the Malaysia trip which makes it two and a half months of ride inactivity.

Rains this season have been no less than torrential - lot of damage to life and infrastructure alike. In middle of this, planned a long ride in direction of Yogi ji's Pradesh somewhere around long weekend of Independence Day and am glad sense prevailed as I called it off last minute. It rained all those days and who knows about all the places I was to pass through. Not that I am averse to getting drenched in a ride - having done it many times, I'd rather not do it wilfully.

So this morning we made out of the city fast with no destination or return marker in mind. The river crossing at Ropar is actually in spate - all those reports are really true. Amply free in head riding solo, the mind had a ball. Now I don't recall the start of string but I remember it from A point which was that collective thinking of large set of humans is very near to right and is close to consciousness. There is a book on this subject (which I left in middle) and the said book was recommended by election guru - Prashant Kishore in one of his musings. Prashant Kishore comes from town of Bihar, a state whose denizens just as Uttar Pradesh are called Bhaiyya's north of NCR. While the word Bhaiyya itself means brother, its pronunciation generally carries a derogatory tone within a certain section. To which I reminisced an incident in Sector 7 Chandigarh, where while I had gone for some work that I saw a street vendor selling healthy looking cucumbers. As I went ahead with the purchase a young child (7-10 years) came and started off saying "Bhaiyya ye do kilo ye ye dedo." Apart from me, kid and vendor there were two aged men sitting a little distance under tree, chit chatting. Overhearing the child one educated, "First of all you are in a queue, wait for your turn. Second, what is Bhaiyya ? Call him uncle and with respect."

This is when I am riding at about 90 km/h with Out of Orbit set blaring at full and sights set on Balachaur. It was at this point exactly that I realised, look at the progress of thought switching of the mind - Impressive to say the least - to the extent that I thought of penning at my return; but of course I forgot from where all did the maze actually start. Amazing.

As VAAHAN had sent a message a month prior informing/threatening of expiration of Pollution Certificate, as soon as we entered the Police State of Chandigarh we dashed to Sector 21 pump to get all papers in order. Chandigarh is really suffocating now.

ADIOS