Day 15: Adieus Amigos....

Day 15: Parwanoo to Delhi and farewell

We were on the planes of Parwanoo and had started feeling the heat. The idea of heading back to Delhi itself was depressing. With instructions to ride slow on the Haryana highway, we were also warned about the stubborn truck drivers who wouldn’t give way for overtaking. After staying fit and fine throughout the journey, it was when I entered the Delhi border that I began feeling dehydrated. I was stuck in a jam and the protective gear gave me a feeling of sitting in a heated furnace. I stopped twice and had seven glasses of nimbu-paani before I reached Vishwa Yuvak Kendra.

(The achievement – I completed the journey without a crash, or falling ill or getting the bike fixed for any reason. Only few didn’t see the doctor after their medial test at the beginning of the ride. Some got their handle bars changed, some got dimples on their bike’s fuel tank. I can just thank god that I came back in one piece, without a single scratch on my body or the bike. ROYAL ENFIELD- was-is-and will remain the best, no matter what the model is. )

The place which on the first day seemed melancholic but now, I was not feeling out of place. Those who looked like strangers before the journey had turned into good buddies. We couldn’t wait for the farewell party which had a special bus, arranged specifically to prevent us from riding after we were all sloshed with booze. Bonsai, at Connaught Place, was an ideal place for enthusiastic riders, for it played excellent alt-rock. All the photographs that had been clicked by the riders were displayed on the projectors. This, brought cheers, smiles and even tears. No one wanted to face the reality and believe that the Himalayan Odyssey was actually over. After promising one another that the trip was not over yet and that we would keep meeting and going for rides like these more often, we headed back to our rooms.

Morning was the time when everybody departed one by one. I remember what my friends in Pune had asked me when I first told them about taking the trip. “Why are you going/what would you get?” I was speechless then, and would still be the same now if anybody was to hammer me with the same question. For, I can’t put my experience into words. It is inexplicable. Not even a thousand photographs would explain what I felt about the Himalyan Odyssey.’

Now the question is- Will I go biking to Ladakh again? The answer is YES. Till I have a spine and blood runs in my body, I would go there again and again, because what I saw and experienced, no one did…