Anandpur Sahib to Delhi 21.09.07A well deserved sleep later, on a beautiful misty morning of 21.09.07, we woke up to the alarms ringing off on our cellphones. The usual routine of packing our stuff onto the bikes and getting fresh thereafter ensued and we were off at 0800 hrs. We were'nt expecting anything much on this ride except for the blitz down NH1!
Breakfast was at one of the numerous punjabi dhabas that dotted the entire highway. Thereafter, we moved at a quite racy pace on the highway, making it to Chandigarh at around 1100 hrs. After filling up our tanks and gazing around the well planned( and fashionably well-inhabited!) sector 17 , we caught up with NH1 and gunned our bikes.
The uneventful ride, lazy roads and the warm sun was beginning to take its toll on Sanjay, who was complaining of a hungry stomach now and then. We had intended to stop for lunch at Murthal and it took quite some coaxing on our part to keep him going! Much to our relief ( I wouldn't prefer a bashing from a hungry Sanjay!!), we reached Murthal at 1530 hrs and had the usual delectable paranthas and dal makhanis.
Then followed a non-stop ride to the outskirts of Delhi and the burgeoning concrete jungle. We lost Sanjay and Amol somewhere along the way. As we merged with the busy Delhi traffic, this realisation dropped on us - our vacation was over. I was feeling particularly gloom, one for the fact that we had just left paradise and found mundane mortality; and the other for the fact that Amol and Sanjay were nowhere to be seen. Its kinda difficult to find words for these feelings. Amol and Sanjay had been aquainted with us just some days back...and now they were comrades - brothers in arms. Kenny also dropped the fact that it'd be impossible to find them in the traffic, and I kinda muttered to them that we couldnt even bid them goodbye. After a while, we just stopped at the side of the road and tried calling the guys. Kenny got through after a while and asked them to meet us at the Gurgaon exit at Dhaula Kuan. Its funny when you meet people you have known just a little while and the pleasure you get when you find them again. It was none but relief and jubilation when we caught up with the guys sitting at the side walk, waiting for us. What followed were hugs and mutual congratulations on making it back to Delhi, on making it back from a pilgrimage of sorts.....and being blessed by the heavens up above,literally.
I checked my tripmeter when we reached Kenny's place : 2868 km
We planned to meet them for a celebration at The Supper Factory after we had freshened up and they had checked into a hotel; and so we did. What a night it was!The mood was mellow, the beer was flowing, and our bodies bearing the signs of 13 days on the road.
Well into the late hours, a stroll through AIIMS and goodbyes later, we headed back for Gurgaon leaving Sanjay and Amol at AIIMS with their friend. I was already half asleep and half lit by the time we reached Kenny's place and it didnt take long before I just dropped on the mattress and dozed off.......dreaming about the next road trip!!!
