{"id":1217,"date":"2020-03-19T14:25:54","date_gmt":"2020-03-19T08:55:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aratrikaspeaks.wordpress.com\/?p=1217"},"modified":"2020-03-19T14:25:54","modified_gmt":"2020-03-19T08:55:54","slug":"the-time-i-grew-wings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aratrikaspeaks.com\/?p=1217","title":{"rendered":"The Time I Grew Wings!"},"content":{"rendered":"
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My first major travel of 2020 is over and it was epic in every single way. Honestly I got cold feet just a couple days before the trip that I almost cancelled all my tickets. I had three different people from three different circles convincing me to just go on the trip. And oh my! What an adventure it was. I would surely have regretted missing out on the adventure of a lifetime. So I was not all excited like Bilbo Baggins running from the shire when I started for the airport. With a book as my company until I reach my actual destination I was skeptical about the trip all around. I reach Ahmedabad and my friend suggested I could spend time by the Sabarmati Riverfront until my bus that night. That place gave me the most travel sense to begin with. The wind in my hair and the book on my hand was what I needed to put some travel spirit in me. So I just sat there taking selfies and putting up instagram stories and what not. The time comes for me to board my bus to Bhuj.<\/p>\n

With Day 0 done and dusted I reach Bhuj at about 4am and my friend happily comes to pick me up from the bus stop. The place is so darn cold and we manage to reach the City Guest House. After some well deserved sleep and rest we roam around the city a little. And then we head out to the Bhujia Fort for the sunset. Climbing broken stairs after a scrumptious but modest Gujarati thali is a very wrong move. But the view once we got to the top was just amazing. With the sun rays coming down on us and the walls to our back, we just sat there talking but mostly basking in the lovely golden silence.<\/p>\n

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I was pretty scared about the next day given that we were going to drive quite a bit and I am not what you call an excellent confident driver.<\/p>\n

Day 1 and we all gear up. I am riding with four other people all on their Royal Enfield Bullets and what am I driving? A nice little activa! Yes an activa for a biking trip! After a good serving of poha and kacchi dabeli we start our journey. Now I did the fortunate thing of not asking where exactly we were heading. I basically did not know our exact destination towards which we were driving and I didn’t care. I was more concerned about maintaining speed with the group and just being careful. We had to surrender all electronic devices at the check post because we were now entering the Border Security Force’s turf. To go beyond that point one has to get prior permission with BSF signed with the vehicle details and rider’s details. So once we crossed that check post there was just one road.\"\"<\/p>\n

One long winding road with nothing but the white desert-y land on either side of the road. You possibly cannot get lost in that place. Because there is just one road. Which kept reminding me of this one vadivel comedy scene only —–><\/p>\n

My friend(Lets call him M) drives up to me and asks me to keep driving at a nominal speed and off he goes on his bullet. Now it is just me and this very long stretch of road in front of me. At first it was a smooth road and I was able to keep up with the other bikes. Even then a lot of times I would be the last one in the convoy and I sort of started liking the middle of nowhere vibe of that place. My brain started singing and exactly at that moment it somehow dug up this song from some random corner of my head. Guess the correlation with a bike ride helped, but it was funny how I have watched this song maybe a couple times and I was able to sing most of it yet I could not for the life of me remember all the lyrics to my favourite song that I hear all the time.<\/p>\n