Why we ride solo
From BikeNomads
A nice bit written by a Sachin Rao...a couple of years ago when he was with BS motoring ...right after he did a solo journey to KTop and got back in one piece ...with lots of struggle !!!...read along
<got this fwd off rtmc>
Of the people, I swear if another person asks me why or how i can do intercity bike trips alone ..i will do a burnout for him…across the spectrum people seem to believe that "mazaa ayeaga" only if I have (preferably female) companion on the pillion seat. Sometimes, sensing a futile argument, I merely offer a weary smile and proceed to worry some grit from under my fingernails. But a few souls genuinely appear curious to understand and then to them I explain that travelling alone offers one big opportunity that riding two up or in a group doesn't. When u are with a companion u spend time together, seeing the sights, discussing the ride, washing the road-dust away with a cold pint.. Which is fine really and fun too.. But well see your togetherness keeps bystanders away.. And after many beaches, hills temples forts, monasteries and one thousand shades of Grey highway tarmac find this is these bystanders which offer true variation and perspective on your journey.. Enriching your experience exponentially.. A lone biker eating lunch at a dhaba is a friendlier prospect for a villager to approach, and I have learnt never to refuse a conversation. Because after the tea gardens of munnar and Darjeeling eventually blur into contended sameness, in Darjeeling the toy train chugs away lazily with a small hoot as nostalgia rings in and the old land rovers wait for it to pass. There is only the differentiator of sharing a bus stop with a mentally challenged Tamil boy under a thunderstorm the former or an old lepcha women hunched under a bag of twigs giving me directions as in the latter .in essence I sketch my picture of India through the people I have encountered over the miles…. For me Rajasthan is alpa. a brave lil 5 yr old camel pilot who flings adult curses at his mount but crumpled into tears when teased by some older guys.. ladakh is jugmu..the nepali girl at the bharatpur tent camp,who borrowed my survey of india map to see places where she wud never go..or natraj the truck driver whom I had been overtaking throughout who saw me in leh and gave me a cup of tea to celebrate my safe passage ..or zompa the old ladkhi lady who made a nice soup for me in choklamsar and treated me to a couple of Tibetan medicines for my sickness…bhemunipatam is a a youngster sticking his head into my small seaside shack in karwar, alternatively to ask if I was ok and then if it was ok for him to burn a ride on my bike,. .kanyakumari is a portly old woman selling bead chains, yelling at me not to take her picture. .I cud go on but I am sure I have put in the picture… So the next time u feel like hitting the highway and your friends cant get leave..Don't postpone your plans..Make it a solo voyage..Pack your kit and an open mind. . And discover the life that make the square mils of a political boundaries human..Learn that cities are confines and people are kind, and that a biker is never alone on the road…maybe we will meet somewhere along …in the mountains…
More from Sachin Rao: http://www.bsmotoring.com/bsm/wcms/en/home/blogs/sacrao/index.html