Yesterday, I received a call from a dear friend who was my college mate. He called to check up on me regarding a whatsapp status which according to him was a cry for help. I explained him about my recent failures and shared my frustration . As we kept on chatting ,I soon forgot my pains and life some how felt great again. We talked about his new bike and weekend adventurers .He also reminded me of the Bike Trip we took in our final year. First we laughed at our idiocy but soon emotions took over and without extending anything further I thought it was time to disconnect the call. Today I want to write about that last Bike Trip ,we took together, not because it’s a great story and the whole world should know about it, but because, I want to come back to this article and read it at times of depression.
It was the time for our placements and Apoorva and I were still to be placed.One fine morning a few final year students had a spat with outsiders and that whole incident escalated to university level war. College authorities had to intervene for safety of others and we were suspended till further notice. Our college had a peculiar way of handling such incidents ,they used to throw us out of hostels for weeks. Local students went to their homes and took few friends with them,while other like me rented a hotel nearby.
It was the fourth day of our suspension and I was cooking Maggie when Apoorva said “Yaar, Bahut ho gayi Maggie, I know a Dhaba ,it’s just 40 Km away”. So rented a bike ,a suzuki fiero with no head light, and decided to come back by before midnight. It was all fun and Pink Floyd till his father called to ask about his whereabouts. Obviously ,like any other good kid ,he lied . Here we took our first break as we discussed about possible lies we could have told to his father. We sat there for some time as saw the sunset ,it was beautiful . Now according to my calculation we had driven for more than 50 kms,so I stopped and said “dude, where is this Dhaba of yours ???” . He smiled and said “forget about it ,I have a better plan, lets drive to Cochin “. And like any other sensible person I said “awesome,lets do it ” . He took the driver seat while I pointed that it might rain and it did . We continued to drive in rain as it was getting dark and we were crazy .
Yes,we did that too …
We didn’t know the route so we had to stop at every square and ask for directions. Few wrong tips and their misinterpretations led us to Thrissur bypass,which was like a U turn.It was getting darker and darker with rain showing no respite. So, we kept on driving in hopes of reaching Chocin earlier than expected. Finally the sign boards came to our rescue and we got back on national highway. Apoorva was driving swiftly but suddenly he raced the accelerator. I didn’t ask as I assumed that he had intentions to overtake the truck ahead of us. As we were in the process of this overtake ,he said “Raghav, I want to tell you something” . I laughed and said “Don’t tell me you haven’t rode a bike before as your skills are shaky at high speed. He replied “Well,it’s not like that , I have a scooter at my home not a bike “. I was bamboozled and shouted “Gaddi rokk ,abhi rokk ” .
What followed ,read here…