11th Nov 2004 – Delhi, Finally!!!
Alarm got me up by 08:00hrs. Start to get ready lazily as Delhi is hardly any distance now. I’m feeling very exicited that today I’ll be entering Delhi riding my own bike. Today I’ll be riding into the city I have spend most of my childhood during the 10+yrs stayed there. With all these thoughts in my mind I got ready and completed the formalities to check out. I then topped up the battery, engine oil and loaded the lugguage. At 08:50 with odo showing 16,575 I’m back on road for third day in succession. Got the air pressure checked at the near by gas station before heading towards the highway. Few minutes later I’m out on the highway heading towards Jaipur. Bike comes into reserve even before I’m in the zone. Odo is showing 16,606. Found a gas station after Kishangarh, stopped at 09:30 to fill little bit of fuel, hoping I’ll be able to cross Japiur. A small break and I’m back on road at 09:50.
Soon I restarted I’m on a straight, wide 6lane road. Speed of 80 is looking slow so I decide to fully open the throttle and soon I’m doing speeds above 100, overtaking trucks one after another. Still the speed is not feeling fast enough and once a few cars just zoomed past me, the adrenaline came down and I came back to speeds between 80-100. The 6 lane lasted almost all the way till Jaipur. Nearing Jaipur came across a bad path of road, still under construction. Once again I found a by pass to avoid entering Jaipur. This bypass took me to some strange looking junction, with only one road heading towards Bikaner. On asking people, I got to know about a turn on Bikaner road which will take me back to NH8. Few km’s later I took the right turn, as advised and I’m on a lonely looking narrow road with only trucks around me. Having not had any breakfast, I decide to pull over at a dhaba for food. Time is right now 11:50. After having dal, roti for lunch (Rs 23) I’m back on road, heat is a bit on high side as there is no shade. Just before this road meet the wide NH8 it got a bit bad. Dunno when will this be made completely or did I took a wrong route. Once on NH8 there are still couple of more diversions to take before road becomes a nice 4 lane with the divider having plenty of greenery on it. With some trees on road side, the heat was a bit less at places.
Odo showing 16,770 and bike came into reserve. Having had a heavy lunch I’m feeling a bit sleepy, so decide to pull over the next gas station to wash my face with water. At 13:05 pulled into a gas station to fill some fuel and wash my face. Felt a bit fresh and after a 5min break I once again started to cruise on the beautiful road. With some traffic on the road, I opted to stay in the left lane to let the fast moving traffic pass by easily.
Looks like on the thought of Delhi close by I’m not able to concentrate properly and again started to feel sleepy. So at 14:00hrs I stopped on a roadside tea stall to have tea (Rs 5). A nice 20min break with some talking to myself I resumed the ride, decided to now stop only after crossing Gurgaon. As the time went by, it started to get a bit cooler and with every km passing by I started to feel excited about the prospect of entering Delhi. The feeling got stronger when I approched the Rajasthan and Haryana border. Since I have not clicked any picture so far, decided to click one here.
Closing on 16:00 hrs I passed by the Hero Honda factory and I realised that I have entered Gurgaon. At 16:00hrs, odo showing 16,975 I stopped at the red light in Gurgaon. I feel like screaming “Delhi here I come €?. Few km’s more and I’m greeted by a board “Welcome to Delhi €?. Closing on 16:00 hrs I passed by the Hero Honda factory and I realised that I have entered Gurgaon. At 16:00hrs, odo showing 16,975 I stopped at the red light in Gurgaon. I feel like screaming “Delhi here I come €?.
Few km’s more and I’m greeted by a board “Welcome to Delhi €?.Delhi has changed a lot ever since I have left. Passing by some college I was being waved asked for lift by two girls, probably they didn’t realise the lugguage I’m carrying on the back seat. Lots of diversions due to construction work going on, lots of slow moving traffic due to diversions. Following the direction board and trying to recollect the 12yr old map of Delhi I somehow reached the outer ring road. It started to get a bit dark and the evening traffic here is getting a bit of pain. There is traffic stopped before a fly over, whereas the signal is well beyond the fly over. Riding in this stop and go traffic and looking for directions, trying to remember I managed to reach the DND fly over. First time I’m going to be riding on it. The road is good and this is probably one of the very few roads where even two wheeler needs to pay a toll. After crossing the fly over I’m in Noida. Its 18:40hrs, odo is showing 17,006km and I have finally entered Noida.
The cell is still not catching the network and I just realised that I’m not carrying my sister’s address. Since it has got dark, it is very difficult to remember the directions to her home. So I started to look for PCO and unlike Pune where one can find a PCO on every corner, its very difficult here. After a lot of searching I managed to find one. When I talked to my bro-in-law, he was surprised hearing I have ridden down from Pune. After taking directions, I started to ride to her house. Around 19:30 I’m entering her house, kids are very excited learning that their uncle has come on bike to Noida, Dhoom effect.
So finally after three days of exciting ride on my bike, all alone, I’m finally sitting here in my sister’s house.
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