Post Rohtang was a blue sky, green meadows and beautiful huge gigantic mountains. The road was kind of broken, but it was manageable. Slowly we were coming down the mountain, and enjoying the most of our journey. On our way, Dhyani and I were discussing about our day today lives. How different it is to live away from our family, and loved ones, and still manage. While the conversation was going on, I was so much into it, that I was able to convince him that at the end of the week, we become so frustrated that it’s essential to get HIGH!!! Without that, mind doesn’t relax. After a while, we all took a pause. Enough of riding, now it was time for some photo shoot. We were all set. Dhyani had brought his DSLR exclusively for the trip. But a wise man once said, “if you’ll buy a camera, it will be YOU who will be taking most of the pics”. So that was it. All three of us were ready with our poses and Dhyani was adjusting the lens. After a few clicks, he said “yaar natural raho, naturally haso, ek natural picture aani chahiye”. Siddhu and I looked at each other, and don’t know what clicked both of our mind, he folded his arms around his stomach and said, “oye Negi, aise paet pakad, aur NATURALLY hass, mazak nahi”, and I folded my arm around my stomach, “haan be! Koi mazak nahi, huhuhuhu, hehehehehe” and we looked at each other, and started laughing. And this artificial act got into us and seriously made us laugh. Dhyani clicked two continuous pictures and we knew it, this picture will make us laugh whenever we will look into it.
The photo session was over and the riders were back on their ride. We rode down the hill. On our way, we were crossing some other riders, who were heading for the same destination as we were. Dhyani was telling me about his ship adventures and I was riding at a pretty good speed. About 30 feet ahead, there was another byke, going as same speed as we were. I was hearing Dhyani’s stories and was riding with reference to the byke going ahead of me. He was telling something about his trip to Japan, and I was lost in it, and within few seconds, I saw the front byke getting slipped on the gravel. By the time I could sense what was going on, I was on that spot. Byke was at 60kmph. Couldn’t apply breaks, byke would have slipped. Couldn’t increase the speed, for sure, we would have been killed. All I know was front break was disc, and applying it would have been resulted in some deadly consequences. All I was left with was the rear break. I put everything on that one chance I had. Having a good experience with bykes, I didn’t apply a constant break. Byke slipped a bit, but due to its weight it didn’t went out of control. Applying multiple small breaks saved us that day. Woah! All I can say that I was not sure what was going to happen that day. I was feeling dreadful. Considering myself as a good rider, I was really ashamed of myself. It was the second time that my byke skidded. It was the second time on the same day, I was in a deadly situation, and this time, I was involving Dhyani with me. Anyways, there was no point of repenting, as we have just started the journey. It was a long way to go. Dhyani patted my shoulder and said, “Bhai, dhyan se. Abhi bahut aage jana hai”. We were back on the track, and were able to catch Siddhu and Ujjwal, who were ahead of us, and were waiting for us.
Our next stop was in Tandi. That was the place where we had to fill our tanks and our jerrycans , as it was the only petrol pump available for the rest of the journey. The road was terrible, broken, full of dust. My back started hurting and the main reason was the road. Dhyani asked me to give him control and I could sit at the back seat, but I don’t know why I wanted to have all the controls. It was me testing my limits. In the middle, we took a halt, and were again prepared for some photo sessions. This time, Ujjwal was given the camera, and the rest of us were ready with our pose. As usual, Siddhu was ready with his killer one liners, “Benchod, ab natural pose kahan se laye”? Ujjwal was sent to the other side of the road, and we all were posing, looking high into the mountains. Then suddenly, Dhyani pointed out the topmost mountain said, “oye!! Sab log upar us pahaad pe dekho”. Adding this, Siddhu said, “kya bolta hai Negi, agla destination Vo Pahaad”, and I replied, “Bhai, jahan bolo, vahan chal lenge”. Ujjwal came back to us, handed the camera to Sid, and asked him to take a pic. Everyone knew, he will never miss a chance to get into a picture. We rested for a while and were back on track. An hour later, we reached Tandi. We filled our tanks to the top most, including our jerrycans. All of us were tired and hungry. I asked them to sit for a while, under a tree, but Dhyani gave advice to continue the journey, as we can rest on the place where we can have our lunch. We were back on the road, and were searching for some place to stop and eat, but suddenly, I heard a sound from my byke. Something was wrong and that scared me. We all stopped, and within few minutes, it was observed, the byke carrier was broken. The weldment was breaking and it doesn’t look like it could handle the weight of our bags for a longer time.
