Escape from Hell

What is the worst that could happen if you were stranded at night on a small country road with a flat tyre?

A lot as it turns out! Bikes can break down! We can get mugged! Or Arrested! Or Both! And our ride can come to an inglorious end! I never ride/drive at night. And this incident just reinforced my previously held beliefs on the topic.

Like every year around March, the topic of discussion at every biker meet was that year’s ride plans to Ladakh. My own preparations were already half done. I had already applied to get my annual Compulsory Leaves sanctioned for July. Project Plans were suitably kept updated to make sure nothing, NOTHING came in the way of the Annual Pilgrimmage to the Himalayas.

On my birthday, 3 other biker boys signed up for the Ladakh ride. Rahul and Me had previously done Ladakh couple of times separately. But “Crazy Cat” Nix and Rohan were “Ladakh virgins”. I had previously decided that 2006 would be my first solo, but somehow these 3 idiots convinced to make 2006 a group ride as well. So on my birthday, we sat down to make our Ladakh ride plan!

We were to ride down from Mumbai, riding across Rajasthan desert to Amritsar, and from there do the Ladakh circuit clockwise finishing in Manali. Enroute, we planned to make stops to visit the Wagah border, Golden Temple and Pokhran, the site of India’s first “peaceful” nuclear test in 1974. Killer Plan!

In July, Nix and Me set out from Navi Mumbai and met up with the other 2 at “Hotel Fountain” in North Mumbai – the usual sync point in Mumbai for rides heading north. We did good speeds the first 2 days, reaching all the way to Pokhran in Rajasthan. We spent some time at the Nuclear Test Site and the Fort that is nearby. Perhaps it was a result of exposure to residual radioactivity at Pokhran, but that is the point where Acute Laziness took over the group!

We left the Museum/Shakti Temple in Pokhran a little before noon, targetting to reach Bikaner by 6pm. It was supposed to be a 3/4 hour ride! Instead the boys stopped for a leisurely Lunch at a roadside Dhaba and then instead of riding out immediately, stretched out on the charpoy, put a handkerchief over their eyes and went off to sleep! We reached Bikaner after 8pm! :rolling eyes:

The next day, we were supposed to do a medium haul from Bikaner to Amritsar – 600 odd kms across the desert in 12 hours starting at dawn and finishing at dusk. The boys drank late the previous night, woke up late the next day and started out riding only at 10am! One hour later, we had stopped at a roadside dhaba for a leisurely Breakfast. And then everyone took a siesta for an hour after that while I impatiently had a dozen cups of Chai! We were on the road again after a 2 hour break but then kept stopping every hour for Chai, cigarettes and Pee breaks! At 5pm, we stopped for “Lunch” followed by another long siesta. It was FRUSTRATING! Roads were narrow but thankfully in good condition. Nix was leading and I was sweeping with the other 2 in between. We were all following the Tail Lamp of the guy in front, our speeds down to 30/40kph by this time! The pic following is of the Road in the daytime. Now imagine riding through here after Dark!

This was before the era of smartphones and GPS. I remember all of us being hunched over an Eicher Road Atlas in the torchlight way past 10pm trying to figure out where we were. Turns out we had crossed a town called Suratgarh sometime back which none of us remembered crossing! But we got on to our bikes to ride ahead thinking of stopping at the next big town we could find. We were all totally tired out having kitted up over 12 hours ago but we had to push on! We were all plodding along at 30/40kph just hoping at that point to find the next sidey hotel in the next sidey town we reached where we could crash! That is the point when things went from bad to worse! Rohan’s bike had a flat tyre and Rahul discovered his clutch cable was partly broken. So there we were, at past 1030pm, trying to fix our bike tyre in torchlight on a lonely desert road in Rajasthan! But things were about to go from bad to worse! Much, much worse!

Rajasthan in July!! It was a particularly hot night. The wind when it blew, was HOT wind and We were all kitted up. Needless to say, we were all sweaty by the time Rohan’s tyre came off! Thats when we discovered that we were out of Drinking Water! We were all so frustrated that Crazy Nix’s tasteless jokes were not funny even to this toxic bunch!

Rohan spotted lights in the distance and suggested walking down to get some water. It was decided that Rohan and Rahul would walk over to that village while Nix and me fixed the Tyre back. They were gone for a really long time. We had fixed the tyre, Nix lit up a cigarette and sat up on the parked bike and I proceeded to give him a piece of my mind about Ride discipline the past 2 days. I had held my tongue long enough! It was at that point that we heard voices in the distance – and they appeared to be getting louder and madder! Suddenly, we saw a bloodied Rahul running towards us with Rohan following right behind him. Behind them was a large-ish crowd and they were hopping mad! Rahul ran right past us while we looked on with shock trying to make sense of it all! One fellow from the crowd threw something that looked like a Curved Scythe at Rohan. It hit him and he fell down and the crowd caught up! Me and Nix were staring open mouthed wondering what the hell was happening. The crowd gathered around us and it seemed like we would be lynched that day!

With impeccable timing, the Cop chose that precise moment to arrive in what looked like a WW2 Jeep to stop the crowd. All those Bollywood movies were right after all! Cops do arrive after the scene! The cops kept the raging crowd away and tried to calm tempers in their local language. The crowd was raging something about “misbehaving with their women” and Nix and Me looked at each other like “Oh No”!!

As we later found out, what happened was that Rohan and Rahul had found a house in the village where a woman was cooking on one of those rural mud stoves with the door open. In Rohan’s version, They approached the door asking for Water at which the point the veiled woman screamed which got the men of the village all worked up! The postman at the village saw what happened and called the cops! The cops told us our friends grabbed the woman’s hand. I dont know what actually happened there, but I only know what followed!

Rohan and Rahul were both badly injured. They were packed into the Police Jeep and we were asked to follow on our bikes. Their 2 bikes were left behind on that Country Road! We were taken to the nearest city where Rohan and Rahul were admitted into the hospital. We checked into a small Lodge but sleep was impossible! We trekked over to the small Meter Gauge Railway Station nearby and over endless cups of Tea had a sobering discussion on Ride Discipline and the dangers of Night Riding. Nix was making tasteless homophobic jokes when I had first spoken up 2 hours back but now he was a different person. He was listening and agreeing! In the morning, we went over to see Rohan and Rahul who were all bandaged up. Rohan in particular was badly stiched up. 2 days later, doctors ruled that they couldnt ride anymore and had to return to Mumbai for further treatment. Nix and Me retrieved their bikes from that Country Road and sent it by Truck back to Mumbai.

3 days later, it was just Me and Nix who rode ahead. We had to take a night halt at a small gurudwara enroute at which point Nix also decided to drop out. So in the end, It was just me who road ahead of Kiratpur Sahib. I did the Ladakh circuit solo after all and finally ended my ride 29 days later at Ambala.

Both Rahul and Rohan still carry physical scars from that night to this day. Rohan’s speech is impaired and doctors say that is permanent. More recently, his memory is failing him and he is 2 years younger than me! We dont know if it is related to the injuries sustained that night! Nix has never ridden or driven at night since and Rahul has not ridden at all! I did a couple of night rides/drives since but in very controlled environments. Did Bangalore to Pune once and another time from Simla to Chandigarh both times in the Gypsy.

A lot of things can and do go wrong when doing long road trips. It is more challenging to deal with these issues post dark than in daylight. It is also substantially more risky after Dark when crossing Central India. But heres the thing – We dont need to ride/drive at night. All we need is a little discipline. I prefer making early morning starts at 5am and looking for a place to stay by 5pm.

Old fashioned. Conservative. All True! But Better to be safe and enjoy the ride no?