oh my i forgot to post my snap.
my bike is the Royal Enfield Himalayan- just 900 kms old.
suresh ride is a bullet classic 350 just 1000 odd kms old
satish's ride is a bullet classic 350 10000 kms old
Ramjii's bike is a pulsar 150, 10 years young !!!
PREPARATION - when the idea of the ride was put into words there were many friends who wanted to come along. one by one they opted out citing different problems. ramji, me, suresh and satish were confirmed from the beginning.
the himalayan was launched in the mean time and i fell in love once again. read a lot about it in the internet got deeply in love. decided to book one. hinted it to wifey and she vetoed the idea immediately. tried to get a TD from ss motors kannur. since they had the monopoly in RE they treated me like...... yes that 4 letter word. next tried to get a TD at calicutwith no luck. then lady luck smiled and a new RE showroom opened in kannur. went there clandestinely one day with satish and my daughter, TD ied the bike and booked it. when wifey was informed later BOOM!!!
. some how pacified her. suresh too didn't have a good bike so me and satish forced him to book a bullet classic 350.(he had been thinking of buying a bullet 350 but was undecided )
the waiting period for the himalayan was 4 months and the bullet classic 350 red was 2- 2.5 months. we begged , pulled strings etc to speed up the delivery and had the bullet delivered in 6 days and the himalayan in 1 month. next the registration of the bikes was another problem. here in kannur you can lay your hands on the rc in minimum of a months time. again we begged then pulled strings and had it in our hands in 6 days. RC was needed to book our bikes in the railways.
we then booked tickets to delhi for 5 people.
GETTING PERMISSION - I was sure that my wife would insist on coming along that i made satish book 5 tickets to delhi. when i told her about the ride she was BOOM BOOM !!!! she started fuming. all hell broke loose at home.she tried to dissuade me in many ways. its too dangerous what if you had an accident ???? who is there for me and our kids ?? what can i do all alone when you are not at home ?? but my daughter was on my side
she tried her hand in getting her mom to let me go. and then one fine day one of my pals rang me up to tell me about his drive to ladakh. when i told him about the situation at home and the possibility of me skipping the ride he told me -" rajivetta onnukondum pedikkenda. ente veetilum ee bookambam okke undayirunnu. pakshe ellam thirichuvannappol shariyayi" (brother rajeev don't you worry. i too had the same earthquake at home . but it all got sorted out on my return) well that was it come what may i decided to go.
satish did a master stroke and got his wifey's permission. he took her to a jewellery shop and bought her a heavy gold chain while she was in cloud nine and was in a very loving mood he told her about his dream of going to ladakh. she consented without much resistance. he didn't tell her how he was going to ladakh though.
when she came to know about it later she too tried her level best to get satish off the ride. there was emotional tactics too. one fine morning satish' elder daughter rang him up an cryingly told him not to go to ladakh. but satish told her that it was his life's dream and wouldn't drop it. next it was the second daughter who asked him the same.he could hear his elder one crying in the background. then the second daughter gave back the phone to mama saying " patti parangittu kelkunnilla "
( dog he isn't listening )