all my life i've wanted to do a honest to goodness road trip. to be true, my fascination began with all the trashy american teen flicks and their ideas of coming to age. on November 20, 2010 i, shivani saksena, actually had a short but very interesting road trip.
second term@xl has been bucket loads of fun. after the depressing beginning and frustrating ending of term 1, term 2 has been rather nice to me(touch wood). this particular month of november will always remain special. first a beach vacation and then this. oh i love this november!
if i were to start at the starting, mr menon came up with this idea of a half a day trip to Dasam falls(40km outside ranchi-about 100 or so from XL) and all of readily agreed. for some reason, we decided to begin early(smart decision-the highway early morning is wow!). at 5:40am, we were all set to leave. mr menon with Kottana, Dexter with SN, Badal with SK and i was with KK. or should i say, i was with KK and Padmini? ;)
since i can't make this a really boring travelogue, i'm throwing in what my excitement was all about-Padmini is a very stately Royal Enfield Thunderbird!! i could've gushed about it, if anyone were really listening but then again, whatever.
KK and i were leading the pack coz we kept cruising averaging about 75-80kmph while the rest were almost crawling averaging 40kmph! the drive at 6 in the morning is an experience. with a heavy sweat shirt and hood covering all of my head except my face, i could still feel the chill. the wind really talks to you at that speed. the highway from jamshedpur to ranchi (NH 33)is a a good road except in patches where it is becomes unbearable but otherwise the two lane highway is a built for a good ride.
on my way to dasam falls my camera kept clicking...the fog covered mountains, endless fields of freshly harvested crops, a very beautiful sunrise, an idyllic temple built on the banks of the many rain fed rivers we crossed, yellow fields covered in hay and mustard blossoms, a tomato market, small villages on the edge of civilization yet untouched in their life, an ancient devi temple called Deori Devi, cliffs that rose high yet didn't intimidate and yes, whatever else caught my fancy. my only regret is that by the time i'd focus and click, we'd have moved further ahead and so many of my pictures are of mundane trees that only i know hide a beautiful sight.
with 3pit stops on our way there, we took a total of 2hours and a half. the last 15kms to dasam is off the highway and into the hinterlands of jharkhand. the road is well built but like i mentioned, the life there is still disconnected from urban development.
some 10 into our journey, i was bothered by the utter silence we were traveling in. i wasn't sure if it was really a comfortable silence or just lack of conversation on either side. when i finally muttered up the courage to ask KK if he'd like to talk on our way there, i got a very classy answer that i probably wouldn't forget for a long time. he said, "lady if you wanted to talk, u picked the wrong guy. i like my bike rides in silence."
silence suited me just fine. i got to sing to myself, pray a little, sort issues in my head and just be quiet. with padmini roaring like she does, i didn't need conversation. the world passing me by was a blur at moments when i'd just lose myself to the wind, the roar and peace. oxymoronic life, isn't it?
dasam falls were a real sight. fallin from 144feet high marble rocks, it looked quite an enchanting place. it is actually well maintained and given how some places are cluttered and dirty, this was quite the opposite. climbing down the stairs to the bottom of the falls, we made our camp and went about doing whatever it was one wished to do. i went as close as i could to the smaller falls that make dasam falls. the rocks were very slippry and losing one's footing is the easiest thing. dexter was the only one who joined me in fall exploratory mode while most went off rock climbing. it was only later that we joined them. i am not particularly fond of rock climbing coz it manages to very vocally prove to me how badly out of shape i am. but i persevered. with mr menon and dexter being good support however idiosyncratically.
after one slip, i realised i shouldn't push the bar too far for me and stayed back from further climbing. the guys though went all the way to the top of the falls. what a sight it must've made! i was happy enough sitting on the ledge of with my feet in the splashing water and just staring into space. i never realised how much i'd missed my thoughtless staring into space until i spent a good part of the morning doing just that today. most people here dnt know my moods. they especially don't know my silence. but i do. and i liked the thoughless moments. and to think of it, i wasn't on the ground, i wasn't in the air...i was sitting on a rock ledge under a waterfall in the middle of the jungles of jharkhand. wow!
the drive back was quite uneventful as such but the longest i've had. KK and i drove non stop back to college(one 5minute break doesn't count) and that means sitting on the bike in the same position continuously for a little less than two hours with nothing to do and a sun to hide from. if i look for a reason why i still loved it, i wouldn't have a clue. i just did. it could be doing the diva scarf and shades routine or it could be the exhaustion wearing off under the wind. i dnt know.
the trip has one extra special moment for me. it was when KK didn't see a pothole and padmini obviously jerked hard. my instant reaction when i drive is to talk to my car and make it up to her. KK did the exact same thing. touching.
ps: photos in next blog post...i still hv2load em!!
this slightly tilted drawing is dedicated to the endless economic classes of term II that taught me as much economics as it made me sleep n draw :D
so tonight, sitting at bishuda(midnight food haven), while i gorged on french toast, my friend muddled up the courage to tell me the real reason why I am fat-cause I eat randomly-whenever and whatever. so touched as i was by the concern n the dawn(i keep forgeting, or keep making myself forget) of this knowledge, i sulked. a little. i closed the open box of cookies on my desk and decided to be better at it. then i started writing this entry and just writing about food has cheered me up!
