23rd Nov: Kolkata to Reliance A1

23rd Nov: Kolkata to Reliance A1

I am surrounded by a million insects and mosquitoes. National Highway No 34 is bang in front of me and trucks are zooming in and out of this Reliance petrol pump cum A1 restaurant. And yes, its dark, 8:30pm and we are somewhere in West Bengal, around 236kilometers from Kolkata and around 65 short of a place called Farakka. And yes, this is also our night stop and we will be sleeping out in the open, on cots, and being served fresh and juicy to the above mentioned insects, mosquitoes and other similar species. And you guys thought GIR is all above being in the comfort of hotels and members’ houses. After the comfort of Kolkata, where we stayed in a place nothing short of a heritage building, where the beds were comfortable and big enough to challenge any good hotel, it has been a complete contrast for us here. Ofcourse we were warned of the conditions ahead in Kolkata but things hardly work out for us when it comes to leaving early in the morning. We woke up at 8am, got to packing by 9am and finally left the place at 11am, but were still in city limits by 12 noon.

To make matters worse, we came to know that one of the GIR laptops was left behind at the house we were staying. This triggered a verbal war between us and Ashish took the responsibility of going back, fetching it and catching up with us later in the day.

The initial 30-40kms on the NH-34 were full of chaos, unorganized traffic with cycles and pedestrians all over place.

And how can I forget pot-holes, the biggest I had seen on the GIR. The quality of tarmac though was too good, broken often by deep crater type pot-holes. I also knew we had less than five hours of daylight, as this being east, sun goes down quite early. Sunny today was in the back up vehicle, as we had left the Fireblade back in Kolkata, Sunil and me on the two Blazes and Ashish somewhere behind on the Comet with the laptop.

Sunny had done a great thing by getting rolls and puffs for everyone in Kolkata and getting some packed for the way too. Sunil and me were riding together and did stop a couple of times for the back up vehicle to catch up but it didn’t and we finally stopped before a railway crossing, at a small shack, where we ordered tea and waited for the rest to catch up.

The break lasted for one hour and Ashish still hadn’t caught up, so we decided to leave and head to Behrampore, which we hit when the sun was going down.

Ashish at that point was around 45mins behind us and back in Kolkata, members had told us about the Reliance A1 pumps before Farakka, where we could stay the night as it made sense. There was no good city around that place and hence no hotel and we wanted to stay away from the regular dhabas. And did I tell you, in the last 50kms we did, we came across atleast 10 police jeeps, and equal number of cops with guns patrolling the highway.

So here we are, it’s been close to two hours since we came. Ashish too came in an hour back on the Comet, which was smoking (probably running too rich a mixture). My Blaze’s rear rim is badly bent, which happened when I went into a foot deep crater at good speeds. Food was a veg thali affair and sleep will be a ‘cot in the open’ affair. The mosquito cream we took in Delhi will be made to good use today and the GIR jackets will make sure our bodies remain warm. The hills are still more than a day away and Siliguri seems to the night stop tomorrow. After days of being spoilt by some very hospitable people in Kolkata, it’s back to reality for us here. What’s incredible is that there is ample network coverage even in such parts of the country. Signing off from ‘under the stars’….