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Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Motorcycle Diaries



                                          


Vroom Vroom friends!!! 

I am Sumedha Bhattacharyya, with roots in Kolkata, a Member of JPC (Jaipur Photographers Club) and pursuing B-tech in ECE. Photography and Classical Dance are my hobbies. I have been learning from the age of 5. I am a disciple of Pt Birju Maharaj under the guidance of Guru Saswati Sen from 6 years. Now lets start with the story...









On an “ Inelastic “ Sunday morning,  the most lethargic mornings of a week, where all kinds of procrastinations are at its peak,  this Sunday ,Jeypore Bike Riders in collaboration with Jaipur photographers club planned for a different Sunday altogether, @6 am in the morning, that too on a monsoon-ish weather But what was so different that day? …

 Pink Square, was never so deserted, where we the JPCians met & headed to Dhobiyon ka Chauraha near Jal Mahal, where we waited for the “so-heard-about” bikers. Our gossiping was interrupted by the diacritic sound of debonair bikes that approached (no offence, Bikers!) Duke, Honda, Bullet is what I can recall.   And finally, an unknown journey started on Jaipur-Delhi highway. 

Bikers paved the way for us, and we followed them. I had never seen such heavy bikes together. So I was sitting upright and taking glances from the backseat. Sometimes we overtook them, and when I turned, I could see all the bikes with their glowing headlights, all the bikes in a diagonal in dawn, picturesque!!! I had preconceived that this ride will go on the highway only for about 100kms at most from the town, and, and we would get down and take photographs etc... But suddenly and unexpectedly the bikes turned left leaving the slick highway… from here started the real journey.

Roads got narrow & treacherous and then we found a wide open space took the ritualistic group photo. Meanwhile as all the bikes were at one place, I had a closer look at all of them, who knows after this when I would actually be able to see them together!!

And then we decided that we would stop at a favorable location and the bikers will come in five minutes after us so that we can be in position to pull the trigger and shoot them. So this is how it went.  We crossed some villages and the road started winding along the hills.  We positioned ourselves for the shoot. The bikes with the lights on zipped through… what an experience. Soon after them we continued and we reached the advent of a spectacular village, Chaapradi…  And as we dug in more through the roads, narrower it was getting and all of a sudden roads vanished and here we encountered crevice-prone area, hats off to our valiant car Xylo which managed to go through, Annnnd… that’s when the real action began, the rainy weather also added to the fun of the off road trail. Soon the terrain changed to hilly, and bikers ameliorating their skills rode through the rough rocky track. We photographers (oops moto-graphers!) again found ourselves new spots in these terrains to click and click and click…

Spending some time together we headed to a new trail with altogether a different terrain, but unfortunately we couldn’t get into the trail as the start of the trail was blocked by the farmers. The disappointment suddenly made us realize of the scorching heat and the humidity. So we bid the JBR gang good bye!!  But with a promise from them for more of such collaborative walks in future and have to be bigger too.


This walk not only gave me an opportunity as an individual to meet new people, but also steered in me a greater fascination for bikes. I witnessed they are not only symbols of aristocracy but can be taken as a passion too by people from all walks of life...!!! 








SUMEDHA