Chandigarh

In order to beat the morning traffic I left the hostel by around 7 am. In between I got lost a bit in the city and when I approached a cop, he asked if I was going to ride all the way to chandigarh. When I told him about my journey thus far, he got excited and rode along with me until the outskirts in his patrol vehicle and wished me good luck. On reaching the highway, I stopped at a Dhaba for breakfast. The guy served me two aloo parathas with a chunk of butter melted on top of it accompanied by thick curd (plain yoghurt) and pickles. In addition to that I had two cups of chai. For all of the above he charged me Rs.48 only. Since Chandigarh wasn’t too far away, I thought I’ll ride slowly in an effort to boost the mileage (km/ltr) of my motorcycle. The roads were great right throughout and I stopped at McDonalds somewhere in the outskirts of Chandigarh. The place was filled with rich Punjabi kids and even a politician who came in with police escorts. It was about 3 pm and I tried reaching Jojo, another of Eashwar’s biking friend. As per his suggestion I managed to find a place for Rs.300/night and its called Gulati Bhavan. The room was 15’ X 20’, furnished with a huge queen size bed and an attached bathroom. Couldn’t ask for a better deal. Jojo worked in night shifts, so I we decided to meet up for dinner.

My only rendezvous with this great city is during my third year of Under Graduation wherein we learnt about the city in Contemporary Architecture. It was designed by Le Corbusier, who is also the mastermind behind most of the public buildings in this small city. There was a main arterial road which was intercepted by various cross roads, dividing the city into sectors. The city was very neat with wide roads and I even saw a lot of young women burning the tarmac in their motorbikes. Remembering a little from college, I visited the Assembly building and the Court complex and managed to click a few pictures too. Few security personnel did not take it in kind and I managed to convince them that I was a student (had my ASU Student ID card in my wallet). A torch and a small rucksack was missing in my utility kit, which took me to the shopping complex (I think Sec #17). Very efficiently planned, the entire shopping complex is centralised in a square with ample parking.

Finally met Jojo for dinner, which led us to a restaurant called Sher-e-Punjab. It was more than 10 days since I had any non-veg or alchohol and I was craving for some good food. After a quick pint of KF, we went down to the basement for food, where we were joined by another friend of Jojo’s. He did the ordering and I did all the eating. Wow, excellent afghani chicken kebab followed heavily buttered naan, butter chicken and rajma. I couldn’t breathe after the feast and found it very difficult to sleep! The next morning Jojo was kind enough to come by and send me off as I headed to the enchanting Manali.

Day 13- Ahmedabad

Having got up at around noon, i decided to walk around the neighbourhood. I hadnt imagined Ahmedabad to be such a big Metro. One thing I noticed was that, traffic signals were non existent even in wide main roads, and the traffic absolutely chaotic at junctions.I was hungry now and wanted to have the local food. First had a glass of Lassi (sweet yogurt drink), which they called Lachchi. Yummy it was and gave me energy to walk around for another half an hour. I was disappointed that I was unable to find restaurants serving authentic Gujarati thali. The neighborhood was an upbeat one and therefore the restaurants a tad too expensive for my liking. Didnt want to take a chance, so barged into a McD to have fassssssssssst food.

The evening was filled with meaningful conversation with my wonderful hosts as we got to know about each other. I was even offered a glass of single malt (im in a dry state u see ;-)). How did i forget to mention Vikram Jr, the cool banglorean kid in the household! Later in the evening we paid visit to a CS gathering organised by Leo at his friends place. As expected it was a bachelors paradise and all of us did have some real gud fun. Leo is another guy who argued in my favour in the CS forum and it was a good gesture for him to have invited me to their party. Later we realised his house is in the same apartment block that I lived in Cochin for the past one year and here we meet in Ahmedabad in the strangest of circumstances. What a small world!!!! We reached home at about 12 i think and spicy Punjabi food was awaiting us. Parathas with keema was excellent, but very very hot n spicy. Just thinking about it tickles my tatse buds! Crashed in full stomach!