April 9th, 2011

Hi I am Tanendra, a member of Rolling Wheels Bikers Club. Rolling Wheels got registered as the 1st open BIKERS CLUB IN KOLKATA (INDIA) in January. Now I can proudly say that Rolling Wheels is not only bound to our locality at Dunlop or in North 24Prgs, it’s a national level Motorcycle touring club who has an increasing list of potential members. Sorry, Rolling Wheels is not a club of members; it’s a family where our heart beats at the same pace. Hope you guys had enough fun last winter in Nepal. Didn’t you? Sadly I missed the tour. But now….even I have something to cheer about. Let me tell you about that.

Recently, we stuck up with a plan for a short trip. But where to? We cannot rule out the possibilities of any danger on road in this election timing. Then where? Let’s make it to a known place, Mandarmoni. You might be thinking Mandarmoni is just another common place, why not any other place. Now, there is a twist, we decided to make the trip on the Holi festival. The Holi festival at Mandarmoni is something worthwhile and also this place just too good for a weekend trip in this upcoming summer.

19th March is Holi, so we decided to kick off on 18th . Three of our members started early in the morning at about 6’O clock and headed towards Mandarmoni. I had already taken leave from my office and started packing my luggage. At about 2 pm, I was ready and headed towards Rolling Wheels club premises at Dunlop. I had a few issues with my bike’s headlight. Bishwa and Krishnendu da sorted it out quite easily. See!! That’s why we call it a family. Here everyone helps each other. No need to ask.

Wait! I forgot to introduce you with my bike. I own a Pulsar 180 UG4. I call it ‘Dark Stallion’. Trust me, it’s my best pal & has never failed me. Now ‘Dark Stallion’ is ready with HID headlights of 4300K. Everything’s running fine. It is also waiting for my command to rule the road with other RWians.

Meanwhile, Somjeet arrived at the club with his antique Bullet 350. It’s antique because it would be 50 years by next year but still it’s a roaring lion when put on highways. It was about 3’O clock noon we got a call back from one of the three members who has left early in the morning, stating that there’s no room left in Mandarmoni or Shankarpur. All rooms were booked. As suggested by Krishnendu da, they headed for Digha to find rooms for us. Meanwhile, Bapi da arrived with his Bullet 350std. He declared that he won’t be able to be a part of this trip. Time rolled on…

It’s 6 pm evening and still no news from those three members. Our confidence was put on test. Oh sorry! I just forgot to introduce the three guys. It’s Rathin da with his Ninja 250, Kedar and Bobby da on Bullet 350. Remember them? Rathin da and Kedar were participants in our Nepal trip 2010 and Bobby da is Kedar’s elder brother. Its lucky to get him in this trip. The BSF Jawan has come to Kolkata on a holiday & never had imagined his holiday to turn up so bright. They are now on a roomhunt for us. At about 8 pm, we got a call from Kedar confirming that they had finally managed to get one room. One room for 10 people !!! Not too good but there were no options left. Hurray!!! Now our nerves relaxed a bit. Everyone took a deep breath and just as we looked up in the sky, it was dark with clouds. Oh God! We don’t need a shower now.

Luckily there was no rain that night. Still for more affirmation we planned to start at 1’O clock at night. Meanwhile the other members arrived. The team finally stood

Krishnendu da with a Bullet 350.

Bishwa with his Karizma

Pritam with his Karizma

Jayanta da as pillion with Krishnendu da & vice versa.

Somjeet with his Bullet 350std

Me in my Pulsar 180 UG4.

Kedar & Bobbyda in their Bullet 350std

Rathinda with his Ninja 250

Tirtho, one of the active tourers was missing this trip due to his officework. We all requested him for his participation but it was not possible from his part. Bapida too couldn’t participate. So two expected members were not available.

It was a dark night with thunder roaring above. Now it’s almost 12’O clock & the sky began to clear up a bit. With a sign of good weather, a glittering smile sparkled on all faces. Ronnie rolled in with his Thunderbird. He has come to see us off. Nice, but it would have been nicer to have him with us in this trip. Time passed with numerous pranks & mischiefs. Now it’s almost 1:15am at night when Krishnendu da called for kick off. Yippee!!! Not too late than our scheduled departure. We decided our formation rather position in the queue. Ah, again I forgot to tell you that we generally follow a typical queue formation while riding. That is considering the first bike as lead bike, the second will follow the tail of it and be at the left of it and the third will be right of the second bike and so on. It helps to manage the team properly and does not obstruct any members visibility. Back again, the lead bike was Krishnendu da. My position was 2nd and following me was Somjeet and rest following in the same pattern. Tail was done by Bishwa and the most vital role of communicator was accomplished by Pritam. His general position is always 2nd last. After filling in fuel from a petrol station nearby, we rolled towards the NH6 (Mumbai Road). It was a happy rolling till I made a blunder of passing through two trucks coming in opposite directions. Well, I later had enough thunderbolts from the seniors for this. Speed was maintained at about 70-80Kmph. My Stallion’s headlight was giving better luminosity than expected. Thanks to Krishnendu da and Bishwa. Our first pit stop was Sher-E-Punjab in Kolaghat. It was almost 3.00am. We had a fantastic dinner there with alu parathas and cold drinks. We decided not to roll until daylight clears up the darkness. At about 5AM sunlight lit up the entire horizon. We started off again breaking the boredom of Somjeet who was continuously pushing Krishnendu da to kick off.

It’s 19th March 2011, it’s Holi. We expected showering of colors from roadside….and we were right!! After passing Nandakumar, where the bad stretch of road starts, children along with their parents started bombarding color filled balloons on us. It was hard to drive on that bad road condition and to make matters worse was the bombardment. Amazed!! I tried to maneuver from such one situation and ended up almost colliding head-on with a mini truck. Thank God!! It was a very close shave for me. After that I gave up any attempt to resist coloring. Let them do, at least I won’t die. One funny incident was some children threw one balloon toward Bishwa and after hitting him it bounced back to the sender itself. Now that child will never throw balloons on a biker. He got his reward. We stopped for a fag break. Bishwa and Pritam was too eager to rev up their machines that they zoom past us and all I could see was their tail lamps diminishing to the horizon. At about 8AM we reached Digha. Pritam and Bishwa was waiting for us and had reached their long before.

All bikes gathered in the old digha crossing. Krishnendu da was trying hard to contact kedar for the exact location of the hotel. After trying for about 15 min, kedar responded in a sleepy voice. No doubt, he was sleeping. He gave us directions towards the hotel in New Digha and said that he would wait for us to arrive. The engines roared and we headed towards New Digha. As committed, Kedar was found waiting outside the hotel to receive us. We parked our bikes and hurried towards our room and what we found was astonishing. The room was in the first floor and it was too small to accommodate our entire team of ten. Even then, the manager was asking for 3000 bucks for a day for that room. Mind it, its Holi when the Hotel rates goes sky high. However, after 20 long mins of hard negotiation, Krishnendu da managed to settle it at 2600 bucks. It was a relief to us all. Suddenly, Rathin da entered with a handful of fried seafish & two bottles of Rum & whisky and declared, “Let’s drink to the honour of getting a room”. In his response we weren’t a miser either & had plenty of them.

After our ‘Drink & Toast’ a tragic incident followed.

I went to bathe & all the colours & the dust I had on me was washed out. With a tired & sleepy body I went for a brief powernap. When I woke up, it was 12.30pm and I saw bobby da waiting beside by bed to colour me up once again. He did it and I saw green & red colours mixed up to form a brownish layer on all my hair & face. He then almost dragged me outside the hotel where others were waiting. They all took turns to colour me up. I also borrowed some colours from them & coloured them too. I had no option left but to bathe again. Krishnendu da asked me if I would accompany them to the sea for a bath, but I was slight hesitant as I feared Sea waves. Hearing this krishnendu da almost carried me to the sea in spite of my several refusals, He said ‘nothing is too late to learn’. He then took me into the sea. Trust me, I was never so afraid like then, but I had faith on krishnendu da. For the first few waves, it was quite impossible for me to stand and some gulps of seawater entered my stomach, but after a few waves, I found myself standing firm on the sand despite of the huge waves. I made it. I have learnt how to withstand waves. Thanks Krishnendu da, once again it is proved we are a family where everyone is beside the other. After having bathed for quite some time we returned to our hotel room. It’s enough late already & we needed to hurryup for lunch.

After lunch, needless to say, we were all so tired that we couldn’t resist ourselves lying on the bed. Although there was a TV provided in the room, no one paid attention to it. Time rolled on & we had some memorable time spent amongst us playing pranks & sharing tour experiences. At around 3 pm, Krishnendu da received a phone call & rejoiced soon after. ‘It’s Bapi!!!! He’s Here’, he yelled & ran down to receive Bapida who was waiting somewhere on the road nearby. Meanwhile, a second call came to Bishwa and he declared,’Tirtho’s coming…He’s on the way & expected to reach by 6pm’. Finally, the initially planned team seemed fulfilled.

Bapi da couldn’t restrict himself in his home when some of his clubbies are enjoying the seaside. His visit was spontaneous but very short. He stayed with us for about a couple of hours and then bid goodbye and started off for Kolkata. At around 5.30pm we decided to visit the beach market. Bishwa & Somjeet went to the nearby ATM (which was almost a km away from the hotel) and they also received Tirtho on the way. Meanwhile, I along with Kedar, Krishnendu da, Bobbyda, Pritam & Jayanta da went out to enjoy the evening. I and Kedar bought some shell Jewellary & Decorative for our home & met up with others at a Kwality Swirl stall where we had some mouthwatering icecreams. With our belly’s full, we headed towards the beach. Wait a second!! Isn’t today the Super Moon day??? What a beauty!! The golden moonlight glittering on the sea like numerous gems laid on a plain. Awesome nature!! Meanwhile, Tirtho arrived at the beach with Bishwa & Somjeet. Now the party was at its best.

We sat on the boulders beside the seashore. Bishwa, Pritam & Tirtho revealed their singing talent. Trust me, there was no boredom even after spending four long hours there. Then we hurried towards our restaurant for dinner. We almost ordered all the non-veg dishes but all tastes the same. Awful experience!! A piece of advice…’Never trust Dighas food’. After finishing our dinner we returned to our hotel room. Then, under Krishnendu da’s supervision I and Somjeet cleaned up the room floor, to accommodate some members there.

We went to sleep about 12’O clock at night so that we can start early the very next day.

When I woke up, I found everybody busy packing up their bags. I also hurried to the bathroom to have my morning job done. Due to those decoratives that I had bought last night I had to arrange another bag. All packed up, I, Krishnendu da, Jayanta da were almost ready. Suddenly, I heard a chaos in the corner of the room, it was because Pritam went to finish his morning job & two other members waiting outside holding their pain, but as usual Pritam took his time & till then the chaos continued. We had some funny moments spent in the course. After handing over the room keys to the manager we headed for the restaurant to have our breakfast. Some of us took butter toast & I personally took Kochuri, which I am very fond of. After finishing our breakfast, we started our way back to Kolkata. It was almost 9.00 am. Our first pit stop was in Nandakumar. After having a cigarette each we started again. The ride was quite smooth and our second pit stop at Sher-E- Punjab in Kolaghat. We had some south Indian dishes like Idli Sambar & some delicious rose flavoured Lassi. Then we started again for our home at about 12 noon We needed to reach home earlier to 2pm since we had a India Vs West Indies world cup match coming up. The entire NH6 stretch was covered very rapidly maintaining high speeds. We had to give a halt midway near Dhulagarh toll plaza where we happened to meet a Belgian traveler on a Bullet 500std. Tirtho exchanged phone nos. with him & we learnt from him that he has come all the way from Belgium to India and is planning to leave for South Africa in a few days. Whoops!!! What a tourer!!

Finally we reached our club premises at 2pm sharp. One thing I learnt from this trip was how to manage Time & Space. I went home longing to be back with my clubbies in the next Trip or Tour. That’s why I consider Rolling Wheels to be a prized family.

THREE CHEERS FOR ROLLING WHEELS….

HIP HIP…