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[20 Dec 2004|05:09pm] |
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A-Ha - Take On Me |
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It was a 4am start on a freezing winter day. The intention, of course, was to cover the 100 odd kilometers (by bike) to Modhera in pitch-black-ness and be there in time for the sunrise. I was definitely out of my mind...!
Numerous unscheduled stops by roadside chai stalls in a vain attempt to ward off the icy cold ensured that sunrise happened on a lonely stretch of highway. It was still beautiful. Wait till the snaps come out.
Modhera eventually arrived (it seems presumptious to say I arrived there) at 7am. The next 4 hours passed by in a series of photographs melting into one another. Breakfast, at 11, was a lost cause- Deep-fried-super-oily batata vadas.
More butt-sore-ofying riding got me to Patan at 12. More photographs melted into each other...
Lunch was tasteless dal and leatherwork roti at a roadside dhaba some 20 kilometers from Patan. I remember some mindless conversation with a bunch of truck drivers who insisted that I must be a firang since I was toting around a camera, extra lenses, a tripod and bits and peices of other equipment. They said something to the effect that no Indian in his right mind would do that. The fact that I was biking it all the way just seemed to clinch matters for them. Never mind that my participation in the conversation was in fluent Gujarati. For some strange reason that didn't count...!
The outskirts of Ahmedabad at 5.30pm seemed like an oasis in the desert. Butt-sore and ride-weary I wolfed down some dinner, which I barely remember, and called it an early night. After the first few hours of biting cold the weather was pleasant and the roads, excellent. At the end of the day this is my idea of fun. Wait till the snaps come out.
Of course, there's the small matter of a butt-replacement surgery but we won't go into that here...
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