Mumbai - Kutch Trip: Travelogue

Travelogue:
Trip: Mumbai (Borivli) to Kutchh (Mundra) and back.
Dates: 21st and 22nd November 2007 from Mumbai to Kutchh; 25th and 26th November 2007 for return journey.
Distance covered: approximately 1700 kilometers.
Duration on road: approximately 22 hours on way.
Number of people: One - Me and myself.
Machine: Splendor plus, 100c pony.

Diwali 2005: I get an idea to take a road trip from Mumbai to Kutchh on bike

October 2007: My parents go to Kutchh. It was ideal time to execute this plan. My uncle agrees to join me. I don’t look for bigger group.

03rd November 2007: I ride my bike from Pune to Mumbai to hand it over to maintenance and some art work. I am expected to get bike back on 18th November.

18th November 2007: I call up the garage owner. He promises bike would be ready on 20th. I talk to my manager and apply for leave.

20th November 2007: I leave for Mumbai at 9am. By 5 pm I am all packed for the journey. I got to my uncle’s place in Borivli. He drops of the trip because of some personal matters. I decide to carry on. The mechanic says the bike is not yet ready. I go to check and find it in pieces. I ask him to assemble and hand over the bike in whatever state it is. He delivers the bike at my uncle’s place at 2300 hours.

21st November 2007: I set out at 0715 hours. My odometer reads just under 9900kms. There are a few shortcomings at the beginning of the journey:

• I didn’t have a valid PUC certificate.
• The pillion tire of my bike had been damaged of a puncture some 4000kms ago; the mechanic was unable to find a suitable replacement tire anywhere around. I was riding on a huge risk of bike getting punctured.
• I was not carrying any equipment to set right a flat tire. I would have to rely on puncture setters if any of the tires went flat on the way.
• I had not informed many people about my journey. Though I kept messaging about my whereabouts to my uncle regularly.
• I had very limited first aid in case of troubles.
• I had no road-maps; just name of the towns that I ‘might’ pass during the journey.
• I was going to face cold at mornings times during the journey; I wasn’t sure if I was adequately equipped to fight that.
• I just had Rs500 cash with me when I started.
• I wasn’t in the best of my health; I suffered from a little cough and cold.

0830 hours: I am close to Charoti, almost 85kms done. Finally I find a station where I can get PUC done. Though the person charges me double of normal charge, I have to have the certificate. I also take some rest before proceeding.

0915 hours: My bike odometer reads 10,000kms – milestone for me and my machine. I have consumed around 2 hours so far and covered only 100kms. I need to speed up.

1100 hours: I am almost 50kms from Kadodra (A small town near Surat). The roads have started to turn bad mainly because of the infrastructure development work. But the traffic is light hence I don’t face much problems.

1230 hours: I am close to Surat. That is where I fill up my wallet and my tummy with some yummy food. My break would last for almost 1 hour and I am off to Vadodara.

1530 hours: I am over the Narmada River. Its picturesque beauty compels me to take a halt at the bridge and take a few pictures.

1630 hours: I enter the Vadodara city.

1730 hours: I reach my aunt’s house after a lot of direction seeking. Thankfully I did not have to revert back any time through my journey. I have covered almost 425 kms. I call it a day here. I seek directions for the onward journey.

22nd November 2007: I set out at 0630 hours. I head towards Anand.

0645 hours: I have taken a wrong path. I have traveled 6 kms on expressway between Vadodara Ahmadabad. Bikes are not permitted on this road. The cops at the toll booth send me back. I lost 15 minutes.

0800 hours: I have traveled 60kms from Vadodara. Bagodara is another 80 odd kms far.

0915 hours: I reach Bagodara - time for a break. I fill up my tummy there. Next stop Limbdi – 41 kms.

1000 hours: I reach Limbdi – need some fuel for bike. I seek directions at gas station. The station manager advices different route, instead of the NH8A. The new route is shorter, that would save 50kms of travel.

1200 hours: I reach Halvad – its time for some re-fuelling my bike and myself. I need to travel only another 200 odd kms.

1430 hours: I am crossing the small Rann of Kutchh. While I take some photographs of the place, I get message from office. I look for a phone. I meet Jignesh Patel - Civil Engineer from Morbi, supervising road construction there. It was nice interacting with him.

1530 hours: I resume my journey after sorting out the office matters.

1600 hours: I reach Samkhiyali naka. I take a break.

1700 hours: Instead of heading to Gandhidham I take bypass to Anjar. I remember the coming from there last time I returned from Kutchh. Presence of mind definitely saves another 40 odd kms and an hour long journey.

1730 hours: I cross Anjar. Now Mundra is another 40 odd kms, and my final destination would almost be that far.

1800 hours: I am 10 kms from my destination. I halt for a while. The Sun is about to set. It’s a picturesque view. I take a few pictures before moving one.

1830 hours: Mom! Dad!! Surprise!! (I am home).

25th November 2007: Time to set on to the return journey.

0630 hours: I am all set to leave. I check the tires. The pillion tire seems low on air. Need to check. I drag the bike a few meters to the naka of village. I mount it on a cart powered by 350cc beast. It seemed he was waiting for me only. But thank God. The chap proved to be a life saver. He took me straight to a gas station where I could get the tire repaired.

0745 hours: I have covered 8 odd kilometers from my starting point, not a single meter of those on my bike. The bike is repaired now and I am all set to roll.

1000 hours: My first major break from the trip so far is at Samkhiyali. I munch a bit. On the way so far I halted a couple of times to take some pictures and once to fill some fuel.

1200 hours: I am at Dhangadhra. There’s a good hotel in sight. This is going to be my lunch place today. I have done almost 200 kms since morning. I just have to cover around another 250kms. I plan to ride slow now, check the mileage of my machine.

1330 hours: It’s been almost an hour after lunch break. I cross Bhagodara. I don’t take a halt at the town but a few kms past the town. I have achieved milestone of covering 11000 kms on this bike.

1830 hours: Nothing too great in last 5 hours. I have been riding at a pace of around 50kmph, taking breaks in between for refueling my bike and my self. Right now I am on bridge of river Mahi. It’s a wonderful scene here. It seems like lover’s spot too; I can see a lot of couples and youngster around. This place is around 20kms from Vadodara.

1730 hours: I reach my destination for the day. Today, I felt more tired than usual in this journey; maybe because I traveled for longer duration (because I was riding slowly) and took shorter breaks to cover up for slow speed, or maybe it is fatigue carried over from my onward journey. I plan to start early tomorrow morning and continue at slow pace.

26th November 2007: Last leg of the journey.

0630 hours: I hit the Ahmadabad-Mumbai highway. I find a little more traffic than usual.

1130 hours: I have covered around only 200 kms in last 5 hours. There was lot of traffic; I had to get through by riding on the shoulder of the road. Thankfully there has not been much traffic problem since last 20kms. I have cross Kadodra, I won’t go to Surat. I am looking for a different spot for lunch.

1300 hours: I am around 180 kms from Mumbai. There’s a Food Island eating joint on NH8. The food was quite good.

1345 hours: I hit the road again. I decided to speed up for the last leg of the journey.

1400 hours: After another 50 kms, I was in mountainous region. The sight was wonderful in late afternoon time. I halt at places to take some pictures. For this last leg I am making almost 60kms per hour.

1700 hours: I am on Western Express Highway, Borivli, Mumbai. Officially my journey has ended.

1730 hours: Mission accomplished. Bike’s been sent for maintenance and finishing.

End Of Trip

For detailed read on the trip follow the link - http://suchhe.blogspot.com/2007/12/bike-nomad-1700kms-mumbai-kutchh-one.html

Bike-nomad: 1700kms, Mumbai - Kutchh, One man, One bike!

Prologue:
It’s a great risk... but it would be a great adventure too... it would be good to go in a group... I think 3-4 should be just fine - not more.... there should be at least two people... rather only two should make this journey on different bikes... what if the other one drops out in last moment... what about work! I may not get leave… But I want to really do it. I badly want to do it, just for the sake of it.

Yes! I was almost mad to take this decision to do it; but then that’s what differentiates adventurous from so called sane people. I may be wrong, but the adrenaline was high; so was my nervousness; but the will of mind won over sanity and I set out on bike, all alone for a journey that I had calculated to be at least 900kms one way, before actually setting out on it.

The preparations, especially the mental preparations began months ago. Rather I should say that I got the idea a couple of years ago. I hadn’t taken any long journey on bike till then and when I shared the idea with one of my uncles, to my surprise, instead of opposing the idea, he readily promised to join me. Well, the seed of this “Su-side” idea (one of my pet names happen to be SuChhe – from initials of my name, if they were to be written in Indian languages) was sowed into my mind and the idea started to develop into a plan.

Maybe I could have undertaken this journey a year back, had it not been my work that packed and sent me off away from India and my dear bike. When I was back to India a few months ago, the plan began to unfold again; I was then waiting for the right moment. My parents had to be away from home and I wanted to do it at some occasion.

This Dussera my bike completed 3 years (as per the Hindu calendar and about 3 years and a month as per English calendar). This was the occasion I was waiting for. Also my parents had gone to Kutchh for a couple of months, so there was no one to stop me from executing the plan.

On the first weekend of November, I rode the bike to Mumbai to have it serviced and the garage owner also suggested some body work (paint et al) that would give my bike a new look. I felt the occasion would be wonderful. My Silver Splendor was going to get a new look; black color with ‘fire’ design on it. The pillion seat was to get some elevation too. I didn’t want too sporty look for my bike. What was important for me was to get the machine maintained for the ride, that I had planned in last ten days of the month. Even at work I was getting a perfect window for leave and I had got it approved from my manager. The garage owner promised my bike back in two weeks on 20th. But I was about to personally experience a harsh reality; never trust garage owners with stringent deadlines.

My uncle had promised to join and I had left upto him to collect the roadmaps and needed directions. However, somewhere at the back of my mind I had a hunch that I would be traveling alone. So these two weeks, almost everyday, I was surfing out net to find the distances and roadmaps between Mumbai and Gandhidham. I had little success, but whatever information I could muster; I chalked out a plan. During my eight day leave, I planned to spend first day in Mumbai; start the actual journey on the second day; reach destination on the third day; take rest for two days; start the two day return journey again; take rest for one more day before returning to work. Almost every night during the last week before the journey, I used to mentally take a ride over this stretch. Almost every night I used to dream that I am undertaking this journey.

I was all set; I took leave from my manager (I had not told him of the feat that I was going to perform). A couple of friends, whom I told about this trip, mocked at me before getting shocked about my seriousness. Thankfully, they didn’t have any contact or whereabouts of my parents; otherwise my plan could all be foiled before even I could kick start my bike. I was pleased I was going away from my hectic work for full 8 days. A lot of things were going through my mind as I left from Pune. I couldn’t judge for myself whether it was anxiety or nervousness.

20th November 2007: I reached Mumbai. I had talked to the garage owner a day ago; he promised to deliver my bike this evening. And as per my plan I would set out on the journey the day after.

But reality was far from such expected clockwork. When I reached the garage in evening to have a look at how my bike was being clothed in its new dress; I was shocked to find, it was still stripped of its machinery. The paint work was not yet finished; I doubted, if my bike was serviced. The mechanic asked one more day. I had not time to spare. He promised to give my bike the next morning. I couldn’t take that risk either. I asked him to assemble my bike and have it sent to me that evening itself. No matter how long it takes that night.

I was done with my dinner and the clock struck 10pm. My bike was still not in sight anywhere. The mechanic was still servicing my bike. I went to bed; my plans were all going down the drain. I started imagining my self at work the next day, and my friends mocking at my foiled insanity. I was at my uncle’s place (the one who was going to accompany me at this trip); and he had stepped out of the plan some time ago, forcing me to seriously re-consider my decision. The things were not going in my favour.

Just as I was drifting into sleep; thinking of the Murphy’s Law that if the things go wrong at the beginning of a mission, rest of it has to go fine and eventless; I heard horn of a bike. My bike was at the door. I was elated. I was finally going to take the journey. I went off to sleep, pleased and excited.

21st November 2007: I had planned to start at 6am. I woke up on time, but it was still dark and my bike was running on the last liter of petrol. I had to delay my start until first light of the day broke out. I mounted my bike at around 7am and followed my uncle’s direction to nearest petrol pump. It was just under a kilometer far. And yeah! I forgot to mention - my bike odometer read 9896 kilometers. :) I was about to cross a milestone.

As I touched the Western Express Highway in Borivli, the odometer read 9900kms. My journey had begun. I was all ready and made up my mind that I was going to make to the other end. I was all set except a few shortcomings:

• I didn’t have a valid PUC certificate.
• The pillion tire of my bike had been damaged of a puncture some 4000kms ago; the mechanic was unable to find a suitable replacement tire anywhere around. I was riding on a huge risk of bike getting punctured.
• I was not carrying any equipment to set right a flat tire. I would have to rely on puncture setters if any of the tires when flat on the way.
• I had not informed many people about my journey. Though I kept messaging about my whereabouts to my uncle regularly.
• I had very limited first aid in case of troubles.
• I had no road-maps; just name of the towns that I ‘might’ pass during the journey.
• I was going to face cold during mornings during the journey; I wasn’t sure if I was adequately equipped to fight that.
• I just had Rs500 cash with me.
• I wasn’t in the best of my health; I suffered from a little cough and cold.
  

Even I wondered for a few minutes if it was a suicide mission in true sense. :)

I filled Rs100 worth of petrol and started going North after reaching Western Express Highway. The roads were quite clear because of the early morning time. It wasn’t too cold. My first goal was to get hold of some PUC station so that my paperwork would be complete in all aspect, before I entered the other state.

It was not until around 8:30am when I was close to Charoti and had done almost 90 kilometers that I managed to find a PUC station at a petrol pump. I elongated my break to almost half an hour. Though he asked me double the cost of what a PUC certificate cost; I didn’t want to take any risk. I got the document made and moved on. Soon I also crossed another landmark. My bike odometer read a 5 digit number (10,000 kms) for the first time. So far there were no glitches during the journey. Except that I was a bit slow. I had done a little over a 100 kms only in two hours.

It was time for me to race a little. I started racing my pony to 70kmph. After a non-stop ride for almost another 50 minutes, it was time for a break. I was close to Valsad. The NH8 so far was smooth. Roads were in good shape and thankfully I didn’t face much heavy traffic as yet. I filled up my fuel tank for another Rs100. and moved on. I was 100 kms from Surat and that was going to by my next stop for lunch.

When I was 30 kms from Surat, it was already 11:30am. To go to Surat one has to go 30kms off the NH8. I had to decide whether to ahead on an almost empty wallet or waste another one hour traveling 60kms to Surat. I decided the latter.

I filled up my wallet by half a grand and my stomach with some delicious food. Next couple of hours was going to be testing times when I had to fight sleep and head toward my destination for the day. I had to reach my aunt’s place at Vadodara before Sunset as I didn’t want to undertake night journey. I put on my music and put in a couple of chewing gums in my mouth and set on for the next 200kms.

The rest of the journey was quite eventless. I took two halts during this journey, once to fill up fuel tank for another 100 rupees and next time to take some pictures of the Narmada. It was beautiful scenery from the bridge across the river. With Sun ready to set in another couple of hours. I reached my aunt’s place at 6:15. The odometer read 10323 kilometers. I had traveled around 425 kilometers that day.

I set out to collect information for next part of the trip at a hotel close to highway. As per my original plan I was to continue to Ahmadabad and turn West on NH8. Now I was to reach Bagodara (almost 60kms from Ahmadabad), from where I was to turn due West towards the route to Gandhidham. This improvised information cut short my journey by 50kms already. Bagodara via Ahmadabad is close to 200kms, but the new shorter route to Bagodara was only 140 kms. The close-to-950kms was now cut down to a close-to-900kms journey. I went to bed early as I had to start early next morning.

22nd November 2007: This leg of journey was expected to be a little difficult as this part of the state is scarcely populated and the towns are distant. I prayed for a smooth ride and hit the road by 6:30 am.

I got to see another excellent example of the Murphy’s Law as I went onto an expressway between Vadodara and Anand where two wheelers are not allowed. My ride got extended by 12 kms as I had to travel back from the toll naka on that road and I wasted 15 minutes. But I faced no problem during the rest of the day. Instead I found another road which cut short my journey by another 50 kms. :)

Though the road to Bagodara was not as good as a highway, but it was a good smooth road. The road to Bagodara bypassed Vasad, Anand and Tarapur towns. It was almost 9.15am when I reached Bagodara. It was time for snacks. During this leg of 140 kms of road I had stopped only once to fill up the fuel and once to get directions. The roads were quite empty and I was speeding at close to 70kmph.

From Bagodara I turned West and as if I had entered biker’s paradise; I found the smoothest roads of the whole journey. There was fresh tar on that part of NH8. Also the roads were straight for kilometers together. A biker on a powerful machine would have raced closed to 100-120kmph on that road. And one could see only vast plains, filled with some 10 feet tall shrubs as far as one could see. I lazily moved on that 40kms of stretch to reach Limbdi. It was time to fill up a little fuel again. But before starting off, I asked the gas station manager about the direction to nearest ATM. I was again running out of cash. And I still thank God for that moment. When I discussed out my plan of reaching Gandhidham with the owner, he suggested me to give up the highway, instead move on to state highway. Initially I was to continue on NH8 for another 100 kms and turn left. He suggested me to take a left immediately and take route through Surendranagar, Dhangadra, and Maliya. That was where I was to resume the original route. This new route cut down another 50 kms of my journey.

I had lunch break at Dhangadra, that was a little over 140kms from Gandhidham. I found my destination coming close in my sight. I was over-joyed. It was around 2:30pm. I had resumed my journey on NH8A from Maliya towards Samkhiyali. Fresh roads were being laid there. The small Rann of Kutchh came into my sight and I decided to halt to take a few pictures. Also there was set of electricity generating windmills; never before I had got to see a windmill from so close.

And the inevitable happened. My phone buzzed; it was a message from office. I was in middle of two towns and nearest was 20kms away. I was about to move on towards Samkhiyali from where I would call up office from a STD booth. Suddenly my sight caught a young man who was standing next to his car on the shoulder of a road. On the other side of the 4 lane road, fresh tar was being laid. I asked him if I could receive a call on his number and I got my office work done over the phone.

I talked with Jignesh Patel for a while. He was a young Civil Engineer from Morbi. He used to daily came down 90 kms to supervise the laying of roads. It was quite much a hot chamber. Well! Not exactly a chamber, but Mercury almost 150 degrees C from floor (the fresh laid tar as informed by Jignesh) and another 50 odd from the ceiling (with grace of Sun God). I was happy to see the future of India in able, young and safe hands. Well, I shared a few more moments and some biscuits with Jignesh and moved on towards Samkhiyali.

After almost an hour when I was close to Gandhidham, I took a right towards Anjar, instead of going to Gandhidham. That road took me towards Mundra through town of Anjar. My village, my destination was 5 kms off the NH8A extension, some 12 kilometers from Mundra in total. When I left the highway, the Sun was about to set. And I had reached home in a few more minutes.

Of course I received lots of preaching in the two days that followed. But I loved to spend those two days, completely cut off from the rest of the world; not even bothered about how the Indian cricket team was faring at Kotla.

25th November 2007: I left my hesitant parents back at my village and started my journey back. I managed to convince my parents that the journey was going to be fine; and as faced no danger whatsoever while coming from Bombay, I promised to drive safely and reach home safely.

So I was all ready to set out at 6:30 am in the morning. But the Murphy’s Law had to once again come into action. I had not used my bike for two days and it lay open in the compound of the Guest House where I was staying. So I am not sure whether some mischievous person was culprit or was it because of bad tire, the pillion tire was having low pressure. I dragged my bike a few feet to check if it was fine for ride to nearest pump. The news was bad. Thankfully, there was a 350cc motor driven cart close to the Guest House. I mounted my machine and had it taken to the doctor. So the first 8 kilometers of my return journey were on a cart instead of my bike. But once I was all set at 0745 hours, there was no other obstacle to the journey.

The return journey was as smooth as the forward journey. This time I was aware of the directions. Yet, I took precautions to keep checking for directions whenever I took break. Also I was aware of the distances and the time I had at hand so I decided to ride at a smooth speed of 50kmph only to check the mileage of my 3 year old pony. I was glad to find that the machine still yielded more than 60kmpl. I was to spend the night at my aunt’s place in Vadodara again.

The achievement in this leg of journey was completion of overall 11000kms on my bike. This happened when I had crossed Bagodara. Vadodara was just around 150 kms from there now.

26th November 2007: I set out at 7am. This was the last leg of the journey. I continued at 50kmph for first half of the day. But I could cover distance at only 40kms per hour. The roads between Vadodara and Surat were all jammed because of the construction work. I had to ride at the shoulder of the road in order to cover the distance quickly.

Once I crossed Surat, things got better. I had lunch at Food Island, some 180kms from Borivli. When I left that place, it was still 1.45pm. I decided to speed up and cover the rest of the distance in remaining three hours.

I was around at the border of Gujarat and Maharashtra (between the Octroi posts of either states) when my machine completed 11500 kms.

My journey ended at 1715 hours as I reached my uncle’s place. I had covered almost 1700 kms during those 6 days; spending almost 40 hours on road in all.

Epilogue: I handed over the bike to that garage owner for the post journey maintenance to complete the unfinished paint work. I took one more day off and returned to Pune on the evening of 27th November 2007.

The positive outcomes of this journey:

• I learnt I could take long journeys on my bike on a bike of caliber of Splendor.
  The whole journey went smooth without a scratch to me or my bike; I emerged as more experienced biker.
• Learnt to be patient and got better control of my eagerness. The empty flat smooth roads were tempting me again and again to shoot up the speed.
• I achieved a dream, however insane it might be termed. It was something I dared to dream and did it.
• I learnt that the national highways have good cell phone network coverage, at least in Gujarat.
• I learnt that it’s advantageous to wear camouflaged pants (kind of ones that military men wear) on such a journey. People think you are from military and dare not come in your way. There were three distinct instances related to this misunderstanding. Once when I was on my way from Vadodara headed to Bagodara; I was seeking directions and the person asked me if I was a military man. Then couple of times in last 200kms stretch, a couple of bikers slowed down and put on helmet after they thought I was following them and may stop and question them.

All those who heard of this feat were awestruck. And I was pleased. It was a great risk... but it was a great adventure too... riding alone was insane… But I badly wanted to take this journey. I badly wanted to do it, just for the sake of it. And I did it.

1.25 years and 0.75 months later

This is the duration after which I was returning home after i left it in Jan2006.

The much awaited day arrived on 20th April 2007. It was precisely after 1.25 years and 0.75 months (three weeks) that I was headed "home". But the happiness and anxiety could be seen from weeks before. First sign came when my deadline of arranging for my return was accepted in Feb 07. I told my manager that I want to return home at all cost by end of May 07; even if I had to return by paying for tickets out of my pocket and taking "forced" sick leave.

There were a few complications, but what mattered most was getting my replacement - something that was hard to find at that stage. One can say I got lucky; I got news within a month (by mid March) that my replacement has been found and would reach Chicago by April 8. I knew that my days in Chicago were numbered. However until then I had spread news that I am returning home by May end, which is of course true even now!! :D And it was really difficult to hide the news.

I had decided I am not going to tell anyone my actual date of arrival in India; but I had to inform a few people, just in case I dont ever land!! - dont ever manage to reach India! (Brilliant people like me have lots of enemies you see :P) I told my college time friend and another net friend in Bangalore.

To cut the story short; until my return only a handful of people knew, mostly in US only, with instruction to not to tell anyone else. My replacement is a girl, pretty and good looking; I was wondering if I should change me decision about returning home ;)

The two weeks of knowledge transfer of the application handling were quite busy ones, for no other reasons but that the application was too big to be covered in short time and I had given a lot of time :D I must admit she grasped things well and learnt fast, but of course the elements and qualities required to tackle the job would be gained only by experience.

Coming back to the topic, I hardly got any time to pack those two weeks, so it all boiled down to Friday night, the night before I was traveling, to pack up (or dump) my stuff in the bags. I had decided to take three check-in pieces of bag (of course i had to pay extra, but then i was winding up completely). My seat was booked in Royal Dutch Airlines and the fares and excess luggage charges were royal too !! :

The journey between my house in Chicago to my seat in the plane was an ordeal. When I sat in the plane I felt as if I reached to top of the Everest. I got a window seat for the near 8 hours long first half of the flight. Next to me was an East Asian girl, busy studying travel book to an African country - Uganda. Fortunately she found good enough company in the Canadian sitting on the other side, hence I could get the much needed sleep for the rest of the flight.

I must add here that the KLM airhostess were beautiful, almost everyone were 6 feet tall Dutch beauties :)

As the flight was heading West I got to see my first ever Sunset from aboard a flight. It was a flight to cherish, for, within around 5 hours, just before landing at Amsterdam I got see my first ever Sunrise aboard a flight :) Apart from the sunrise and sunset, I slept for the most part of the flight.

At Amsterdam, I had a 2 hours break before the next flight was to be boarded. I had nothing to do but to sit for one hour in the lounge in front of the boarding gate and wait for the flight. I listened to music and had a look at my would-be co-fliers; there was one face that caught my gaze. We boarded the flight and I was praying that she be seated somewhere next to me. My seat was 12-J - a window seat and next to me was another businessman!! Alas!! This flight too was going to be uneventful. But then I did not miss her too much :) for this flight too was an experience in its own. The flight passed over the snow covered Alps, Mediterranean sea and the deserts of West Asia, stretches of Hindkush mountains, over my on native land of Kutchh and then the Western coast if the Indian Peninsula.

It was 9:30 as the plane reached the Mumbai skies, and then came the most uninteresting part of the flight. The plane kept hovering over the Maharashtra skies for another half an hour and even after it landed it was waiting near runway waiting for a gate. I thought that was all for me for the day, as the plane touch the alighting gate. But no! I got out of gate 5 and had to walk all the way to gate 11 where the immigration counters were present and then again almost the same distance until the gate. As i was passing the customs, I was held up (for having an extra bag). I was adamant I am not going to pay anything to the customs (I had no dutiable stuff). I let the office check my bags in which he didn’t find anything "worth" and he let me go in 10 mins. I came out of airport to book the prepaid taxi. I was anxious to reach home ASAP. But it was already midnight by the time I was out of the airport.

The Mumbai airport has changed a lot and it looked better than before. Even the queues at immigration counter weren’t long and things went smoothly after alighting.

The taxi (or cab :) ) stopped in front of my home at 12:15 sharp. Since my apartment building doesn’t have a lift, I had to carry the three 50 pounds or 23 KG bags all the way up to two flights of stairs, and then there was a 25 pound rucksack and a 25 pound laptop bag. With all my luggage in front of the door of my home, i rang the doorbell to wake up my sleeping parents.
My mom who was hardly expecting me, thought there is some pizza delivery boy ringing the wrong doorbell yet once again; and then when she opened the door only after hearing my voice for the third time ("please open the door"), she had the best surprise of her life so far. Even my dad was in such a pleasant shock, we continued talking and talking for another 3 hours, before retiring for the second time that night.

I love giving surprises, but I am careful too. I had informed one cousin of mine with strong instructions to not to tell anyone about it and he proved to be a good friend to keep mum for over 36 hours about my return, not even to his mom who happens to be favourite of my aunts.
Now I await the next phase of my life; looking forward to a change that should change my life completely.

Thanks for reading my story. Please do leave your remarks and comments.
Good luck to one and all.

For your information, the face that I had seen at the Amsterdam airport was traveled in 12A (the other window of same row) and we had a little chat while we were waiting for our baggages :)