The Ride of Team 456 to the Desert World
 

The Team:

• Mohit Verma

• Mohit Singh

• Tushar Raghuvanshi

• Nishant Tomar

• Mohan Singh

• Sandeep Sharma

• Amitabh Sharma

• Sayantan Dutta

• Harmeet Juneja

• Parmesh Kumar

• Abhigyan Singh

• Ajeeth Kumar

• Sippu Raut

• Sumit Sarkar

• Satwik Patnaik

• Kunal Gupta

• Naveen Puri
   

A passionate Bullet Rider has just one dream which he always wants to fulfill i.e. Biking to remotest areas of the World. This dream is to test your abilities of how good you are as a biker and also tests your abilities to adapt/cope with adverse circumstances and climatic conditions where there’s not a single soul for miles together to come to your rescue. With this testing and tough concept and view in mind we (Team 456) planned a trip to Rajasthan and named it “Operation Desert Storm”

Since the plan incepted in members of “Team 456” mind, the excitement kept growing. As I shared with like minded friends about this trip, some of them replied saying "Yaar tum paagal ho kya? Don’t tell me ki tum log bullet chala kar Rajasthan…itni dur" and I would answer them back , Have you ever had that feeling when you are just in awe of what you see in front of you? A sight what can be best described as the magic of God and you have to actually take in a deep breath and give yourself a couple of seconds so that your brain can actually register what is in front of you. Well if you haven’t then you are missing out on something called life.

The homework took almost a month’s time which finally came true on January 24, 2009 when we started our journey at 12:00 noon (which was supposedly planned for 10:00 am, thanks to our Delhi Aids Officer) from Chanakya Puri, New Delhi.

Vinod, Parmesh, Ajith & Shrijeet has planned couple of sessions prior for the team to be comfortable among each other, I feel this was the most important part of the ride. Since you were spending 6 days of your life with unknown faces and like always we had to carry a message for the Ride, so team founder members tied up with “NACO” to spread the message for Aids awareness in the State of Rajasthan.

We took the NH -8 and as mentioned below kept riding; the plan we sketched out was somewhat like this:
Delhi – Jaipur – Kishangarh- Ajmer – Pali -  Jodhpur – Pokharan - Jaisalemer – Bikaner – Dungarpur- Mandava – Gurgaon - Delhi

Day 1

was late start and we stopped post for lunch/snacks at Bawal…thanks to Mohit Verma who gave us the opportunity to visit the YKK plant and share our experience with his colleagues….oops!! Did I forget to tell you that Mohit works with YKK limited.
We had sumptuous lunch with sandwich/pakoras flowing from the YKK kitchen…Immediately after the plant visit; we headed to Jaipur and bid our good bye to Shrijeet.
Our adventure began thereafter…one of our rider Mohan Singh’s bike started giving problem (which is part of the ride). Right before we were about to enter Jaipur, we then got a call from Jaipur Radio Mirchi, who wanted to know more about ODS (Operation Dessert Storm). Team got excited started calling everyone back in Delhi to tune into Radio Mirchi and listen to our interview, only to realize that this was aired in Jaipur Radio Mirchi.
We finally reached Jaipur at 2100 hrs, much delayed then scheduled….however spirits were high and some of us had the energy to check out one of the bistro bars in Jaipur (Ta blu). Tushar, Parmesh ensured that we were back in the hotel (sweet of him actually) ….so that he can sleep peacefully. Poor chap had only couple of hours to sleep.
 

Day 2

started very early (0530 hrs) from Jaipur and the team headed for Jodhpur….340 kms….Mohan Singh’s bike carburetor was again giving some problem, so we decided to take a halt at Ajmer and get this fixed….we were lucky to Spot a Royal Enfield Showroom and waited for that to open…..owner of the same was a humble person and got the same fixed and didn’t charge us a penny…..we had to convince him to take money. Ajith made use of this opportunity and started educating people on Aids awareness and distributed pamphlets.
On the way we stopped for lunch at a place called midway (you’ll find many midways in RajasthanJ). Tushar got surprised when one of the team members shouted that there is Kachua (Tortoise), tushar will kill me if I explain it further, so it’s best to leave it here. The lunch was never ending as the hotel/dhaba took ages for refill. Harry was angry for this L
We reached Jodhpur only to realize that our Mohan Singh’s bike ran out of fuel…..luckily we were inside Jodhpur, so not much of a problem.
Some of the members wanted to have Umaid Bhawan’s view and they left for same post checking into the hotel. Did I say we were done with Mohan Singh’s bike problem!!!! I Guess not…..our official photographer Abhigyan wanted to make this trip more adventurous and did a double riding with Mohan on his bike. On return we were surprised to know that the rear wheel bearing had given up post Abhigyan’s pillion ride with Mohan.

Day 3

This was republic Day (26th Jan) we started with National Flags pasted on our helmets. We left behind Mohan and Ajith at Jodhpur, who were to join us in the evening at Jaisalmer.
The ride was beautiful and we had our first glimpse of Dunes on our way…..we stopped for lunch at Pokhran and took some good shots (I meant photographs, for all those who thought something else) with our bikes. We did experience a flat tyre and wiring problem in couple of bikes….which took couple of hours. It was a welcome break for the team.
On entering Jaislermer city in the evening, we saw lot of windmills around the city…..and then came a pleasant view of “Sonar Kila” overlooking the city….the view was breathtaking. Crossing the fort covered with moon light all around we entered into our hotel. The view of the Fort was so majestic that we couldn’t stop but left to see the fort in the night (It’s the fort which is open 24*7)
On top of the fort, you feel like king of the city…it gives you a complete view of the city and the spot we choose gave a clear view of “Patwa Haveli” Since team had a day off in Jaiselmer that night ended up late with few road shows on Aids awareness for people inside the Fort.

Day 4

We started off the day early to catch Sunrise from the Fort and Abhigyan got some real good shots for the same. Then the group split into the market….and started the Aids awareness campaign…..some of us went to the district hospital to carry the message and were surprised to know that there are 44 HIV + cases in the district. We also met with the shop keeper who had a death in the family due to Aids. Our heart went out to those who suffered the society stigma associated with this disease, as per the family the patient died the day he was diagnosed with this disease…..as our society killed him by disowning him and snapping all the ties with the patient and his family. This also is the major factor why people do not want to come up in open and get treatment. We tried our best to spread the message.
After checking out of the hotel, we left for the sand dunes (Sam) where we experienced some beautiful countryside….and crystal clear sky (which is impossible in Delhi). Tushar has a funny idea to do some off roading till the wind mills, which later was shot down by parmesh…since he wanted to ensure the safety of the team. We reached Sam dunes only to experience a beautiful tented accommodation….where we were greeted with tilak and rajasthan dhol. As we unpacked our stuff from our bikes….our camels got lined up for the dessert safari (thanks to Vinod to add this at the last minute!!) team unwinded on the dessert as looked relaxed after 4 days of riding. Sunset was one of the best seen, great shots captured by Abhigyan, Sumit, Mohan, Mohit, Sayantan and others….
The main attraction of the evening started as soon we headed back to our tents, a troupe of folk singers and dances awaits us and other staying in the camp. This was the first time where team unfolded among each other with some bike analysisJ. Team had a sumptuous snacks and dinner and danced along with the troupe. There was no sign of any tiredness on team member’s face and they kept the night alive till wee hours.

Day 5

We left the dessert early in the morning with a cup of tea and then came back to Jaislemer to see off Tushar….who has some office emergency to attend. His bike was then taken over by Abhigyan (which by now had a new name…Babloo), we experienced some of the best countryside on our way to Bikaner and a lunch stop over at Pokharan. Team touched Bikaner by evening and 3 members of the team were interested to visit the Karni Mata Mandir (40 kms from Bikaner)….they took a quick shower and left for the temple….Mohit, Sandeep & Mohan were luck enough to spot the white Rat inside the temple (which is considered auspicious)

Day 6

This was the final leg of our trip and the longest one 470 kms in one single day. Daredevils took the challenge and left Bikaner really early in the morning…..we touched upon small towns on the way educating people on aids awareness and passing by small towns Sri Dungarpur, mandawa, narnaul, rewari etc…….ride was tiring on day 6 but the team spirits were high. Babloo’s bike gave few problems on the way but we managed to reach gurgaon by 9 pm……we were all exhausted and it was freezing cold on that evening. The feeling outside 32nd milestone was great where we took some parting shots and bid our good bye to co riders. The feeling each one of us had cannot be expressed in words.

We parted with only one feeling in mind that, we wished this road trip never ends Here’s to the never ending spirit and good bye from me (Naveen Puri) till we ride again !!!!

Naveen Puri  
Member Team456