The Backpack Nomad

Parked on the way                This weekend, the destination was Kashid, around 100 kms from Navi Mumbai. I’d met with a minor accident a couple of days back, and both me and the bike were a little damaged. But after people coming in and dropping out of the plan, there were just the two of us who would be riding out on Saturday morning – Me and Moses. I had done my first ever ride with Moses in October, 2016 on a borrowed bike. The Arabian Sea                We started at 6 AM from Belapur (he started at 5 from his place). The road was supposed to be a national highway, but it had deteriorated badly. It was difficult to ride on it, and the average speed was around 40 kph with the trucks and buses adding to the traffic. Once we left the highway, riding was easier. Although there were a few bad patches, traffic had eased out. We h...

The Kullad chai The next day, we were joined by four others, who’d reached early morning on a train which was almost 14-hours late on schedule! We had our lunch at a Bengali restaurant, which served chicken. It tasted okay. After having lassi, we were back at the ghats. We took a boat ride, from Manikarnika ghat, where pyres burn all day long, to Assi ghat. Looking at the ghats from the boat was a whole new perspective. A lot of movie scenes played in my mind as the eyes navigated one ghat after the other. It was somehow nostalgic; I felt that I had been here before! After the boat ride, we went to see the evening aarti again. I got better seats this time, and a few good pictures of the rituals. It was 45-minute long again, and I was getting a hang of it. We left soon after the aarti. My dinner consisted of papdi chat and an overdose of sweets. We came back to the hotel where I had thandai, while the others had bhaang. We talked for a while, and played guitar before I went off to...

Shooting from the train My train left at 12:35 AM on Friday, right on time - destination: Varanasi. I had a side-upper berth. The guy on the lower berth slept throughout the journey, waking up only to eat. He seemed well-prepared for the 27-hour journey.                Varanasi had been on my wish-list for long, and when my pen pal from Kolkata, Debmitra, asked me if I’d like to visit the place with her, I agreed. The tickets were booked soon after. And I was on my way, finally! One of the many doors at Ramnagar Fort                The train journey was quite uneventful. I clicked a few pictures, read ‘Tinkle’ and ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns’. I got off the train at Varanasi junction, at 3:30 AM, bang on time! The bookings were made at ‘Hotel Pragya International’. My friend and one of her friends had reached the previous day, while w...