(Continued from the previous Article: Biking -An Urge to surge ahead.If you
are visiting the blog for the first time, please start from
the first Post Promotion- Promotion.)
Chabi
was son of a rich farmer in Chamoli region of UP Hills, now a part of
Uttarakhand. His father wanted him to be an engineer. Chabi too was very much
interested in automobiles and biking. While he could not be selected in a Govt.
Eng. college in UP, his father ensured to send him in a Private Engineering
College in Central India by paying a huge Capitation fees as per the prevailing
trend in late eighties.
For
Chabi life just meant biking. No body was interested to know his real name. He
always had his bike keys (Chabi) in his hands so his friends started calling
him Chabi. He was also known as Chamoli biker. The short form was again Chabi. In
fact, his chubby cheeks also justified this name.
He scrupulously
enjoyed his life, mostly about biking, in the College without being interested
in academics. Though he was intelligent and knowledgeable, finally he had to
leave college without completion of degree. Soon his father disowned him. As an
engineering college drop out, first of all he started as a bike-mechanic being
a bike aficionado. But that was not enough to meet his expenses.
While
repairing bikes of Oil mafia of Tapri, he realized it was a great idea to be a
Tank Truck driver to enhance his otherwise languishing career. He managed to
impress Topi Pissoo, the Contractor Cum Transporter of SPCL. Topi liked him and
made him driver. He remained driver of a Tank truck for three years. Within a
year he had purchased a second hand Yamaha and now had enough money to survive
for several months.
Topi’s
daughter Kammo was very much attracted to Chabi’s pleasing personality, his
bike and his biking attitude. She thought Chabi was too sophisticated to be a
Tank Truck driver. Hence Chabi was promoted as a Car driver which Chabi
dissented to a great extent. While Chabi also liked her, the love story could never
start due to Chabi’s lack of enterprise.
Chabi
had come to know that Suren Chor, Darogaji and Mangu Mapia had gone bike
chasing in search of Changu. He knew the meaning of this bike chase.
He
dropped the SPCL bosses at their hotel, parked the car at hotel leaving the
keys in the car itself and rushed to his one room house in an auto without
waiting for a Cycle rickshaw. He collected his valuables in a bag and
kick-started his Yamaha bike to leave Nachpur for good.
He
had just accelerated the bike when he saw Mangu Mapia and Suren Chor
approaching him from behind on Mangu’s bike. They were only fifty meters behind
him. He wanted to maintain at least that distance till he could reach the
highway.
He
maneuvered his bike adroitly through the crowd at a great speed. Mangu was no
inferior in this game. Still Mangu was not able to reduce the distance. Within
no time they were on highway.
Chabi
knew both the bikes were powered by the stolen Petrol from SPCL depot at Tapri.
But there was a huge difference. Mangu’s bike was powered by stolen ‘SE grade’
PSU Engine Oil from Tapri. On the contrary Chabi’s bike was rather ‘empowered’
by a much better ‘SF grade’ of a private lubricating Oil company; which was the best available Lubricant grade at that
time. Soon, it became one sided race.
The distance between both the bikes went on increasing.
Still
Chabi was petrified. He did not even dare to look back for the first two hours,
though Mangu had stopped chasing him after first twenty Kilometers only.
For
Chabi, now biking meant just an urge to emerge as a survivor.
Chabi
drove for the whole evening and stopped at a very famous and crowded dhaba on
the National Highway leading from Nachpur to UP around 1-00 AM. He got the bike tank filled by purchasing
petrol for the first time in last three years and slept for four hours at the
dhaba amidst a large no. of drivers and cleaners sleeping on the Charpais (Wooden
and jute beds).
He
got up early in the morning in an effervescent mood and began to bike singing
the song originally sung by John Denver- ‘Country roads take me home’. He had
heard it in college days from friends. He always ensured to change ‘Shenandoah River
’with ‘Alakhnanda River’ in his version. As Haridwar was approaching fast, he
began to sing Garhwali and Hindi songs glorifying mountains and holy rivers.
Once
he passed Rishikesh, he began to wonder about the wastage of biking time in
Central India. For him the Mountain biking was a rediscovery. The more he biked
and sang the songs, more nostalgic he became. He soon realized mountain biking
comes in package including: Mountain rivers, vegetables, specialty fruits, panoramic
vistas of snow clad mountains, blooming Rhododendron (Buransh in Hindi), meandering
roads, Garhwali- Kumauni Cuisine, songs-music, festivals, Mountain fragrance
etc. Overwhelmed by the new experience, Chabi finally decided to become a Baba-
‘Chabi wale Baba’ without deciding the exact place of settlement in UP-Hills.
The whole
episode turned his biking philosophy to a higher degree. Now, Biking was not
just Biking but was Mountain Biking with an eternal urge to emerge as a Champion.
( More about Chabi, Kammo, Topi and other characters associated with Chabi in the future articles.)
( More about Chabi, Kammo, Topi and other characters associated with Chabi in the future articles.)
