This weekend happened to be one of those days where dreams take the shape of reality. Mariam and I woke up by around 5:10 am, pretty early for a Sunday. For all who may have missed out on my wedding, Mariam is my spouse / friend / partner in crime & my better half who takes all my inflictions in good spirit.
Although the sun was visible in the eastern sky, Sunday morning turned out to be chilly just as per our expectation. Nature had dished out the perfect morning to go about our plan. We however had not made any preparations other than psychological, for this day. This led to a slight delay as the major task at hand was filling the tires with sufficient air that would last the journey and make our ride comfortable.
One would wonder what makes this journey so wonderful, but before that I’ll tell you a bit about Pipili. Pipili happens to be a small town 17 kilometres from Bhubaneswar & 22 from ours, made world famous because of the unique handicraft that its folks have mastered. Whenever you happen to ride past Pipili, your eyes will be left mesmerised by the bright multicoloured decoratives hanging from almost all shops that is so unique in colour & form that one has to stop and admire the beautiful handiwork. These that I talk of are articles that can be hung from ceilings, framed on walls, with varieties that extend to lampshades, tablecloth, letter holders, hand fans and even umbrellas.
Now that makes a wonderful weekend destination. One may wonder that if this place is so romantic, why this guy engages us by talking of hand pumps and cycle tires. Well that’s the point, our plan was to cycle to Pipili covering over 44 kilometres both ways.
Our gear included a winter jacket for Mariam, a track jacket for myself, two litres of water distributed in three bottles, some stuff to eat midway (in the likes of some cold chicken, potato fenugreek curry, some thekua – a dry Bihari preparation, and select dry fruits), an extra pair of socks for both of us, hankies, sunscreen lotion, good old Vicks, my camera with extra batteries and a haversack to hold some of these articles. Mariam’s bike has got a front basket, so that is where some of the handy stuff goes while mine has got gears (which I soon realised are not good for such marathon type outings).
By the time we started it was past 7 am and after just a few minutes on the road, I realised that carrying the haversack was a mistake. A lot more effort was required to paddle and the thing in itself was a bother. Well finally it ended up not on my shoulders, nor Mariam’s who was readily offering hers but on the back of my cycle which punished the bag in many ways (part of it got ripped by rubbing against the tire).
Our agreed highway rule was simple, that Mariam would lead and I would follow close, and unless required we will not break the momentum. I was of the inkling that frequent cut in my speed would be required to maintain a desired distance between the two of us; it was not to be so, Mariam was super energised and I really needed to push in order to keep pace. Initially we stopped for bio breaks & some purchase of the favourite energiser, half a dozen bananas.
The road was alright; except that it offered us no space and that it was a single lane each way with no dividers although this was the route to the Golden Beach City, Puri. Mariam led the track without any hassles being familiar with the route from our biking expedition to Puri sometime back. She however was irritated by the passing bikers who often offered a greeting seeing a female cyclist all geared up. We could have actually put boards on our bikes for more attention.
Our first actual halt came within an hour’s ride after passing Dhauli (remember the great battle of Panipat, a Buddhist memorial stands there today, but since I have not visited the place, I cannot provide you with more information), we took a dirt road leading to a village, stopping midway among the fields to have our well deserved Tiffin. Now we were not the only keen hungry ones, for a passing cow caught the whiff and stopped, giving me a side glance which I reciprocated and lo, it was by my side nosing at the food in my hand. I was aware that if I provided this guy (literal) with some of the chapatti, it would get even more determined.
Ready to share our breakfast, I offered her a piece of the chapatti, first by making her smell it and then throwing the piece at a distance, but this was no dog, she did not budge from her place. Rather I had to get up and offer her another piece and lead her to the earlier piece of chapatti. Getting our chance to have a few bites, we dug into our share of the much desired food. Some guy nudged at my shoulder, any guesses, oh! Mr. Guy not any more. She now was even more determined, chapatti being to her liking. She was now threatening to topple over our cycles, offering us no choice but to flee the place but not before having offered her some more of the chapatti and to the poor little partner who was too shy unlike this guy.
Cycling further up the road, we stopped just before the village and consumed our chicken & leftover chapatti. We clicked a few photos and by the time we took to the road, it was nearly an hour’s halt. Our eyes all set on Pipili, we completed the distance in record time. There was not much to do here other than shop and we were well prepared. We spent around 2000 bucks on colourful items feeding my hunger for shopping while poor Mariam could only stand by and suggest that we reduce our load. However it was all done in half hour and I promised Mariam that come whatever I’ll not be spending anymore on Applique work and I even promised her a chai. That was enough to keep her cool for the rest of the time, and even encourage her on agreeing to buy the umbrella.
The next task was to carry the load back home, what pain. Now since the purchases weighed more than the haversack, I decided to tie the pipili stuff onto my bike, the umbrella neatly tied onto the main front rod of the bike frame, sling the camera on my shoulders, put all water cans in Mariam’s basket and the almost empty haversack at the back of her bike. Now that the sun was high, we had to shed our jackets.
We found a nice spot to park the bikes, had special tea with black pepper, turned back to take a memorable picture of us four (two bikes + two bikers), halted for an hour’s time by the lake that we had earlier noticed, filled up our water cans and then by 1 pm we were on our return journey.
Now we had a different problem, our muscles hurt, and the road was a struggle what with the increased baggage and slightly inclined road. Funny, that whichever way we went, the road seemed to be inclined. Mariam on the lead, with slight signs of wariness, we headed on. The journey was less eventful and we needed a bio break but decided against it due to lack of appropriate place and then with time, it was not even required.
We occasionally stopped, mostly since I braked to take a picture and was out of Mariam’s sight, thus making her stop. We shared our thoughts while cycling which seemed to be very few and quite similar. We were mostly absorbed and engrossed by God’s creation upon which the road was laid, the either side of the road in green, golden and blue seemed to stretch endlessly forever. Such beauty was rarely admired for the passersby usually were racing with time.
The city of Bhubaneswar was now visible at a distance, and with that our time with God was running out fast. The worldly thoughts seemed to be rushing back and then our stomachs too growled. I said to Mariam that it would be wise if we eat and return to our nest since surely neither of us would be in any mood or mind to prepare a meal. We found an Oriya dhaba that served thali and also had a place to park our prized possessions.
On our way home which was another 6 to 7 kilometres, I promised Mariam a good cup of hot coffee for having accompanied me all through without a word of complaint. Once back around 4 pm, we took our cycles up the two floors and rushed in to empty our bladders. We changed and then that was it. Our second marathon for the day had begun. I finally managed to wake up Mariam at around 11:30 pm so that we could shift to our bedroom, and also did make that coffee in milk. I’ll say it once more, I finally managed to wake up Mariam at 7 am the next day; don’t take me otherwise after all I too needed an encouragement to wake up. Below are some cherishable moments captured in time.
