30^th Aug 2010

I spent the night at Radheshyam Patidar’s residence. I slept on a huge wooden swing… slightest movement and it would rock in all directions it was like sleeping on a cloud!

In the morning at 5:00am I woke up with a start- the village temple began blaring songs from B grade Hindi devotional films... one decibel higher and I am sure it would have cracked all the three dams in the area! The music stopped at 5:30 but by then my sleep was pulverized beyond salvage. I lay on my cloud, swinging myself and thinking of what Radheshyamji had told me last evening.

The present village used to be further down by the river. In 1962 there was a major flood and the villagers decided to shift the whole village away from the river. The fishermen and the boatmen stayed put, while the other communities moved and rebuilt the village brick by brick in 1965. The houses are lined neatly along a wide central street and an 80 feet by 80 feet square and a temple at the end. They thought they had moved to a safer ground.

Had tea and got ready to move, bid my good byes and as I was about the move, the engine died! The ignition lights went off!  I had taken a two day intensive crash course at the Enfield service centre - a one stop biker’s paradise at grant road-. (Harsh Sheth and Mustafa of ‘Spark Motion Bikers’ and their team of mechanics-Dinanath, Ziyad, and chotu had taught me all the basic mechanics and repairs of the bike. In fact Harsh was amazing when I went to meet him he just took over… planning what I have to learn, take with me, making lists, organizing all the spares etc giving me all the advice and tips…check them out at www.sparkmotion.in - thanks Harsh!) wow that sounded like a commercial break!! Coming back to Rocinante, I got into diagnostic mode and quickly checked the fuse; it HAD poped! Replaced it and left Pathraad. As I was about 100 km away from Bhopal, an Innova drove up and cut me- a woman’s hand waving frantically … to my astonishment it was Sharmila! (the woman I am married to!)

She had planned to fly to Bhopal and surprise me! She missed her flight got on to the next one going to Indore and took a taxi to Bhopal! We had spoken an hour ago and she knew I was on the same road … she was looking out for me and found me! Totally Bollywood!

Reached Bhopal spending the night at Nirmala Sharma’s (a ceramic artist and friend) place.