Roadtrip Day 28: Jaipur to Badli Village (Delhi) [Apr 5, 2021]
One of the worst riding days so far with lot of dust around Manesar
In my previous post I had mentioned how I did not like my conversation with Arif bhai, owner of Jaipur Sundeck hostel & how I wanted to leave the place ASAP. I was up at around 6 AM & I quickly winded up my tent. I wanted to do some meditation but the thought of leaving the place early made me skip my early morning meditation. This is how my tent looked in the morning.
What I did not skip is my morning ritual of finding a place nearby to have tea. The Shyam Nagar metro station was nearby & after asking some locals, I found a tea shop under the metro station. Tea was nothing special although was served in kulhad (earthern tumbler) . I thought this gonna definitely cost me more than usual but it was the usual Rs 10 bucks. I walked back, completed my morning rituals & was ready to leave by 7:30 or so. Arif bhai came while I was leaving & tried having a conversation but I chose not to respond (much). By 8:30 AM I had packed my bags on the bike.
In Jaipur I had Shikha, wife of my friend Arun & her family. I had messaged her at 8 AM that I would be visiting them before leaving Jaipur & she insisted that I should have my breakfast at their place, to which I agreed. It turned out that her house was very near to the place I was staying & I was at their place by 9:30 AM. I met their entire family (Shikha’s mother, father, her elder sister & their kids) & had some conversation with them before leaving. They all came down to see me off (quoting me as a celibrity) & I clicked a pic with all of them.
I started to Badli Village in Rohini, Delhi by 11 AM. It was usual wide highway & I wasn’t expecting a great ride anyway. All I could notice on the way are some hills as soon as I was out of Jaipur, nothing more. Traffic was usual & I dont have any specific memory of the route as such.
I did happen to notice some mill with very archaic chimneys. This also reminded me of unlike Gujarat which seemed to have state of the art setup when it comes to industries, Rajasthan mills seemed pretty archaic.
I remember that the heat on this route was not as much as what I experienced on the Palanpur - Pali route. But by now, I have developed the ritual of finding a place to loiter in afternoon & did not want to skip/break it. I think I also felt a bit sleepy & wanted to take a break. It was around 2 PM & this restaurant named Tawa Lily caught my attention as I passed by it. The words that caught my attention was ‘organic’ which was mentioned at multiple places on their hoardings. I remember taking a u-turn to come back to the restaurant. There were some old cars parked at the entrance & I felt there are at least a few people inside. Although later, when I entered the place, I figured I was the only one inside. I thought I had made a mistake coming to this place but only later, I realized, it was one of the best pit stops I had taken.
The staff inside were busy watching TV. It had movie Bazigar playing on it. I came in & immediately decided to head to restroom which was located outside the main hall. The inside of the hall wasn’t really impressive per say but I did happen to notice various plants & it seemed like the owner has tried creating a ‘nursery’ feeling inside. I was back after my restroom visit & one of the guys quickly extended the menu to me. I decided to order a Lassi as I did not want to eat anything heavy. I thought that based on Lassi, I would decide if I want to order anything to eat. Lassi came in pretty quickly & for 60 bucks, it looked pretty good.
While sipping the Lassi, I automatically got soaked into the movie Bazigar & soon was watching it alongwith the staff the the restaurant. By then, I had the feeling that it was a nice place & I can afford to spend more time, possibly write blog post as well. The large dining area had AC & it was reasonably cool. I slowed down the Lassi sipping & now was thinking of getting my laptop which was in the bags tugged on the bike. But the Lassi tasted pretty good & soon I had gulped all of it.
I decided to order Masala Dosa & that also came in pretty quickly. But I was quick enough to get my laptop before the dosa. As soon as the dosa is in, I was tempted to eat it & decided to put aside my laptop on which, I had not started to write the post.
The dosa was good. The sambhar tasted pretty awesome. I finished the dosa quickly as I was hungry. By now, the staff & I had established a pretty good vibe & I felt comfortable hanging around in there. So without much sense of guilt, I opened my laptop & started composing the Roadtrip Day 26 post. It took me around an hour to finish it. I ordered a tea before leaving, did the payment & left the place by 4 PM.
After an hour of riding, I reached a place at the road where the vehicles are coming back towards us (on the same side of road where we are). It seemed like they are returning back from a traffic jam. Some vehicles were going on the service road & I followed suite.
I stopped by & asked a guy on bike what this jam is about & he told me about the roadblock from Kisan Andolan. He said that for bikers, by passing the roadblock might be possible & I should try my luck. I thanked him & continued. I was able to make way between the trucks, sometimes going extreme left, sometimes going extreme right. I happen to tag along another biker who seemed like a local & following him seemed to be like a good idea. Later it turned out, it was actually a great one.
After riding for like 1 km of jam, I was at a turn where the jammed vehicles were turning left, which looked like a village. The biker guy with me, decided to cut pass them & go straight ahead. He gestured me to come with him & I did. He then said ‘going to Delhi’ & I nodded my head. He asked me to come along him. Apparently while kisan folks have blocked the road, the bikers have created a path to be able to navigate next to them. Looks like kisan folks did not mind the bikers crossing them.
I was little scared to take the above pics thinking what if the kisan folks think of me as a journalist who is suppose to be taking pics that he/she is not suppose to. But they looked like good people. Anyway, I have always found Sikh/Saradar folks, especially elderly ones, as friendly people.
I resumed my ride & soon entered Manesar. Tall buildings start dotting the place & I knew I am in Harayana.
At this point, it seems, I had made a bad decision. I was seeing good amount of traffic in Manesar & decided to take alternate route by taking left on the alternate route shown on the map.
Initially it looked decent. Only later, I figured how much dusty it is. At some point, it had become dark & there was so much dust flying at a road junction that the lights of the vehicles passing by made it look like a discotheque with artificial smoke & lights. All that was missing was some techno music else it would have qualified as the largest open air discotheque of India. It was pretty chaotic there & I could not manage to click a pic. At some point, I felt pity on my bike’s air filter which would be seriously choking. I also wondered how this is going to affect its life & should I be replacing it sooner. But then the thought passed fairly quickly.
By then, I had realized that I had made a mistake but then there was no point repenting it. I decided to be the part of the traffic & kept riding as per google map guidance. I crossed some check posts which seemed like I was entering Delhi from Harayana but as usual, there was no stopping. At one checkpost, I saw the cop stopping some bike folks ahead of me. Fortunately or unfortunately, my bike stopped at that moment & I spent a few moments kicking & starting it again. But to my pleasant surprise, I was not stopped.
Soon I entered Delhi & the road became much better. At least, the dust disappeared completely. But unfortunately, the traffic did not. At that point, I thought, people unnecessarily blame Bangalore traffic. Things are as bad at other places too.
Vijender ji had called/messaged me a few times by then. I had told him that I would reach by 9 PM & I was able to honor my commitment. When I reached the location sent to me by Vijender ji, I reached Sanjay ji’s factory cum home. The entire Chadar trek group of Vijender ji (except Alok ji) was waiting for my arrival & I felt happy to see all of them eagerly waiting for me. We had a good time till late in the night chatting & having drinks.
I was curious about Badli & its past. I came to know how anyone who came to conquor Delhi had to conquor Badli first. There is a saying that Badli got destroyed n+1 times than Delhi (I dont remember the value of n). I also got to know the history of how Sikhism came into existence. Apparently to preserve Hindu culture, Guru Nanak Dev insisted every Hindu family to donate their eldest child who would become Sikh/Sardar & their primary purpose was to protect Hinduism from Mughals & their conversion practices. I felt sad thinking as Hindus, have we payed enough respect to Sikhs for what they did for us. They also told me about brutal Sikh killing in/around Badli during 1984 when a Sikh guard of Indira Gandhi ended up shooting her. How Hindus went berserk & started buring all the Sikh driven trucks without letting the driver exit the truck. I felt sorry for Sikh community who had done so much for us in the past & what we have done to them in return.
We left Sanjay ji’s place late in the night & I came to Vijender ji’s place with him. It was a nice 3 story house in Rohini right opposite Jain temple & a park. I am not sure what time it was in the night when I called it a day.