'Along' is just 10 km from my home and my holidays normally see me go visit my old friends and freak out with them,and have some beer at the Bar they had built along Yomgo, the picturesque river that runs beside it. My bike has always been faithful to me, carrying me everywhere I ride it to. And I usually spend the night at my friend's or my 'Buaji's' at Along when it gets late.
"Beta, we were worried. You...bike...accident etc etc these days....Do tell us if you are going to stay back at your friend's," Mom always said when I returned home the next day.
So it was just an utterance of the minimal words," Mom, I won't be back tonight. Don't wait for me. And do have your dinner" which freed both mom and me from the worry, at least she would hope that I am safe with my friends and I would be happy that she won't be staying up late waiting for me to come back.
"I wont be back tonight. Don't wait for me," I told them and pulled off my bike at about 10 am.
But this time, it was not 'Along'. This time it was exactly the opposite way, the way to 'Pasighat'. About 115 km from home,that too on the mountain terrain and ultra-poor road. But still the thought of the journey, unplanned and unpredictable, made me take the step.
"Hey Nongan, I ll come to your home one day before you leave for Delhi and I'll meet your mom and dad (of course not for marital purpose)," I had told Nongan many a times. She is a girl from my college. A good friend.
She was very enthusiastic about the idea.
The journey would be all on fate. No one to help me in case I went through an accident and nowhere to stay if my bike crumbles mid way in the deep mountain forests. But something strange was driving my heart to do it, a sense of seeing the unseen.
So I pulled off even without telling my parents where I was going to.If something bad happened with me they were never going to know.
A trip on the mountain is always refreshing. You never know what comes next behind the curvy turn.....maybe a lone passerby or a lone car making a journey like me or maybe a leopard, no one knows.
When the untouched,virgin forests get ridden through, the moist mountain wind swishes over your ears and you never get tired. Signs of occasional habitation fall on the sides of the road where people would look at you with curiosity and unfazed interest, that a lone boy is riding through their village on a black motorcycle. I love the look on their eyes. So true and trustworthy but so far away from the harsh realities of the so called civilized world, the cities.
And then there comes the gushing torrents from the waterfalls many a times on the road. Far away, dozens of cicadas whistle aloud deep in the forest. They are life's sweet sounds. And at times, you have to wade your bike through the torrential rivulet that gushes over the road eroding it pathetically.
My trustworthy bike didn't break mid way and I reached Pasighat at about 2 pm, after a long but thrilling ride. And there she came, Nongan, to take me to her home. A beautiful place. Her mom and dad was very friendly and cheerful. Maybe they wondered why I was there all of a sudden, specially a single young boy at a young girls home without any purpose. But at the same time maybe they liked my daring endeavor to come meet them and face them without fear.
I stayed at her big colonial home the night.
"Peyom, do you know how to ride the car?" Nongan's dad asked me the next day.
"Yes, I do," I affirmed.
"Ok then you drive around with Nongan and her sister and go see around the place.I wanted to show you around but unfortunately got some work," he said.
So the day saw me driving Nongan and her sister around in her dad's car. What could be more interesting than that.
A few hours of driving around and I thought I should go back home because I could not stay for more. I had to get back home also before the day ends.
So I bade good bye to Nongan ,her mom and sister and took my way back home. I left Pasighat at about 2pm and again a four hour ride and reached back home at 6 pm. Fortunately nothing grave happened. The unpredictable journey had been accomplished.
As I drove in home , Mom was seated there.
"You are back. You stayed back at your friend's again at 'Along'? Good that you told you wont be back last night. Else we get worried," She observed.
"Yes Mom, I am back," I hazarded.
They still don't know that I made a 115 km trip to 'Pasighat' within a day.
