“It isn’t that easy,
Rashi. You sure these are the things you wanna do?” Sonal asked Rashi while
reading her accurate list
“Yes indeed all of
those, not a single one left out and before Pratham.” She replied
“Ok so gear up we have
a lot of arrangements to do.” Sonal said
“Coming up first, the Royal
Enfield. Do you know anyone who owns it?” Rashi chose her first task
“Yea, I do. One of my colleagues,
Ronak.”
“Ok call him up and fix
a meeting.”
“Aye aye captain…” Sonal
called Ronak and explained the situation on hand; they met at an old cricket
ground near Rashi’s house. Ronak was the perfect one to ride that bike; whether
his moustache, his well-built body structure.
“What are you trying to
do? Break me up with Pratham?” Rashi whispered to Sonal as Ronak approached
them
“No, not at all. Well Ronak
here my friend has a condition of his own, in spite of being a hunk, he is very
introvert. So you got nothing to worry about.”
“Hi Ronak.” Rashi greeted
him
“Actually he prefers to
be known as Ron.” Sonal tried to create some conversation between them.
“No its ok, anything
will do.” Ron said
“Umm so shall we start?”
Rashi asked
“See there are some
basics to be cleared, first of all helmet is must for your own safety, secondly
you have to feel the bike and respect it. Then the technical stuff that is accelerator,
clutch, brakes, and gears.” Ron explained Rashi about the bike.
“I’ll better wear this
helmet thing, I know my ride is gonna get bumpy.”
“You are lucky that
this one has self-ignition, just press this button and she is ready to roar.” Ron
advised Rashi to start the engine.
“This is totally going
on your weeding DVD.” Sonal’s excitement was full on as she turned on the
recorder
“Ok so what should I do
now?” Rashi asked Ron
“Grab the clutch and
shift into the first gear. After the gear slowly release the clutch and accelerate.”
Ron instructed while Rashi was on rider’s seat and Ron at pillion.
“Ok, gear shifted, releasing the clutch….” Before
she could complete her sentence the bike took jump start and down they were in
a flash.
“The accelerator! You
forgot it.” Ron kind of yelled at Rashi
“Oh yea, sorry about
that.” Rashi said while getting up
“That was amazing, both
of you just flew.” Sonal was laughing while she was still behind the camera
“Now this time we will
be going to do great.” Ron tried to cheer scared Rashi
She
ignited the engine, put her in the first gear and did the same as Ron was
instructing her to do. And it went more smoothly this time, until he asked Rashi
to turn left, and she went right. Ron was prepared to go left so he was tilting
towards it, but the bike went right resulting in misbalancing and they were biting
the dust again. Ron and Rashi falling down while Sonal recording all of it. This
went for quite a few days… meanwhile Pratham was on the way to his first one
from the list with his childhood buddy Aarav…
They
were cruising along the fields in the SUV, on their way to Leh, Pratham’s dream
to go on road trip was coming to reality.
“Dude, this list
concept where the hell you get it from?” Aarav asked Pratham
“It was with me from a
long time, just waited this much to seek my partner’s permission.”
“Hah! Becoming a slave
even before weeding? Not cool bro…” Aarav denied his logic
“It’s what you think,
and Sir Aarav may I please draw your attention back to road and to fuel
indicator also?” Pratham sarcastically pointed his middle finger at Aarav and
then at fuel gauge.
“Sharks! We are running
out of fuel. And you are telling me just now?”
“Chill car’s not
stopping at this moment.” As those words left Pratham's mouth the car took a
wobble and stopped
“Very well said Mr. Dude
knows it all. Now we are stuck here.”
“It’s a busy road; we
will manage to get a lift.”
There
was no sign of any other human being there other than them. Stranded alone,
between two mountains, they started walking cursing each other. After walking a
while they found a village, where they somehow managed to sneak out a bike,
paid the owner and left. Riding up and down the mountains, Aarav was busy in
capturing memories for Pratham, and Pratham was the one doing all riding
because they came to the conclusion it was his fault that there was no fuel left
in SUV.
“Hey look, Pratham.” Aarav
patted him
“That is what we came
here for, The Lake.” He said
They
have finally reached their destination. The lake was crystal clear, blue till
your eyes can see. It was difficult to tell where the sky kissed the lake, there
was no difference. There were some kids playing in the lake, Pratham jumped in
and joined them. Aarav continued to take snaps of his best buddy’s dream coming
true. After some joyful of time, he came outside and texted Rashi
‘Done…’
Surprisingly the
replied came in an instance and it was the same.
‘Done…
9 more to go…’
On
his way back he chatted, talked even skyped Rashi, but did not tell her what
was his first accomplishment. He reached his hometown and asked Rashi to meet
at the coffee shop they used to meet. He was waiting for Rashi, and there she
came, riding the devil itself. She parked the Enfield and reached Pratham to
hug him.
“Learned how to ride it…
task number one completed.” She was bursting with joy of accomplishment
“Road trip done…” He
showed Rashi pics Aarav took
“Yea yea well I am
going to complete my accurate list first.” Rashi tried to show off
“We will see about
that.” Replied a calm Pratham
-The Other Me
