OUR GRIT

yaaAAAWWNNN!.. Good Morning !

Sorry for the late morning. After a day long drive, we both slept sound and cosy. We both decided to halt for a couple of days in our aunt’s house. Woke up by bird chirpings and a dust-off cleaning he sat on the balcony to record the morning and it was such a bliss. Before the coffee ran cold, he gulped it and had his breakfast. I had no idea what we were going to do after a couple of days. I just looked at his face and even he expressed the same. After catching up with cousins and aunt after a long time, he packed up homemade chocolates and varkis for his family and friends and we just started to move on the road. He just turned me left into a small branch of road that leads nowhere and stopped.

Yea I know why.. Because we both had no idea where to go next 😬. Halting for about a couple of minutes we considered each and every possible way of a destination in order to make our ride day longer. Options poured in a lot.

So, he decided to meet up with our friends, have some good food, play some FIFA and we did all the above. On that night he came up to me smiling…. OMG, that’s the face he shows everytime he wants to do something involving only both of us. He had decided a trip to the God’s Own Country Kerala. He had always shared about his first long ride in his life which was to fort Kochi via valparai, athirapally falls. This time he decided to take me through this trail.

“Going there was like reopening my favorite gift”

Leaving early in the morning, at reaching the outskirts he had this nostalgic reading poking through him which made him to do stops at all where had halted during his trip.

Entering into Aliyar point of view, couldn’t stop there for much long ‘coz our monkey friends started to trouble us since they wouldn’t Leaving early in the morning, at reaching the outskirts he had this nostalgic reading poking through him which made him to do stops at all where had halted during his trip.

To begin with something, when we both just started to feel that mountains became too mainstream for us, Valparai welcomed us with all Bells & Whistles. This welcome lifted our spirits and we decided a non-stop ride till my home. I know this sounds crazy as we got 900 odd kilometres to get on our beds. We wanted to push ourselves.

We started to hustle a little bit to reach athirapally as we won’t get an entry into the woods after dusk. As soon as we entered into the outskirts, I could literally enjoy the smell the woods and plantations along us. We just Tamilnadu and entered into the Ente Keralam. As usual had to visit the outpost. The guy who enquired us lectured us on rules to be followed through the woods. That guy questioned him “Why travel single all the way from Chennai?’’. He just smiled. When I was just quenching by my happiness, one khaki came and touched my ego. Yes, that guy told him “No one will help you if this breakdowns in the middle of the forest. Seriously? I wanted to show him that I owned these woods” I literally sneezed all my black smoke on him on take-off and hustled along.  Our Getaway started to get more adventurous as heavy rain started to pour on us making our path difficult. As per that outpost, we had 2 hours to cross the woods nowhere to stop whatever happens. Fearing of Bisons and Elephants, we silently moved from that place and reached a small river cross bridge where I hardly squeezed through it without any scratches.

As usual heavy pours started and we were chugging along were we had to face a scary shit in front of me. Some genius thought it would be wise to complete his work the next day leaving a half-constructed culvert. We both knew we wouldn’t fit in it unless I’m a two-legged one. No one warned us not to take this road. We were calm and idle thinking what to do. We weren’t worried about going back and taking the highway which would cost us more juice and time. We were afraid that on turning back, our lifted spirits would go off and we will lose our perseverance which we both had never excelled in before.

“Fear! We both decided to run towards it and trample beneath our foot. Coz’ that’s the only way to thrive forward”

Do or Die, he decided to move over that culvert. Practically stupid as we had an unmeasurable depth of valley to the left, But I’m there for him serving as his faith and he knows perfectly how will I react to any situation, so he pressed the pedal to the metal and I started to roar. I first laid my leg on the right hump of soil which started to suck inside as it was loose and he suddenly raised my accelerator which powered me to bash the soil and cross and my left hind leg was on air. I didn’t have any of those electronic gimmicks which kids these days have to electronically tackle the slipperiness, but still I rely on his skills and he rely on me, so we finally succeeded that genius-made-half-baked-culvert after a high roar haul. He got down in that rain to check on me whether I had any scratches on my belly.

“Without labor nothing prospers”

Sophocles

All check done, I was perfect looked back at the culvert, smiled and moved on. We both felt happy not turning back which would have costed our perseverance.

I knew he wasn’t smiling, scared for a moment, but somehow I could sense his lukewarm feel through his nerves which is like “When you’re on a stage well prepped to shake a leg but starting with a fear and half-way through you just forget everything around you and just owning that stage with you all over on it ended with a high cheered applause” That’s the way I put it. The applause was not just for the performance, but also for the perseverance you followed which bashed all hinderance focussing only on mastering that dance. It was exactly like that. I had to make sure I safeguarded his perseverance so that he doesn’t give up half-way or change to other plans like a monkey as he all evolved from one. Yea, you humans are all still carrying that monkey attitude which jumps from here and there without a path.

Halted for a cup of chai, this sudden gust of wind carried all the mist laid over us and went. On the go, a grandfather hopped on with us and enjoyed the ride till the town centre.

We both had a nice chat sharing about what we had faced a moment ago. Town wasn’t far as we reached his stop. Sweet chap offered us hospitality in his house but we had to hustle so we just waved him goodbye.

Not yet over….. See ya!