Love, Actually!

Having spent considerable amount of time, money, patience and more importantly hope to get her up on her toes and singing once again, we had already been properly acquainted. She was stubborn at first, sulking and scowling after being left out in the sun and rain for several long months. But some TLC and long, patient hours spoiling her finally paid off…. The twins fired up and sang in that trademark two-stroke reed valve whine, revving up to a high-pitched arpeggio at the redline!

Flowers bloomed, butterflies floated around, hunger and thirst were forgotten, and sleep never came…. I was truly, madly, deeply in love – for the first time – once again!

The latest love of my life is of 1986 vintage – a Yamaha RD350, belting out 30.5 BHP at 6750 RPM with a very healthy maximum torque of 3.3 KgM at 6500 RPM.

Her body paint was still ok, but the rust needed to go. After all, she had to look and feel beautiful to make the guys go crazy for her! And boy, did some of them mistake her alright! One youngster astride a spanking new Karizma mistook her humming melody at 3,500 RPM for a challenge. Perhaps it was the red ZMA that sparked the agitation of a raging bull in her, a slight twist of the throttle and the ZMA disappeared behind twin trails of smoke! She was responding to my slightest touch and me, I was smitten!

After a few midnight runs down the streets of the city, it was time to take the relationship a step further…. and that’s how the romantic getaway materialized. But this was not to be just any other date; it was going to be an extra-special double date! Giving us company would be my friend the Professor and his date, three years younger than my love, a low-torque 26 BHP Yamaha RD350. And bringing up the rear was another friend on a TVS Apache.

The ride out of the city was uneventful; we were testing each other’s capabilities and soon settled into a smooth cruise at 4,500 RPM. This was the first time I was astride an RD on a long ride and just the thought of both of us taking on the twisties was giving me bouts of glee!

Although both of us had spent plenty of ‘quality time’ together within the city limits, this was the first time we were out on the highway. Ninety kilometers an hour on the slab is just what you need for an early morning meditation session from the seat of the RD. Well, sometimes you are rudely interrupted of course. In this case, it was a speeding Mahindra Scorpio playing truant.

Early morning on a clean four-lane highway, the above mentioned speeding Scorpio in sight, and you have the perfect opportunity to – er, explore each other. Downshift to fifth - check, twist the throttle - check, the reed valve symphony go a scale higher - check, shift to sixth - check, see Scorpio disappear in the rear view – check.

Soon we were outside the city limits and took the turnoff to Rani just short of the airport. Through villages and thick forests we zoomed on, the welcoming hills visible on the horizon.

The road snaked up in front of us, lush green foliage flanking it on both sides. The tropical canopy helped the sun little to heat up the damp forest floor and long tender stalks of grass grow along, and in parts over the tarmac.

Through a dense forest of teak, the morning rays of the sun filtered through the dense canopy, and suddenly the winding road took on a deep ascent. I downshifted and opened the throttle. The twin roared to a crescendo and before I could shift to the next cog we were leaning hard into a corner, hoping the twin rumble of the 350 twin would warn anyone else approaching from the wrong end of the curve.

We were headed the long way round to the West Khasi Hills in Meghalaya, west out of Guwahati, then a steep climb north up and back eastwards to Mairang and then to Shillong. There was no fixed plan as such, destinations didn’t matter so long as we were together and enjoying the ride along the lush green hillsides.

After more than an hour on the saddle, it was time for a break and we decided to let the engines cool down and have a smoke. Our smoke break didn’t turn out to be as blissful as we had imagined. From the dense hillside down below us, suddenly there was the loud trumpeting sound of an elephant. We were literally in the middle of nowhere – there were no villages in sight, no people and no vehicles! We decided it wouldn’t be such a wise idea after all to figure out if the elephant was domesticated or a wild one. We kicked the engines to life and sped off.

We made the 140-odd kilometers to Mairang in a little over three hours and the heavens opened up as soon as we entered town. Mairang is the district headquarters of West Khasi Hills and though it’s the administrative hub, the town itself is a quaint little place with friendly locals. Situated at an altitude of 1500 metres above sea level, the town has a population of only about 12,000. A couple of convent schools, a college where the Professor teaches and cute little houses with flowers blooming in the front porches make up most of this beautiful town. Thankfully, tourism has yet to catch up in this part of the world, and there is not a single hotel in all of Mairang.

We were putting up at the Block Development Officer’s residence, the BDO being a close friend of the Professor. After getting out of our wet clothes, it was time to check out town and the weekly market where locals bring in fresh vegetables from their farms. Dinner was a sumptuous affair of boiled veggies, fried fish, dal, rice and boiled pork.

The next few days were spent in leisure… After all, this was supposed to be a romantic getaway. It rains every day in Mairang, at least it did while we were there. Any short excursion in and around town would see us getting caught out in the rain. Then come back to our digs, get out of wet clothes, hang them to dry and light the fire. The evenings in Mairang are magical – clouds roll in from everywhere and bathed everything in mist. And just as suddenly as they cloud everything, they disappear after a couple of hours.

Most of our waking hours were spent lounging in the mellow sun, washing and cleaning the bikes, short rides in and around town, the customary shopping in the evenings for dinner and drinks, and long conversations and jokes by the fireplace at Mut’s. Mut is our warm host, and is from Shillong, a happy-go-lucky bachelor and BDO of West Khasi Hills.

We made a short trip to Kylang Rock on the western outskirts of town. The place offers splendid views of the Meghalaya landscape, though the climb up the steep rock can be a bit ‘breathtaking’!

After a few leisurely days at Mairang, it was time to hit the road to Shillong. The 45-odd kilometers to Shillong offers a heavenly road to ride a motorcycle – through twisties, steep climbs and forests of pine and quaint little villages, the road meanders through the clouds and on to East Khasi Hills. We started out after lunch and by late afternoon we were in the hustle bustle of Shillong, the former capital of Assam and once a quiet, beautiful hill station. But traffic and an ever increasing population has taken its toll on this quiet hill town. We were to catch up with some old friends in Shillong and then take a call on the next course of action.

The machines were performing okay but my bike started misfiring on the ride from Mairang. It could be a problem with the carbs or with the ignition timing, I thought. A hunt for a Yamaha 350 mechanic revealed several of them and we went around town visiting three of them.

The Yamaha RD350 died a quiet death in the late 1980s after the machine failed to sell in India. The first “high torque” bike’s low fuel consumption was considered the main reason and the manufacturers released a later version that was supposed to give better fuel consumption figures. That’s how the “low torque” version with 26BHP on tap was launched. However, this strategy also misfired and by 1989, the Yamaha RD350 was phased out in India.

By the turn of the century, there were very few RDs to be seen on the streets anywhere in the country. Die-hard aficionados however, still swear by this legendary machine and Shillong seems to be no exception. We came across a few extremely well-maintained RDs and the local RD mechanics also seem to know their job. After a tune up and hunt for some ‘old and unused’ spares (I picked up an OEM crash guard for 450 bucks!) we decided to hit the road to Dawki the next day.

Dawki is about 90 kilometres south of Shillong and lies on the international boundary with Bangladesh. The ride out of town through the dense pines in the early morning sun was exhilarating and we had one more friend giving us company, this time on a Yamaha Fazer. Barely five kilometres out of town, the Professor suddenly stopped and I turned around to check on him. The oil pump on his bike refused to pump oil for the mixture and with no alternative available, we decided to go the tried and tested way and mix oil in the tank itself.

The road to Dawki is one long climb over the East Khasi Hills with lots of twisties and then over a plateau covered by green meadows before the final sharp descent to Dawki. The Fazer kept us company throughout, leaning into the corners, but the Apache lost some ground, perhaps due to low confidence levels because of a small spill the day before.

The temperature started rising as soon as we descended and humidity levels soared, forcing us to shed our jackets and sweatshirts. Dawki lies on the India-Bangladesh border at the end of NH40, Guwahati-Shillong-Dawki road. Across the customs checkpoint is Tamabil on the Bangladeshi side and that road goes on through Sylhet and on to Dhaka. The Dawki river flows close to the customs checkpoint on the Indian side and separates the East Khasi Hills and the Jaintia Hills. After a quick dip in the river and a delicious meal of rice, dal, fried veggies and fresh fish caught from the river, it was time to head back to Shillong, not the same way, but north-east through the Jaintia Hills and the town of Jowai.

The 59-kilometre long road from Dawki to Jowai wasn’t supposed to be good, owing to the heavy traffic of trucks laden with coal frequenting it, but we were in for a surprise! Smooth, fresh laid tarmac welcomed us as soon as we started ascending the Jaintia Hills. Traffic was almost down to nothing and we ripped through the twisties, the lush green undergrowth zooming by on the flanks of the road.

Once we hit Jowai, civilization hit us like a hot blast from a furnace. Cars, jeeps, trucks, and people were everywhere and we made a quick exit, heading northwest to Shillong. The 66 kilometres from Jowai to Shillong was one nice ride, smooth wide roads through pines and long curving twisties! Just the kind of road to lean hard into the corners. We were having fun, the two RDs in perfect sync with each other, cruising past jeeps, cars and trucks. The short ratios on the RD click with smooth precision and overtaking any kind of vehicle is a breeze.

It was almost six in the evening when we reached Shillong and again the heavens opened up as we pulled up in front of a friend’s place. It was back to the familiar routine of getting out of wet clothes and pouring the drinks.

The ride back to Guwahati the next afternoon was uneventful, except for the pelting rain throughout the 100 kilometres. It was almost 7:30 PM by the time we reached the Professor’s house, us and our machines covered in grime and mud. It was the end of the first ride, like the bittersweet end of that very first date, but for me, it was the beginning as well, the beginning of a very demanding relationship…