...And miles to go before I sleep.

The cloth of my T-shirt rustled by my side on the wound as the wind grew stronger with the speed of my ride. The pain reminded me of the day before when all four of my limbs responsible for my movement were damaged. I was down but not out. It taught me never to give up.

It was my Bhabhi’s birthday the next day. I was to reach Sarita Vihar while picking up some eatables on the way. I left the office at around 8:20 pm. I had just left the Noida-Greater Noida red light and was just thinking about the difference in men of ability and men of politics when suddenly out of the dark a figure appeared in front of me as if it had just been made visible. Thoughts at the rate of millions per second were processed in my mind. One of them made me apply both the brakes immediately. I was not sure what was going to happen. Actually I was just thinking how to avoid a contact with the guy on the bicycle who had just crossed the divider and was trying to cross the road without any need to look back at the traffic. In a desperate attempt to evade the collision I made a maneuver which is forbidden in the book of bike riding, turning the front wheel while applying the disc brakes.

Immediately, as if I was rewarded for my actions, the front tyre got locked. The next 10 seconds went by at 100 frames per second. I hit the bicycle from the left, fell on my right and rolled of on the road banging my head on the road on the way. At the climax of it I halted just like an athlete ready to start a race. The savior of the day was the Ninja (helmet).

I could feel the sting on my knees and elbows. I got up although with a lot more difficulty as I was expecting just a few seconds before. Glanced at the man on the bicycle lying by the side of the road, and then picked up my wounded bike lying in the middle of the road. It was onerous picking up the bike with the lacerations. I managed to get it by the side of the road then inspected the bicycle guy who looked fine but was lying down. One of the guys from the crowd told me that the other guy was fine probably drunk and he suggested me to move on.

The leg guards bent, speedometer cover broken, gear shifter twisted and a broken watch, I started the bike and it started the third time I pushed the start button. It is amazing to see that the Pulsar is very rarely damaged on the body. No scratches, no broken indicators, all the impact taken by the leg guards. My odyssey was far from over. There was more to come. Unknown to this, I rode on.

Unsure about the damages taken by my body I decided not to continue to fulfill my errand of getting the food for the party I was going to. I headed directly towards Sarita Vihar hoping to find a doctor on the way. Not able to find a doctor and faced with the dilemma of completing my errand and finding a doctor, I turned and navigated towards Zakir Nagar where I would be able to complete my errand and would also find a doctor although it would take some time to reach there.

The pain started to grow and my alertness on the road started diminishing. Recollecting my riding spirits I toiled ahead. I was behind a car, I think it was a Maruti Zen but I don’t really remember it. The car driver saw a huge ditch on the road and he braked. As I was hurt both on the right knee and elbow it resulted in my inefficiency to stop promptly.

A sense of amusement flashed across my mind as I knew for sure that I was going to hit the car and fall down. I was hurt again on my right knee as I fell on the right side this time bending the other leg guard. My bag was laid open on the road. I was exhausted, all the energy drawn out from my body. I took a longer time to get up. I collected the contents of my bag from the road slowly. I was not in a position to pick up my bike this time. Some one among the people collected was kind enough to pick up my bike and park it on the side of the road. Once again I was asked the question “Are you hurt?” I didn’t feel like responding to the question but the truth was that I didn’t have the energy to respond.

With the Jeans sticking to the knees I sat on the bike. Once again revved it up and ambled hoping to find a doctor soon. Each inch of road covered was like a 100 m sprint in hell. I rode keeping a lot of distance from all vehicles ahead of me as I was not in a position to make any sudden moves.

Discharged of all the energy with the pain piercing all parts of my body, I finally reached a doctor. A doctor is thought of being the angel in flesh. As I went in I could feel the angelic presence. I was bandaged on both the knees, elbows and the small finger on the right hand. Some other wounds on the legs were just applied with an ointment. I came out feeling like “Rana Sanga”, the famous Indian hero who was notorious for getting wounded a lot in the battles.

Feeling some energy returning I finished my errand of picking up some food items and moved towards Sarita Vihar once again. It was tough to bend the knees with the wound and the bandage to be able to ride. I conquered the 10 km distance and reached Sarita Vihar.

After the party it was time to go home at Vasant Kunj which was a good 20 km from Sarita Vihar. I wanted to ride it home as I knew if I stopped moving, my limbs will get jammed due to the wounds. But I was not allowed by my brother and other well wishers. So it was decided that my brother will take it till Malviya Nagar where my bike will be parked and we will move in my brother’s car from there, which of course his friend will take till Malviya Nagar. At Malviya Nagar I decided that I could ride hence took my bike home.

I prepared to sleep. As I changed clothes more of the little wounds were uncovered all over the body. One of them was on the left side of my stomach. It hurt badly while sleeping. I was aware that my knees and elbows might be jammed by the morning but I wanted to go to the office next day. More so I didn’t want to get immobile. I wanted to be able to ride. I kept moving my joints throughout the night. In the morning I was ready to go to the office on my bike.

The T-shirt still rustled, the jean brushed but the pain was gone.

To be or not be in Barcelona

Had a tough time getting my VISA done but I was finally ready to embark on my first abroad journey to Barcelona. The day came June 26, 2005 and as luck would have it I was alone to travel that day as somehow the other three people from my project had there plans cancelled due to some reasons.

Anyway, I was too excited to think about it and got ready to go. I reached the airport full three hours earlier for a smooth immigrations check. After having my boarding pass I then proceeded to the immigration's check and "Bam" ... i was offloaded. I couldn't fly that day - Reason : the immigration officer had a doubt on the signature of the visa official on my passport and my passport was seized to be verified from the embassy.

The next two weeks were torture for me. I was at the immigration office everyday to collect my passport but with no luck. As I was travelling to attend a training in Barcelona my work was suffereing.

I was ready again to go on July 11, 2005 and this time my colleagues Jyoti and Benjamin were also accompanying me. I was a little anxiuos this time at the immigration but this time things went ahead smoothly. Before we could feel like conquerors Benjamin was stopped at customs for a random check. Finally everything got in place and we boarded our flight at 12:00 in the night. It was scheduled to take off at 12:20 in the morning but due to bad weather was delayed by around half an hour.

We were flying over Paris in the morning and I was expected a nice view of the city once we were a little lower in altitude. We started descending and I was excited about seeing Paris. We went into the clouds, I just couldn't wait for the plane to cross the clouds. After a long wait the clouds thinned out and suddenly I could see the airstrip of Charles de Gaul airport. I knew I had missed a glimpse of the Eiffel tower from the air.

Time was running short. We had a connecting flight to Barcelona in one hour and forty minutes. We rushed towards the immigration where this time it was Jyoti's turn to be stalled up a little but we were out of it quickly. We had another nice one hour and forty five minutes flight to Barcelona. The plane took a detour over the sea to enter Barcelona. It was an amazing view. I was trying to look for the F1 race track in Barcelona but was not able to locate it.


Stepped on foreign soil for the first time. It felt different. It was easier crossing the airport in this part of the world than in our our own land. Got into taxi and went straight to the hotel which was in Sant Cugat. Barcelona is like a lot of small clusters put together to form a city. Sant Cugat was one of them although a little far from the main city center, it is supposed to be one of the costliest areas in Barcelona. It was 11 in the morning when we reached the hotel. All through the route I was just oogling at cars, bikes, roads and the landscape. I was relieved to have made it this time out of the country.



As planned, we stacked up our luggage in our rooms, got fresh and assembled in the snack bar for a quick brunch. Then it was time for work. Went to GiGames office. We were introduced to the people there. We started on our training that very afternoon. After finishing the training for the day it was time to visit the casino.
Benjamin came to pick us up and all three of us went to the casino at Port Olympic. It was 7:30 pm when we reached the casino and it was still daylight. The sunset in Barcelona this time of the year is around 9:30 pm.


We went into the casino which was of an average size with two floors packed with slot machines, roulette tables etc. We started playing the slot machines which seemed like five year old machines. The games there were pretty bad which was reflected with us losing for quite a while. Finally we got to some better machine where Benjamin made for some of our losses. After playing for around two hours we went to the casino restaurant for dinner.

The next day our pickup was ready for us at 9:30 and after our breakfast we went straight to GiGames office for our training. That afternoon one of our teacher's Juan along with his friend Miguel took us to a nearby place for lunch. It was hard as the menu was in Spanish and they had to interpret it for us.
That evening Benjamin had to leave and we went together back to the hotel fom where he went to the airport. We went for a little stroll nearby before coming back for dinner in the hotel.

The third day after the the first half of the training we went along with Juan, Miguel and Neus to a very nice place for lunch. Neus and Miguel are from the art team in GiGames. I had a nice conversation with Miguel on gaming this time. In the evening it was time to visit the city. Miguel promised to meet us in the city center. We went with Juan for a detour to the olympic stadium.
It is an amazing city engulfed between two mountains. Later in the evening we met with Miguel and his girlfriend at the La Rambla. It is a famous street in Barcelona with a lot of tourist activity.
With the darkness approaching we went for some shelter in a pub. There I witnessed one of the best live performances in my life. A girl danced suspended to a cloth through a ring on the ceiling and she was balancing its both ends while moving with the music.


The bullfighting stadium under renovation


The communications tower


Enjoying history


Olympic Stadium


The world beyond Barcelona



The last day we finished our training, said "adios" to our friends in GiGames and came back to the hotel. I slept while Jyoti went for a swim in the hotel swimming pool. At 8:30 pm we decided to go to Port Olympic again to the beach. The beach was amazing. We kept strolling there till late in the night and then came back as we had to leave early the next morning to catch our return flight. While coming back the taxi driver lost his way. We finally made it to the hotel after around 20 minutes. I didnt sleep that night, kept watching movies and woke up Jyoti in the morning.


Port Olympic


The Beach




We went to the airport in the morning, took our boarding passes, went for security check and then got loaded on to the flight. We had a shorter window this time in Paris to change the flight. The flight got delayed a little bit. We reached Paris at 9:20 am which was the latest for checking in for the net flight. We ran for the emmigration check. After crossing it we ran for the bus to take us to the terminal for our flight. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 10:20 and it was 10:00 when we boarded the bus. We reached the terminal at 10:20. I thought we missed it but then an Air Fance executive directed us to the flight. Someone on the flight was not in his seat and was mistaken to be missing which delayed the flight and enabled us to make it to the flight.

We had successfully fulfilled the purpose of our visit along with enjoying our first trip abroad. I had a nice time. Suddenly all the pain I had to take for getting the VISA and then my seized passport was subsided.