The entire next week I did practically nothing in Delhi. Every evening after he would finish work, OJ would take me to his favourite hangouts in Delhi (with Velocity Bar & Lounge being the preferred location). But during the day, I would just laze around the house or wander around the city on OJ’s motorcycle. But after a week, I was fed up and just wanted to go somewhere… anywhere!

OJ finally gave in to my constant bickering, and agreed to ride with me to Amritsar to watch the “lowering of the flags” ceremony at Wagah border. We decided to leave early in the morning on Saturday. Early morning was obviously was a pipe dream considering The Breakdown Gang’s previous track record. But what I hadn’t quite anticipated was both of us sleeping until well after lunch time, thus precluding any hopes of leaving on Saturday.

So the new start time was set at Sunday morning. That, as expected, didn’t come to pass; but thankfully, at least by late afternoon we said goodbye to OJ’s dad and set off. First stop was Karol Bagh, where we planned to buy a saddle bag for the motorcycle so we could easily carry some luggage. We didn’t find the saddle bag anywhere. So in true Breakdown Gang fashion, we rode back home and slept.

What could potentially have been the first snap of an awesome ride

The revised start time was now Monday morning. OJ, unfortunately, had to go to work, so it would have to be me riding alone. Also, I was going international again in just a few more days, so it would have to be a short trip. Amritsar was too far away for a solo ride of max 4 days, so I decided to go to some place in Rajasthan instead. As expected, it was afternoon by the time I started. I first had to stop by at the embassy of Turkey to collect my passport, but the buggers kept me waiting there for more than an hour. OJ called and said that it was now too late to go anywhere as I would take an eternity just getting out of Delhi, and moreover, it wouldn’t be safe to ride in Haryana at night. So once again, I simply rode back home and decided to try again the next day.

Time was running out, and now I could only afford a three day trip. By around noon, the bike was serviced and ready, and I finally got on my way. I called OJ from Gurgaon, at the outskirts of Delhi, and he was genuinely surprised that I had made it that far. But after that there was no looking back since the motorcycle was behaving well, and sounding really good. The ride was at last on!