The Motorcycle Diaries

By Col. Nitin Khajuria

I met her for the first time in the year 2003, when I was posted somewhere in the Northeast. I saw her and it was love at first sight, and since then we have been together. It’s a lifelong bond, a bond of companionship, of togetherness and every time my life gets complicated, I just ride.  Yes, I am talking about my affair with my motorcycle. Every time I start my motorcycle, my heart starts pumping faster just like a teenager falling in love for the very first time, and this feeling still continues after so many years.

Biking is all about challenges, the adventures, the thrills of life and above all about being responsible. Whenever I am riding, I may not be aware of the road ahead, but the challenges motivate me more, and make me stronger.  These adventures have always given a better insight about my own life, the knowledge to understand the complexities of mother nature and giving respect to its immense power.

Whenever you are on the road, the empty road feels like a blank canvas ready to get painted. The fresh air, the thrill of going to an unexplored destination fills the heart with joy and happiness. It’s all about being free, the freedom to push your own limit, the freedom to just fly and live a life to its fullest.

There are times when you just want to be with yourself, without any thoughts and just be in your own space. I often find this space while cruising on a lonely stretch of a highway without being bothered about the time or space. It’s just me with myself moving towards an unexpected destination without any time target. I stop whenever I want to, feel the environment around me and then continue with my ride towards the unknown. The fascination of the long roads, the noisy localities, the colourful people, the rivers, the jungles, the woods, the mountains, and the companionship with my bike is not just fantastic but colossal too. The romanticism of humming my favourite songs is always a wonderful experience to cross an unknown journey all alone. It is a mixture of excitement, fear, happiness, curiosity, adventure and many more emotions altogether thrown into the sphere.

Riding solo is all about moving forwards and crossing all the challenges enroute, enjoying the journey, so isn’t it the same thing, we should do it because life is a journey and we should always enjoy the ride.