KOCHI: Celebrations and cheers were in the air when those dust-ridden group arrived late afternoon at the Yamaha showroom, Kochi, the other day. After 31 days of ride, “The Wild West Falcons,” the 10-member team of Yamaha’s ‘Mission 10000 KM’ were seen surprisingly energetic and ardent to share their experience, never displaying any signs of weariness of a long journey.
The ‘Falcons’ aiming to discover a ‘whole new India’ were flagged off from New Delhi and rode through the yellow fields of Punjab, colourful streets of Gujarat, crowded lanes of Mumbai, daring hair pin curves of Ooty, villages of Coimbatore and are now passing through the state to end the trail at Chennai on October 18.
The riders said they were lucky to have experienced different cultures and vivid landscapes of the undiscovered India.
“I got the best wifi connection ever from Rajasthan!” Says Nigel S Fox, 24, from Mumbai who have paternal routes in Kerala. “It made me completely rethink about the perspective with which I looked at other places in India.” Nigel is a DJ, RJ and a rapper who performs in Mumbai. When asked about the most memorable experience, he instantly replied, “The ride from Udaipur to Ahmedabad Expressway was simply blissful. It was as if I am in the Planet of Pandora from the movie Avatar,” he quips.
Riders are now not far from their final destination and the mere thought of the end disturbs Niraj Raviya, 24, an interior designer from Mumbai.
“We all came from different parts of the country with different backgrounds, unknown to each other. But, now we are inseparable in a way. We understand the speed and timing of each other. Probably, they are the best of the friends that I have,” he says.
The riders who rode through the deep country territory claims to have often spotted things that overwhelmed them, be it the mountains, colourful cultures, warmhearted people or architecture.
“Although obstructions came in the form of bad roads and stray cows, the rest of the ride was pleasant and peril free until we reached the border state of Tamil Nadu and arrived Kerala,” says Arpan Roy, 25, a PhD holder in English Literature.
“People, sometimes with no helmets on, intentionally cut straight into our pack. We are not here to race. And, it is too risky to the riders especially when they do this on the dusk. We expected this at Gujarat but sadly found it here,” he says.