My Golden Quadrilateral Itinerary on Two Wheels

Oh I can't believe I'm finally ready with the Golden Quadrilateral (GQ) ride plan! Unless aliens invade our planet I'll flag off my long awaiting motorcycle trip tomorrow morning. Before starting my great Indian road trip (this will be the longest among all I've done so far) I just wanted to share this moment of hyper-excitement with you. Golden Quadrilateral had been occupying an elite slot in my bucket list since 2012, after going through the beautifully scribbled motorcycle diary of a Pulsar rider. I wish I could get a link to thank him back for sowing the seed of GQ fantasy in my early motorcycling life. Those of you who're not acquainted with GQ, have a seat. 

Golden Quadrilateral is the largest highway network in India which connects four major metro cities- Kolkata, Chennai, Mumbai and Delhi, spanning over an estimated length of 5,846 kilometres. We all travellers are indebted to our ex-PM Mr. Atal Bihari Vajpayee for laying the foundation stone of this mammoth highway project back in 2001. Interestingly, GQ is the fifth longest highway network in the world, traversing through 13 Indian states, and connecting a whole bunch of large Indian cities besides those four metros- Bhubaneshwar, Vishakhapatnam, Bangalore, Pune, Surat, Vadodara, Jaipur, Ajmer, Gurgaon, Agra, Kanpur, Varanasi, Dhanbad etc. to mention a few. I could squeeze out 14 days and had to plan my itinerary accordingly. There's so much I want to say, but I'm not even done with packing my bags. Have a quick look at my GQ ride map and wrapped up itinerary.

Do you take your Motorcycle Chain for granted?

Unless you are a motorcycle enthusiast you wouldn't have landed on this page. Tell me, do you take your motorbike's chain for granted? I'd like to assume that you are one of those caring motorcycle owners who enjoy periodic cleaning and lubricating their drive chains. If you do not belong to this category then it is high time to engage in some soul searching to find out why did you invest money on a two-wheeler in the first place. Depending on the rider's approach, motorcycling can thrill as well as kill. Your motorcycle is like a growing child. Being with it cocoons you with a sense of fulfilment. But, neither you can be too harsh on it, nor too loose. The machine doesn't expect you to be always on your toes. She can sportingly swallow your happy-go-lucky attitude as long as you respectfully maintain the base level involvement with her.

Well, we'll talk about fascist motorcycle owners some other day. Today let's just focus on the drive chain issue. It is recommended to inspect, adjust and maintain the chain properly before any long ride. You know your machine quite well and obviously familiar with its drive chain too, at least that's what most of us love to think. The boomerang returns: Having gained a fair bit of experience in the alluring field of motorcycling, are you bold enough to keep the engine switched on while cleaning or lubing the motorcycle chain? Clearly it saves a lot of time and effort when you wipe dirt out of a moving chain. Ever wondered why few bikers are still so dumb to switch off the engine before fiddling with their motorcycle chains? 

Have you ever considered attending a Village Fair?

Village fairs are often too dull, dusty and daunting for most of the urban folks. Village fairs tend to get overwhelming with their loud music, pungent perfumes, obnoxious body odours and rampant crowd. Modern day carnival rides are distant dreams. You might at best find few manual rides like a screeching merry-go-round, or a rickety Ferris wheel. Even if you are flexible with the lack of food hygiene, there's a fair chance that you'll still fail to cope up with the excess oil and sugar used in preparing the eatables sold in such fair grounds. 

Wait, we have a slightly serious issue to address at first. Unlike my previous blog posts this article won't be lengthy, because a couple of fellow bloggers have complained against my unrestricted word counts. The feedback is: If you want to be read, write it short. Oops, too deep to disregard! Truth is, I lack the gene for concise and crispy writing. Dragging the introduction beyond convention and struggling to draw the conclusion have been my weaknesses since the very beginning.