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| Near Prinsep Ghat on Strand Road |
This year's 15th August (last Sunday) marked India's 75th year of independence. A few days ago on a motorcycling forum in facebook someone asked what each member was planning to do on that day. I said, which is contrary to the way I am, that I would go for a 75 Km ride. Now, once you make such a public announcement on a forum you have to live up to it.
My preparation started a few days before the trip. I did not ride the previous day and tried to go to sleep early, which did not quite happen as English Premier League had just started and Liverpool had a match late in the night. So I could not wake up in the morning on Sunday. Otherwise my plan was to go out at 4 am in the morning and finish the ride by 8/9 am. I hate riding in the high sun.
But as it turned out I made no attempt to wake up early. Instead, I ate a relatively early lunch so that after my siesta I could start the ride by 5 pm. In fact I woke up at around 4 and went out in an hour. I had the Pearl Izumi bib shorts and the orange Adidas jersey. The advantage with that jersey is that you can pull down the front chain to cool off. Otherwise for my normal evening rides I wear the lime coloured Adidas singlet.
Normally, these days I wear my Marmot trekking pants (with the bottom part taken off). But those are for 2-hour long, 40-Km rides. This one would be longer and not on my Brooks. So I dressed sensibly. I chose my relatively faster Roadie.
Now finding a 75-Km long circuit in Calcutta is difficult. From home I went south and took Southern Avenue. Via Gol Park and Phari I went towards our school St Lawrence. Up Ballygunge Circular Road and then left from Lower Circular Road (now AJC Bose Road) I went towards my familiar Exide Crossing. From here I turned right towards Planetarium and then via Victoria and Red Road I reached Eden Gardens. Keeping Mohun Bagan ground on my left hand side, I went to Strand Road to go towards Prinsep Ghat.
The area was full of holiday makers who had come to the river side for ice cream and generally roaming around. I went right up to the captured Patton Tank kept in the middle of the road and did a U turn. After negotiating the Prinsep Ghat jam I went straight to Dalhousie via HSBC and then farther up the road past GPO and RBI.
From the burnt down Standard Chartered bank building I did a U-turn and came back to Victoria via Council House Street and Red Road again. The odometer didn't seem to register anything much despite all this riding. I went for a circle around Exide Crossing, Planetarium, Victoria/Hospital Road and back again to Exide. From here I traced the route back to St Lawrence and Phari again. Again I turned left towards Gurusaday Road and back to Southern Avenue via Ritchie Road and Motilal Neheru Road.
In case you are still reading and not thoroughly bored out let me tell you that after this I did the Lake-Gardens-Abhishikta-Ruby circuit as well as the Lake Gardens-Gol Park circuit. When I reached the CRC crossing it was some 74 Kms. I took Kabir Road and finished my ride.
