In November 2016 thanks to demonetization drive, most of our new projects got postponed and we were left with only the ongoing work in office being managed perfectly by my team here.

Instead of standing in the long queues at the bank I decided to utilize this opportunity to go for a Rajasthan tour with Jo Skeats a young lad from UK on a world tour on his bicycle, who happened to be in Jaipur at the same time. I was so driven by the idea of cycling with him, sharing experiences and showing him my beautiful backyard that I decided to go for it in a jiffy.

I left my comfortable nest yet again for this weeklong cycling trip with Jo, leaving behind my extra busy working wife, an ailing dog and my school going daughter who had her 16th birthday a day before we were supposed to return, and this time minus our house help, who had gone to visit her family – the cycling trip proved to be way more important than anything in life!!

Starting from Jaipur we rode through the art district of Shekhawati covering most of the beautiful towns and returned via the back lanes of Haryana halting at towns like Loharu and Jhajjar and finished our ride in Gurgaon!

The trip as expected was fabulous with Gaurav Bhatnagar and Nakul Misra joining us for the first day. Rajasthan was more glorious than ever before, amazing weather and the photographs came out stunning with the clear blue skies with the winter sun shining bright. Riding with Jo who had already spent 11 months riding across more than half the world was truly exhilarating – sharing experiences, stories, laughter and life, I found a friend for life in him – life was good

Amidst this excitement, a little voice in my head kept telling me that Rajan – you are going to miss your daughter’s 16th birthday and your wife would be managing everything at home as well, after her day long shift at work – well, it was too late now and I conveniently curbed my inner voice and the guilt, and continued to ride hard on the fourth day of our trip and my daughter’s birthday to finish our 100 km ride to Jhajjar, a backend town in Haryana 60 Km from home. Once we settled in our dingy guest house room, the urge to be with my daughter took over and my wife’s phone call stating that she was really tired of managing her work and home made me feel angry, guilty and irritable at the same time.

Realizing that I was just 60 km from home, tired after a long day – reluctantly I decided to go home to Gurgaon that night to wish my daughter and be back in the morning to finish my ride with Jo, who I had requested to stay back in Jhajjar along with our bicycles and stuff. With the last bus to Gurgaon gone at 5:30 PM and the cab drivers asking for ridiculous fares (Shortage of cabs due to marriage season) I requested my friend Anant to help me get home. He sent his chauffer and car to pick me up and I was finally home at 10 PM only to be received with a cold stare from my tired wife, a wordless but a warm hug from my sleepy 16 year old and many bouquets of flowers all over the house making it look lovelier than ever  I quietly went off to bed.

Next morning I drove back with Manmohan to Jhajjar, who also offered to carry our panniers back to Gurgaon in his car. Jo and me were home really fast – thanks to the beautiful weather and strong tail winds – so 470 Km blissful ride was done and dusted in style!

Post ride celebrations continued with the family and Jo continued till he left our place the next day! Rest of the Sunday was spent recovering from the trip and the partying after that

PS: Jo has now completed his dream of cycling from UK to Australia and is back with his family at home planning what to do next 🙂 Follow his adventures on www.josiahskeats.com