THE FLOW STATE

Just another ride that was longer than it needed to be. Which is exactly what every ride should be, right?

- Kartik Ware

I utterly dislike repetition. Especially when I'm writing, unless it's a meaningful callback. And since I asked my fellow riders on the trip to contribute to this story, there are going to be a lot of echoing thoughts ringing through the next few pages. It's a good thing I don't mind repetition when it comes to rides down the Konkan coast, then.

What follows are only some of the meandering thoughts that came in and went out of my helmet on the ride. And the words of people I was more than happy to ride with. Nothing more, nothing less.

I bought my KTM 390 Adventure in February 2020 with the sole purpose of riding it around India as much as I could. And here the bike was in Mumbai, standing next to Elspeth Beard who rode around the world on an old BMW a long time ago. By the time this ride to Goa and back was done, my KTM's odometer just managed to scrape past the 13,000-km mark on its digital screen. And when Beard was riding in India for the very first time, I was all of one year old. Also, her book about her travels, Lone Rider, has been sitting on my bookshelf for years, still unread. Time is indeed a very relative muddle.