So, long story short, BattleCat broke down (the brand new clutch, installed yesterday, is slipping and she keeps going into neutral and coming out repeatedly all by herself, which is very dangerous) in the most beautiful of locales about 15km from the Malshej Ghat waterfall (at the fortuitously named, ‘Kedar Mamacha Dhaba‘), and my mates from Bikers’ Creed India (the leave-no-one-behind club) and Misbah & I spent a chatty 3 hours before everyone but two co-riders stayed back as we waited for the Royal Enfield RSA to reach us (unfortunately, I don’t have very good things to say about their professionalism or speed, even though I’ve already had two other previous occasions on which my personal experience was excellent), which it did another 3 hours later!
That said, we loaded the bike and are now on the way to Pune, about 6 hours (maybe 8 at the pace this very helpful, but very young, driver is driving) away, where I shall park her overnight outside the RE Service Center at Viman Nagar (from where my right-hand man, Vikas, will take things forward tomorrow morning). This Mahindra Jeeto’s front cabin isn’t really designed for 3 people, a full backpack, a helmet, an armoured jacket, and a fully geared up 6′ rider, with heavy boots on. But like in poker, as in life, we play the hand we’re dealt. And so, having made two new friends, Omkar & Shubham, 23 & 24, respectively, and learnt something new (how to load a motorcycle onto a flatbed and how to tie her down so she’s stable), I’m having a fun time understanding their lives, their aspirations, and their perspectives, which are quite different in some ways than mine, and quite similar in others.
All right, gotta go. We’re stopping for tea (and to stretch my legs, both of which have gone to sleep some 10km away). Long way to go yet.
One last thing though: When I said, ‘long story short’ at the start of this, I had you fooled for a while, didn’t I?
Anyway, here are some snaps from the trip.
![Mr Baba: 'Would you like to take off the backpack now that you've been downstairs for like 30 minutes?'
Ms Kym-Kym: 'I like it like this. You should try it. It's very comfortable.'
Mr Baba: [Pulling on his backpack] 'Hmmm, you're right. That's rather snug.'
Ms Kym-Kym: 'Twinning! Yay!'
#LuckiestManAlive #BearFamily](https://scontent-lax3-1.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.29350-15/416920031_3373151642830342_6696851954454537274_n.webp?stp=dst-jpg&_nc_cat=105&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=18de74&_nc_ohc=ZMLmjPdSAEUAX8nnJex&_nc_ht=scontent-lax3-1.cdninstagram.com&edm=ANo9K5cEAAAA&oh=00_AfB0olvUVmnenPKd2wCllMDehg5gzDgAbc4BDsGLqIm6pA&oe=65BA4561)
![Kym: 'Mr Baba, can I tell you something wierd? You can actually get tired from doing nothing!!'
Me: 'It is called boredom.'
Kym: 'Noooo. I mean, like physically tired.'
Me: 'One can get tired and sleepy due to boredom. I remember reading about it somewhere. Let's find out.'
[Some Googling later]
Me: 'It says here that "A new paper published in the journal Nature Communications finds that a part of the brain that is associated with motivation and pleasure - the nucleus accumbens - also can produce sleep. The new findings may explain why we have the tendency to fall asleep in the absence of motivating stimuli, i.e., when bored." Isnt it interesting?'
Kym: 'I already knew that. Why do you need to research things we already know?'
Me: [Finding a subject worth talking about now]: ' Ah well, that's what we'll talk of tomorrow on your morning run. It's very interesting the way science is done and our understanding of the universe is expanded.'
Kym: 'Can we talk of unicorns instead?'
Me: 'Sure. How do you know they exist? That's an interesting question too that you can use the scientific method to answer.'
Kym: 'Do they have to exist for us to talk about them? We can just pretend they do for an hour and have fun.'
Me: [Laughing] 'Yes, sure. We can do that too.'
#BabaBabyConversations #BearFamily #KymAndI](https://scontent-lax3-1.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.29350-15/416410840_383105434396466_2267910263456009774_n.webp?stp=dst-jpg&_nc_cat=104&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=18de74&_nc_ohc=LIozs445JFcAX_48wGC&_nc_ht=scontent-lax3-1.cdninstagram.com&edm=ANo9K5cEAAAA&oh=00_AfDQ2qbb0yO_wUmLj_L0ZxF61eDdwlIN-vyrd8GZe_pBMQ&oe=65BAFA57)
