“MIRACLES DO HAPPEN”

“MIRACLES DO HAPPEN”

With a passion of reaching heights at a small age, I Devjeet Saha who has been recognized as one of the finest biker in country today will share my most memorable incident of life on this page. Since my childhood days I was very fond of bike riding and perform daring tasks and it was because of my devotion and hard work that today I have achieved what I have.

Very recently I successfully accomplished the target of completing my non-stop race of covering over 2600 kms in just 36 hours during this month. But pre-event I was on rigorous practice session. It has always been advised by our instructor and bike-gurus that during any kind of bike ride one is supposed to wear all safety gadgets. It was on one fine day 10^thAugust 2009 while practicing for race that I forgot to wear my safety pants and I had to pay for my mistake. I started my journey to Pune on bike from Bikaner in the morning hours that day. One of my friends was already on the way from Jaipur to Pune by train, and I wanted to reach Pune by bike before him. So I was in a hurry and going fast and reckless. Everything was going smooth till I was on Rajasthan and Gujarat borders.

I reached Abu Road which is a small and end city of the Rajasthan state and I entered Gujarat. After continuous driving of half-an-hour some security people stopped me at check post and gave me an awareness that the upcoming area in my journey belongs to naxalites and I was shocked to find that I was on wrong route. But I was getting late and I had to cover up my mission as soon as possible even I was on wrong way and by taking the name of goddess Durga I continued my ride. And suddenly I met with an accident which I can never forget in my life. That mishap gave me a second chance to live my life and gave me a life long learning. As I was driving with the speed of 100km/hour on the dark road which did not had any divider as it was under construction, I turned the handle of my bike, and the front tyre of my bike slipped due to some sand scattered on the road. I got rolled 3-4 times with a heavy weight luggage of around 20kg on my back and I went inside a 5feet long trench along with my bike. Even after facing this situation I was having sufficient energy to shout loud for more than 15 minutes for help, but unfortunately nobody was ready to stop his/her vehicle and take the step to rescue me from the trench.

I was wondering and questioning god about humanity. After struggling hard to get over from the trench in which I was badly stuck I saw some villagers coming towards me with some torches and lathees and I got my relaxing breath back. But in another moment I got confused and scared whether they are naxalities or good villagers who were coming towards me. But soon I cleared my doubt after I found that they have come to help me. They took me out from the trench and gave me some water to drink. While the other villager was trying to arrange some bandage for my left leg which badly got hurt and was bleeding heavily. Although I was shivering and was unable to move my left leg because of the deep hurt on the knee but I managed somehow. The villagers started raising questions about my identity and to be on a safer side I told them that I am an Army man. After few minutes I found myself very happy and safe and planned to give 1000Rs to villagers as a prize for helping me get out from such a terrible situation and saving my life. But they refused to take the amount. It’s a well said statement that “humanity and mercy can exist only with villagers” as they are true people by heart and soul.

After taking rest of about 1 hour in the shelter of a kind villager I started my journey again. Now the next city Palanpur which is a District in Gujarat was still 40 km away from the place I felt with my bike, but by taking the name of god and my parents I started my ride with a slow pace. The front head of the bike was damaged, the handle was not straight, and I was also feeling some difficulties in proper ride and changing the gears of bike because of the severe hurt in my left leg. But I managed to ride and complete it till I reach the hospital inPalanpur and when I reached at late night hours at Desai hospital in Palanpur, the authorities who work in night shifts became confused and doubting that whether I am a terrorist or just a normal Indian citizen because I was not carrying enough money in my hands and my bike was in damaged condition. To prove myself I had to convince them by giving them my both the expensive mobile handsets and the keys of my bike. By then the understood the things and planned to provide me the required treatment. The conducted the treatment with X-ray, Blood pressure tests, Blood test and other tests. I was very happy to hear that I was having minor injuries and not a fracture. I started remembering the villagers who came for help at the exact time I needed and because of them I got far away from pain of fractured leg. The doctor gave me some medicines and advised me to take bed-rest for some days.

Today I am still on the stage of 100% recovery of my leg but I never forget my safety pant and any of my safety gadgets while going for a small ride even. And I would strongly say that “Once a mistake is made without diligence, then it may take life long to recover and get back the lost portion of life”. It was my real good luck in my life that very soon I came out of it and begun my journey in life but everybody may not be blessed with it. So please always give safety the first priority in life. I am alive because I was wearing helmet.

1500 miles in 36 hours

I am the First Indian to do BUN-BURNER (1500 miles in 36 hours).

Iron Butt’s BUN-BURNER Ride by Devjeet Saha.

I always had a craze for bikes and bike related activities, mostly speed riding and such. After beating the Train Aravali Express in a Mumbai to Jaipur race (1251 km) by almost an hour in April 2008, I was looking for greater challenges. I was surfing the net and I came across Akshay Kaushal, who had done the SADDLE-SORE of the Iron Butt Association of USA, which is 1000 miles in 24 hours. So I checked the ironbutt site and found that the next higher level of ironbutt rides is the BUN-BURNER ride, which is1500 miles in 36 hours. I set my heart on it.

First I had to locate a suitable route – where the roads should be good and traffic should be light. It would be better (and safer) if the roads were two-lane (like NH4) or three-lane (like the expressway) with road divider. So I went on my bike from Pune to Jaipur, bought maps and charted the most likely route, which was Jaipur – Rewari – Hissar – Bikaner – Jaisalmer– Barmer – Ahmedabad – Rajkot – Ahmedabad – Udaipur – Jaipur. I set out to check the road, traffic etc on this route. I found the roads in Haryana to be quite bad, heavy truck traffic who don’t give you leeway, and no road dividers. Besides, Rewari & Hissar had no bye-pass and one had to ride through town.

I entered Rajasthan at Rajgadh and the road quality improved dramtically. I continued on my planned route. I had entered Gujrat and it had become night and in my hurry I overlooked signboards and made a wrong turn and came on to some side road and had a nasty fall @ 10:30 pm night on 10.Aug.2009 @ 40 km before Palanpur. Having a full-face helmet and riding jacket, my torso was safe, but I did not have riding pants, so my knee took a nasty wound which has still not healed fully. Anyway, my exploratory trip was aborted. I rode my damaged bike to Ahmedabad, shipped it back to Pune by road and took a flight back toPune.

In spite of my accident, my survey was complete, because the Ahmedabad – Jaipur route I knew very well having ridden Pune – Ahmedabad - Jaipur four times in the recent past.

Now I had to do the real thing, the BUN-BURNER attempt.

I decided to start from Jaipur at 07:00 a.m. on Friday 4-Dec.2009. So I shipped my bike toJaipur by Gati on 27^th Nov. and reached Jaipur by train on 30^th Nov. The bike was promised to be delivered at Jaipur by road on 1.Dec. as written in the GATI receipt. But it did not arrive: not on 1.Dec, not on 2.Dec and I was panicking. I made frantic phonetics to allGATi offices and somehow got the mobile number of the driver of the truck that was bringing my bike. I offered him a “baksheesh” of Rs.2000/- if he drove non-stop and deliver my bike by 3.Dec evening. In the event, I got my bike at 9:30 pm on 3.Dec. Thank God! After that I got the bike done-up to rectify the damage GATi had done. I was ready but quite worn out due to the tension and running about resulting from non-arrival of my bike in Jaipur in time.

I was flagged off by bikeguru Dilip Bam from a petrol pump on Ajmer road in Jaipur at 07:45 am on Friday 4^th Dec.2009 as scheduled. The month being December it was damn cold in the desert, and the journey from Jaisalmer onwards was extremely cold. On my torso I wore a thick full sleeve T-shirt plus two sweaters plus normal jacket covered by the TEFLON riding jacket. A muffler round my neck and thermal pajama under my riding Teflon pants covered my legs. I Rode on the route mentioned in the second para above taking 30-minute breaks at Jaisalmer & Ahmedabad and arrived back at the same starting petrol pump at 19:35 pm, riding 2689 km and beating the deadline by just TEN MiNUTES. I had done the BUN-BURNER and was thrilled. I still am, and looking for greater challenges!