The first mo-bike ride from India to Europe…

The year is 1978 and the average Indian motorcycle enthusiast is only averagely enthusiastic till now. Enter a stick-to-itive Chandigarhian who’s about to kick the moto-enthusiasm up a notch by making a road trip from India to Europe on his 250 cc Yezdi. He goes by the handle SPS Garcha and yes the year is 1978.

The month is April. Accompanied by his friend Preetinder Singh, he starts the journey with Kabul, Afghanistan but a coup forces them to forfeit for now and they fly back home.

Come May, things settle down and they return to Kabul. From Kandahar to Herat, crossing the Desert of Death, they reach Iran. Iran welcomes them with a strip search for drugs. It’s Shah’s rule, people are liberated and moneyed. The roads are ruled by Lamborghinis and BMWs.

The stay stretches to a week before they move on to a not-so-tourist-friendly E. Turkey. The roads are missing and fuel is bad. They make their way into W. Turkey without wasting too much time back east. On to Bulgaria and Austria, it’s real Europe, a new world – faster, swankier and urbane.

En route Germany, Denmark, Sweden and Norway via Czechoslovakia they encounter the quintessential European lifestyle that amazes them two. Touching North Cape, the northernmost tip of Europe after riding eighteen hours a day through the land of the midnight sun, they further make it to England, France and Italy and there on, they take the same route back.

The month is now December and winter only makes the ride that bit harder. On the way back, they bump into a few others in East Turkey, riding down to India and they decide to travel as a pack through the snow clad terrain into Iran. Nine months have now gone by since they first started. They fly back from Kabul and hearing the first horn blare, they know it’s home. It’s been a remarkable journey with new people, new sights and sounds, new gouts; a journey that’s now made Garcha the first to have pulled something like this off.

The year is 2008. The month is May. Exactly three decades later, he recounts the story and shares his extraordinary experiences. So how did he come up with the idea at that time? “Well I was a Geography student then and I thought there’s no point studying Geography inside a classroom. There was no TV like we have today. But National Geographic Magazine did intrigue and inspire me and being an avid bike lover, what better way than to ride through the world,” he avows.

And how about the preparation that went into it? “Well getting the papers ready was a labourious task. The ministries shuttled me for four months after witch I approached Mr. Vajpayee (external affairs minister at that time). He helped me out with the whole process but we couldn’t get the Pakistani visa so started off with Kabul,” he remembers not before adding, “The funny thing is, reaching Bulgaria, the guards at the border shunned away all our documents and asked us to go right ahead. It only made me question the intelligence of Asian paperwork, we reached where we had to anyways!”

“Next was the  equipment,” he continues. “For such a trip you need to make sure that you have quality equipm nt like your tents, sleeping bags, stove, tools, etc. and in the 70’s there was hardly any available in India. But one option was Cannaught Place, Delhi where foreigners would sell off stuff, so I guess we managed. We obviously updated once we reached Europe, the strangest of all things being paper bedspreads that I picked up in Austria, believe it or not I still use them,” he says with a smile.

So what’s been the most memorable experience of it all, we ask him and he quips, “All of it! Nothing can be singled out. From seeing men in Lamborghinis charging hitchhikers in Iran to discovering the Autobahn in Germany and a hovercraft in Copenhagen, Denmark, nothing was short of amazing. Another incident I remember is when we couldn’t figure out how to cross the road in Austria, that’s when we saw a subway for the first time too. The cobblestone roads in Bulgaria were a sight, difficult to ride on though. East Turkey however was anti-traveller, they’d stone all passersby, and fortunately they had bad aim,” he chortles.

“Stockholm’s youth hotel on a battleship was a phenomenal experience and so was the visit to the Jawa factory in Czechoslovakia.”

And the hard part? “Iranians had a strict drug-check routine. They drilled a hole in my boots, deflated the tyres and made us unpack everything which it took us two hours to repack. They even had a special museum for people caught with drugs! Then while coming back the weather was really testing, in Turkey we couldn’t find anyone at the old camp site in freezing cold when we spotted a Mercedes Benz 300D. It belonged to an Australian whose Austrian wife accompanied him and they were returning home after eight years of travel. We all decided to move back together when we were joined in by a few others and soon we were a fleet riding through the harsh weather and slippery roads. Being an Autocross champ helps but the discipline we followed was what got us through, we all had our rear-view mirrors fixed on the vehicle behind. In Iran, an accident blocked our way and well, the blizzard didn’t make things easier either. But other than that the ride was smooth throughout, the bike fortunately didn’t trouble us at all,” he retells.

So how, according to him, did Europe fare in the 70’s? “Way more advanced than we are even today and so clean. The road systems, the speed at which they travelled, the traffic management… beyond compare. In Holland, Preet wanted to wear his turban instead of a helmet and he got fined for breaking the rules. And unlike India, he wasn’t allowed to ride back after that but was driven home by the cops! Plus, we didn’t hear the sound of the horn on the whole trip,” he smiles. No wonder it took them time to get used to the traffic back home.

But it wasn’t just a one-off or a hobby for that matter, he’s still as close to motor-sports as he was three decades ago. He is the Regional director of the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) and helps promote the sport in our region. And knowing that, we couldn’t help but ask him, what’s up with FMSCI and the MAI? “Ah well, they need to get over this issue, for the love of the sport at least. FMSCI is the only registered body, once MAI came up, there was fighting and delusion whereby private companies got stronger. Mr. Vijay Mallaya, who’s heading both these bodies, needs to get over the ‘living room’ talk and come down to a merger decision as soon as possible. Mr. Hoosein should think about the sport

first and quit this selfishness of his. What good has he done anyways since he became the president of MAI?!” he chides. Well that’s Indian motor-sports for you; yes there are sports other than Cricket in this

country. And thankfully we have people like S.P.S Garcha around to sincerely care for them.“Motor-sports is in my blood and I’d do whatever it takes to bring it to the level it deserves to be at,” he avers and we remember he’s tenaciously resolute so we know he means it!

–The Editor-ess!