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CHENNAI: Nonetheless photographer, cinematographer, author, director and actor, Raju Easwaran has worn a number of hats over a four-decade-long profession, however there’s one love that has remained fixed — motorbikes, an obsession of his ever since he was a boy.
“Motorbikes weren’t as frequent again then as they’re as we speak; actually, they had been a luxurious merchandise inside attain of solely the prosperous. So each time we had guests on a motorcycle, I might insist on being taken on a experience,” remembers the Chennai-born Keralite. And the second he started incomes, the very first thing he purchased was a Royal Enfield, and thus started a protracted affair with street journeys, starting with Coorg in 1989-90. At 61, he’s gearing up for the Himalayan Odyssey organised by the Rider’s Mania in Goa.
The person who began his film profession as a cameraman for filmmaker Ok Hariharan would later don a number of roles within the business as government producer, scriptwriter, and actor, finally directing Panchamirtham in 2008. Since 2020, Raju has been in semi-retirement, partly as a result of pandemic and partly as a result of his career was infringing on his ardour for bike rides. “No level in slogging and incomes should you can’t give time for your self,” he says.
No infantile fancy
And but, Raju’s love for lengthy journeys on his bike isn’t any mere fancy or present of machismo. Using a two-wheeler, he believes, is extra liberating than a four-wheeler because it put one in direct contact with the setting, in contrast to the air-conditioned cocoons of a four-wheeler. There’s additionally one thing to be stated for the expertise one accumulates when occurring lengthy street journeys on a motorcycle, particularly by means of rural India.
“One can take a flight from Chennai to Leh or another place, however one misses the sheer expertise of travelling by means of locations like Chandigarh, Manali and many others., consuming at an area dhaba or interacting with a shepherd in Ladakh. It might merely be a visit connecting lodges and airports,” he clarifies.
Wanting again
Raju started occurring lengthy bike journeys for the reason that Nineties, when the world was a really totally different place by way of connectivity. “Travelling was very totally different again then. With out correct highways, GPS navigators and even cell phones, it was a dangerous experience by means of tough terrain — largely single-lane state highways — and in case your car ever broke down, you needed to wait a number of days for a spare half to reach. So, one all the time went absolutely ready for any emergency,” he says.
Speaking of emergencies, one notably involves his thoughts, “It was in 2017 and I used to be one amongst a group of 5 using alongside Rohtang Cross in the direction of Manali once we had been caught within the midst of a landslide. We didn’t know what to do, and the locals suggested us to maintain going as a result of the boulders will maintain coming anyhow. So we simply ran for our lives. On one event, an area milkman helped us carry our bikes throughout an enormous boulder blocking the street. However our troubles weren’t over. The bridge that was supposed to steer us into Manali was broken by a boulder. It was a two-hour wait within the freezing chilly earlier than the bridge was fastened and we had been lastly in a position to cross over into security.”
At the moment, because the proud proprietor of two Royal Enfield autos — a Thunderbird 350 and an Interceptor 650 — prepares for his newest exploit within the Himalayas, he’s continuously reminded by his household that he’s not the younger man he was once, however Raju replies nonchalantly, “If not now, then when?”
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