0430      on a Sunday morning, the alarms blaring….Oh darn that was another long night, the syndi discussions were never ending, it took sheer will power not to punch people…Why is everyone so damn smart here….ahhhhh somebody shut that damn thing off. Why did i agree to go riding into Ahmedabad city…..today of all days….now i’ll have to be the bugger who calls it off….. Wait, what me call off a ride??? That’s never happened before…..ahhhhh somebody shut that damn thing off…

0440      the alarms on its re-run, am brushing my teeth still hoping someone else calls it off, doesn’t look likely, well suck it up, pack the bags with essentials : tube patch, hand pump, water bottle…wait where’s my headset????? why isn’t anybody calling it offfff…

0500      the alarms finally shut, the cycle’s not been used for 2 months and IT SHOWS… half asleep with groggy eyes, trying to make sense of life around me, my music is trying to pump some senses into me. Really need to clean this bike….why is it so dusty here, man i miss Goa……The tubes need air…..where’s the pump now…..i half heartedly fill up my tubes…Pink floyd……”we don’t need no thought control”…. This playlist has become kind of a ritual now….

0510      am wide awake, The ride crew seems to be all excited…..where’s my sense of adventure gone……aargh

0512      floyd’s of no use to me now.…Fast forward to heavy metal “kill kill kill…die die die”

0520      Wait we need one more cycle…….Hmmmm…Let’s go wake some random PGP guys up….that’s a bunch of fuelled guys up there blaring incoherent songs….Well 3 random conversations later, thats a no brainer…No cycle. So one of us has to drop out.

0540             time to roll. Mr Google, chart me my route. Mr Strava, start recording…..Mr Harry Belafonte it’s your job to calm me down.

0550      This place is so so so not Goa… The roads are bad, the traffic is worse….the people…. well lovely..

0600             Harry’s done his job, Amdavad is shining bright, it ain’t that bad now…..The first downhill segment, the wind’s gushing through my face…ahh fresh air….i am fully awake, My bike cruising effortlessly at 30 kmph.

0620             10 people in black IIMA tees riding city bikes in amdavad… we are an oddity for them i guess…..That’s branding for you…..classroom knowledge being put to practice……….And we have an accident…. Stuntman Akash tried a stunt too many….Well he looks pretty “stunned..ed”

0630             Hardly 10 Km down….nothing like my usual long distancers, but this is fun…First pit stop, Sabarmati River front, poster child of the Gujarat development model…..Why do all security guards think they are the final frontier of protectors of all that is good on planet earth….Selfie time….

0700             Next stop the mosque of Sidi Saiyyed……Our pace has considerably slowed down now….bunch of oldies???? Hell no……

0720             Now this is pristine……. The mosque is finally here, it is nothing like anything i’ve ever seen before. It’s small, open and finishes before it starts….But there’s something different about this place.  Tranquility in the midst of the old city’s chaos, as if it just binds the city to its roots. The simplicity of the mosque, it’s innately intricate scriptures just transcend you to a different world……. There it is…. The tree of life, the symbol every IIM A alumnus is inspired by and pays homage to… I’ve seen many reneditions of this lattice structure but nothing compares to this…….This is what we came here for this morning… to pay homage to the “Tree of life”…

It’s time to go back….

– A.Krishna Chaitanya | PGPX XI