What are the odds that I meet my namesake, in a chance encounter, on the penultimate day of the year. Yes, that’s the beauty of motorcycling – anything’s possible with a twist of the throttle.

Motorcycles & road trips have been an integral part of all the madness in 2017. And the rollercoaster continued right into the final few days of the year.

Last night, I was trying to make my way through the infuriating torture that is traffic in Mumbai, when this Thunderbird rolled up alongside. He checked if i was going the same way & asked if he could tag behind as he was unsure of the route after dark. I said sure, why not & we rejoined the crowd trying to escape the city.

The mess on the streets was so bad that it took nearly two hours to cross thirty kilometres. This delay meant skipping the palaspe phaata chai-point. We pressed on, the freshly laid tarmac helping in gaining ground & making up for the lost time.

We did eventually take a break at Lonavala, post which the roads were relatively clear.  As we sipped on the chai, introductions were in order & it out my hand out saying: “Hi, Tanmay” – pat came the reply: “Tanmay”. Took us a second to realise that a ‘Tanmay meet Tanmay’ moment had happened, before we both burst out laughing.

Here we were, two guys going our own way on our motorcycles when we ended up riding alongside & discovering that we had the same name. Epic stuff, this!

We did end up riding together pretty much till the last fork in the road. Doing the smile n wave, we wished the other well & again went our separate ways. Only this time, we weren’t just unknown road users but, namesakes, united by motorcycling.

And that my friends, is how the penultimate day of the year ended, with a wonderful surprise.

Pretty awesome eh 😊