Learn how to pursue the passion of Riding Bike with Rider Monk

Rider Monk

There is a very famous saying by Mark Twain :

“The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why”

Today we have an exceptional guest with us, Mr. Kanishk Dhadwal, He is a Banker by profession and a Biker by passion,During our discussion ,we will learn about his journey of discovering his love for biking and how he is able to purse it.

How you have discovered your passion?

I think I discovered it in my childhood when I saw Bullet of my uncle around 25 years back, it was like love at first sight for me! I lived with my family in Dharmshala, My uncle was one of the few people in the town who had Bullet and when I used to hear the bullet exhaust sound I got goosebumps, I always thought when I earn, I will have my own biking collection. Somehow, I lost touch in between, I got busy with my life career, and marriage. Finally, I decided to pursue my old passion of biking, I researched and bought a Honda CB350 and I am thrilled with the Bike. Now I feel Biking is a form of meditation. I am part of Biking communities like Honda, I have my own rider group also, and recently I started Moto Blogging and doing Biking trips.

Kanishk, with a day job how you are able to manage your passion?

Pursuing passion with the day job is a challenge, let’s be honest the jobs we are doing are for our basic requirements but if we are unable to finance our passion then there is no point in struggling with a day job in my point. I think it will be an aimless life without passion. and with the support of all I would like to make Biking my full-time career. In India, we are doing 10-12 hours of job daily, and around 85 percent of our daytime when we are awake is lost in our job and it becomes difficult to invest time in your passion whether it be Biking, writing, painting, or whatever may be. Personally, I feel I struggled initially to give time to Biking, because Biking as a passion needs time, you need to meet people, go on rides, record, and develop your skills, you need to maintain your bike as your family member and take care of it.

I decided whatever has happened has happened, I need to make time for Biking slowly on weekends. I started, On Sundays to go on Honda Group rides, I learned skills such as what needs to be followed, team spirit in the rides and so much technical stuff I got to learn about Biking. Then I decided instead to take leave from my day job as it is difficult in a Banking job especially because there is work dependency on us, but eventually, I raised all these obstacles are there in your mind only, if you are passionate enough you will manage it, instead of going to my hometown I started investing my leaves in Biking.

Recently I started learning video editing from YouTube, it is a long journey but as every journey starts with a single step challenges will come way forward and I will enjoy it, If you are doing the job and also maintaining your work-life balance it gives you a different level of satisfaction, another challenges of family like my mother supports my passion but like other parents she was also worried about my rides, there are off-road routes and they get feared of these but still she supports and support is all you need

“I think we have one life and we only have one chance to live it, so why not do everything in this life only?” Kanishk Dhadwal

What was your first off-road trip, and how did you emerge after your first trip, does it help to ensure that biking is your passion how did that trip help you

It was a 5-day to Spiti and Kaza trip with my rider group, My rider group’s Name is “Bulls on Road”, we are five riders out of which three are Bankers and one is an Architect and one is into business, When we were planning this trip, one of my ex-colleagues was part of this rider group he asked me for the trip, I had never done a trip like this long earlier, that too not off-road, I think such trips are dreams of true Biker, the peace you feel on the routes that I feel you can’t find anywhere. The Biggest challenge was fighting with the mental Block that I could drive such a long off-road trip where you are on a higher altitude where it becomes difficult to breathe, if I had a challenge like an accident how would I manage? I was unsure about driving on such off-road. My family, they were fearing that I had not done any such trip and that I had not done it earlier at this age I wanted to do, My inner calling in a way was visible and I convinced my family that I had to take a leap of faith in that trip

Our trip was from Chandigarh to Manali, then Manali to Spiti, then Spiti to Kaza, then a small destination in Kaza, return to Shimla, and back to Chandigarh.

Day one started at 9 o’clock in the night, our aim was to reach Manali in the morning which took 10-11 hours of continuous riding. We were having less days and we need to cover more so we planned continuous rides , we reached Manali and refueled our bikes ,then started towards Spiti , passing Attal tunnel we reached to point in spiti road by next day afternoon where off-road started, that was the point where our BRO Border road organization , then told us there is no network for next 1-2 days , please do your phone calls then it was complete off-road for 80 to 90 kms that was the toughest adventurous and trilled one , I fall many times because there were water crossing where there are no proper paths with stones and marbles inside the water where bike can slip but important thing was I gone with group so as a group we keep motivating each other If you fall down and lose your confidence then it will be difficult going forward , then you become confident after falling you learn to get up then we reach battal valley that valley is surrounded by Rocky Mountains and there is less livelihood there we did camping , we had our tents , first time I installed tent, the main concern was wind speed , if you have not tied your tent properly it may fall down , but experience was good , if you like star gazing you will like that place , it was like sleeping under the stars without any filter. In the morning we started again, 20 km’s of off-road then we reached our final destination in the evening Kaza, In Kaza we booked a homestay for 2 days then we explored the local market, Surrounded by mountains it is a beautiful place there is a world’s highest petrol pump where we refilled out Bikes. Next, we explored local destinations like the highest post office, restaurant, and highest Sheshan bridge. The next day we came back to Shimla and reached Chandigarh on the fifth day.

How is your experience of meeting new people on such trips?

I felt people were very happy, they had a minimalistic lifestyle, and there were small houses, markets, and limited people living in the community. People like to spend time with each other instead of technology, old age people walk the hills without any problems, and children are playing as we speak there should be minimalistic lifestyles these people are living it, One memory I would like to share with you we went to a place Lang Za there is big buddha statue there we met two old ladies there and one was around 95 years while speaking with her, I felt immense energy in her, she was laughing fully with positive vibration that I don’t feel speaking with 30 year old in the city here the reason I think is fresh air fresh water and clean food, they are mentally good they speak with each other, no crime people are lovely they are very much welcoming.

What were your struggles when you chose this passion?

I was so indulged in building my career that I was not able to make time for anything for my passion, I think I could not pursue it for 10 years, Biking I used to do it for commune purposes, but I had lost touch with it because of my mental hurdles but still somehow back in my mind it was there always, After few years of working in a metro city Gurgaon I shifted to Chandigarh, a less hectic place so that I can make time for myself, then somehow able to maintain work-life balance, and then I restarted investing in my my biking journey I purchased my Honda Bike, I did small small rides initially, I never did off-road till Spiti trip where I can did to 100 km in one go it was huge improvement for me, it was a turning point, Spiti trip has made me that much confident

What is the importance of a group if you are starting biking?

You need to prepare yourself first and work on your riding skills when you are confident enough that you can do bike riding then you should invest more time in it and join a group. Group importance is there in my personal opinion because there is motivation with riding in a group, you learn about technicalities that will increase your knowledge in case you plan for the solo ride and a long-term perspective group should be there. Still, I believe it should be a small group of 4-5 bikers because if it is bigger there are more chances that you will get differences or managing issues.

Travelling Peace

Any closing comments for readers who are on their passion journey?

Everyone has his/ her own passion but we forget about the struggles of life or ignore it, Someone may like piano, writing, music, or painting, but not everyone is fortunate enough with resources or time to allow their passion, it is a time-consuming process. Firstly you need to explore your passion, You may like many things as a child and may say I want to become a pilot, become a hero but if you are not trying that you may not understand whether passion is your love or not. For identifying any passion it is most important to try it, and you will know from inside when trying your passion, I have many other hobbies also like I play table tennis, I play piano, but if I compare these with Biking, they are my hobbies and“Biking is a form of meditation for me when I am on my bike I am at peace”

At Bhagatsudha, we aim to provide you with content that will help you in your passion journey and find purpose in life. See you again with a different passion and journey next time. Please subscribe to Bhagatsudha Blog so that you don’t miss any post update.