DIMAPUR, DECEMBER 3: The Friends on Wheels Motorcycle Club and EMI Nagaland Motorcycle Club, as part of the transit camp, provided accommodation and other necessary facilities to more than 400 riders here at the premise of Dimapur’s City College. The riders are here in Nagaland for the North East Riders Meet (2022) scheduled from December 3 to 5.
As part of this edition, hosted by Nagaland Motorcycles Club, the riders after a string of events at Noune Resort, will move to Kisama for the Hornbill Festival and disperse from there after December 5.
Abhijit Bhardwaj, the president of Friends on Wheels Motorcycles Club speaking to Nagaland Page on Saturday at City College before the riders would head towards Noune Resort said that the NERM is an annual event, hosted by the motorcycles club of various Northeastern States every year.
The transit camp at City College accommodated more than 400 riders, including more than 20 female riders, not only from Northeastern States but also from countries like US, Bhutan and Nepal.
According to him, the NERM is expected to see the participation of 1,800 to 2,000 riders and the motto of the event is “when we meet, we grow”.
A chartered accountant and grandmother of 11, Berry Thomson, who hails from Georgia and is also one of the riders participating in the NERM, told Nagaland Page that she has been riding dirt bikes for the past 40 years and it was in 2019 when she visited Northeast to attend NERM and travel the States in the region. After that, she could not travel again because of the pandemic, and now that the airlines are operating, she is back.
She called the NERM a very special thing and the region a very special place that symbolizes brotherhood and added that at NERM, they all care about is each other, not caste, colour, tribe, gender, or religion.
She said that she had been to Kohima in 2019 and attended Hornbill and this time she is going back again. According to her, Nagaland is doing a good job towards development, it is more connected and has a large English speaking people which make it easy for people like her to get around and communicate.
She said that the Hornbill Festival showcases the similarities and differences of different tribes and wished that even when there aren’t events, the morungs would operate. She mentioned that she particularly liked the Kohima War Memorial, where she spent half a day and read everything. She added that she now understands why India didn’t participate in the World War II and it was because the invaders could not make it beyond the mountains because of the tribal people.
Vinod Rawat, a biker from Mumbai with a missing foot and a prosthetic implant in its place, told Nagaland Page that he was rejected by one club and this led him to form his own club ‘Convoy Control Club’, which now has a total of 9 chapters in India. Besides the bikers, the Friends on Wheels Motorcycle Club and EMI Nagaland Motorcycle Club also hosted Vishal Tekade at the City College.
Tekade, who hails from Nagpur, Maharashtra, who has been on a solo bicycle journey across the country told Nagaland Page that he is ‘in search of life’ and nothing more and Sunday was his 904th day. He expressed that while he heard that the people of the Northeast are loving and welcoming, visiting the region proved that they are more than that. He mentioned that he had been in Dimapur for only one day, but learnt about the Hornbill Festival and decided to stay and travel to Kohima and stay there till it gets over.
Tekade has till today travelled to 14 States and plans to visit Nepal and Bangladesh too. He doesn’t have any time frame within which he intends to conclude the journey. On questions of how he finds accommodation, he said that journeys are more about humanity and people don’t need much to travel. He added that he started his journey 2 years ago with Rs 10,000 but donated everything on the 13th day and since then he has been travelling without any money.
(Page News Service)
