Mahesāna

One of the things in life I am not that passionate about is oil. Well, engine oil I mean. I love olive oil. I use a lot of organic hair and body oils. But I don’t think or care much about engine oil. Until today.

Today’s journey of over 300 kilometers from Barmer to Mehsana was quite a long trip. We planned that purposefully with Ingrid and Glen, our Norwegian Viking friends, because as it turns out Glen’s birthday is also on January 4 (same as Joe). We all agreed that we’d like to be in a nice hotel in a decent sized town on January 4th in the evening to celebrate Joe’s 60th and Glen’s 57th birthdays. And that required us to do quite a long trip today.

Little did Joe and I know that the state of Gujarat, where we will be on January 4, is a dry state. Ingrid and Glen told us that over dinner tonight just as we were getting ready to order a gin and tonic in the hotel restaurant. Sigh.

So there was no gin and tonic waiting for us at the hotel we arrived at after a day that mostly centered around finding engine oil. Which was unexpectedly difficult to find.

Here’s the thing. We are driving what is known as a “two stroke” auto rickshaw. There is also a “four stroke” auto rickshaw that is slightly more powerful and used for driving in the Himalayas, which we aren’t doing. The two strokes are a bit older and not as common nowadays.

With the two stroke model, you need to add 40 ml of engine oil to one liter of petrol and mix that when you fill up the vehicle. So you need to buy oil separately and have a canister to mix the oil and petrol.

We were needing to refill our canisters today so decided around 12 pm - after a 7 am start and incredible sunrise - to stop in a small town and buy some oil. Without that, we would eventually not be able to add any gas to the rickshaws.

That’s where the adventure started. We stopped at the gas station, where one would expect to be able to buy engine oil. Nope. But if you go a half a kilometer down the road on the right you can find some, they said. So off we went along a bumpy back road and stopped in front of an engine oil shop. Glen and Joe needed to show the guys what kind of oil we needed. There was a lot of head shaking and slowly the crowd grew larger. They didn’t have it.

Go down the road and turn left, one guy said. Everybody nodded. Okay okay. So off we went. Turned right and ended up in front of another engine oil shop. Head shaking and a slowly growing crowd. Selfies started. Someone offered to go and buy it for us and come back. Only five minutes. No thank you, we said.

We drove out of there when the crowd was approaching what felt like 100 people. I am pretty sure I am a social media star in India somewhere with all of the Instagram pages I have been featured on.

We took off down the road and found a gas station and restaurant. The proprietor came outside to meet us. Joe asked him to help us and off Joe went on the back of the owner’s motorcycle to find oil. I hung back with the Vikings and ate a cheese sandwich.

Joe pulled up an hour later with about 40 bags of oil in a canvas bag. And off we went. A successful hunt.Read more