Last Friday, as always, I was trolling around the internets looking for some inspiration. You really gotta dig deep to find something worth reading, trapped under a tonne of marketing and stupidity and boredom and ignorance and outright lies.
On Facebook I saw this post, on a rather unknown website, and I loved it. I didn’t know anything about 6 of the 10 people from that list, and of the remaining 4 I knew very little. Like I have been following Chithra Priya on social media from quite a while, but I had no idea she’s so well traveled.
I searched for each one of the people, read about their journeys, but somehow didn’t really find what I was looking for. Even though their trips had been epic, I didn’t really feel any connection with them. Then I searched for Sam Kapasi, and then that’s what I did for the next 3 days.
I didn’t know Sam, or “The Yeti” as he was called. Till last week I didn’t even know he existed. Over the weekend, I read through his entire blog, twice. I read most of his posts on Team-BHP, and most of the articles about him that I could find.
Sam died 3 years ago in a car accident.
I knew that from the beginning, as the RoadMojo blog mentioned it. The more I read his work and about him, the more sorry I felt for not having known him. To me, Sam is the epitome of writing talent, the most interesting style, the most personal touch that I’ve ever felt.
What I like about him the most is his ability to say so much with so little words. I like his talent to completely express a situation, to create the image inside your mind, without using a single “bad” word. I like how laid back and stoned he sounds all the time.
A lot of people think I use bad language because I want to. I can’t deny that completely, but there’s more to it than meets the eye. I have a lot of anger, primarily because of the stupidity of other people that I get to watch every day. Fuck and shit and piss and ass and cum and bitch and tits help me express myself better, or that’s what I think.
God knows how many times people have asked me to improve my expressions, how many times my parents have scolded me after reading my articles. My mom is totally convinced I’ve become a drug-addicted truck driver hippie who’s stuck in bad company and is going to be a giant failure at life.
Sam’s blog gives me hope that I too can write meaningful, thought provoking stuff without offending half the world. I loved the calming effect his words had on my soul. I loved his optimism, his humor. Even though he was a successful guy, wildly popular on Team-BHP, and the brand director of sound systems giant JBL, it’s hard to tell that in his articles.
Sam, wherever you are, you are awesome.
Photo credit: Priya Kale
I feel the same way about you. Would love to bump into you somewhere along a trail and yell the fuck out at each other, our bikes and life in general since I’m pretty sure an arranged meeting would be boring as hell.
Ps: As a solo biker who detests any sort of group riding (technical trails included :P), I sincerely pray the both of us stay alive and are on track for that random meeting whenever the fuck life decides to dribble a bit of genuine connectivity over the tonne of marketing, boredom, ignorance and outright lies.
Stupidity is unavoidable.
Riderzone is fucking gold, keep up the hate mate.
🙂
Ágree with the Celebrity. Sam’s blog is awesome. Sad to hear about his demise. 🙁 .
Same here mate.
Bharadwaj Dayala & Chithra Priya are two names which i’ve heard of before going through the article. Gul is the only exception I’ve heard of but never categorized her as a Road-Tripper. The article looked more like commercialized to me (maybe cos I’ve heard about some Hardcore Road-Trippers who are not there in the list).
Went through Sam’s blog, looked more like a drama to me than a trip-log (maybe it’s just to me). Ofcourse the fun element is there.
P.S. It has been noted that you did not swear in this article but only mentioned the ‘words’. “Dont change your style. You are unique.” (Y)
Yeah? I would love to know more about other road trippers man, let me know.
Haha, yeah it’s not to everybody’s taste 🙂
Yes sir!
Will PM it to you 🙂