It was Tuesday, 10th March. A hot summer day in Bangalore. Its not so hot usually in this city which was once called the garden city of India, but it is becoming warmer year after year. This year especially because of the mass cutting of trees everywhere in the city in the name of “Namma Metro”. Bangalore is constructing its own metro service in order to cope up with the high traffic density and long traffic jams, and for this roads are being widened everywhere at a fast pace. What better way to widen the roads than to destroy the pavements and cut few more trees along side the road which otherwise provided shade and lowered the temperature of the neighbourhood. Its a pity that so many trees have been cut. The whole stretch in front of Maharani College has been made void of any trees. Its only one wide road. There are similar examples across the city. Sigh!

Anyways, this post is about the bike ride and not about metro expansion, so lets get back to track. So it was hot that day and it was a delight  when the evening turned cooler. Cool breeze started to blow and it was little cloudy but not humid. The kind of weather that can drive you crazy and make you go nuts. In such a weather,  you want to stretch in an armchair in your balcony and sip coffee; you want to go on a long walk along a lake;

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The post has been in my draft box for a very long time now. And I dint have the heart to delete it and neither I have the enthusiasm to complete it. This is gonna be one of the most badly written posts. In bullet points, here are the events that happened.

10.10 left college, headed for mysore road.

10.45 pit stop for petrol, pratik’s bike low on fuel -  52 kms from home.

10.50  nitish and I are travelling on one bike and pratik’s on his. We sight a Barista board and wait for pratik who is trailing behind to check if we must sip coffee there.

11.06 pm barista rejected – 64 kms  on road.

11.21 pm sighted a ccd. We decide to make a stop.

12.30 exit ccd . The meter reads 1338. We are 70 kms from BSK.

At 1345.7 and 12.37 am pratik sees heated engine again. My bike is on reserve.

12.40 We resume towards Mysore. At 12.43 I refuel for 100.

At 12.50 reach Maddu ccd at 1357 km.  A brief stop here and at 1.18 exit.

At 1.30 stop at Mudigere CCD waitin for prateek.We have been riding at 95-100 kmph while pratik’s bike has been overheating again and again forcing him to trail us at 75.

At 1.40 , we are 62 kms from city. While waiting for pratik here, Nitish and I plan for next week.

2 am , we are crossing Ramnagar and decide to climb ramnagar hill. The odometer reads 1387 km.

After five minutes and about 3 kms of winding road, at 2.05 am we have climbed the hill to find a temple on the top of the hill. We need to  park here and climb on foot. The odometer reads 1390.

so thats me and Nitish climbing the hill. It was pity that I wasn’t carrying my camera with me. These pics were taken on Nitish’s mobile.

30 minutes of climbing and at 2.38 am we are resting on top of hill. Its cold here and so much silent too. I want to spend my lifetime here.

At 3.13 we begin the descent and at 3.19 I get a call

(I dint want this here, but Nitish wanted it to be here. He even clicked a snap and insisted I put it here)

At 3.30 pratik’s bike overheated again… Aargh!!!

At 1399kms and 3.55 am, we sight the ccd closest to the city. Meet some friends here who have are waiting until dawn due to flat tyre and then carry on towards the ccd.

Its hardly five minutes of driving and at 4 am we witnessed 3 truck crashed into each other. Horrible sight. Wanted to click pics but couldnt.

At 4.15 am, 20 km from ccd and pratik’s bike stopped again. He calls this piece of shit a bike and himself a mechanical engineer. Anyways, at 4.30 we enter the city. By the time its 4.32, I have dropped Nitish at his home and I am headed towards mine, to crash on the bed.

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Special Thanks:

Nitish for all the photographs

Pratik and his bike for giving us all those breaks..

And most importantly you all who read this post. Its nothing like what I wanted it to be. Still its a journal.