BOM-PNQ-BLR NIKO
Okay, so this blog is seriously turning into some sort of trips-to-Bangalore log or something, but its just that prolly me coming to Bangalore this often is prolly the only thing i consider exiting enough to Blog about. Well this time coming to Bangalore has been more exiting than prolly any time earlier. I have been wanting to take a long trip on my bike for a long time, i have traveled about 150 kms in one day at a stretch and i have always wanted to do more. Me and couple of us friends, once in a while go for a kinda long trip, and everyone of us have dropped the idea of going further and doing a really long one. I prolly must have been the one that must have pestered everyone the most to atleast have a trip a bit longer than the one we usually have, but every once in a while there is always something that ruins it. I have even, multiple number of times asked for just one other biker friend to join me for a long ride. That didn't happen either. I once or maybe twice even asked a single person to join me alone on my bike for a long trip, all just for shear disappointment. When all that failed and nothing looked positive, i stopped looking and even caring about it. Then one day, I randomly asked a friend if she would care to join me for a bike trip from Bombay to Bangalore. I quite frankly didn't look at it as something that would eventually materialize, but when she said yes, i was surprised and quite happy to know that it prolly will happen this time around. And that was it.
We were supposed to leave 3 days after that, and i had shit loads of personal and trip business to take care of before that. Okay, this was where i was at, i was broke, tired from all the university shit i was trying to get together, pissed with being broke and tired and also battling with the thought of getting concent from my folks to ride it down for a designers convention in Pune. So three days before the trip, i give my bike for a really top job servicing, making sure that my mechanic knows i have a really long trip to make. That day later, my mechanic calls me up to tell me that there has been a death in the owners house and he'd have to close the shop and so he'd not be able to service my bike. I let him know my urgency, while still trying to bring about a sence of sympathy due to the loss( the owner didn't really look sad because of the death though. next day he was at the shop with a 80's outfit and a weard sorta goti or something). The owner agreed to take my bike for servicing the next day. The next day, unbelievebly, the owner complained of the same reason to shut his shop early. I some how managed to convince the owner of my need, and he agreed to service my bike with the spares and tools outside with the mechanic, while still keeping the shop closed. Seven in the evening i get a call from the mechanic saying my bike is ready. I must have never been this nervous before getting my bike back from servicing. I was hoping, after i test it, i'd not have any reason to go back and get any more work done on the bike, cos i really didn't have the time. Quite to my delight, the bike looked good, except some small things here and there that i got fixed on the spot. Then came the time when i had to pay for the servicing. It costed me three thousand rupees and i really didn't have any money. Some how i got the money arranged in matter of minutes and that was that. The next day, i was supposed to get the university things done, collect money from my clients and friends and make preparations for the trip. The next day was looking very tough and i was beginning to have my doubts about the trip when i realized the servicing dude lost all my bike papers.
I just could not go to sleep that whole day, not to say that i had not been getting sleep three days prior owing to getting those university papers in order. Next day, i somehow finish with all the university papers, i get them in order, get printouts, burn CDs of my portfolio, get letters and money from some clients, get the university papers submitted at my councillors office, get some shopping done for the trip and then get back to my place to do something about the papers. I was suposed to leave at about 2 in the morning that following day. It was about 10 and i go to the nearest police station wanting to file a FIR for loss of bike papers. I was told to report that case with some other police station. So i did. Then i was required to produce a effidefit for the same. The cops prolly expected me not to be able to produce one at that point at night(it must have been around 11). I remembered of this notary guy who helped me couple of times with getting papers attested. I didn't know his exact address, but i knew some place close to where he lived. So i reached that place and asked this friendly PCOwalla if he knew of any notary. He apparently knew of the same notary and even remembered his number. I called the notary dude up and asked if he could help me. The notary first said that he could not because it was late and stuff, but i pleeded and he said he'd help me. I jotted down his address and reached there quickly not before thanking the PCO dude immensly. Finally i get to the notary dude, get the paper, thank him, try to pay him, went to the ATM, got back, paid him and left for the police station. On the way to the cops. I met couple of friends, some coming from as far as Napien sea road just to give me money they owed me. It must have already been about 1 - 1:15.
I rush to the cops, they tossed me around a few more times with reporting it to the right police station, file a FIR and get a smaller-than-credit-card-size paper saying i lost my papers. The cops tell me to go to some other station to get a real proof of paper loss. So i do. Its already 2, i go to the cops elsewhere, bribe him and then finally have the paper in my hand at 2:30. I get back home, take a quick shower, pack my bag and leave home at about 3:30. This was when i actually realized everyhing had finally come together and the trip is actually happening. I leave home, swiftly and smoothly passing through known areas for about an hour and then i was finally in some unknown territory, as far as my bike had gone. It felt pleasant except that i really had a timeline and had to reach Pune at approximately two and a half hours after i started from home. I had no clue if i could make it to Pune in time, but i tried my best and kept speeding all through. The ride all the way from Bombay to Pune was just brilliant. It was just fucking brilliant. The raods were just fantastic, the weather was just perfect, my bike was in the best shape it had been all year through and the rush just kept me going, well it was also Megadeth and Pink Floyd that kept me going for a while too, but that don't matter much really. It was kinda cold and all that, but really the feeling to keep going at most points and having to keep going or something like that was just brilliant. I could have sworn that it was almost better than anything else at that time or something. It just felt so right. So i am in the process of reaching Pune and my friend apparently is already waiting with another friend at some place, i believe it was Gold Ad labs or something. My friend from Pune had given be brilliant directions, just brilliant directions to get upto a particular point and i could feel i was getting closer and all. So i am prolly very close to were my friends were at. It was freezing or atleast i was freezing and i was beginning to get lost and all that. Between multiple communication thingy happening and all that, i stopped for asking directions finally. So i ask for Gold Adlabs to this man on a scooter. Suddenly he happens to look at me in disbelief or something. Then after what seemed like 20 seconds, he decides he'll help me. He takes a deep breath, looks in the direction of which we both know was the direction i wanted to go towards, then he looks back at me sharply in the morning chill and says, "SON, you want to go to Gold Adlabs?", when i affirm that, he looked almost down and almost nods his head, all the while i am thinking this is probably not good. Then the man, looks at me again and almost probably wanted to have his hand on my shoulder and say something sad, bad or something plain ol dirty, but he just continues looking at me and says, "SON, its not really close from here". Then he continues to look in the same direction, points his index finger extremely slowly towards a direction and says, "you'll atleast have to go about 2 kilometers and", then he pauses, while i
am thinking...and?, the man continued, "..and you will find it there". That was something i tell you. So i swiftly follow the instructions the man gave me, and in about 3 minutes i was meeting my friends. That felt good. It felt really really good. It was nice to see familiar faces after a while. We met, spoke and all that. That was all good. Then we head to this place called German Bakery for some breakfast and all that. We hung around for a while, i had my first smoke in 14 days shortly after that. That felt extremely good and all too. After that we were pretty much ready to hit the road and head out. That particular moment was in a way very funny.
Here were two people on a bike, just got outta having breakfast, we are probably in this local road in town and looking for a way to head straight to Bangalore. We didn't at all read the map enough to give us any idea of what we would probably want to do. We just knew we wanted to head out to a National Highway or something on which we could ride to Bangalore on. We were just looking for a way out. We roamed around within the city for what seemed like an hour or two. We just did not want to get lost cos we wanted to make the best of the day light and all. We finally started getting around and reach a place that seemed like could take us to Bangalore. That was the point that seemed like an exit or something. We started on a sorta bad patch of roads that were a GHAT section or something. That lasted barely for any time. Shortly after that, we were on butter smooth roads and were easily doing about 120KPH for a very good distance. We were quickly able to cover distances and we were beginning to think we had a good start. We must have covered about 200 kms by then and we still had just one helmet and we really needed to get another. One particular road looked like something that would have had the answers. We knew nothing about it, but we were ready to make an effort to try. So we did. And we reach this really really GAON sorta place. It was really cool and all. We managed getting an helmet and left the place immediately cos we had other things to take care of. So we did and shorly after hitting the NH again, we took a break. We had some quick bite, smokes and a drink not before trying go make our self look fresh and clean and all that. After that break we kept riding for some really long distance. After a while, we almost had a riding pattern and there were things we did that made it comfortable. We did not stop often, not for taking photos and all that. So we would continously ride at like about 110KPH for like about half an hour or something, then slow it down and ride it at may be 50KPH for the next 10 mins, then back to 110 or something for the next half an hour and we got about doing this for a while, the we would have covered quite a lotta distance by then and so we would stop for a smoke break or something. Or if we did not have a scheduled break and just stopped for something, like a call or probably something arbidly beautiful on the way, we would make that our smoke break and all that. There was such a pattern to the entire thing. And in following something of a pattern and stuff on something that is completely unique, different or unknown was quite an experience.
We really didn't have any next leg of the ride so to speak, it was just a long stretch of road helping us get from one point to the another. So as we were doing, we had maintained a sorta pattern and we were doing that with ocassional pretty sights and exiting road side CHAI houses and killer smoke breaks and just brilliant wind on our faces and just brilliant sun setting on our way. That particular thing was also freakin awesome. The feeling of a sunset on a trip is just extra ordinary. Its like this, we started out early in the morning and riding like mad to make the best of the day light. We are continously travelling from one end to the other with the sun over looking us most of the time and while we are at it, the sun is also on its way to setting, as in i do not know if we prolly would have wanted to go on if or not the sun never set, but its different you know, the sun does set. We kept riding though even after the sun set, infact the sun seemed to have set much too soon. It must have been little past 6 and it was getting dark and headlights started becoming really important, really imortant. Not that no body would have known that, but still. We kept riding, it must have been around 8:30 at night and we decided to stop over at an A1 for some food. That was quite an experience in it self for me and just brilliant.
Here is why, I have always been coming to Bangalore and I have taken the bus multiple number of times. And the bus always stopped at this particular A1 sometime in the morning for breakfast. I have stopped at that particular A1 multiple number of times and I almost even identified with the staff there. The last time around when I travelled by bus and we stopped at this A1, I happened to see 2 boys on 2 bikes wih Bombay registeration taking a break. I asked them if they were riding it down to Bangalore from Bombay and they affirmed. That kinda made me feel good. I then thought to myself, I would want to do that some day, I really did not know that would happen a month after I thought about it. That A1 stop over was just brilliant. It was getting late, we wanted to stop and stuff, we were also sorta hungry and we had brilliant UPMAS and COFFEE and stuff.
Shortly after that we headed back to the very inviting roads and sped as we did through out. We wanted to stop over not long after that and we started looking around. The night riding is also something of a experience. We almost developed a kinda riding pattern at night too. The roads were brilliant for most of the part with the white lines and all that. So despite the roads being good and all that, you can never tell when there would be something bad waiting to hit us, so we could not just ride blindly, so this is what we would do, we would ride like mad along the white lines and all, and when there were no white lines on the road we would suddenly slow down, still ride but really slow untill we found a nice speeding vehicle with good lights and then we would just follow them till where ever, ocassionally over taking them after we found the lines again and catching someone else ahead after we would lose the lines again. We were still in the process of looking for a place to stop over and all of a sudden the roads started getting terrible. The roads in this part were the worst. It barely even were road. It was just fucking horrible. We continued on the "road" for about an hour and we found a place to stop over. We wanted to finish with that bad stretch of road even though it was late at night, cos we wanted a new fresh clean start after we would hit the road again. But after a little riding we stopped over at this place called GENISIS. That place was just brilliant. GENESIS was just a fuckin oasis or something, it was just one fucking brilliant stop over. That was the most comforting stopover over all and stuff.
After riding all day the number were getting crunched and all that. We must have been about 200 KMS shy of Bangalore city. One of our patterns in riding included an act of spilling water all over the bike specially the tyre and all that, cos the roads were hot in the afternoon and we were riding like mad. This we did all through very regularly without fail. This comes to explain my theory of non importance. Well the non importance theory for you. Well so we did the water spilling all day and everything was smooth and all. But it was getting late and the road didn't feel really hot and all that, so we did not bother doing the ritual and stuff. Just then, we had a puncture. We stopped, did not panic, had a smoke, loosened the valve and rode it to the puncture guy, who luckily was not far away. So we got to the puncture guy, fixed it and all and hit the road agin after an hour. Ahh, here is the theory, so if we always did the ritual throughout and if we never had a puncture all the way, we prolly would not have known the importance of our ritual atall. We just did it, and the system failed right when we stopped the ritual, which makes the ritual important. So important is that, that drives a situation to a concequence upon the failure of realization of the importance of the existance of reason to a situation. Oh back to the hour story.
Here is what happened during that hour. We are riding the bike on this nice piece of concrete road, about 200 KMS shy of Bangalore city. The ride - I remember had a kinda up-down slopy thing going on about it. The road was perfect; as good as most part of riding we had already done and all, the road was ofcourse hot from the afternoon sun. We only did not do one part of what had become a way of our riding all day; we did not splash water on the tyres and stuff. It was probably the reason we had a puncture. We did not panic, we were cool. We stopped, confirmed it was a puncture, had a smoke: peacefully, and then decided we'd ride slowly till we find a puncture guy. We did find one after riding for about 5 minutes. It was on the other side of the road, we crossed and reached the puncture shop. There was this puncture dude with about 5 other people from around. We peacefully sat nearby while they were at it. They apparently spoke in a dilect, they thought we did not understand, so they were not really bothering about keeping it low. We obviously understood the language and quickly understood they had plans of mugging us by keeping us till the sun went down. They had a plan, to let us know initially that there were just two punctures, then when we'd say to fix it and when he would have done with it, he'd have said there were two more, that would translate to more time spend there and stuff. He did just that, told us there were 2 punctures and then fixed it and then about an hour later he told us there were two more. We were fortunately carrying a extra pair of tube. So we asked him to just replace the tube when he said there were two more puncture. Much to his disappointment, he came up with another way to get us stuck over there. He kept our fuel running. Fortunately there was still fuel left even after he was done with fixing the puncture. Barely enough fuel, but enough to take us to the next pump. And that was it, we made it out of there safely, but it could have been worse.
After a nice, long stop over we continued with the roads and we were done with the bad parts of the roads some where near Chitradurga or something. We caught rain on the way, but we never stopped, we kept going and the rains were not that terrible and stuff anyhow. We moved swiftly and entered Bangalore city shortly and for me i personally knew we were in it when it started becoming difficult to ride. We were in Bangalore and thats when it prolly actually hit us, that we rode all the way and we were in the city after a days riding and all that. I must never have been happier to be in Bangalore. It just felt remarkable to ride all that long and be amongst road you know and places you have been before. We were there, we were where we set out to be at. We had ridden about 1100 KMS in about 19 hrs, stopping at various places for smokes, tea and snacks, once for buying a helmet, once for a puncture, thrice for fuel totalling about Rs 2500 and once when we parted after reaching Bangalore. It was just freaking brilliant, just too fucking brilliant. We had seen the day, that we had been wanting to see when we set out.
After we parted, i headed to JMJ complex, nobody knew i was coming. I just headed there and rang the bell. The door was open, i entered and i saw everybody. For the next 5 seconds or something everyone was quiet, trying to figure out or something. Then there was just this sudden bust of exitement primarily initiatiated by Srivani and all and everyone with their dinner plates switly moved on to discussing my trip and all that. We hung around a lobg while, had dinner. I slept after that and i got up after i skipped a day in dreams. Our trip had ended, i knew all that would be of it were memories. I am writing this about more that a month after the trip, and I still feel it like we did it yesterday. It was one hell of a trip, i would do it again. I know it. I very well know it.
The trip is so special, its just so fucking special and the trip gets to try to teach you something and when there is nothing when you can probably see yourself learning, things just come to you on a trip. You do not need to be wanting to get something from a trip, its something you have chosen to do. Its a choice and you learn to accept things that come with it. Its a getaway if you want, but its whatever you get from it that you have to accept. Its real and it gets to telling you a a story. Its live, its now, its only then. There is no complaining. There is no pressure, its just being in your right sences, being responsible, being right and just being good. It does not make everything else seem less necessary but it gives more meaning to make the best of whats necessary. The trip, is not a different person, the trip becomes of you. Not everyone on that same piece of well laden road is having to go through what the other person is probaly going through. Its not everybodys trip. Its what just becomes of what you cant go back and feel even what happened a second ago. Its the trip, its special. Its that special. The trip, the trip is what it takes and it is never complaining. The Trip, it gives you a lot if you give it a shot.
We were supposed to leave 3 days after that, and i had shit loads of personal and trip business to take care of before that. Okay, this was where i was at, i was broke, tired from all the university shit i was trying to get together, pissed with being broke and tired and also battling with the thought of getting concent from my folks to ride it down for a designers convention in Pune. So three days before the trip, i give my bike for a really top job servicing, making sure that my mechanic knows i have a really long trip to make. That day later, my mechanic calls me up to tell me that there has been a death in the owners house and he'd have to close the shop and so he'd not be able to service my bike. I let him know my urgency, while still trying to bring about a sence of sympathy due to the loss( the owner didn't really look sad because of the death though. next day he was at the shop with a 80's outfit and a weard sorta goti or something). The owner agreed to take my bike for servicing the next day. The next day, unbelievebly, the owner complained of the same reason to shut his shop early. I some how managed to convince the owner of my need, and he agreed to service my bike with the spares and tools outside with the mechanic, while still keeping the shop closed. Seven in the evening i get a call from the mechanic saying my bike is ready. I must have never been this nervous before getting my bike back from servicing. I was hoping, after i test it, i'd not have any reason to go back and get any more work done on the bike, cos i really didn't have the time. Quite to my delight, the bike looked good, except some small things here and there that i got fixed on the spot. Then came the time when i had to pay for the servicing. It costed me three thousand rupees and i really didn't have any money. Some how i got the money arranged in matter of minutes and that was that. The next day, i was supposed to get the university things done, collect money from my clients and friends and make preparations for the trip. The next day was looking very tough and i was beginning to have my doubts about the trip when i realized the servicing dude lost all my bike papers.
I just could not go to sleep that whole day, not to say that i had not been getting sleep three days prior owing to getting those university papers in order. Next day, i somehow finish with all the university papers, i get them in order, get printouts, burn CDs of my portfolio, get letters and money from some clients, get the university papers submitted at my councillors office, get some shopping done for the trip and then get back to my place to do something about the papers. I was suposed to leave at about 2 in the morning that following day. It was about 10 and i go to the nearest police station wanting to file a FIR for loss of bike papers. I was told to report that case with some other police station. So i did. Then i was required to produce a effidefit for the same. The cops prolly expected me not to be able to produce one at that point at night(it must have been around 11). I remembered of this notary guy who helped me couple of times with getting papers attested. I didn't know his exact address, but i knew some place close to where he lived. So i reached that place and asked this friendly PCOwalla if he knew of any notary. He apparently knew of the same notary and even remembered his number. I called the notary dude up and asked if he could help me. The notary first said that he could not because it was late and stuff, but i pleeded and he said he'd help me. I jotted down his address and reached there quickly not before thanking the PCO dude immensly. Finally i get to the notary dude, get the paper, thank him, try to pay him, went to the ATM, got back, paid him and left for the police station. On the way to the cops. I met couple of friends, some coming from as far as Napien sea road just to give me money they owed me. It must have already been about 1 - 1:15.
I rush to the cops, they tossed me around a few more times with reporting it to the right police station, file a FIR and get a smaller-than-credit-card-size paper saying i lost my papers. The cops tell me to go to some other station to get a real proof of paper loss. So i do. Its already 2, i go to the cops elsewhere, bribe him and then finally have the paper in my hand at 2:30. I get back home, take a quick shower, pack my bag and leave home at about 3:30. This was when i actually realized everyhing had finally come together and the trip is actually happening. I leave home, swiftly and smoothly passing through known areas for about an hour and then i was finally in some unknown territory, as far as my bike had gone. It felt pleasant except that i really had a timeline and had to reach Pune at approximately two and a half hours after i started from home. I had no clue if i could make it to Pune in time, but i tried my best and kept speeding all through. The ride all the way from Bombay to Pune was just brilliant. It was just fucking brilliant. The raods were just fantastic, the weather was just perfect, my bike was in the best shape it had been all year through and the rush just kept me going, well it was also Megadeth and Pink Floyd that kept me going for a while too, but that don't matter much really. It was kinda cold and all that, but really the feeling to keep going at most points and having to keep going or something like that was just brilliant. I could have sworn that it was almost better than anything else at that time or something. It just felt so right. So i am in the process of reaching Pune and my friend apparently is already waiting with another friend at some place, i believe it was Gold Ad labs or something. My friend from Pune had given be brilliant directions, just brilliant directions to get upto a particular point and i could feel i was getting closer and all. So i am prolly very close to were my friends were at. It was freezing or atleast i was freezing and i was beginning to get lost and all that. Between multiple communication thingy happening and all that, i stopped for asking directions finally. So i ask for Gold Adlabs to this man on a scooter. Suddenly he happens to look at me in disbelief or something. Then after what seemed like 20 seconds, he decides he'll help me. He takes a deep breath, looks in the direction of which we both know was the direction i wanted to go towards, then he looks back at me sharply in the morning chill and says, "SON, you want to go to Gold Adlabs?", when i affirm that, he looked almost down and almost nods his head, all the while i am thinking this is probably not good. Then the man, looks at me again and almost probably wanted to have his hand on my shoulder and say something sad, bad or something plain ol dirty, but he just continues looking at me and says, "SON, its not really close from here". Then he continues to look in the same direction, points his index finger extremely slowly towards a direction and says, "you'll atleast have to go about 2 kilometers and", then he pauses, while i
am thinking...and?, the man continued, "..and you will find it there". That was something i tell you. So i swiftly follow the instructions the man gave me, and in about 3 minutes i was meeting my friends. That felt good. It felt really really good. It was nice to see familiar faces after a while. We met, spoke and all that. That was all good. Then we head to this place called German Bakery for some breakfast and all that. We hung around for a while, i had my first smoke in 14 days shortly after that. That felt extremely good and all too. After that we were pretty much ready to hit the road and head out. That particular moment was in a way very funny.
Here were two people on a bike, just got outta having breakfast, we are probably in this local road in town and looking for a way to head straight to Bangalore. We didn't at all read the map enough to give us any idea of what we would probably want to do. We just knew we wanted to head out to a National Highway or something on which we could ride to Bangalore on. We were just looking for a way out. We roamed around within the city for what seemed like an hour or two. We just did not want to get lost cos we wanted to make the best of the day light and all. We finally started getting around and reach a place that seemed like could take us to Bangalore. That was the point that seemed like an exit or something. We started on a sorta bad patch of roads that were a GHAT section or something. That lasted barely for any time. Shortly after that, we were on butter smooth roads and were easily doing about 120KPH for a very good distance. We were quickly able to cover distances and we were beginning to think we had a good start. We must have covered about 200 kms by then and we still had just one helmet and we really needed to get another. One particular road looked like something that would have had the answers. We knew nothing about it, but we were ready to make an effort to try. So we did. And we reach this really really GAON sorta place. It was really cool and all. We managed getting an helmet and left the place immediately cos we had other things to take care of. So we did and shorly after hitting the NH again, we took a break. We had some quick bite, smokes and a drink not before trying go make our self look fresh and clean and all that. After that break we kept riding for some really long distance. After a while, we almost had a riding pattern and there were things we did that made it comfortable. We did not stop often, not for taking photos and all that. So we would continously ride at like about 110KPH for like about half an hour or something, then slow it down and ride it at may be 50KPH for the next 10 mins, then back to 110 or something for the next half an hour and we got about doing this for a while, the we would have covered quite a lotta distance by then and so we would stop for a smoke break or something. Or if we did not have a scheduled break and just stopped for something, like a call or probably something arbidly beautiful on the way, we would make that our smoke break and all that. There was such a pattern to the entire thing. And in following something of a pattern and stuff on something that is completely unique, different or unknown was quite an experience.
We really didn't have any next leg of the ride so to speak, it was just a long stretch of road helping us get from one point to the another. So as we were doing, we had maintained a sorta pattern and we were doing that with ocassional pretty sights and exiting road side CHAI houses and killer smoke breaks and just brilliant wind on our faces and just brilliant sun setting on our way. That particular thing was also freakin awesome. The feeling of a sunset on a trip is just extra ordinary. Its like this, we started out early in the morning and riding like mad to make the best of the day light. We are continously travelling from one end to the other with the sun over looking us most of the time and while we are at it, the sun is also on its way to setting, as in i do not know if we prolly would have wanted to go on if or not the sun never set, but its different you know, the sun does set. We kept riding though even after the sun set, infact the sun seemed to have set much too soon. It must have been little past 6 and it was getting dark and headlights started becoming really important, really imortant. Not that no body would have known that, but still. We kept riding, it must have been around 8:30 at night and we decided to stop over at an A1 for some food. That was quite an experience in it self for me and just brilliant.
Here is why, I have always been coming to Bangalore and I have taken the bus multiple number of times. And the bus always stopped at this particular A1 sometime in the morning for breakfast. I have stopped at that particular A1 multiple number of times and I almost even identified with the staff there. The last time around when I travelled by bus and we stopped at this A1, I happened to see 2 boys on 2 bikes wih Bombay registeration taking a break. I asked them if they were riding it down to Bangalore from Bombay and they affirmed. That kinda made me feel good. I then thought to myself, I would want to do that some day, I really did not know that would happen a month after I thought about it. That A1 stop over was just brilliant. It was getting late, we wanted to stop and stuff, we were also sorta hungry and we had brilliant UPMAS and COFFEE and stuff.
Shortly after that we headed back to the very inviting roads and sped as we did through out. We wanted to stop over not long after that and we started looking around. The night riding is also something of a experience. We almost developed a kinda riding pattern at night too. The roads were brilliant for most of the part with the white lines and all that. So despite the roads being good and all that, you can never tell when there would be something bad waiting to hit us, so we could not just ride blindly, so this is what we would do, we would ride like mad along the white lines and all, and when there were no white lines on the road we would suddenly slow down, still ride but really slow untill we found a nice speeding vehicle with good lights and then we would just follow them till where ever, ocassionally over taking them after we found the lines again and catching someone else ahead after we would lose the lines again. We were still in the process of looking for a place to stop over and all of a sudden the roads started getting terrible. The roads in this part were the worst. It barely even were road. It was just fucking horrible. We continued on the "road" for about an hour and we found a place to stop over. We wanted to finish with that bad stretch of road even though it was late at night, cos we wanted a new fresh clean start after we would hit the road again. But after a little riding we stopped over at this place called GENISIS. That place was just brilliant. GENESIS was just a fuckin oasis or something, it was just one fucking brilliant stop over. That was the most comforting stopover over all and stuff.
After riding all day the number were getting crunched and all that. We must have been about 200 KMS shy of Bangalore city. One of our patterns in riding included an act of spilling water all over the bike specially the tyre and all that, cos the roads were hot in the afternoon and we were riding like mad. This we did all through very regularly without fail. This comes to explain my theory of non importance. Well the non importance theory for you. Well so we did the water spilling all day and everything was smooth and all. But it was getting late and the road didn't feel really hot and all that, so we did not bother doing the ritual and stuff. Just then, we had a puncture. We stopped, did not panic, had a smoke, loosened the valve and rode it to the puncture guy, who luckily was not far away. So we got to the puncture guy, fixed it and all and hit the road agin after an hour. Ahh, here is the theory, so if we always did the ritual throughout and if we never had a puncture all the way, we prolly would not have known the importance of our ritual atall. We just did it, and the system failed right when we stopped the ritual, which makes the ritual important. So important is that, that drives a situation to a concequence upon the failure of realization of the importance of the existance of reason to a situation. Oh back to the hour story.
Here is what happened during that hour. We are riding the bike on this nice piece of concrete road, about 200 KMS shy of Bangalore city. The ride - I remember had a kinda up-down slopy thing going on about it. The road was perfect; as good as most part of riding we had already done and all, the road was ofcourse hot from the afternoon sun. We only did not do one part of what had become a way of our riding all day; we did not splash water on the tyres and stuff. It was probably the reason we had a puncture. We did not panic, we were cool. We stopped, confirmed it was a puncture, had a smoke: peacefully, and then decided we'd ride slowly till we find a puncture guy. We did find one after riding for about 5 minutes. It was on the other side of the road, we crossed and reached the puncture shop. There was this puncture dude with about 5 other people from around. We peacefully sat nearby while they were at it. They apparently spoke in a dilect, they thought we did not understand, so they were not really bothering about keeping it low. We obviously understood the language and quickly understood they had plans of mugging us by keeping us till the sun went down. They had a plan, to let us know initially that there were just two punctures, then when we'd say to fix it and when he would have done with it, he'd have said there were two more, that would translate to more time spend there and stuff. He did just that, told us there were 2 punctures and then fixed it and then about an hour later he told us there were two more. We were fortunately carrying a extra pair of tube. So we asked him to just replace the tube when he said there were two more puncture. Much to his disappointment, he came up with another way to get us stuck over there. He kept our fuel running. Fortunately there was still fuel left even after he was done with fixing the puncture. Barely enough fuel, but enough to take us to the next pump. And that was it, we made it out of there safely, but it could have been worse.
After a nice, long stop over we continued with the roads and we were done with the bad parts of the roads some where near Chitradurga or something. We caught rain on the way, but we never stopped, we kept going and the rains were not that terrible and stuff anyhow. We moved swiftly and entered Bangalore city shortly and for me i personally knew we were in it when it started becoming difficult to ride. We were in Bangalore and thats when it prolly actually hit us, that we rode all the way and we were in the city after a days riding and all that. I must never have been happier to be in Bangalore. It just felt remarkable to ride all that long and be amongst road you know and places you have been before. We were there, we were where we set out to be at. We had ridden about 1100 KMS in about 19 hrs, stopping at various places for smokes, tea and snacks, once for buying a helmet, once for a puncture, thrice for fuel totalling about Rs 2500 and once when we parted after reaching Bangalore. It was just freaking brilliant, just too fucking brilliant. We had seen the day, that we had been wanting to see when we set out.
After we parted, i headed to JMJ complex, nobody knew i was coming. I just headed there and rang the bell. The door was open, i entered and i saw everybody. For the next 5 seconds or something everyone was quiet, trying to figure out or something. Then there was just this sudden bust of exitement primarily initiatiated by Srivani and all and everyone with their dinner plates switly moved on to discussing my trip and all that. We hung around a lobg while, had dinner. I slept after that and i got up after i skipped a day in dreams. Our trip had ended, i knew all that would be of it were memories. I am writing this about more that a month after the trip, and I still feel it like we did it yesterday. It was one hell of a trip, i would do it again. I know it. I very well know it.
The trip is so special, its just so fucking special and the trip gets to try to teach you something and when there is nothing when you can probably see yourself learning, things just come to you on a trip. You do not need to be wanting to get something from a trip, its something you have chosen to do. Its a choice and you learn to accept things that come with it. Its a getaway if you want, but its whatever you get from it that you have to accept. Its real and it gets to telling you a a story. Its live, its now, its only then. There is no complaining. There is no pressure, its just being in your right sences, being responsible, being right and just being good. It does not make everything else seem less necessary but it gives more meaning to make the best of whats necessary. The trip, is not a different person, the trip becomes of you. Not everyone on that same piece of well laden road is having to go through what the other person is probaly going through. Its not everybodys trip. Its what just becomes of what you cant go back and feel even what happened a second ago. Its the trip, its special. Its that special. The trip, the trip is what it takes and it is never complaining. The Trip, it gives you a lot if you give it a shot.