"The favorite part of the ride - Riding up the hill, hairpin bends and dense fog all around. It had started drizzling also by now and that made it even more beautiful."
Does riding a distance of 60 km qualifies to be called as a trip? It will be even more sickening to say that it took more than 3 weeks for us to finalize and set out for this so called long trip to Nandi Hills, which is about 60 km from Bangalore. But then, that is the truth and this was exactly the jinx which we were trying to break.
Before I talk more about the drama which unfolded before and during this trip, the characters involved in it require a small introduction:
Arun - My Friend & my rider in many trips.
Kailash - My brother & always a trip ready person.
Satya - Another friendly soul who was pulled in for this trip.
Baba - A person who tours a lot, mostly in his dreams.
Alok - A Rider, Photographer, Body builder and of course a friend.
Jeevan - That's me.
The stage was set by Baba. After the Shivnasamudram trip, we were back in room to find Baba sitting in front of the TV, waiting to breathe out fire on us. Reason for his anger was that he was not informed about the Shivnasamudram trip. Well, he was in a semi sleep mode when we started the trip in the morning, hence he couldn't realize we were riding out. Anyway he vented his anger on us by giving touching dialogues on friendship. Overwhelmed by his righteous anger, Kailash declared that the coming weekend he will be taking Baba bhaiya to Nandi Hills and we all will have to accompany him. All of us had no option but to agree to that.
The scheduled weekend was around the corner. Alok was suppose to join, but had to pull out in the last moment. As trips are incomplete without photography and Alok being the photographer, we all decided to postpone the trip to the next weekend. The next weekend T20 became the jinx. As few of the characters listed above are die hard cricket fans, it was decided that we will start the early morning ride once the match is over. The plan was to reach Nandi well before the sun rise. After the match, I decided to get some sleep before the ride. Set the alarm for 3am and went to bed. I got up at 3 to find all my buddies sleeping, few of them hugging the television. What an emotional bonding it was! Again the trip was postponed for a week. Now I was running out of patience here. In 2 weeks time one can complete Himalayan Odyssey and here we were not able to manage a 60 km ride.
It was the third weekend now. Alok had gone home & was out of station, Satya was not feeling well, Baba going by his habit was willing to join us in his dreams. Except Arun & Kailash everyone was still in a disposition to postpone the trip for one more week. After some amount of coercion, compulsion and requests, it was decided that four of us- Arun, Kailash, Satya and me will be going ahead with this ride. Arun got up at 3am. Kicking me out of his sleep has always been his job. This time also he did it with perfection. Satya got up, but to inform us that he don't want to come along, as he was not feeling well. Now we had 2 bikes and 3 people. At this moment, I called up all the people in my contact list at 3 o'clock in the night to ask them whether they would like to join us. Not to mention, I was giving them an invitation way tooooo in advance. Since I was not allowed to sleep, I didn't want the rest of the world to sleep either. Listening to all this drama, Satya couldn't sleep and decided to join us for the trip. I was happy. When Satya was asked to take his camera, he was quick to inform us that he didn't charge the battery, as no one was sure whether we will be going for this ride. Wow, what a well planned ride it was, I felt.
Finally we rolled out our bikes to start the ride. It was 4:15 am. We decided to head towards Silk Board, from there to Marthahalli and finally to Devanahalli-Yellahanka-Nandi Hills. It was dark, it was cold outside and I was enjoying my ride. We made a stop at BTM Layout for fuel, as it was the only petrol pump open at that time. While filling the fuel, we asked the attendant to check the air also. He asked us to help our self as there was no one else. Kailash & Satya were more than happy to hear that. When both of them almost messed up the machine, the attendant came running for the rescue, rescue of that machine…I mean.
We were back on the track and heading towards our destination. Arun took this trip too lightly as we had gone quite longer trips before this trip. He was riding as if he is going to get groceries from the nearby shop. That could be the reason why he was wearing floaters instead of shoes and a sweat shirt instead of his jacket. Well that was a mistake, which he realized very soon. The road was in good condition, as the Bangalore International Airport is on the way. So even during this time it was crowded with cabs & other vehicles going towards airport. I was riding at 60-70 kmph. And when the road was too good to resist then my bike would have touched 90 kmph. I could see Satya also going like a bullet, even though he was not riding one. Well it's not just the bike which matters.
Now our eyes had started searching for a tea shop. No prize for guessing why.... So the lesson learned here is: Whether it's a 60 km or 6000 km ride, little bit of preparation is always good. We had crossed Yellahanka by now and the the sun was already out, but behind the clouds. Yes we were late, but the good thing is that it was a cloudy day.
I was wondering how far Nandi hills is, now. We were off the highway and were riding on a narrow road leading towards the hill. We could see many hills beside the road. Which one of them is the elusive Nandi, elusive in our case! But all of them were as beautiful as it can get. Open fields with a small hut, these hills in the background with clouds drifting as if in a trance and touching the hill. All of them were posing for a perfect picture, which doesn't require any kind of editing by Photoshop. Finally we all were at the foot of the hill. Now begins the favorite part of the ride -Riding up the hill, hairpin bends and dense fog all around. It had started drizzling also by now and that made it even more beautiful. It was so much pleasing to the eye and the best part is that all this is just 60 km from Bangalore.
Enjoying that incredible ride we reached the top of the hill. We had to park our bikes there as bikes were not allowed further. There was a long queue outside the ticket counter. Kailash took the job of getting the tickets and Arun took the job of getting tea. He need that badly, as he want to pour hot tea on his feets as they are not responding at all!! It was crowded very badly. The best thing about Nandi hills that day was the weather.
There is nothing much to see around here in Nandi except for the hill itself. It is a 2000 feet granite monolith. We took the tickets & went inside. There is a point called Tipu's Drop. This was the place from where convicted prisons were dropped down to death by Tipu Sultan's decree. It's a place with a gory past.
We stood at the tip of that cliff, stretched our arms and closed our eyes…the effect was magical. Almost felt like flying. At this altitude we were among the clouds. The effect created by the wind which was blowing the clouds so hard was thrilling. We were missing Alok now. The only bad thing about this place if you ask me was the crowd. Well we were also part of that. Otherwise this would have been a perfect place to come, sit and do nothing. There was a temple also at the top. After spending some time at the top, we decided to start our descend. Before that we had to finish one important thing i.e. breakfast. There were few stall & shops even at the top of the hill(Which made the place messy). Went to one of them and ordered our ''all time life saving food'' - Maggie.
While walking down towards the parking after the breakfast, we found a small park meant for kids. It had a board informing that it was for kids below 12 yrs, well for some time we became kids below 12 yrs. When we felt that we had digested all what we ate, we decided to move on.
Ride back to home was nothing special except for once as we wanted to buy the grapes being sold at the road side, for the people who missed this journey and will shout at us at home. Soon we were back to Bangalore, to our room, to the mundane life.
Finally I manage to break the jinx with a Bullet !
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