travelog - garden city to ooty

One fine morning JB(my friend cum colleague) tells me that he wants to get his RE Bullet shipped(trained!!) to Bangalore. Ah, this really turned out to be some kind of Butterfly effect thing.
We cooked a plan - B'lore to Ooty in two days, three bulls and three guys. The third guy happened to be Sampath, just managed to lure him with the trip details :)
Assuming the timely delivery of JB's the bike, we marked Apr 3rd for the flag-off. Well but then there was much action to unfold and no news of the bike until the previous day of the ride. So, after much drama the bike finally arrives here just once day prior.

Apr2
It's Friday and a good one - good Friday.
So I spent most of the day in getting JB's bike serviced. My bull was already in perfect shape, Sampath's at least looked like!
In the night, me and Sampath set out for a test ride to check out the electricals and also had to fill the tank.
All seems good.

Apr3
I woke up at god forsaken 3 AM and buzzed JB. Tried to wake Sampath up but he sounded as if he is in a trance. Let the bugger sleep for a while.
Eventually, we got ready by 4, tied the luggage to our bikes and kept waiting for JB at decided point.

5 30 AM
The trip is on - we had a steaming cup of chai near Rajeshwari arch and rode our bulls at a sedate 60km for next 15 min. By then the bikes had reached optimum temperature. After this all I could hear is the roar of the bullet for next one hour.
Just cruised at a pace of 80-85kmph and we covered 80km in an hour. Amazing stretch this is - Bangalore Mysore highway!
However, little did we imagine the tale of the day, it was nothing less than a movie script. To begin with my bull just died while running. My heart ached and I doubted an engine seizure. I restarted the bike only to get a hell of a noise from it. All of us pulled by and mulled over the next course of action:
1. Park the bike in Mysore which was a good 40km away and trip with two bikes.
2. Get it serviced in Mysore and carry on with the trip.

Well, I was in no mood to act a pillion, took the bike to Mysore RE showroom.
The guy did some medication and says we are good for the trip.

Huh, finally we hit the road again towards Bandipur. Meanwhile JB's bike started spluttering and just stalled midway while he was overtaking a truck :D
He definitely has no faint heart!
Covered some 15km and god damn - I cant change gears. A prefect day, aint it?
This time, it was a broken gear spring. Again, bullet guru from Mysore told me to use the tiny lever(neutral finder) to reach Nanjangud and then we could get it fixed there.

I never thought things can really go as bad as this because all other trips I did were picture perfects.Just drive, eat, take nice shots and narrate the story..
This was different and it proved so very early in the trip :)
Once again, this stuff was repaired and vroom vroom to Bandipur.
JB sahab had khitar in a hotel while me and Sampath munched over a veg puff.
Although my bull had proven to be a pain in the ass, it still ran like a darling albeit some high noise mimicking a diesel engine :)
The stretch through Bandipur was scenic. Fantastic road, beautiful weather, great bikes and animals lurking just beside the road. What more to expect of a trip?
Indeed, the journey is always sweeter and memorable than the detination..
Meanwhile, quite a few nice pics added to my kitty.

End of Bandipur stretch marks the start of Tamilnadu roads. We had a khadak, fresh tea at Masinagudi and then started the Kalhatti ghat section.
This ghat had 36 hair pin bends and by Jove, I could smell the engine giving out burnt smell as a result of deep stress. Still was laughing at the thought of JB's bike, which was carrying a fellow a good 20 kilos heavier than me :)
The feeling when you conquer a ghat is just exhilarating.

Finally at 20 00 hrs we stepped our feet in Ooty and we could already feel the chill in the wind. It's so scorching hot in Bangalore and Ooty , voila started freezing at 20 00! The idea of camping with a tent was sanely discarded fearing the risk of three frozen bodies and hence took a neat resort for two grands.
Me and Sampath left a shivering JB in room under blankets and drove to the town to get some food. It was burger, bread omelet and some fruits in the menu!
What next? just zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Apr 3
Woke up at 8 and immediately went out with the camera. Clicked out a few pics sipping tea and then we got ready for the city tour. We idled the bullets for a good two minutes due to the freezing weather and set off into the town.
The town's got a look of a typical tourist's place with loads of merchandise on sale.
People seemed to know many languages and this surely helped their business. Leather goods were really priced reasonable, so were the chocolates - oh yes, they were homemade chocos.
Tea is another good pick here and found a variety of flavors. I certainly cannot forget the smell of eucalyptus oil in almost every shop we entered. This place has amazing types of oils on sale( I also grabbed Sampath's attention towards a hair oil :D )
We bought some chocos and then set off to check the train to Coonoor. Unfortunately, this train has only around 60 seats and the tickets were sold out instantly.Drooping faces, we went out to the boating lake. Paid 125 bucks for the 4 seater and started pedaling the boat. The lake looks good but is filthy and smells foul. This is where the punchline of the trip was picked - "Shigra varu bhai"...
This was the dialog uttered at us by the boat crew at the dock. Man, it just made our stomachs ache with laughter.

12 00
Back to room, quick showers and we packed the stuff and loaded bikes with the luggage. It isn't quite over yet - we had to check out Dodda Betta. This is a 8km drive from Ooty and the road is curvaceous!!
With an altitude of over 8,000 ft, driving is again challenging and pleasurable.
The bullets never disappointed us and we were atop the mountain in a short while.
Kodak moments plus an ice cream, it was 15 30 already and we were hurrying back the route towards Bandipur.

After reaching Mysore the way back, had to take intermittent breaks every 30min owing to soar butts!! JB was the most suffered - he used a turkey towel on the seat :)
A sip of coffee at a highway CCD marked the last stop in the trip.
We made it to Bangalore at 12 45 AM in the night.
Yet another remarkable tale in the life of a bulleteer!

Are women to be loved??

It's been a full year since I last wrote something.
Inertia exists for real.

Got my bull serviced today, was long due after that fantastic drive earlier in the month. I had to cough up around a grand for this though...
She runs beautiful again..

"Women are to be loved and not understood"

This happened to be my gtalk status message some time back. Then, I dint dig deep in to this sentence. But now, yeah, it seems pretty attractive for an argument.
For some reason I really believe that loving a woman is far simpler and easier than understanding(at least trying to) her. Women being an eternal puzzle for men, I just wonder what they gotta say about this? Love or understand?

Personally, I haven't made a conscious effort to understand any girl - heck, what exactly do they mean by 'understanding'?? I don't understand!!!!
For some, it's as simple as "she doesn't like mayonnaise" or "gotta buy a green, sorry , bottle green shirt for her". However, this sounds like a god damned computer program. Make a list of all likes and dislikes and then memorise it. RECALL it.
Reminds me of Hero Honda's ad- fill it, shut it, forget it :D
So, what are men supposed to do?
I think if I have an absolute love towards her, then I would obviously come to know her, in a gentler, unobtrusive way for both of us. Else, just imagine me making note of her every move-she doesn't like apple shake, classical music- negative... It's gotta be effortless , just as ice cream melts in your mouth and love would just do fine!

But would just continuing to love a girl even though she IGNORES your love(not you) a good option? Well, I think at some point people gotta learn time is not the toughest tester always, just trying to see if he sticks around till she wants him to- not one of the brightest idea sir..
Too less time and so many things to be done, keep liking more the one you like :)

Wonder what the gals gotta say on this!!

Ahem Ahem.. Clarification...

I seem to have given a very depressed and dejected image of mine in the last blog...
Many friends stopped by and asked if I am ok.. :D
One gal even asked if i am gonna write something once she gets married in coming Dec..
So just thought of making it clear that all the scenes occured in a matter of 2 days( and no more than that!! )
Rest assured - I am blissfully damned with office work...
Amen

Missing pages of life - May to June

Wish you happy ganesh chaturthi.

It's been a while since I could write anything at all. Quite a lot of things
occured in these three months. A few good times and few other just forgettable ones.

June - My one time companion got married. To my surprise, she called me up and invited too :) I was not sure how my presence would be seen by the fellows who knew us. However, that situation never realized, thanks to a change of shift of work time, I could not attend. I thought that this wouldn't be a hard news to chew for me.
Hell no, it's amazing how old relations though broken tend to retain a few strings undiscovered. There was a kind of hollowness for a couple of days after that. Never could I find the reason for that feeling and didn't have the courage to unearth buried history. I just wish her very best and I would remember many occasions spent together...

July - Seems to be the season of all my pals (especially gals) getting married!!!
This time it was one old friend from my previous work place. I had to go to Trichur, alone. But how right I was - I had a fantastic time attending a Catholic wedding for the first time, mix with people whose language I could barely manage and saw some scenic beauties...
Catholic wedding is a very winzipped one. The couple stand, stand and stand for one and half long hours, while the priest reads out the 'something'. Then the groom and bride hold hands, kiss the holy book and finally get blessings from the elders.
Now comes the best part - lunch :D A vegetarian I am, fortunately it was arranged. Also found a lot of Oracle guys from the groom's side and all our policies were thoroughly discussed..
After wishing the couple, I went to this famous temple of Guruvayur.. I believe in praying whenever, wherever I feel like rather than visit temples. All that crowd, jostling,stink of body odor and the ultra business minded processes make me sick.
But I had to see this place to check out the fame it stands for.. Hmmm yeah, temple is magnificent, agreed.
Next day, I started to a waterfalls called Athirapally falls. You can find a bus easily from the Shaktan Tamburan bus stand. It's about 60 Km drive from Trichur...
Buses are badly conditioned and the journey of 3 hrs makes one exhausted. This is when I adored BMTC buses of Bangalore - why do we fail to appreciate things/people in life that are near to us, so often?
I reached the place at 13:20 and Wow!!! - the place is so beautiful.. I took a couple of long distance shots, took a 15 bucks pass and started the walk towards the base of the falls. To add to the glamor, it started drizzling and I forgot the whole damned bus drive.
At the base, you actually can see the fog caused by the roaring water falling down.
Taking photographs is too difficult, for the fog just clouds the camera shutter..
I made some quick pals over there and got couple of shots of mine with the falls in the background ....

But ah yes, in the end, all that remained in my mind is that one more gal(sorry, it' two) got married :P