Road Trippin'

I will keep this short, atleast shorter than my last blog. Primarily because after the last post people, some of them influential, decided that I was extremely jobless and I have been burdened with work ever since. Secondly, I promised not to disparage the one who gave me a lift, which being Nari, implies that the blog size will be cut in half.

To cut a long story short we started out on the bright and sunny last Saturday morning for a bike (+ car) trip to Mekedattu and Chunchi falls, somewhere around 100 kms from Bangalore, one customary hour late (This time me and Gokhs were the primary culprits). The couple of cars were of Jins' and Kapils'. Rest of the people had bikes, most of them being your regular pulsars and fieros. The notable exception was of course Deepak whose Enfield looked to be of the same vintage as the bike driven by Lawrence in Arabia. Also Himanshu made his grand entrance in his usual time, the very last moment. One thing about Hims is that he looks more like a biker than anyone else... at least his waistline does.

The first hour or so was spent in navigating the streets and heavy traffic of Bangalore and picking up people from Banashankari and adjoining areas (Seema, Rohan, Naveen). The actual biking therefore kinda started only after the Metro at Kanakpura road. From there each vehicle was more or less on its own with Nari trying to prove that his Pulsar can overtake Jins' Zen at 100 km/hr. Biju took a stop in between to pursue his passion for capturing lotuses and lilies on silver bromide. Others utilized the stop for eating Haldirams' savouries and biscuits. All in all the drive continued without any major incidents till Kanakpura, reaching where Nari gave me a brief about the political history of the place (basically Deve Gowda and some female called Tejaswini fighting it out... nice sight that would be). In between Gokhs' and Hims' bikes were caught by the authorities for having drivers without licenses, Richa in Hims' bike and Seema in Gokhs'. The funny thing is that both of them have valid licenses which they forgot to carry.

After hustling around the dusty streets of Kanakpura for some time, we got our breakfast packed and the bikes filled with fuel and continued with our journey. This track (from Kanakpura to Mekedattu and Chunchi) was of an entirely different hue from highway. The road was flanked on the sides by tilled fields and grasslands with an occasional hillock rising up at some distance. Moreover the road was completely empty and yet in a good condition. What is the probability of that happening in India? All in all the drive was one of idyllic ambience and though it was easy to rip off at speeds of 100+ most of us chose to cruise. Soon we reached the diversion we had to take to reach the Chunchi falls (Naris info: The river is Arkavathy. Moreover, isn't BDA in some shit because of a layout of this name?). In between Sumit, Gokhs and some others reclaimed their simian ancestery by climbing some trees at the roadside much to the amusement and glee of the locals there.

Reaching Chunchi I thought "Jisne bhi bola tha yahan waterfall he usse bahut maroonga, yahan to water bhi nahin he, fall kahan se aayega" (My verbatim thoughts all throughout are slightly edited since I expect honorable citizens of the society to read this. Those more knowledgeable may put in their choice adjectives at will). People however had started going down and I duly followed them thinking (in Hindi) that so many people wouldn't be making fools of themselves. Luckily, for me after some distance down I could hear the water crashing against the rocks and some distance ahead finally saw the waterfall. Rest of my time was spent in trying to reach the foot of the falls via various approach routes and gazing at the waterfalls thinking things like "Where is this much force generated?”, "Why is the water green?" etc etc. Also everybody, me later than others, had their afternoon brunch here consisting of the packed Rava idlis and Masala dosas from Kanakpura. Finally, after almost an hour at the falls it was time to move on. I saw Biju and Nari getting to the top via a more circuitous and difficult route and alongwith Seema and Gokhs decided to follow their example. Unluckily for us there was absolutely no marked trail to the top and hence we had to face two false leads as well as hordes of cacti and thorny shrubs before finding a rather long winded way up. On reaching top almost everybody had left, with Nari waiting for me, and Deepak telling us that we will meet at Sangam. On a side note what is the probability that two brothers will separately make a trip to the same place on the very same day. Nari and his brother defied those odds.

On a trip of this length it is inadvertent that there would be a few mishaps and slipups. Till this point we were lucky not to have any such incident. However the optimism was short lived. Just leaving the Chunchi diversion into the main road, Hims bike gave away refusing the most heartfelt coaxings of the owner for starting. What had supposedly happened was that Richa was driving the bike and she lost her balance causing a minor fall (Incidentally some time before someone commented that Hims bike looked good on Richa… which she then had duly corrected). However, the mishandling caused the fuel to get slightly rich and only Gokhs' pushing allowed the richness to go down the throat oops carburettor of the bike. Gokhs' commented wryly that "Thank God, Mere bike ke saath kuch nahin hua". Of course, nobody denies his lack of prescience.

As we moved a couple of kilometers ahead we saw Jins car as the center of all attraction (with a fluroscent yellow color you can scarcely avoid to be ...). A word now on the driving technique of Jins. He is evidently fond of curves and sharp ones at that. Earlier in the morning we (me and Nari) had witnessed Jins going around potholes with a sharpness and elan that even Schumacher (the Michael variety) would be proud of. However, his front tires did not like his antics and gave out on a rather particular juncture causing the car to swivel around the track tracing out a total of 360 degrees (this is hearsay ... actual figure lies between 180 degrees to 720 degrees). Rajesh and Abhishek, being first hand victims, were trying to milk as much popular mention out of the situation by claiming things like "our weight at the back made the car stay up, rather than topple". Just as the front wheel was replaced, Gokhs and Seema ride in with the news that there back brakes have gone kaput thanks to another near miss which the bike did not like very much. As a result, they had to drive the rest of the trip at a rather sedentary speed (I am sure much to the relief of the rest of the gang).

We managed to reach the approach to the Sangam (the place where Cauvery and Arkavathy meet) without any further incidents. The approach was down a hill and the road was full of sharp turns. Just as Nari took the first turn a Yamaha bike powered past us with great flourish and panache. I then said to Nari, "Yaar, isse zindagi se pyar nahin he kya". Emerging just around the bend, we saw a jeep slowly moving and on the side the same Yamaha lying on the ground while the riders were ruefully rubbing their ankles. Nari could not help but burst out laughing and I basked in the glory of my foresight. In the same stretch Deepak also decided to test his luck by trying to do a Fangio at Nurburgring, straightening out three curves into one. The bullet refused to bank under the weight of Deepak because of which he continued to move straight into the mud track and bushes wherein he finally regained control. Much to the astonishment of me and nari, Prachi was laughing throughout his whole episode. And just as we reached the Sangam, the bacchas’ (Anil and Sumit) came with the news that they too had a fall, with the result that Anils' ankle was twisted and Sumit bike's headlights were cracked.

To reach Mekedattu we had to cross the river Sangam and go around 4-5 km downstream along the edge of the river. The water at Sangam just came to my waist and the only pain crossing the river was taking off my shoes to ensure that they do not become wet and putting them on again. Hims found out this long staff that we both used for carrying our shoes across the water. On the other side, half of the gang took the bus and the other decided to walk. After walking for some distance me, Hims, Sooraj and Sumit decided to make our lives more interesting by forsaking the beaten path and took the path across the hills. After some meandering in the hills we soon realised the futility of the entire exercise and joined the main group. Prachi and Richa also had some brainwave and decided that time was ripe to burn off extra calories and hence decided to jog rather than walk.

At Mekedattu the river goes through a stretch of uneven rock formations causing the water to gush through at incredible speeds. In the main section water falls from two perpendicular rock faces causing an immense vortex at the foot. The speed of the water was such that when we dipped our feet in it, we had to hold on to the rocks for the fear of being washed away. Also to reach the water we had to climb down an almost vertical rockface, next to which were the rapids, giving a person very little room for error. I went down via another way though I later managed to climb up the rockface with much help from Deepak. In fact, the other way was not any easier, just slightly less scary. We returned from Mekedattu sitting atop the bus in what proved to be a very bumpy ride and with Rajesh regaling us with sings to "suit the mood at the moment". Gokhs' rather adventurously decided to dangle along the bus’s backside. Reaching Sangam we spent some time in the water, those who knew swimming showing off their prowess, those who did not just standing there lapping it all up. Rajesh and Hims now formed the "Mutual appreciation of each others' swimming club". Soon however it was time to get out of the water and prepare for heading back to Bangalore.

After drying ourselves and changing into dry clothes we had a rather late lunch consisting of Rotis, jam, pickle and mixture (and my Bhelpuri that Raju thought I made impromptu... am I one to refuse free accolades?). Also just as we had changed, it started drizzling slightly after an entirely sunny and spotless day threatening to bring to realization the unpleasant aspects of Murphy's law. Thankfully, nature spared us. In addition, Nari who had till now gone without any mishap lost his bike keys. He had given them to Richa and forgotten about them. I think Richa managed a wiggle a choc out of Nari.

The drive back was rather quieter with everyone tired. And most importantly we had no further mishaps. Reaching the outskirts, we bid adeiu to Rohan, Naveen and Seema and moved on to Talisma. Hims managed to pull one last stunt by getting lost in Malleswaram with Richa. Wonder why and where Malleswaram came in between Jayanagar and Sadhashivanagar? Kapil also managed to get lost thus holding up people whose bags were in his car.

And I. Went home after an icecream at Baskin Robbins. Ordered biriyani from Nandhini. Took a hot water bath. Ate. Slept till next morning 12:00 noon.

_Sriyansa

Disclaimers:

1. All thoughts are my own.

2. All offenses are intended.

3. Any lapses in memory are to be blamed on the heavy workload in office and not on my memory.