6A - Pardeee time at Coorg
29th Sept
Almost couldn't sleep the whole of last night, the excitement was way too much for me to handle. Darn! I didn't feel that excited even the night before we left for Khardung La.. All I could keep thinking, while asleep (is that possible?), was - "Pardee! pardee! pardee!" or "100 bikes, 100 bikes", with the characteristic bullet "thump thump thump" echoing in the background.
The initial insomniac tendency was soon overshadowed by Kumbakarnatites, and I "Snoozed" my alarm (set for 5:30 am) at least five times before I realized I was running late. Off late, I seem to have been bitten by Shenoy's time bug - i.e. my time management skills have stepped into a bottomless abyss, achieving newer depths every passing day. 5 minutes magically stretches to 20, and 20 becomes an hour and so on, so forth... Anyways, I tried to redeem myself by hurriedly getting ready. Did things like never pealing my eyes off the 100m water proof wrist watch while in the shower, reading only one article while on the throne, giving each molar just two quick swipes etc, etc, etc...
At 6:30 I left my hall, hoping to be at town hall by 6:35; cursing Puttanchetti for having donated so much of his wealth to build a structure, where I, of all people, would arrive late; wondering whether the folks would take the NICE road or Mysore road to reach SH-17, if I didn't find them where they would have been 5 minutes earlier. With this mental trauma raging in his orange juice fed brain, his highness ties his gloves to his jacket and sets off at 80kph to town hall.
I was elated to see so many bikers still at town hall. Long live IST. Sim-simply and all I had taken off tension, very much against my "Tension leneka nahi, khali dene ka" motto. After a brief round of hellos, I decided that it was time to zip up. The jacket. Zip up the jacket and glove the hands.
The glove retrieve function was returning error. Nah, some thing wrong with function call I decided. Checked again. Shoot! I was one glove short. I was 110 percent sure I had Velcro-ed both the gloves to the jacket before leaving home. Tooblight! I had dropped one glove on the road. Somewhere. The loss of a glove woke up the dormant miser in me, inspired by recent readings of "The Undercover Economist" and "Blink". One glove wouldn't do anybody any good, unless they had only one arm. That too only the left arm - it was the left glove that had un-Velcroed itself. The finder of my fallen glove would have to
1) be a right arm amputee (good left arm)
2) know a person who was a right arm amputee in need of a glove, or confident of selling to a right arm amputee
3) have a single (matching) right glove,
to be compelled to keep it. Very slim probability, the orange juice fed brain concluded was blitzkrieg speed. Go get it!
So, I went looking for my lost glove. Should I retrace my path all the way home? or should I make educated guesses? Educated guess was the gut feel. Now, should I check after Canara Bank, or after Minerva Circle or after Krumbigal Road, or after RV teachers college? The gut spoke again. More like screamed out loud! "RV teachers college, RV teachers college". So I went with the flow, RV teacher's college it was. And, and, ya, ok you win. I am predictable, I did find that darn glove near Lalbagh. It was on the road, waiting patiently to be reunited with its beloved hand and yada yada yada. Yeh janam janam ka bandhan hai.. Bladdy saved 800 smakaroos, my gut feel and ultra smart thinking. Oops forgot ultra quick.
I headed back towards town hall. Late, but hand firmly in the glove. I reach, only to see that there are only a hand full left. Mahesh a.k.a. "Bra"*, was looking for an elastic a.k.a. bungee chord, to hold his bags firmly in place. I was sure I was carrying a spare bungee, so I momentarily got his hopes up. Only "chur chur ho gaya"...
* RTMC guys have funny nicknames
At Kamath's I met Toothpick, Sai, Lokesh, Manan, Sajan and Jispa. A few rounds of Tottu, Vada, Chai/Coffee and Rava masala dosa later, we left for the 2nd regroup point - the U - a couple of kilometers ahead of Srirangapatna towards Hunsur. And, this is where things picked up on the interesting scale. I tagged along with my new breakfast buddies, and we set, what I thought was, a blistering pace on the busy dual carriageway. Somewhere near Maddur, I spotted a very familiar figure walking away from a bike - it was Conrad a.k.a. Con-Rod and slightly ahead was Sushil Mishra. "Cool! More people from the Bheemeshwari ride!", I thought as I rode on.
After a boring and rather surprisingly quick passage of 2 hours, during which a bus tried to run me over, which culminated in me giving him the biker salute, we reached the next via point - the U-turn Mysore bypass. Here, I was reunited with my dear old friend - the train.
I also met the other guys from the Ealagiri ride (not chronicled) - Biscuit, Bhupinder and Haren. We were one of the last guys to arrive at this spot, and we made a habit of it ;)
From then on the narrow bypass road was full of surprises - a pothole here, a pothole there; a little bit of loose sand strewn on the road; the odd cyclist attempting to emulate Johnny Walker; the bewildered dog; and the paddy spread on the road in the hope that some passing vehicle will de-husk it. The good times unfortunately didn't last long enough, for we were soon on yet another dual carriage way - the new Mysore - Madikeri state highway.
I had at some point separated from the group and was coasting along at 80kph on the sparsely populated road, quite contently. Then, somewhere in the distance, far far behind me I spotted a yellow dot in my rear view mirror. We ride with the head lights on, so that we can differentiate who is riding with us and who isn't. So, I figured it was some body just chilling on the road like me, so I throttled up and found a new rhythm at 90kph. The single yellow dot became bigger, and two more appeared. A giant sun and two planets. Then I heard them. Yoops! I was about to be overtaken. Its fun riding in a group, so I decided to keep pace with these folks and maxed the throttle. My thunderbird reached its vibrating crescendo at 110 kph and insisted that I just wouldn't go any faster. Fair enough, because I wasn't lagging behind this time ;)
The vibrating reverie didn't last long. Mechanical limitations of our bikes hooted it. Literally. Jispa's horn detached itself and did a few cartwheels on the road. That is, till I ran over it! hehehe... I slowed down to inspect any possible damages, luckily nothing much had occurred. What am I talking! Nothing had happened. So I started back again, and sighted them ahead halting for a pee + sutta break. I slowed down to appraise Jispa of his missing hooter :P, he was in the know and also in the process of disposing his rear crash guard which was threatening to unfasten itself any moment. So much for the "continuous high speed" that RE insists we will enjoy with our bikes. hehehe... Quite a few bikes passed us, plenty of TN bikes - Mad Bulls passed us by. These guys ride hard, real hard...
After the slight elevation, at the base of which we stopped was the third via point. So again, we were one of the last fellas to arrive :D
And the estori will continue I say... break ke baad...
