MysoreBikeTrip
MysoreBikeTrip
08/01/2004 - 08/07/2004
• Rediff.com
Syndicate this Blog
(RSS/XML feed)
Monday, August 02, 2004
MysoreTrip
-- Up
-- Down
-- Palace
-- Chamundi
-- Brindavan
-- Krishna Raja Sagar
RockFrogs - These are frogs that gets camouflaged into the rocks and you take them for granted till you see croaking rocks frog-jumping.Rockfrogs are not
always frogs.They can be parked lorries, jeeps , bikes , tempos etc.These are ostensibly peacefully parked by the side of the road till they wake up and try to
tip you over with their protruded ligaments.Diligence about identifying rock frogs will find you amazed at them actually being rocks and in time you start
getting shocked at their protrusions once again.These provide more exciting entertainment at high-speed night spurts.
PseudoMedians - Medians , I have always learned is used to divide a triangle into two equivalent parts.When you take a median into consideration , it is
imperative that you fully comprehend what it is a median of.The right angle edge of a triangle is the median of the triangle that can be formed by placing a
lateral inversion of the triangle along the same edge.A real world example of such difficult-to-digest medians was in the form of red-white banded fences at
the exact edge of the usable road with another equivalent black unusable sibling at the other side.Fond of medians , I generally race at 80+ through the right
edge of the road overtaking them all.Some of these spurts met with shocks as the median was actually the outer edge of the usable road and the other half
was the WIP version of the road and proved no deterrent to the opposing trucks.
---------------
After a less-than-three hour sleep on Friday night , I jumped out of bed as the time was already 5:15 , our planned departure time.Binoy , Deepak , shinu and
me had set out for Mysore from our house at 6:15.Seven kilometers hence , we were at the Mysore road.The road was being widened and work was in
progress all along the 150 kilometer route.The ride was quite slow in the initial phases with dusty guttery road and heavy heavy vehicle traffic - all buses and
lorries and the two of our bikes.The pedestrian crowd was also on the higher side.Thankfully , things started getting better with lesser number of vehicles
and the same bad road conditions.Our trip speed increased with sufficient time gaps for overtaking.Unable to really ride as fast as I would have liked because
of the bad road conditions , the first stretch of medianed good road was very welcome.I raced through at 90-95 kmph.Thereafter , the ride was on the faster
side with wider better roads and increased confidence and awakenness.I was quite impressed at my biking performance.I was riding fast but not rash.Enticer
had proved itself good once more with great stability at high speeds.It was great pleasure to see myself march forward much ahead of my competitors with
no close seconds.I was the smart kid on the road rushing past all the veterans.I felt like I was really doing something.The danger was real.There were quite a
few times when I had come across dangerous situations which I handled coolly and smartly almost like an expert.Things I had to deal with included sudden
gutters after a real good stretch of raod , sudden humps on the way , (RockFrogs)parked vehicles suddenly starting and getting on to the way , junctions that
come up unexpectedly and ofcourse the most dangerous pseudomedians.The confident accelerations kept me happy all through the ride.
The palace was magnificent.I spent all my time taking a generous number of photographs outside the palace spending very little time inside the palace.I
think my photographs can do all the talking with respect to the experiences in the palace.
The same holds for the short visit we had to the Krishna Raja Sagar dam.Brindavan was a disappointment.Chamundi hills was a good trip.With a
not-so-pleasant experience earlier with low power enticer on my earlier trip to Mekadatu , I started on a low note.This was a different biking challenge for me
with no long highways ahead of you.the road kept twisting and turning to add to the upslope.Before long , confidence set in and I was riding well though not
in the grade of my ride to Mysore from Bangalore.This was the first time I had done real good biking.Here again , the experiences have been translated as
photographs.
While returning from Chamundi hills , Shinu had gone ahead and I was following behind.I did not see him.As the ride reached a logical halt , Deepak ( pillion
rider) confirmed that this is not the way we had come.We decided to add some charm to the trip by deciding to meet each other at Brindavan.The stirring
conversation with Shinu ended on that note.Another fresh lap had started.Ten feet ahead of us , we saw Shinu and Binoy.All those roaming charges!!.Well the
trip to Brindavan was like usual city trips within Bangalore.
The ride back was harder.Having lost my glasses , I had bought another set of plain glasses that proved totally useless in terms of visibility.So I had to ride
with naked eyes exposed to insects , dust , rain and blinding headlights.It seemed that the night journey will take longer than the day journey initially.Slowly
I gained confidence and started accelerating as in the day.While all the morning road challenges were there , the primary new obstacle was the lack of
visibility of the road.This gets even worse when a vehicle from the opposite direction blinds me with it's headlights.These added to the inherent danger of
widened road suddenly giving way to shrubs , gravel , posts etc.Also there were the road workers who had all the right to make guest appearances on the
road as part of the theatrical conversations they indulge in.They look on incredulously in the eye if honked at and I get conscious of the speed limits that I
have never kept.One huge lorry in front of you and with the low power of enticer , you dont want to try overtaking if you see one light coming at you from
opposite side.This was really eating into our time.The solution was to break another traffic rule and I started overtaking trucks and buses through the gravel
on the left side of the road.At one of these overtakings , I was surprised to note that the terrain was sloping acute to add to which there was a sizable pit , I
kept my cool and thankfully emerged in front of the lorry.With not much time in hand , I needed to make the best of empty highways that sometimes
presented itself.The hitch was that the highways consistently had road blocks in the form of tar scoops taken away by corrupt ministers or actual speed
breakers.Indifference was what it looked like but it was more compulsion of time and the NFS to keep boredom at bay.If I do see a hump suddenly , I either
suddenly accelerate so that the effect is not felt or apply sudden deceleration to stop just in place , the former being the more successful alternative.I was
not tired.Nothing was telling on the ride and that felt good.I can do longer trips than this one.That was another feather in my cap.The best part of night
journeys are well lighted highways with proper medians and zero traffic.'O man .. lights!! ' and you try the 'can you touch 100'.
Twice during the trip , caps fell from the bikes.Once just before a jeep stopped to take the cap , we managed to rach back.The second time the cap fell , we
had almost reached bangalore and gone quite ahead on the way between Deepak's telling me through the strong breeze and me slowing down.'Potte pottae ..
inji onnum cheyyaan pattilla ..' I like it, I said and sped on.Deepak was always a great companion.I was obviously riding dangerously with potential for ' hey
man - be careful ' kind of remarks from the pillion.Deepak was quite sporty instead.He was enjoying the trip as much as I was.Within Bangalore , we missed a
turn and ended up taking a longer route than necessary.
Ten minutes after we were back at our house , Binoy opened the door holding the cap.
Posted by cinish narayanan on 07:56 AM
No comments:
Post a Comment