Trip to Nandi Hills

The Men:

• Myself aka Sanki (pronounced as San-key),
• Ritesh aka Manneeger (pronounced the same way),
• Kapil aka Tyagi/Kaatya/Tags,
• Anubhav aka Mishra ji,
• Gaurav aka Chameli,
• Nishant aka Nish

The Machines:

• Myself on my black Bajaj Pulsar 150 cc-in fit and fighting condition, regularly serviced and driven only 6000 kms in the past one and a half years.
• Manneeger on his dark blue Bajaj Pulsar 150 cc-ruggedly tested by at least 2 of his room mates for the past 2 years and dying its natural death :-)
• Tags on his Bajal Wind 125 cc—rarely driven for the past 4 months because Tags was in Waldorf and his room mates preferred Manneeger’s Pulsar to his Wind-I guess wind biking has not really worked as a concept among the junta.

The Mission: Nandi Hills

Location: 60 kms North of Bangalore

The road trip had been long overdue-every one badly needed a break and we had been planning about this trip for the past one week. Someone had to take the initiative and exhort the lazy bones out of their slumber and that is what I did-All that was required was a little information about the place, the route and a few refreshing snaps to entice the people with the natural scenic beauty of the place and voila—the trip was ready to takeoff.

          All were supposed to assemble at my place at 9 so that we could leave Bangalore and reach Nandi Hills around 11, but as expected things got delayed. Tags’ bike refused to even yawn after standing untouched for the past 4 months-we tried our best and when the Mechanical/Metallurgy engineers from IITs/RECs and now Computer engineers with SAP/Infosys could not do anything then we decided to take the help of the neighborhood mechanic. The man was a genius-he understood our shortage of time and fixed the problem in a jiffy. So finally, the road trip was flagged off at 9:30. Chameli was sitting behind Manneeger (I was very apprehensive giving away my room partner to him, but sometimes you have to adjust with the gang), Mishra ji was sitting behind me and Tags’ pillion was Nish.

          We reached Yelahanka via MG Road, Commercial Street, and Mekhri Circle. We decided to have breakfast in a road side restaurant as Mishra ji seemed really hungry—I could make it out as the usually chirpy Mishra was quite :-) After Yelahanka, the road was generally empty with a few diversions though, as construction work was going on. The rural scenes really mesmerized all of us and the cool breeze sweeping across my face really relieved me of all my tensions. I long for speed and this was the ideal road-I immediately put on the 5^th gear and soon my Pulsar was touching 110. Manneeger could not be left behind and soon he was by my side albeit his hands were not on the handle of the bike….anyway, I lost him behind and soon I noticed that Tags on his Wind, had also left Manneeger behind. Now, this was a bit strange as a Wind cannot really match the power of a Pulsar, so I decided to check out. I let Tags over take and we stopped by the way side. Very soon, the news arrived-Manneeger and Chameli had had a nasty fall. I immediately informed Tags to stop, who was under the impression till now that his Wind had overtaken the formidable Pulsars and he was in the lead. Well, soon the duo arrived with Manneeger wrapped in Band-aids and Chameli sporting just 1 on his knee. Chameli swore not to sit behind Manneeger anymore and so the pairs were re-arranged with Manneeger playing pillion to Tags and Nish now driving Manneeger’s bike with Chameli sitting behind—Mishra ji refused to sit behind anyone other than me-I guess he was terrified after Manneeger’s freak accident :-)

          We were just about to start the climb of Nandi Hills when another accident happened-traffic police!!! The guy quizzed us about DL, insurance and RC book-unfortunately myself and Tags weren’t carrying our RC books. After a bit of sir-sir’s, we managed to save our skins with just 50 bucks being shelled out-Beware everyone-the next time you go on a road trip, do carry your bike’s papers!!!

          Finally, we started the penultimate 6 kms of the trip-we could see long distance in the plains and the view was fantastic as we gained height. Some of the turns were really steep and so we had to be really cautious—not to mention after Manneeger’s good show with the bike, the rest of us did not want to repeat it. Our Pulsars had no problem tackling the curves but Tags on his Wind did seem a bit perturbed. We reached the top around 12-parked our bikes in a pay and park parking, bought some snacks and cigs from the nearby shop and went inside Tipu’s summer lodge. We walked around the roads and stairs for around 2-3 hours. There was a cool breeze flowing and it also started drizzling a little, which forced us to take shelter and take a ‘sutta’ break. After the rain stopped, we resumed the climb with all of us deciding to climb up via the slope rather than the stairs. Manneeger and Tags were the first to slip on the slippery slopes made all the more slippery by the rains—I must admit that Manneeger took the initiative in all the accidents and forced us to take precautions—thank you Manneeger!!! Then we reached the top where we visited the Youganadishwara Swamy temple and then took some rest lying on the slopes—Manneeger again found some good friends in the local monkeys and decided to trouble them—he was lucky enough not to end up with another accident. There was a governor house at the top which we did not bother to visit and started our journey back to Bangalore around 4 PM. The return journey was almost eventless with all of us aware of the turns and taking extra precaution-thanks to Manneeger. We finally reached Bangalore around 6 PM and relaxed by watching India thrash the guts out of Kenya. It was a trip worth cherishing and the memories will live with me as long as I live and as long as I have great friends like Tags, Mishra ji, Manneeger, Chameli and Nish with me. We are planning another road trip to Mekedatu soon —anyone interested in joining us for this trip???