'ab theek hai...'

friday evening my facebook profile status read "what a waste!!" . we had planned for some trip and as usual it happened that happens with all the planned trips - it got cancelled.

so all of a sudden i was staring at two blank days ahead of me and it got me scared. friday night somehow reached muthu's place and hogged on chicken like a steam engine would feast on coal at Punjabi Rasoi. slept at his place and as i woke up in the morning i had the idea what to do next. go home - pick up the bike and start riding to Mysore - to visit my brother and wish my little niece -tweety on her birthday. simble. but the bike had not been touched ever since our last GH Bheemeshwari meet. after that i even had a mysterious :?  fall on the bike on the way to purple haze next day. 

anyways showed the bike to mechanic near my home -as it was switching off on decreasing the throttle. he just pulled out the spark plug and 'phatak' hit it on the head to make the electrode gap shorter put it back on the cylinder 'ab theek hai...'. i was like    but still carried on. 

______normally i would do   if someone said that ' i tested the bike without air filter' and would dole out advises how it would harm the engine______

by the time Muthu had come down to my place - even he wanted to ride to mysore on.... his honda dio -  :D . well we tanked up the bikes and started off. first signs of things to follow  appeared as i approached the signal near the  total mall. the bike would switch off the moment i roll off the throttle as if the fuel supply is getting cut-off. next approached a mechanic on the road side. he seemed knowledgeable and checked few things before zeroing on the air filter. he opened the filter box - gave a dirty look at the air filter and pop went the air filter out of the box and was tossed on the ground. he fixed the empty box and said 'ab theek hai...' now it was my turn to do   *1000 mechanic said it is all fine - get it replaced in mysore. ok here we go again. 

muthu was sedately riding at 50-60 kmph. i was following him for some time and when the urge to ride hard take over i would just whizz past him and again slow down. muthu was unperturbed. after reaching the Mc Donalds near Maddur i called up my mechanic friend and narrated the incident. he said it is ok to ride but asked me to replace the air-filter ASAP. 

now we restarted the journey. after some time i had to slow down as we encountered a hump. my bike engine went  'grrrr... gr gr...' -off. i take it off the road kick it several times no use. after a couple of mins. i kick it again - voila it comes to life. now after this one more hump - this time i didn't let the throttle down. i was holding the clutch and revving the engine. somehow cleared it and few more smaller ones without actually applying brakes. this annoyed my bike. it stared spitting and groaning and again..  'grrrr... gr gr...' -off. this happened atleast 4-5 times. all the while muthu maintaining the steady speed. somehow reached mysore. and thankfully it did not rain. actually it is about rain that we were prepared and thought it would be adventurous - but it turned out something else.

went home - unloaded all the baggage : bugged my brother to accompany me to the mechanic. at first the mechanic near our home diagnosed the problem with carb. - so thorough cleaning of carb was done. start the bike and we went to get the airfilter. bike is still stalling. now one more mechanic - replaces the air filter: checks the plug wires: cuts a part of it. refit - 'ab theek hai...' (believe me it was third time in the day and from 3 different mechanics). now i start the bike to go home...'grrrr... gr gr...' -off AGAIN. now something suddenly flashes for our mechanic and he says - 'coil gaya hoga..' he said he'll get it changed and 'll return the bike tomorrow (Sunday) morning. sigh.

now on Sunday i got the bike thankfully the last diagnose was correct and we reach back bangalore without getting stuck in rain . WOW!

PS: now this also solved the mysterious fall that i had on the evening the purple haze. i was riding or rather engine braking on the sloping road - traffic was slow - i think the engine got switched-off - wheels locked up - and next moment i was on the road on all fours 

my pals are hell bent on proving that 've Amnesia :

its been part of their strategy to make me believe i have Amnesia. i have been fighting hard to prove them wrong. and i need to be all extra careful if i am moving over to the new place. 'm sure they already have plans and list of questions to ask from the past years: like who was your neighbour in the hostel/ what was your specialisation in  physics etc and 'm ready with the answers (like i never had a neighbour in the hostel and i didn't specialize in any subject of physics and forget that it was never a part of PGDBA curriculum in the first place). so friends please help me in proving my other pals wrong and wish me all the best to ward off all efforts by them to make me feel that i have this disorder. and i hope to lead a normal life once i move over to their place.


important note: the above words were written on a lighter note and just for fun. these words can not be used for any further serious deductions from there on.

seat belts a must on all our long drives....!!

i know this may sound mundane and suddenly/out of the blue on the nocturnal blog.. but guys now on the front seat guys driver/side passenger would mandatorily have to wear seat belts -it is the first rule. we have been following this on and off especially when the front seat passenger is sleepy and dozing off but now on please seat belts a must!!

sorry for skipping the chronological order of our blog - 'm in the middle of some important stuff at opice but still i felt like i should post it now - new year eve drive and first drive in the new year are yet to be updated. as always it'll take some time: and hopefully this time it would be shared blog: 've sent out invites to other authors

have a safe drive! and have a great weekend!!

-som (sign off needed as its gonna be multi authored blog ;-0 )

i don't want to be in b'lor this weekend : do whatever

so it started again: so called planning: trip to Goa

started almost a year back: this time i said i'll arrange for stay in Goa so lets go.. after usual dilly dallying and few days later still nothing was decided. then i realised we forgot about somebody who was staying with the nocturnal group before: Viswajeet Kumar: Viswa

so i call him on his mobile:

zinda hai? - haan yaar!

shaadi ho gayi? - abhi nahi yaar!

bacchhee..? - pata nahi ginne padenge..

to Goa chalega? - anytime in November boss.

thats it.

so the 'plan' is take friday off: board the bus for goa thursday night : back to b'lor on Monday morning. usual whining starts with Muthu saying 'le taking off on Friday is difficult le'. ''m in new company macha' - that he says every fortnight and it is almost true. As the friday nears even Venki starts off his: 'maga we should try something else' - 'something nearby you know we can explore better blah blah' - ofcourse he is in to client servicing.

after passing couple of days like this somebody comes up with the idea of visiting Pondycherry. what... Pondy...? and Muthu again goes 'macha no leave on Friday...' looks like even this plan is going off. at the end of it i had only one thing to say

:'do whatever, decide anything: i don't want to be in b'lor this weekend'

then on Thursday i was told that we are going to Pondy in Venki's Veyron : we are leaving tomorrow evening: i call up Viswa - ask him to come near Silk Board junction at around 5.30 pm so that we can pick him up. he said ok. great thats like it should be. remember: i never spoke to him again after the Goa talk. on Friday i went to office in the morning - 've already taken leave but whats the use no point in cancelling it : they are anyways getting expired for the year.

at around 5.15 Muthu and Venki pick me up and we head towards Silk Board Jn. and get Viswa on board. traffic was surprisingly light on Hosur road. we are off Karnataka border in a jiffy. it is a neat stretch of road after that (Hosur road is too good to be true now: it almost resembles the airport runway now as discovered later in our drive for a coffee).

Venki was still in formals so he decides to change over and also we top-up fuel and air for the Veyron. we resume our journey at a pretty good pace and this time we've got loads of Trance music cds on board.. wow!! but: car's stereo refuses to recognise the format :(. we somehow get it to swallow, recognise and read one of Muthu's... cd.

we reach temple town of Thiruvannamalai by dinner time. we spot a Taurus- the quintessential Diesel Bullet there in the dhabha with engine manufactured by Grease.

we hit the road again by around 10.30 pm. and reach pondy by

around 2 am. searched around for a hotel to stay. after some running around in the town we stopped at a hotel called 'MathruShri..' lodge. i go there and ring the bell : after some pause: scratch.. scratch.. scratch.. 'enna venum' scratch.. scratch..'we need room to stay for the night' 'kitne aadmi' -broken hindi- 4 - hand sign -. all along the background sound was on. somehow we manage to get a room : as we were checking out the room this guy says 'foreigners sleeping.. don;t make noise' - 'angrez so rahe hai..' this had all of us split in to laughter.

all 4 of us huddled in to a single room: difficult to stretch and sleep? who cares we never slept all through the night. we discussed/comicked/mimicked/bisected almost all the characters from the SDM : including professors, attendants, cook and we were laughing like crazy:

• nuclear bomber: man i just wonder at his all smiley-i-just-did-it-what-the-big-deal face just after that sounding discharge
• famous buckets of the campus
• drunkards in clusters
• birthday bashes
• Project Appraisal projects review classes
• Economics classes : demand and supply

(every word has deep meaning : mind you!)

and ofcourse the new character on the block described in the above paragraph 'Khujli Khan'.

and my abs were paining because of the laughter (pretty good abs exercise). in some time it was morning as couple of us trying steal a nap for few mins, cracking jokes and laughing all at the same time. as we peeped out of the window we realised that its been raining incessantly. we were like 'wtf' all our plans will be ruined. we have not even gone to the beach till now: how sad. after sometime we get freshened up and come out of the lodge looking for some hot tasty breakfast. invariably we end up eating idly, vada and had some tea - all the while rain is lashing ferociously. and then surprise surprise!! rain stopped. cool: we ask the chaiwallah how long is the beach: we were expecting like 1-2 kms but he said it is 5 mins walk 'WTF!!' pleasant surprise. but we still take the car: thinking that it might rain again.

After reaching the beach front we discover that it is a rock beach but we had already missed out on supposedly beautiful sunrise. sea waves hitting hard on to the boulders, morning sun and cool breeze: made it really a pleasant place.

after spending some quality time there (read: not speaking much and sitting on the rocks staring the horizon, doing nothing) we started for the another beach :
Auroville Beach. some 15 kms from the city. now this is where we really enjoyed a lot. we left all valuables in the car including camera. just carried the shorts and towels and voila we jumped in to the waves. this is the first time ever that i was really enjoying on the beach. man it was good. we were trying venture as deep as possbile in to the waves: and these waves - red in colour - were carrying the sands and lashing it on to our body - like sand blasting. after some time of play the waves would stuff out shorts and kaccha with loads of sand :lol and we would have to unload it everytime we run back on to the beach. it was hilarious. we did this for better part of the day. in the afternoon we were feeling hungry, tired and with real bad sun burns. how we wish Shrivijay could be there. he would've definitely carried the sun block cream lol. we went hunting for a good restaurant and found one i think.. actually i don't remember what we ate or where - i can remember only that we were dead tired and hungry - remember we have had no real sleep from the time we started our drive.

post lunch we went back to room and wanted to sleep for a while but you know what when one is tired he should sleep asap. if you delay for long you'll not be able to sleep even if you want to: it is like your body is accustomed to the state it was in and we struggled to get some sleep - but no use. by evening 6 we got ready to go out on to the rocky beach: this time again we took the M800- come on it is just 5 mins walk from our lodge : lazy bums. cool breeze, some nice girls on the stroll and 4 stags staring: typical scene. by 8 in the evening everybody is hungry again : so we head to the near by pizza hut and hog. after all this.. isn't it a time for good night's sleep? no way : after all we are nocturnals.. in the night we spoke to the lodge manager for extension of check-out time but they said it is strict 24hrs per day's rent: if we stay any longer we pay more. so rest is not hard to imagine: after spending some time in the room chatting up and packing we leave exactly at 2.45 am.. to where? we don't know.

we crank-up the car and drive to... the same rocky beach. we went to this 24hr cafe on the beach.. had nice hot kappa with some brownies

after that we spent time on the beach trying to capture some pics of the sea waves with the puny cybershot camera. now it was 3.30 in the morning and time for us to start our journey. after some discussion among ourselves we decide to take Chennai road. suddenly plot became clear : we would head to Mahabalipuram - another beach town near Chennai. so let's go. we reach Mahabalipuram early in the morning : it was still dark and raining. we park near the temple and wait for the dawn and skies to clear. but we had poor luck: we missed the sunrise here too as it was raining heavily and sky was cloudy. after the cloud cleared up we went in to the beach. this

one was a typical beach: but had high and clear water waves. we took few pics, did some long jumps, got caught in the rain and that is it. we decide to call it a trip and get back to the waiting veyron to return to Bangalore.

this route has some amazing no wait AMAZING roads that i have ever driven. it is enjoyable and not boring like some other highways. as we did not have any plans for the stops it was like drive constantly at fairly high speeds(for the car) non stop as long as the driver/car/passengers can take it. in most of these trips Muthu is the one who gets to sleep/rest nicely at the backseat: listening to Techno-Trance. [though he likes Progressive but he doesn't have a choice as it was my collection on the cds]. and on the road it was usual dog fights with some higher capacity cars but on this drive we were surprised by one old M800 which overtook us as if it were a 1.6 ltr sedan: interesting. we had our lunch stop at Krishangiri and we were back in Bangalore by 5.30 in the evening.

PS: phew that was quite a long one: after the first one, i thought 'll control the length but sorry can't help it

Lets’ go out for a drive…

Me and Venki were in the Panasonic showroom situated on the inner ring road – checking out electric trimmers and waiting for Muthu to arrive (yes arrive: can’t use the word ‘come’ – the most abused & controversial word among our group).

‘come’ trivia: Everybody should come by 6 in the morning. If you have to come by 6 then you should start preparing by 5.30. :peels of laughter – man I don’t need 30 mins to come. ‘m a normal man, I would take 5 mins.

As it was a Saturday eve we thought we’ll go out for a drive (All thanks to Venki buying the Nocturnal M-800- 5 speed – this car has done more miles in night then in day). So we quickly have some snacks – mysore bhajji and quintessential Idli-Vada at the darshini hotel and head towards Mysore road. We had no clue what was our destination.

The radio…

Now we are on the Mysore road with Radio Indigo blaring out some insane Nocturnal – Trance on the car stereo. It was growing on us and we were enjoying the groove. Our first stop on the way: McDonald’s – we quickly hog on some burgers and cool drinks and continue our journey. The music is live and tempo was on steady rise – we enjoyed this for quite some time. Slowly we start experiencing drop in the radio reception. It is like whenever we are descending from the heights the reception went bad. The time was around 1:00 AM. We were getting really disturbed by this. At one point we thought ‘ll take a U-turn till the Trance broadcast is on but then you know Venki is too lazy to turn the steering (was that Venki who was driving at that time?).

So Mysore it is… (is it?)

We are in Mysore – the place where we stayed in a resort for a period of 18 months and had real fun.. ooops! yes we also completed our PGDBA here. First thing: we head towards the Chamundi Hill – the time was around 2.30 AM. As we reach the abode of the hill facing the big arch (our college gate situated near this arch) we stop for a while. We take few pictures of the college name board and we were discussing this should have been designed: how boaring it looks in its present format – the usual cribbing :D. As this is in progress we see a Bright-Candy-Red AUDI A4 heading towards the hill. Looks like somebody spotted some faint figure of fairer-species in that car and all of us take off (yes all of us – ofcourse Venki was driving) -with 800 wheel spinning manically - behind the A4. I think the total sum effect of this sudden reaction frightened the A4 driver and he almost halts his ride. We realize this little later and pass them a little slowly but laughing like crazy inside the car. Well this sets us off on our course towards the climb of the hill.

We spotted few cars parked there with complete dark tints rolled-up and no one round the car. We reach the ‘spot’ where we would normally spend time during our college time and at this point there were 4-5 guys there sitting and chatting up. Then suddenly we spot a car almost hurling itself really fast in a corner and we identify it immediately : it was the A4. It must have been the AWD version of A4 it was really composed and negotiated turn clean and disappeared. And as this is happening almost instantly we hear a roaring sound and there we spot a completely souped up Toyota Supra – again a Red one but what sexy exhaust note it had! . After some time: we see this same Supra doing a drag run on the road right in-front of our college gate. This stretch of road pretty straight and no speed humps.

As we descend from the hill and reach the college gate Venki stopped the car and was simply revving the engine. Suddenly he dumps the clutch engages first and release: voila we are doing a drag in a 800. It is crazy! As we reach the end of this stretch he takes a U-turn and gives it one more try and this time we time it: it was around 15 secs to 100 on odo - Impressive for this car. As we reach other end I am in the driver’s seat: if ‘m taking off there has to be some drama- so there we go – we start off with loads of wheel-spin. We could feel the shudder in the car. Sure my run was more fun but lost out completely on 0-100 timing – it was 17 secs L.

What next…

We take a right turn towards the Nanjangud road and we continue. We pass the Nanjangud and are driving though some truck and bus traffic. Surprisingly most of the cars are moving slowly. The time around 3:00 AM. The next major destination as written on the mile stone was Bandipur. So Bandipur it is: as soon as we decide we increase our pace. Overtaking almost everything on the road – looked like no other vehicles in hurry – even some Innovas : The reason Bandipur Check-Post: which opens only after 6 :00 AM in the morning for the vehicular movements – dumb. We were almost the first in the queue at the check-post. In Bandipur we took the Safari drive and spotted none of the wild animals. It was the Safari drive that was boring part. We actually dozed off in that vehicle. After the Safari we were back to 800 started driving along the Bandipur road and also tried trespassing in to the Safari road. But some divine intervention made us accept the fact that we were in a 800. So driving we reached TN part of Bandipur and after some distance we retraced our way.

Remember: We have been driving since yesterday evening , without any real sleep and rest. We should have been exhausted by this time- but no. We were as active as a 5 year toddler running around in a toy shop.

We head towards Mysore. It was around 1:00 PM when we reach Mysore. We head straight towards the Planet- X. Hogged like pigs: boy were we hungry. We played few Video Games, Some bowling and of-course yes the Go Karting. And the winner: Som :D.

By around 4:00 PM we have our coffee and start for Bangalore. Surprising quite a few cars by overtaking them with ease: they didn’t realize it was a 5 speed 800. And few pitched dog fights with a Swift and a Santro. When you are in a small car on the road you are always in Win/Win. Either you give a great fight or you win: either way your ego is not hurt. It is just a 800 you see…! So we are home by around 7:00 PM.

In less than 24 hours we traveled so many places, did so many crazy things : this was a real drive. We never had any destination. It was the travel, company and the time that was great.

This is one of the first of series of outings that we made and keep it at that. We just need an excuse.

oh yeah.. this is my first blog: i wanted it to be concise but sorry couldn't help it. didn't know what to chop off. comments please..