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..