The Getaway
It was over due ...long over due...A parachute XVi gig and that too I had not seen them with guru at the drums beating away...
I decided to just throw up me arms and leave home to reach banglore on a Friday. I was carrying a lot a fruits and sweets and some khara boondi...So I decided to take the Rickshaw to Guru's...that way I would not have to die en-route to guru's. Imagine Two massive bags weighing easily 11Kgs each and on the Legendary Bullet.

Long before this happened Guru and I had a long detailed multi-part conversations over the phone and internet and managed to arrange Arun's bike for the Trip but the catch was that Arun's bike had not been used and was due a regular service.

So the previous day before I left Home I actually had made an hour by hour itinerary of the day. It involved giving the bike for service and shopping and beer and visiting Deepu for lunch and yeah meeting Julia. Most of the things worked out according to plan...well shopping was moved forward to the next day...and the timings were out of the window. But yeah after the beers and meeting Julia we reached Deepu's for some awesome lunch, Guru joined in late and cursed me for my directions(Which I think is not bad at all). I must thank Deepu for the amazing lunch which involved some 9 courses and I was so stuffed that I just could not move but I had to get going to get the Bike from service for the service place would close by 6 and I left Deeps at like half 5.

Managed to find an Rickshaw and called up Arun as we were to meet up for old times sake and get a few bevys. So got the bike from service and picked up Arun and decided to head in to town and start the festivities. We reached the Infamous Church Street and Oasis was to happen.

At the table were some discussions over the IPL and then 2/3rds of Parachute(Ananth aka Flying Machine and Guru) came along and the discussions continued. Then came Jyothi and Appy (Funny name) to give us some company for a brief amount of time, it had been ages since I had meet Jyothi and I was shocked to find out that she is working for THE MAN. The night drew to a close with the 11 o clock curfew and we left oasis. Our Man Arun took trusted rickshaw back home so did the ladies, while we three rode all the way to Aanths folks place on Old madras road ...all the while cautiously avoiding cops. I so to speak for myself was well in the clouds by then...it had been a long day at alcohol and the fact that travel the previous night was not helping at all. At Ananth s I was welcomed by the nice berry flavored scotch which I loved the smell but was not ready to consume for the fear the we had to ride another 12Kms to reach Gurus. But then this news that Guru had to go to Suburbia to help out the ppl who setting up for the gig next day. That was a very un-welcomed diversion for me...I had to pass out asap. We reached suburbia after leaving the bullet behind at Ananths and suburbia was getting decked up and to be very honest it looked like it would actually take a miracle to get the Mushroom ready for the BIG MUSHROOM CLOUD FESTIVAL. quite frankly the place had a few high fly-ers and few non engineers and I seemed it would never work the mushroom.So half the ppl decided to take a Non-smoking break and reached the terrace and I must say it was surreal watching massive blades of wind turbines being transported on the highway...I thought to myself some one is gearing up for the future.... We left suburbia with the knowledge that Parachute was playing last and the hope that a big mushroom would fall from the sky. Reached Gurus and plain passed out.


Plans had to be made for the gig and it had to involve shopping. Guru decided to cancel his drum teaching class and we headed to Queens to pick up the gear. We met Mr Rowjeev there and after a brief chit-chat we moved all the gear for the gig in an Auto-rickshaw. After a long, sweaty and hot ride with me on the bike and Guru safeguarding the gear in the Rickshaw we reached Suburbia. Much to my surprise the mushroom had fallen from the sky or should I say somehow the people from previous night had managed to destroy and rebuild the Mushroom and transport a floor ...to be frank it looked nothing like a mushroom but was good enough for the effort I believe... So here comes the setup and the Drums for which i was helping out was actually broken. After much ingenious trouble shooting we managed to come up with a stable enough Drum set but guru was not happy at all....

After sound check and the setup was done, Guru, Ananth and I decided to indulge in some food near suburbia. We stopped at a darshini type places and ate some. Shopping was done as soon as we reached Old Madras road and Big bazaar was to happen. I have never been to one and it was actually huge and crowded.Ananth and I made a quick shopping trip and managed to secure some beers and Red Bulls for the gig and the night following that.
The gig was good except for the sound which was ok. Met loads of ppl and the bicycle days played a nice set. Parachute xvi came up with a killer set and I enjoyed every bit of it. Sadly Julia could not make it dude to ill health and Arun as usual ditched. Rzhude dropped in..nice to catch uo with him after a while. Managed to squeeze in all the gear after the gig in his car and with a few people as well. So I and Ganesh were left behind to somehow manage to get back but we ended up meeting peopel from bicycle days and some how I never got this right...There was a car at the venue and the owner of the car as well but No keys and a friend had volunteered to go get the keys which were miles away (BTW suburbia is in the middle of no where). So we waited patiently and the keys arrived and after a short pit stop to eat and cig's...we reached Ananths old madras road place and the after party was almost winding down..but yeah we kept it alive for a bit more but the I had to call it a night .... The Ride next day awaited....
Passed out and woke up at a very early time with a Hangover I wish none of me enemies ever get.... And then all of a sudden Fuzz had dropped out from the Trip and Julia as well due to the illness... the Idea of canceling the trip did cross me mind but then I had been wanting to get away for such a long time that I just gave that thought a boot and decided to get ready and leave for Kushal Nagar.

The Trip

An early pit stop at Dawn...tea and cigis and then the Road towards mysore was awaiting our arrival...This was a sunday and I thought we would be riding in fairly traffic free roads but alas it was not to be ...Taxis and mini tempos zipping past without giving a shit about rules of overtaking. Remember we are still very hungover and trying to negotiate crazy traffic not a very fun sunday morning..Supposedly Guru had stopped over for more tea but I had just zipped past him (HUNGOVER)
but then he caught up and we stopped for more tea...We decided to get breakfast at the Kamaths which is the same place we stopped almost exactly a year ago on the Road trip to Kalpetta.... After a good breakfast we filled up the bikes and headed towards mysore... Few more stops had to happen for the simple reason that the sun was belting down and the fact that our hangovers were just subsiding. Called up Manu from prakruth and decided to order a light veg Lunch for us when we arrived at the final destination. Few more stops for tender coconut and I was enjoying these wee chill breaks taking in the scenery. We reached mysore and we decided to stop over for we had to go look for Skins. The search for skins ended up with no results and we decided to chuck the idea and started out on the last leg of our rides. Nice country roads were a welcome relief with far less traffic and the sparse tree cover road was a joy to ride on...by this time My hangover was nearly cured and I was on full throttle. Alas this enthusiasm didn't last for long we reached Kushal Nagar and the Sun god was just angry. We reached to get stocked up with beer and cigs and head towards Prakruth. Some annoying phone calls did happen but the thought of a lunch and some shade lured me on. We did get lost thanks to gurus over confident directional skills but after a few stops and more phone calls we reached the place finally. Parked the bike quick clean up and Beer! had to happen ..The guys at Prakruth were very friendly and
after a small chat we ate a very nice lunch...we decided to retire and rest for a bit for we had been on the road for nearly 8 hrs...in the hot sun...hungover for most part of the ride.
The place was uber clean and that was what impressed me most along with the friendliness of Mithun and Manu.... I was Glad to be there....It was a place right next to the catchment area of a Dam... Harangi River Dam reservoir (Back waters).. It was bliss. Mountains at the back of the place where we stayed and a lake right opp. No Honking I said and I was glad that I could not hear anyone honk. The place was totally secluded, it had all the amenities you would require like...Music could be blasted...games to keep you lost in time....I decided to switch off my phone for bit and just lose myself in the solidarity of the place. Evening happened and we decided to indulge in some games of carrom and the beers and harishaa...loved it the fact that the place had no other guests but us and it was amazing at night...the sky was beautiful and the lightning and wind kept us company...Rain was teasing us but it never actually rained that much. The Amazing setup looked as if someone was taking photographs in the distance was just bliss...we had some nice food and decided to call it a Night.

Next day dawned, welcomed with some nice chai. It was a beautiful day, just a bit cloudy, nice breeze blowing across. Breakfast was interesting..home cooked.....by this time the place had sunk in and I was enjoying every minute of the Getaway. We decided to brave the waters. We were shown the direction to go to and the water looked amazing.On the way to the water we ran into someone who wanted to steal our umbrella but his actual intention was to steal a smoke of us, so we gave him one and headed to the water.No hard core swimming but just floating about. Loved to float about which surprisingly was so so so so peaceful...After a wee while and some beer got back to prakruth and after lunch we decided to go see the Dam on the bikes.In the meanwhile Fuzz had tried to get in touch and ask directions to the place, good news was that he was leaving by afternoon and was gonna be there by nightfall....more great news was the Julia was feeling much better after her visit to the Manipal Hospital and she decided to head out to kushal Nagar as well.Whoo hoo we had the original plan back in action...and oh the water....The water was so far back that there were path ways all over leading in different directions and after asking where to go we headed out with the bikes. Five Kilometers and no roads just bikes and us two riding about aimlessly...after a bit of off-roading we found a path that got us near to the damn but not on it and it was getting dark soon so we found another path that lead back to the actual road to get into town to pick up some more supplies as we ran out of beer and then we had to pick up Fuzzy and Blah. So kushal Nagar road just before dark we managed to reach the main road. Headed into town and again I lost guru from me sight and a phone call later we were united. Met fuzzy and blah at the bus station went straight to the Wine shop and after a small discussion we picked alcohol and cigs and decided to go back to Prakruth as Julia was going to be another hour or so before she would reach Kushal Nagar. We decided that one of us would comeback to pick her up. We very daringly had left our Helmets back at the prakruth so an emergency solution to avoid the flies and other insects getting in to our throats... scarfs were purchased and pressed into action. Reached prakruth and Mithun very happily offered to start the fire and we moved the base to open area and sat down with the bevy and chit-chatted...before long julia called and Guru very generously offered to go pick her up... so nice of you guru, you are an absolute gem....meanwhile the rest of us sat down staring at the fire and discussing the pain we had to suffer riding on the bikes..blah came up with this solution of quick heal and it was to face your back to the fire and it did help... After a wee while the thunder of the Legendary bullet broke the silence and there was guru...as soon as he parked his bike the first thing he said out loud was BUMPY..???.....god that s so guru....The whole Gang was there and the fire and the wicked cheshire cat smile looking moon was there and the breeze and then came the food...the chutney which guru had requested was just too nice....Mint+chilli+coriander+lemon....tooo good woth the Chicken Kababs...aaal that was some meal....some nice conversations but too detailed to write down here....and then Night was done.


Next day..day three for Guru and I....We decided to get going to towards the dam and hit the water someplace else..we reached someplace in the middle of nowhere and Guru decided to clean the Fuel filter which looked kinda manky on Fuzzy's bike...while Guru and Fuzz were tackling the Fuel Filter the rest of us were trying to build a tent of some sort...never the less we never succeeded so after battling it out we sat down under a bamboo tree and absorbed the scenery of the half empty lake. I must say something about the immense number of chopped down Tree trunks that lined the whole catchment area...they looked like cows for some reason...and there were some actual cows getting high on the grass. what a scene..I wish I was a painter and I could have painted the tree trunks and High cows .....Time for some more floating about in the water...and this other place we had an audience...not that they cheered but just there ....Some nice cooling rain was much needed and we were blessed to be in the path of a passing shower...After heading back to prakruth.. We decided to head to Dubare which is this elephant training facility...Did you know that Elephants that work for the Indian Govt get a pension....how amazing is that...well done Govt of India...so yeah after heading out from the lake bed and in the wrong direction for almost an hour we figured that Dubare was the other way and headed in the right direction to this Training facility but it was too late to do anything so we just took some photos and headed into town to pick up more supplies. The Plan next day was to leave early and reach Nagarhole so that we could catch a safari and head back to Blore...but Blah found out that bikes were not allowed into the forest...and yet we decided to give it a try....After some nice food, music and alcohol we called it an early night.


Next morning after breakfast and settling the bill we headed out towards Nagarahole and For some unfortunate reason we were blessed with some of the horrible roads of karnataka...mind you we had no issues with roads up until now....so the Ride took the juice out of me...I was a goner...bad back ache was setting in and I knew it...but we continued on with some breaks in between and reached the forest check post and guess what was written in big bold letters.."NO MOTORCYCLES ALLOWED INSIDE THE FOREST AREA"...I mean it made no sense ...cars we allowed in and this was a route back to Bangalore...I mean I dont understand the logic of tigers preferring bikers to ppl in cars...or abundant population of Spotted deer...It was nearly lunch time and everyone decided to stay the night someplace close by and head back to bangalore next morning after doing some safari's....After a few phone calls and thanks to Blah we found a very nice man called Naveen who helped us to find a place to stay and place to find food...Naveen was like over the top nice guy....very nice chap...total Nature enthusiast. So we met him and he showed us where we could get some lunch...and It rained cats and dogs just then...so I thought our safari plans went down the drain but we were lucky that it did not happen and we landed at Puttus homestay and dropped our luggage...phoned in the Jeep to take us to the safari starting point...Naveen jumped in cause he was addressing some gathering of students at the forest about the Human-Elephant conflict...hmmm interesting...I mean this was nothing like the elephants wanted more pension but conflict between wild elephants and humans...So we reached the safari point and then we had to pure wait for ages to get on the actual bus which would take us into the safari. It was getting dark and the safari bus arrived...We jumped on and had a fun jolly ride on the bus..We saw like a million Spotted deer and some other small wild life but the tigers it seems were off on a holiday so we did not spot any inside the TIGER reserve...1411 tigers left in India....nonsense I say we dont have any and Im not happy about this fact it just sad...You should not call a forest a tiger reserve if there are no tigers in it....I understand that tigers are very solitary animals and have a territory of 12 sq km but common with so many spotted deer around I had my doubts...One more interesting thing we saw was these crazy signs boards with whacked out slogans on them...ANIMALS ARE NOT RAG PICKERS , DO NOT LITTER...more funny ones .....but yeah Safari over and Naveen and the jeep guy had been waiting for us ....So on the way to the Puttus Homestay we came across two MASSIVE wild BISON and I am sure they weighed like more than a ton each...man they were massive...huge...the biggest I have seen...so we stopped and took photos..At puttus we tried to find a decent place to eat but we had to rely on the same place we ate in the afternoon...the food was not bad at all...so Mr Puttu came along..had a nice chat with us and we requested some coffee..and he offered us some nice coffee from Coorg...Guru and Fuzz got us the food and I thank both of you for that...I was in no state to ride a bike my back was actually killing me by this time...so some nice rum happened along with harishaa and out came the Elephant Masks which were gifted to Julia and I by our good Samaritan friend Naveen...Mock Sword fighting and after a lot of photos .....Blah and Julia decided to dissect a insect to death and guru had a video of the same....we decided to call it a night.

Morning we somehow got up at 6 and headed towards the kerala border for another safari...well guess what more spotted deer were spotted....and some squirrels....Road side breakfast was not very appetizing but we pursued on with the Ride back to Bangalore....we were blessed with better roads this time around and the ride was actually nice ...lot of speed humps but yeah manageable....So I decided to take the lead... blasted away with ZION Train in my ears....and all of a sudden I see guru trying to catch up.....angry guru finally caught up and blurted out "F f f f f stop due I want to send... can you not hear the horn and see the lights flash..." I was like dude I am just tripping man...its nice under the tree cover and music is blinding me from any sort of noise so chill....A cop on his bike stopped and said that we were not allowed to park in the middle of the forest....Mysore and then Fish land lunch after mysore and the sun was on to us the heat was just killing me.... Blah was falling off to sleep and Red bull came to the rescue...somehow we manged to brave the elements and reached blore...
I lost these guys somewhere in between and somehow remembered gurus number and called him from a PCO and agreed that we will end this officially with a celebratory Beer at Temps...

I reached first and guru was just minutes behind with Julia...Beer happened and the three of us headed towards Old airport road to drop off Julia.... It was one trip that I will remember for the rest of me life...

Cheers to Guru for making it happen and then cheers to Blah, Julia and Fuzzy who made the trip an absolute experience to remember and a memory to cherish for life...


So I reach Blore on thursday night and decided to stay the weekend and party on ...more so cause my back was just not well....It took me nearly 3 days to recover from it...but it was not like I was dead...

Friday met up with deeps for lunch and some shopping and the usual temps scene with Julia and then all of a sudden the place was heaving with ppl....the driveway next to temps looked like a Illegal rave with out the music...but yeah it was fun....Temps Rocks...

Saturday met deeps for breakfast and then decided to head into town to meet some college friends and then it so happened I got dragged into decorating a friends house for her engagement the same evening and it was real awkward as I was not invited but my other friends were so it was like I was unwanted...so decided to quickly escape and headed out to old airport road...A massive cooking session happened for a nice sat night party at Julia's, Ananth's, Romeo's and Karen's.... The menu for the evening was...Pakoras to start of with with chutney and some Mango lemon something else chicken which was actually wonderful...Chicken curry which was to go with the rice was just perfect to keep our tummys happy after the long drinking session ...and to finish off there was this amazing dal which I need to get the recipe from guru...Hats off to Guru amazing meal and must appreciate that the chicken cause you did not use any Curd to marinate and it turned out just beautiful ..fantabulous ...I was a small part of the cook -off ...well next time I will add my own dish to the menu for the evening....We decided to head to the water tank and Guru thanks to tiredness just passed out there... Perfect finish for the week.

Sunday was more of a family day at Deeps and the train journey back home was not very pleasant...

Yeah so it was a much needed getaway for me...I loved and enjoyed every bit of it...