Chamundi Betta at midnight!

It all started on Saturday morning when I reached Mysore and told Nikhil, “How about Chamundi Hills today?” Nikhil instantly agreed. So the plan was on. As for the timing, I suggested evening, but Nikhil thought playing table tennis was better and so favoured a night visit at around 9. And as it turned out, we ended up played TT well beyond that time. But somehow we still had the energy for a ride to the hills. And so we made a post dinner plan. Dinner was a modest fare at a roadside eatery (delicious though) and then at around 10:45 PM we set out towards Chamundi Hills, after picking up Deepak on the way.

The road was deserted, the weather was cold enough for an adventure but not uncomfortable, and the bike ride was awesome. We stopped on the way up for a couple of quick photographs (to prove that we actually did all that stuff, you know).Here they are:

With very few vehicles to disturb us, the view of the city below was absolutely breathtaking. Needless to say, the photo doesn’t do any justice to the sight we saw.

We did a quick about-turn when we reached the top and while coming down, we stopped at another view-point (this one was on the right side of the road) and devoured the fried rice parcels we had brought with us. The whole thing got a little more exciting when I reminded the others that cheetahs were spotted in the area. Of course when the others went on about how the cheetahs like to go for pillion riders, I was a lot less amused (I was riding behind Nikhil, you see). Anyway, since the road was mercifully devoid of pillion-rider-eating-cheetahs, we reached the foot of the hills at around 12:30 AM, safe, sound and dog-tired.

I have been to Chamundi hills more times than I can count, but this midnight trip turned out to be very special indeed!

Curtains on the Mysore chapter of my story…

My last weekend was unusual in a way. I had been to Mysore to renew my bike’s insurance and bring it here to Bangalore. And as planned, we rode it all the way to Bangalore, the ‘we’ referring to me and Akash Shetty. The journey was a wonderful experience; riding on the Mysore – Bangalore highway was an absolute joy. My Glamour was tested to its limits, often going beyond 80 kmph and crossing 100 a couple of times. It was the first time I had been on my bike for so long, and even though it took a good part of an hour to find the way to my place once we entered the city, I enjoyed it thoroughly nevertheless.

So with my bike transported to Bangalore, the last of my possessions in Mysore has now been shifted. This, if not anything else, marks the end of a very significant part of my life, a part which saw me going to college, being offered a job, graduating and in the process, growing up in a whole new way to be the person I am now. Also ends with it my most wonderful six years in Mysore – six years which had me tasting success more frequently than any other time of my life. Time flies and how! It seems like only yesterday that I arrived in Mysore freshly out of high school and now here I am, a graduate with my own source of income! Talk about life on fast-forward!

Hours before I was supposed to leave, as I rode on my bike on the streets of Mysore, I could not stop the voice in my head which kept repeating that life as I knew it was over. And as we sped across the outskirts of the city towards Bangalore, I knew I would never again ride my Glamour in the streets of Mysore; never again would I experience the joy of visiting obscure places around with my friends; never again would I shift to second gear and turn to enter my college gate; there was a strange feeling of sadness in me, almost a sense of bereavement…