On the road

Groan...I woke up to the "Pirates of the Caribbean" theme music. It was 5 Rs Coin calling, and the time was 4 A.M. If you are puzzled, which any normal human being would be, 5 Rs Coin is my dear ride partner Haresh a.k.a "Back". 5 Rs Coin because he has this weird habit of collecting 5 Rs Coin. Well I do happen to collect a lot of things from stamps to automobile magazines and I'm happy I'm not called any of them.

I was supposed to be at Ara's place by 4-30 and I had just 29 minutes. Immediately took the phone and called SR, and true to my premonitions he didn't pick up the call. Tried 3 times and even harbored half a thought to go to his place and wake him up but then I remembered that he was Nara's responsibility and unceremoniously ditched him. Had a shower, got dressed and got my bike all heated and saddled up and left home with my brother waving good bye after blessing me with wise sayings like "do the ride for the route and not for the destination" and "don kill yourself" etc.

The ride to Ara's place was supremely quick and at 4-30 in the morning the streets where deserted except for the odd hint of life. Dogs woke up from their reverie and lazily watched me pass by as I zipped to Ara's place. Haresh was there before me and waiting to head out. Ara was down with a cuppa minus the milk as his doctor had advised him to lay off the milk. Poor soul, we kept reminding him of his plight throughout the trip. At least I did!:D

We passed Haresh's bag, gave Ara some instructions and took a few snaps in the dark. Ara then flagged us off and we started on our first road trip in the dark! I took the lead and immediately clipped 65 k's once we hit the Guindy junction. The city had begun to wake up and except for the lorry traffic, dust spray and blinding head lights I was feeling quite confident. Before we knew it we had hit the bypass at poonamale. Soon we where on the NH4 and twist the right hand! caman the roads!!

Riding in the night is quite a tough experience especially when you are doing 70 constant. Shadows play games with you and make weird shapes, truck drivers groggy from their sleep wake up on the wrong side of the bed and trucks dart around like 2 wheelers putting your riding skills to shame. It takes loads of concentration and focus on the road ahead and its during moments like this that my body reacts in strange ways. My nose begins to itch with annoying persistence while the tip of my head becomes hypersensitive. All of this has a simple fix, the sequence is as follows, stop my bike, remove my gloves and glass, wrestle my helmet off my now really irritating head and then scratch myself to glory. But then like most things in life.....I bear it. The most simplest alternative.

So on the road we where, our dear old college whizzed by as the early morning rays shone through the thin layer of fog. I had to lift my visor as my hot breath was misting on it. The cold wind helped numb my nose and that was a relief! Haresh took over and we where clipping 80 constant. The NH4 was 4 lane unadulterated butter smooth nirvana. We weaved in and out of the traffic and soon Ranipet flew by. We had a small break, made sure our bikes where not giving any strange noise or smell, checked our phones for any calls and then hit the road. We decided to make our next stop at Vellore for breakfast. The Orange juice and Marie biscuits I had before leaving had done their job. The prospect of more food brightened the already well lit day. Vellore came and went in a hurry and soon we where coasting to find a good decent breakfast place. I spotted a motel, haresh pulled over and we sat down to some hot idly and Dosa. It was 7:00 AM. 150 odd KM in 2 hours and 15 minutes.

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