He said, "I'm ready to go anywhere else but nandi hills..." So... NAN's nite ride to bidadi cafe coffee day...

Plan: After a heated argument for over an hour, involving the stubborn stand of a team member, we decided to hit bidadi 24 hrs cafe coffee day outlet.

Date: 15/02/2009
Start Time: 00 hours
Basecamp: Our standard adda - dixy's house – Indiranagar, Bangalore.
Bikes/Riders/pillion (only nicknames):
1. beedhi - Honda Unicorn
2. baldie - Honda Unicorn
3. rasika - Hero Honda CBZ
4. dabba - Yamaha Rx 135
5. dixy
6. figure - who decided not to take his unicorn
7. Mr.X(new addition to the team - no nickname as yet)
8. tension
Route: Indiranagar - MG road - Kasturba road - sirsi circle flyover - mysore road - bidadi

Mr.X retorted "Even critical decisions at AD are taken earlier than this.." referring to the time taken to arrive at a decision on our plan. On that note, we picked up our helmets, jackets, scarves, bike keys and walked down to our bikes from dixy's 2nd floor residence. To ensure we dont end up paying the cops like we did during our last night ride, I asked dabba to show me the documents of his bike. And it was a pleasant shock to see the original valid RC book and insurance papers that actually did have his bike's registration number and his name on it. We then decided to stop over at the petrol bank in front of raheja arcade at MG road as baldie and dabba’s bikes needed fuel.

As the engines revved in the dreary silence of the night, a slight fear of earning the wrath of the residents for disturbing their peaceful sleep engulfed us. The rush of adrenaline with the thought of the ride that was to be, ate up the fear. Soon, gears changed and we were on our way. 8 guys 4 bikes. The dusty roads of indiranagar, old madras road, MG road that wore the look of a war ravaged zone due to the metro construction were not very enjoyable. 3 bikes stopped at the bunk. Rasika with his inherent zeal for speed overshot the bunk and had to be informed to stop near Shankar nag rangamandira. Later he and dixy claimed that they had misunderstood that the petrol bank we were supposed to stop was the one near symphony. This slight confusion being nothing in front of the senseless argument we had before leaving, we headed towards sirsi circle flyover via kasturba road. The air started getting cleaner and clear as we moved to the outskirts of bangalore beyond nayanadahalli cross. Our next pit stop was a little beyond kengeri. And then our passionate cameraman(that's an understatement, "obsessive" would do more justice!) started his photo session. We posed and we posed and we posed. There were clicks and more clicks and to add to it, more clicks. Thanks to that, I'm able to post some pics along with this post! Some shuffling of riders and pillion happened and we decided to hit the road again. Vroom... After about 30 mins and 30 kms of riding we reached Bidadi coffee day.

There are so many ways to spend the night. And the best way is to sleep, but no, the whole lot of youngsters(inclusive of us) had to end up there! It was pretty crowded mostly with college going girls and guys who looked dressed for a party. We wondered if god had given those girls immunity against the cold breeze that they could be comfortable with sleeveless tops and short skirts when we felt cold even with our jackets on. I also wonder if dressing provocatively is done deliberately to garner attention or if there's a valid reason behind it. Anyways I'm no one to comment on that as its a free country and everyone is allowed to express themselves with their mouth, pen or otherwise (I dont wish to elaborate on that...). So we ordered cappuccinos, sandwiches, ice creams etc and settled down to chat. Sipping on some nice hot coffee we started talking. Politics, International, sports, youth empowerment are some of the topics that we definitely did not discuss. And it is not in my capacity to describe our conversations here.

We decided to move out of this over civilized place so that we get to breathe some fresh air and relax. After another brief photo session just outside of coffee day in front of the jungle junction food court, we found a nice spot just across the road. A stone platform under a nice huge tree just like the ones in village based movies where the head of the panchayat sits and gives his baseless judgements. The darkness, the moon, the stars, the tree, the breeze, friends around, that's what we were here for. A welcome break from the monotony of AC cubicles and monitors glaring at you. And that’s when they took my trip. Not a pleasant trip but an unpleasant one. They mined out everything in their capacity to pull my leg. In short “it was not my day.. or rather night”. We took a walk through what we assumed was a village road, that led us into a deserted area with some rocky terrain with weeds and dried plants. It was quite silent and calm around with only the sound of the breeze being heard. We settled down on the road talking about our college experiences, not realising the time flying away. It was about 3.30am when we decided to leave. The return ride was more or less uneventful except for a brief stop over at a ‘Chai’ shop for some nice hot brewing tea from an old lady who seemed active and cheerful while serving the tea.

Back at our adda we cherished the ride, the wind, the cappuccino, the tea, the chats, the photo sessions and the arguments. We then laid the beds, lied down on it, pulled the blankets over our faces and dozed. And the sun rose.

4 days later Mr. X retorts "whats worthy of writing in a night ride? u just ride .. feel the wind .. get a glimpse of freedom from this mundane world. .. thats it"