The day started with the chirping of my alarm as it tried to coerce me to wake up. It was 3.30 AM. Time to get up, get ready and don my favourite riding gear – my Zeus riding jacket, pro-biker gloves, knee guard and the life saver that is my helmet .
Me and my cousin Ashish had reached the consensus to start the weekend with a trip to Nandi hills, a favourite go to destination, the night before and like all experienced riders do, had gotten our tanks full and the tyres at that perfect pressure sweet spot for the 70 kms ride from Hebbal, Bangalore ahead of us.
The night air was cold as we turned on the ignition and our bikes roared to life at 4.30 am. With the headlights aiming straight ahead, we started our ride. After a sweet and serene 50 km drive on the Bangalore Hyderabad Highway we chanced upon the “junction chai walla”, where we indulged ourselves with a well deserved royal feast of a cup of tea and biscuits. With replenished sugar stores we continued on our path to happiness. It was 5.45 AM when the checkpoint loomed into view.
We reached a standstill along with numerous other bikes and cars as it was still dark and the gates of the heaven that is Nandi hills were still closed. The gathered populace used this as an opportunity to blast their car stereos and throw an impromptu dance party on the road, surrounded by mother nature in all her glory, to keep the spirits high. Visibility improved and the gates were finally opened. We were working against the clock here because today was the day we turned tables on the sun, this was the day when we woke and welcomed the big orange ball of fire and not vice versa . The 3 km stretch to the parking stand proved to be a race.
We successfully made use of the divide and conquer policy as I tried to find us a parking spot and Ashish powered through the line for entry tickets. A 1.5 km trek later, we reached the summit and received our prize. The warm yellow rays winked at us from under the veil of the effervescent clouds.
The sun finally emerged on the horizon for its audience – a multitude of zealots, packed together, a content smile spreading around as the sun rays touched and illuminated each and every face as we all broke into a rendition of “A new day has come” by Celine Dion…just kidding it was “suraj ki bahon main” from zindagi na milegi dobara.
After singing our guts out, gazing into the skyline while contemplating the big questions and immortalizing ourselves doing all the above by clicking a bunch of photos (only two of which actually happened, go figure..!!),we decided to treat ourselves to some hill-side dosa before we started back to reality…i mean the city. We reached Bangalore by 10 am with an amazing start to a weekend that could only go uphill from here.
