I havent been able to figure out why Bangalore's traffic police like me so much. They seem to stop me so often. My friends move around all over the place sometimes without papers and none of them are stopped. God knows why!
ive had encounters that have turned into visits to the court on more than one occasion.
read the latest: i was on my way to yeshwantpur one morning with my cousin Arpit. We were going there to pickup his van that had arrived by truck from Mumbai. Checking was on and sure enough, the cops (one sub inspector and two of his subordinates) invited us with open arms after a signalnear the hebbal flyover. Ive become quite comfortable with them in these 5 years in bangalore and treated it as a routine check completely unaware of what was in store for us. Showed them all my papers and waited for them to tell us to go. The date had just begun. This was warm up phase, on the dance floor.
Shock 1:
'jembing signal'. we realised that we were being accused of jumping the signal. Arpit looked stunned! so was i but i thought they would let us go. But They Did Not.
I was told to pay 100 bucks as fine. I refused. By now, our friends knew we were could not speak in kannada. that was it. war broke out. Arpit lost his cool! being from mumbai he was unaware of bangalore rules. it was crazy after that. passersby changed to stoppersby. We knew we did not jump the signal and so paying was out of the question. The cops asked me for the key and i refused to give it.
Arpit pulled out his phone and took down the sub inspectors name and accused him of accepting a bribe. That was it. It was now two of us VS three of them and the public. I was seeing stars. was clueless about what was to happen. One thing was very clear though. We had rubbed the cops the wrong way and they were angry. Nothing was going the way i wanted it to.
Arpit was pushed by the cops and i was ready to see him slapped! thank God that dint happen! he did not budge and let them push him! sheesh...there was silence after this. A silence that told me that this was just the beginning of things to come.
Shock 2:
refusing to give key.
non-cooperation with the police.
creating a nuisance.
We were charged with all three and the fine amount? 400 rupees!the stars i could see were brighter now.
We decided that it would be best for Arpit to disappear from the scene. That he did. It was now my turn to speak. First thing: 'Saary saar', 'mistake saar', 'student saar'. He seemed to ignore me completely! it was like shitting on his face and saying sorry for it.
He responded to my apology. The response was calling up the nearest cheetah to toe my bike to the cop station. Sure enough. the cheetah dint come but a cop appeared from somewhere and asked me for the keys. This time i gave it to them. There was nothing to lose now.
Shock 3:
Pay fine in court.
The cops were still furious. They wanted Arpit back. I was bikeless now and couldnt even imagine what had happened. I was given a notice to appear in the metropolitan magistrates court. The subinspector disappeared from there to make his next kill.
I went and gave Arpit the news. We took a rick and picked up the van.
The cops had given us a memorable time. We now had to spend time at the court.
day1: Scene at 2nd metropolitan magistrates court, hudson circle, Bangalore:
hundreds of lawyers all over the place. people discussing cases, attept to murder, jail, fine, bribe... we saw it all.
We had to employ a lawyer. We had 2 options. We could either pay 400 bucks as fine and 100 bucks to the lawyer, get a receipt and get the bike OR we could fight the case of not having jumped the signal with the Bangalore Traffic Police. The latter would require us to come to court every month for the hearing and spend time and money (lots of both) on fighting the case. We would or would not win. The lawyer said it would take time - a year or more. It was time to decide. Arpit said he would fight the case. i said i wont. i dint have the time or the money. It was closing time by then. That meant we had to come neck the next day. It also meant that my bike - my sweetheart would have to stay with the cops.
Day2: My cousin Anant and i arrived at the court the next day only to hear that the judge was not there. We waited till 3 o'clock and finally were asked to accept the fact that we jumped the signal. This was the sad face of India's famed judicial system. We couldnt do anything to change it.
Tuesday, July 11, 2006
Saturday, July 08, 2006
Thursday, July 06, 2006
kick it....!
All you people who talk long stories about going here and there and doing this trip and that trip and planning and booking tickets.... just buzz off. Go take a walk around your house and then talk about trips you people.
If you're (yes you!) one of those people who have refused to go with me for a ride let me tell you im not going to be asking you to come with me ever again! You dont know what youre losing out on buddy. The truth is you can rarely plan out a trip. At least thats what i think. The more you plan it out the more difficult it becomes. Trust me. The best thing to do is to decide to do it and take off. Theres the almighty to lead you...
Just make sure your bike is rideable. If its not, make sure you know what to do if theres a breakdown. Thankfully that has not happened to us on any of our trips!
For those of you who think its crazy to take off on 2 wheels to distant places, give me one good reason why you think so. If im satisfied with your reason, you win and i'll do anything you want me to! Once you know what it is to ride under the stars and in moonlight with just the sound of the engine as company you'll know what it means. Well life is not always smooth and so its not always the moon and the stars. It can also be sun and rain... but you know what? the pleasure and satisfaction cannot be described in words!
All you people who talk long stories about going here and there and doing this trip and that trip and planning and booking tickets.... just buzz off. Go take a walk around your house and then talk about trips you people.
If you're (yes you!) one of those people who have refused to go with me for a ride let me tell you im not going to be asking you to come with me ever again! You dont know what youre losing out on buddy. The truth is you can rarely plan out a trip. At least thats what i think. The more you plan it out the more difficult it becomes. Trust me. The best thing to do is to decide to do it and take off. Theres the almighty to lead you...
Just make sure your bike is rideable. If its not, make sure you know what to do if theres a breakdown. Thankfully that has not happened to us on any of our trips!
For those of you who think its crazy to take off on 2 wheels to distant places, give me one good reason why you think so. If im satisfied with your reason, you win and i'll do anything you want me to! Once you know what it is to ride under the stars and in moonlight with just the sound of the engine as company you'll know what it means. Well life is not always smooth and so its not always the moon and the stars. It can also be sun and rain... but you know what? the pleasure and satisfaction cannot be described in words!
All the posts from "Bangalore see u!" to "back" are from our (phil n me) ooty trip in june of 2006. Since blogs are reverse chronological, scroll down to the bottom of the page and start reading from there... happy riding!
back
We were finally dropped off at the check point by another truck (whom chacha stopped) after he realised that he was not going to move from that point till God knows when! we couldnt believe to be back!
this was just great... man! the bike still existed, the petrol was still there... nothing could be better... we bid goodbye to the cop and thanked him for keeping the bike safe and alive!
seeing the bike was like meeting a long lost friend! she'd spent the night at the checkpost all alone.... poor thing and you should've seen her when she saw us... she went all red all over!
we were back on the road before we knew it... we had nothing but bangalore in our minds now that there was nothing to stop us. Our bums tried their best to but we told them to shut their trap and so they did.
Mysore to bangalore now has roads that are probably one of the best in the region. They are scary at times but theyre awesome to clip on! and that we did.
Mysore-Bangalore was 1 hour 45 minutes. that was it. Our bums started to complain everytime we went into a 'bum'p! never figured out... guess thats why theyre called 'the bumps'!
that was one more awesome trip and probably the most adventurous of the lot...
wutsay phil? we asked for every bit of it.
We were finally dropped off at the check point by another truck (whom chacha stopped) after he realised that he was not going to move from that point till God knows when! we couldnt believe to be back!
this was just great... man! the bike still existed, the petrol was still there... nothing could be better... we bid goodbye to the cop and thanked him for keeping the bike safe and alive!
seeing the bike was like meeting a long lost friend! she'd spent the night at the checkpost all alone.... poor thing and you should've seen her when she saw us... she went all red all over!
we were back on the road before we knew it... we had nothing but bangalore in our minds now that there was nothing to stop us. Our bums tried their best to but we told them to shut their trap and so they did.
Mysore to bangalore now has roads that are probably one of the best in the region. They are scary at times but theyre awesome to clip on! and that we did.
Mysore-Bangalore was 1 hour 45 minutes. that was it. Our bums started to complain everytime we went into a 'bum'p! never figured out... guess thats why theyre called 'the bumps'!
that was one more awesome trip and probably the most adventurous of the lot...
wutsay phil? we asked for every bit of it.
funkture after funkture
half an hour down the road, we were woken up by the sweet sound of another funkture. bother! bother! now what?!
we got down again.... this time right in front of a phone booth. phil called up all his girl friends and settled down things.... one of them was closer to us in Mysore and he even tried asking her if she could come and pick us up.... obviously not! girls always have something better to do than picking up two guys stranded in rural tamil nadu.... dont they?
well...youre right. we started walking again! yes we did. trod for around 3 to 4 km again... feasted on bananas in between... its was hot mind u. no one in the world seemed to have pity on us. finally... finally.... an hp gas truck stopped. The driver 'chacha' and his aides willingly agreed to give us a lift to the check point some 20 km away. phil got into another interesting conversation about bandipur, mudumalai and wayanad with 'chellan', one of the helpers. He told us about resthouses in the area and things we could do and the like!
we were a little more than a km from the checkpoint when the truck suddenly stopped... we dint know why! everyone except chacha disappeared none of us knew where to!
oh no! again!! what in the world was happening!
half an hour down the road, we were woken up by the sweet sound of another funkture. bother! bother! now what?!
we got down again.... this time right in front of a phone booth. phil called up all his girl friends and settled down things.... one of them was closer to us in Mysore and he even tried asking her if she could come and pick us up.... obviously not! girls always have something better to do than picking up two guys stranded in rural tamil nadu.... dont they?
well...youre right. we started walking again! yes we did. trod for around 3 to 4 km again... feasted on bananas in between... its was hot mind u. no one in the world seemed to have pity on us. finally... finally.... an hp gas truck stopped. The driver 'chacha' and his aides willingly agreed to give us a lift to the check point some 20 km away. phil got into another interesting conversation about bandipur, mudumalai and wayanad with 'chellan', one of the helpers. He told us about resthouses in the area and things we could do and the like!
we were a little more than a km from the checkpoint when the truck suddenly stopped... we dint know why! everyone except chacha disappeared none of us knew where to!
oh no! again!! what in the world was happening!
ooty not letting go...
had chai at a kada opposite the bus stand. we had to take a bus to the checkpoint, some 2.5 hours away. we were just wishing we had the bike.
now was the time to inquire about the earliest bus that would take us to the checkpoint. The name was 'kakkinalli'. Neither of us were able to remember the name and thank God i stored it on my phone! had to keep looking at it everytime we had to use it!
Our man was in highest spirits that morning. i think the sun charged him up... whatever it was everyone at the bus stand knew that we were two romeos wanting to go somewhere but not getting the bus. we finally got into a bus after much debate.
Our bus started at around 6:30am. Phil understood that he could not reach home by 11. He desperately wanted to call all his girl friends to cancel the dates he had with them but the network prevented him from doing it.
the ride down was awesome. the valley looked gorgeous. and for the first time i felt like everything we went through during the night made sense.
well... looks like adventure did not want to let go of us! the bus stopped suddenly and we realised that the bus had a loose wheel about to come off! sheesh....
we started off again and half an hour down the road... foooosh! puncture! heavens... whst was happening man... we thought!! everyone got down and all the men (except us) crowded around the tyre giving puncture gyan to the driver!
nothing budged even 45 minutes after the incident. by now the women were lying down on mats on the road side and kiddies were happily playing. we were the only guys who were debating about the next best thing to do!! our options included walking down to the check point (which we later realised was 40 km far!), waiting for the bus or hitching a ride on another bus. nothing seemed to work. we did some serious talk too.
finally phil agreed to start walking... we walked down enjoying the road, trying our best to stop every vehicle that passed.... after what seemed like half the distance to bangalore, a bus stopped for us! oh man... the aches and pains were on....
but that was just not our day...!
had chai at a kada opposite the bus stand. we had to take a bus to the checkpoint, some 2.5 hours away. we were just wishing we had the bike.
now was the time to inquire about the earliest bus that would take us to the checkpoint. The name was 'kakkinalli'. Neither of us were able to remember the name and thank God i stored it on my phone! had to keep looking at it everytime we had to use it!
Our man was in highest spirits that morning. i think the sun charged him up... whatever it was everyone at the bus stand knew that we were two romeos wanting to go somewhere but not getting the bus. we finally got into a bus after much debate.
Our bus started at around 6:30am. Phil understood that he could not reach home by 11. He desperately wanted to call all his girl friends to cancel the dates he had with them but the network prevented him from doing it.
the ride down was awesome. the valley looked gorgeous. and for the first time i felt like everything we went through during the night made sense.
well... looks like adventure did not want to let go of us! the bus stopped suddenly and we realised that the bus had a loose wheel about to come off! sheesh....
we started off again and half an hour down the road... foooosh! puncture! heavens... whst was happening man... we thought!! everyone got down and all the men (except us) crowded around the tyre giving puncture gyan to the driver!
nothing budged even 45 minutes after the incident. by now the women were lying down on mats on the road side and kiddies were happily playing. we were the only guys who were debating about the next best thing to do!! our options included walking down to the check point (which we later realised was 40 km far!), waiting for the bus or hitching a ride on another bus. nothing seemed to work. we did some serious talk too.
finally phil agreed to start walking... we walked down enjoying the road, trying our best to stop every vehicle that passed.... after what seemed like half the distance to bangalore, a bus stopped for us! oh man... the aches and pains were on....
but that was just not our day...!
passing through mudumalai...
off we went on the narrow little road that led into dark forest... we were too happy to get a lift and forgot about the bike. the driver seemed too keen to make conversation with phil... they shared everything from call centers to tuskers blocking the road. i sat mum staring into the distance. the forest was beautiful! lush green, fresh and unpolluted.
It was cold outside... real cold. cant expect it to be warm at 3 in the morning in the depths of mudumalai jungle afterall! the truck was cosy though! we were able to catch glimpses of deer, elephant and a hare on more than one occasion. It was awesome just being there!
We took a short cut to ooty. A narrower road that fewer vehicles take. Both of us dozed off on the way and reached the outskirts of ooty after what seemed like ages! paid 100 bucks to our driver and bid him goodbye!
there we were... standing in ooty at five in the morning. None of us knew why we were 300 plus km from bangalore, bikeless, hungry and cold! believe me its just the thrill of biking and exploring the unknown that keeps both of us going on these road trips all over India. Each of them turn into memories that we're glad we went through.
phil did his job and off we went to explore ooty in the little time we had! all on foot... charring cross, railway station, race course.. we saw it all before day break!! it was quite out of the world to see the sun rise in ooty! the nights adventure seemed worth it! every bit of it...
off we went on the narrow little road that led into dark forest... we were too happy to get a lift and forgot about the bike. the driver seemed too keen to make conversation with phil... they shared everything from call centers to tuskers blocking the road. i sat mum staring into the distance. the forest was beautiful! lush green, fresh and unpolluted.
It was cold outside... real cold. cant expect it to be warm at 3 in the morning in the depths of mudumalai jungle afterall! the truck was cosy though! we were able to catch glimpses of deer, elephant and a hare on more than one occasion. It was awesome just being there!
We took a short cut to ooty. A narrower road that fewer vehicles take. Both of us dozed off on the way and reached the outskirts of ooty after what seemed like ages! paid 100 bucks to our driver and bid him goodbye!
there we were... standing in ooty at five in the morning. None of us knew why we were 300 plus km from bangalore, bikeless, hungry and cold! believe me its just the thrill of biking and exploring the unknown that keeps both of us going on these road trips all over India. Each of them turn into memories that we're glad we went through.
phil did his job and off we went to explore ooty in the little time we had! all on foot... charring cross, railway station, race course.. we saw it all before day break!! it was quite out of the world to see the sun rise in ooty! the nights adventure seemed worth it! every bit of it...
oh no!
we saw the road barricaded in the distance and realised it was a checkpost. A cop sprang out from no where and told us to stop. i thought it was a normal check. phil started to answer his questions and we were in for the first shock of the night.
An Indica going 20 mins ahead of us was mugged.... guess where? at the point where the strange tree lay across the road! we froze. God! it could've been us had we not stopped for dinner! the driver stopped seeing the tree and before they knew it they were cell less and gold less! the cop said he could not let us go any further. reason? it was not safe! we stood there... our brains racing ahead to ooty... the cop came to us and asked us for a hundred bucks. For what? to let us go. i wanted to hit the guy hard... you know where.
our man saw his boss coming towards us and said "ok ok.. go go!" we sped of like we were on an r1. too happy to be free again! bandipur was beautiful... even at night. i have no idea of how many wild animals there must've been all around us! we were reaching the kar-tn border and were expecting another checkpost. The time was around 2:45 am
Sure enough. I started to pull out my wallet when we reached the border. A young guy (not a cop) came to us and very normally passed shock No. 2 to us. According to rules, two-wheelers could not pass mudhumalai forest between 6 pm and 6 am. that was it. we stood there like statues unwilling to move! imagine even the cops had pity on us! they gave us chai and two options. we could either check into the nearby guesthouse and sleep till 5:30 or leave the bike at the checkpost and hitch a ride on an ooty bound truck. we quite liked the second one! after around half an hour we got a truck to ooty! jumped in and set off! this was probably one bad decision that would make us learn a lesson very soon...
we saw the road barricaded in the distance and realised it was a checkpost. A cop sprang out from no where and told us to stop. i thought it was a normal check. phil started to answer his questions and we were in for the first shock of the night.
An Indica going 20 mins ahead of us was mugged.... guess where? at the point where the strange tree lay across the road! we froze. God! it could've been us had we not stopped for dinner! the driver stopped seeing the tree and before they knew it they were cell less and gold less! the cop said he could not let us go any further. reason? it was not safe! we stood there... our brains racing ahead to ooty... the cop came to us and asked us for a hundred bucks. For what? to let us go. i wanted to hit the guy hard... you know where.
our man saw his boss coming towards us and said "ok ok.. go go!" we sped of like we were on an r1. too happy to be free again! bandipur was beautiful... even at night. i have no idea of how many wild animals there must've been all around us! we were reaching the kar-tn border and were expecting another checkpost. The time was around 2:45 am
Sure enough. I started to pull out my wallet when we reached the border. A young guy (not a cop) came to us and very normally passed shock No. 2 to us. According to rules, two-wheelers could not pass mudhumalai forest between 6 pm and 6 am. that was it. we stood there like statues unwilling to move! imagine even the cops had pity on us! they gave us chai and two options. we could either check into the nearby guesthouse and sleep till 5:30 or leave the bike at the checkpost and hitch a ride on an ooty bound truck. we quite liked the second one! after around half an hour we got a truck to ooty! jumped in and set off! this was probably one bad decision that would make us learn a lesson very soon...
Ooty here we come...!the pulsar, our faithful companion on numerous trips has never ever let us down. She required an urgent engine oil change before leaving bangalore. she had 700 odd kilometres to do in less than a day. we got that done at the local mechanics place. it was time... to leave the dust, the smoke, the traffic and the people behind.
trips are always exciting. its amazing to meet new people, new ways , languages and customs. I feel the real beauty of India lies in the people.
we had to hit the road to mysore asap. i think taking the koramangala - jayanagar - bsk road to mysore road was a mistake! but we hit the highway at 9:15pm. it was time to unwind! philip was riding and we started to clip pretty soon. reaching 80 to 90 with black visor helmets at night is difficult.
i could'nt believe blr- mysore road. its superb! accidents left aside;) the towns passed quickly... ramnagaram, ccd, bidadi, mandya.... whoosh! i took over in an hour. we reached mysore at around 11:30 and took a diversion towards ooty. Now this was the boring part. around 10 to 12 km of totally monotonous non highway road. both of us were mega bored.
We finally reached the road to ooty and made our first break at a roadside eatery. had tomato fry with rice... awesome! paid more for the food because our man the waiter thought we were angrezi speaking uth! had chai and that was it! i felt tired. and sleepy!
phil took over and i felt better! the road was narrow, lonely and not too good. it reminded me of M.P roads. It was cold and dark too. along the road, we came to a point where a tree lay across the road, blocking half of it. it looked very strange and artificial. time flew... and soon we crossed gundlupet and reached bandipur. I was excited!
bangalore see u tomorrow
It was around 5:00 pm on a boring friday evening. I was reaching the heights of boredom at office and desperately wanted to do a ride as soon as possible. Its something like wanting to pee but not being able to!
I had no idea of where I would be going and who I would be going with. I just wanted to go do something asap. Say bye bye Bangalore for some time.
Was all the more bored when i got back home at 5. But then God heard my cries! My one and only buddy Philip called just in the time of need! Our man called for something totally unrelated to the ride but when i popped the ride into his mind he forgot about what he actually called for! thats what is called a rider's mind you see...
Philip said he was all game for Ooty, which suddenly came into my mind from i dont know where!
The plan was that he would come to my place at Ejipura and we would take off from there after sapad. Things seemed to be working all of a sudden... we were on for OOTY! man.... awesome! i guess i said that too early... our man called back to say he had to be back at 11 the next day (sat) for some important work. but... once we're on theres no way it can be called off...thats a rule with philip and me.
Ss now.... it was ready, steady go....! We're coming ooty....
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