Cafe Coffee Day

I knew it was over the moment I said Cafe Coffee Day.

It was just the beginning of the painful bride hunting process. My mom and sister had short listed this girl from Nagpur and she was also willing to meet me. Later, she would tell me that she wanted to see me because I was an artiste.

My mom and sister liked her when she came over to our house, in Nagpur, to have a chat. She was coming down to Pune for some work and was willing to see me there. After exchanging addresses via sms it was decided that I would go over to her uncle's place where she was staying and meet up. I reached on time and the family was very welcoming. She was all set to head out after a while and that is exactly what we did. We headed out without a clue as to where we were going. After a small walk she said we could sit for a while in CCD if there was one around. I had never been to CCD before and was rather unsure of it and hence preferred the security of the outdoors. I started that CCD stuff is overpriced, frozen food types, unhealthy, no value for (hard-earned) money and was simply a place for rich kids to splurge. She was taken aback by my sudden expression and strong opinion. Nevertheless she probably liked the fact that I was realistic. Probably.

We walked around for some more time in the cold November air and then it happened talking about non essential stuff like rebirth and I told her how I believed that I was a German and a researcher, at the Cavendish Lab, in my past life. We were almost running out of small talk when destiny and biology kicked in. I needed to take a piss. I held on for quite a while and also considered asking her to wait while I took a piss in a dark alley. But there was no dark alley and for all my urgency I could not imagine asking of her something like that.

The chat at CCD was not a lesser disaster. I shared my perceptions of people; their dress sense, their hairstyles, etc and how it affected and spoke volumes of their personalities. It was interesting enough until all the negative conclusions of the personality types somehow applied to her father, brother and almost every adult male in her immediate and distant family. I had already given up the whole thing the moment I had suggested CCD and also because she was rather unsure of marriage; I was the third "artist" she was seeing.

Bangalore - Coimbatore

Monday evening. My allergic condition was not subsiding even after a couple of anti-allergic tablets, ayurvedic meds and oils and an IV injection. The rate at which the allergy was spreading from my torso to extremities, I would soon look like spiderman, red all over, and join the Itchy & Scratchy show. I was very irritable due to the allergy but none of my colleagues noticed it as unusual. [They say I am Hari Sadu in the making!]

Anti-allergy meds are sleep inducing and I was to take one on Monday night. If I took the meds it would mean sleep till late Tuesday morning and I would have to start late in the day. Riding thro the rain would be enough trouble not to mention the constant updates I'd have to give my parents. One has to be free to enjoy the ride. And you cannot be free when there is someone waiting for you.

For the past two weeks, the rain was following a pattern over Bangalore and Coimbatore and I imagine all the places in between. It would begin raining in the afternoons and continue till late evening. Which meant that the only time there was a sort of a, kind of a, remote chance, that it would not rain was at night!!

I had done it before when I rode from Pune to Nagpur and this was only half that distance. The difference here was I had worked for a whole day in office, was allergic and was on sleep inducing drugs! Nevertheless, I took it as a sigh from God when it did not rain in the evening.

The skies were in fact clearing up when I started at 10.30-10.45pm. It was slightly chilly but I did not bother with an extra jacket since I figured that once I get beyond Thoppur and closer to Salem it would not be as much. I was wrong. Traffic was not heavy nor light and I could cruise comfortably at 90 kmph. I took my first break a little before 12.00 midnight. I had covered 90kms in 1.5 hours which was good since it takes longer at city exits and entries. After 15 min and a short walk/stretches, I restarted.

This was the fun part. I was now looking to cross Salem which would be my PNR (Point of No Return). Salem is 180km from my place in Bangalore and marks the mid point of my journey. I planned for a second break at Salem, but since no tea stalls were open I continued.

It was past 1.30am now and traffic was sparse. I wondered why wasn't I sleepy. I also wondered why was I not imagining a ghost like I did in my previous night ride. Was I too sleepy to even imagine something?! Hmm... I decided to break.

I took my second break at 2.40am. I had ridden non-stop for more than 2.5 hours and had covered 175kms in the second leg of my journey.

After a 10min break I decided to resume and discovered that my glove was missing. I spent 10 min looking for it on and around the bike but somehow it had simply vanished from the face of the earth. Now, a chill ran down my spine! Perhaps a spirit was indeed in my vicinity and had taken my glove. It is known that spirits inhabit places where they left their mortal bodies. I quickly looked around to see for any accident prone spot sign boards but there were none. Also there was no noticeable water-body where anyone could have committed suicide, or worse, been murdered. So here I was alone in the the middle of, pretty much, nowhere and was imagining the supernatural phantom that might have taken my glove. I thought this one was one hell of a travelling spirit. Then it dawned on me that it might have been a rider who lost his life because his hand was too cold to apply the disc break just as he was about to ram into a truck. It was a scary thought; I had lost my right glove and was putting myself exactly in the same situation of the ghost-rider. Perhaps I was making my destiny.

I tried to put the thought out of my head and restarted. I was colder than when I started and now, I was without a right glove. The next 20-25 kms were good and then the bad patch started.

Some NHAI project is underway on a very long stretch of the highway and they are building a ton of flyovers. To that end, the authorities have duly built a couple of pillars of each flyover and thats that! This model disturbs the entire stretch of the highway without adding any advantage. Why not just complete one flyover and then move on to the next? That way at any given point only a very short part is affected. Anyway, the 40km patch was the toughest to negotiate specially since I had a near bald rear tyre. I did not notice a a large pot-hole and the rear tyre took a hit due to which the chain loosened and started making strange noises at times. I prayed.

It was 4.00am when I reached the Coimbatore bye-pass. The last stretch of 30kms was tougher since it had begun to drizzle and the weather had turned foggy. I reached home at 4.30am.