The day was a wet, cold Sunday morning, and the last race of the 2001 season was in progress. Definitely not a day to venture out of the house, especially as Schumacher in the lead (again!!!), was pulling away from the rest. We had planned for a ride on Sunday morning; if the weather was good and there were no signs of the rains stopping.

We were actually supposed to meet up with some friends who had gone there a couple of days before, for some trekking. After a few calls to each other, we decided to go as the rain had reduced a little bit (a race on television wasn’t going to hold us back from some good motorcycling). Two bikes- a Yamaha RD 350 (yours truly riding alone) and a Kawasaki Eliminator (with pillion) took off to meet a Honda CB 550 already there. So this is how began our day out to Nandi Hills, near Bangalore.

Nandi Hills is the destination for quite a lot of bikers and families wanting to have some fun at some altitude within a single day. It was the summer haven for some of the Kings of the bygone era. Located some 60 kilometres north of Bangalore, it is possible to make the entire trip within half a day too. To get there from Bangalore one has to go towards Yelahanka (a suburb in Bangalore) and then continue on the Bellary Road towards Devanahalli. It’s hard to get lost on this route.

The roads are quite good so some good riding is possible. Especially a stretch, that has been newly created; a six-lane highway where three-digit speeds are the norm. The entire ride to the bottom of the hills was wonderful except for two places that had been dug up and had to do some off-road riding there.

The climb up Nandi hills was what I had been waiting for. Curves at varying gradients, varying radii; very tempting if you live in a city with absolutely flat land surrounding it.

So there I was at the bottom of the hill and wasn’t going to hold myself back too much, and started off up the road. But three curves later a house-fly decided I was having too much fun and decided to get into my eye through the small gap I had left open under the visor. Bloody thing!! Took almost three minutes to get it out, after my friends (they had caught up by then) blew into my eye. Cursed the kamikaze fly and started off again.

Halfway up the hill at around 80 km/hr; saw a bike rushing in the opposite direction with the (three) people on it waving frantically. When I stopped, they told me that two curves ahead there were cops “waiting”. So I waited up for the other bike and the two bikes went up the next few turns slowly and the cops almost seemed happy to see us. After the checks, it turned out that he found a few “discrepancies” and said, “Though the total fine would be 500 rupees, I will fine you only 100 rupees”. Sigh! A fight with the cops was the last thing we wanted and paid him the “fine” and continued up the hill.

Damn!! First an insect, then creatures who suck more than insects. What next? Luckily nothing else stopped us and we went up the hill in the way we would have liked to… full blast.

Once up the hill with our bikes now secure in the parking lot, we began the customary climb up the steps to the hilltop. Nandi hills are famous for another thing… “Tipu Drop”. This was the place where Tipu Sultan threw his prisoners or those who had sinned, to death. One look down and you would hope that Tipu’s ghost hasn’t seen you giving the policemen their “fine”. We took actual consolation from the fact that his ghost does not exist, otherwise, we would have had lesser politicians. 🙂

After some time, we left there and were back on the bikes on our way down the hill. This is where RD riders would begin to wish they had disc brakes. The drum brakes are not sufficient enough on the steep slopes making the Eliminator the easier to ride of the two. To top it, a person who had an emergency wanted a ride down the hill as the public transport could not be relied upon. So the ride down the hill was very normal as the old man kept craning his neck to look at the speedometer and began emphasizing that he was in no hurry to go down the hill. Oh, God! Can it get worse? Wasn’t planning to find out.

Dropped him off at the bottom of the hill and raced to catch up with the Eliminator (believe it or not). The slow riding due to the old man who had an emergency but “wasn’t in a hurry” had caused the Eliminator to go out of sight. Finally, rode back to Bangalore along the same route, stopped off at a dhabha, had some early evening lunch and was back home, and also back to the harsh reality that tomorrow would mean back to the office.

Would I love to do the same thing all over again? Anyday.