free-wheely in bangalore

this weekend was as hectic as any other... it was the usual slow_starter_build_up_to_a_peak_just_b4_hitting_the_bed type of a weekend... notice the underscores instead of the hyphens and the unnecessarily sudden abbreviation in a stupidly long word... i didn't intend it, but am too lazy to englishify it... and it is just an indication of the training on the software i went through last week (more on this later)...

anyways coming back to the status report of this weekend, there is a significant milestone reached that should help me cover many more miles... yup my wheels finally touched down (or should it be touch-downed) on bangalore roads... nearly a month and a significant portion of my bank balance later i finally got my NOC stamped on my bike's documents and got it booked on road cargo to bangalore from chennai...

ideally it should have taken just a couple of days and i should have received the documents at my office desk without any trouble and i should have comfortably travelled to the cargo office in a local bus for some 5 bucks and taken possession of my bike, but then my planets and numbers would not let me live an easy life (and this is another topic for my pending blog posts and i wont dwell on this now... i have to complete my short and sweet post for today and hit the sack for gruelling work starting tomorrow...)

and yes so finally i am the proud owner of the roads of bangalore... and i felt on top of the world riding my pulsar... the flyover might have contributed a little to the feeling, but who cares... i have my bike now and screw those autos and buses... now i dont need them no more... and that thought in itself was cause for celebration...

and wot better way to celebrate than catch a movie at one of the only malls in bangalore (ok... i wont bitch about bangalore here, maybe some other post some other day... i am too happy to do that now.) my friends had booked tickets for die hard 4.0 (notice the intended pun for the software type numbering)... anyways, we had to travel to koramangala to the forum mall to watch the movie... i have been there couple of times and this time i had decided enough is enough... i have my bike and i wont pay through my nose to the autowallas nor will i take a stupid bus and walk some 2kms from the nearest stop...

so me and another friend, who i had to convince real hard to come with me promising that i would drive slow (as if i could drive fast in the roads of bangalore... ok ok not now!)... we were off, and traffic was pretty light and we made good time reaching the place in some 20 mins flat... and i was happy that my bike has still not lost its punch and we still made a good team though a bit rusty after inaction for nearly 2 years... and slowly we inch our way to the entrance to the parking lot for the mall...

my happiness was shortlived as the arrogant guard there would not let us in... well since that was the case with everyone, cars and bikes alike, i decided to forgive them with the understanding that it was a genuine lack_of_infrastructure problem; we moved on to the new parking lot we were directed to some half a kilometer away... and there the #*(#!^@ imbecile of guards were not letting any two wheelers in because the parking lot was full...

i felt like getting off the bike and blowing my top at these guys, but then today was a super_good_day even though i had not seen 5 red cars in a row, i had gotten my bike today... and i wont let anything spoil my good mood... so i took a u-turn and decided to park my bike at some spot at some other building nearby... luckily there was a footpath converted to a parking lot right opposite to the forum mall... i appreciate the initiative of the citizens in times of crises like today, screw the pedestrians... they can walk on the other side of the road anyways...

well that was it... i made sure that i parked my bike well deep inside the cluster so that at least it wont be the first to be towed away and went in to watch the movie... of course whenever there was a break in the action in the movie i chanted a prayer under my breath to tell god to play security and watch over my bike and make sure it was there till i returned...

well when i finally left the mall 4hrs later, i could see my distinctive number plates from a distance and thanked god for the good job he had done... and yes the icing on the cake was the "NO" i said to the #*(#!^@ autowallas... the ride home was brilliant with almost zero traffic on the roads and we rode back nonstop... and we also managed to take a detour to hunt for some icecream and coffee which we would have sacrificed if we should have walked all the way...

"FUN CAME !!!"