Ever wondered ? If you have the headlight on during the day, so many people point it out and if you happen to be riding without the lights on in the night no one point that out. Ever wondered why ?

13 March 2006 - Music and Riding

"What shall I listen to, today?", I am thinking, checking my pockets for keys, wallet, ID badge and mobile. It's 9:30 and I'm ready to leave for work. I browse through the Artists' list on my iPod. "Indian Ocean !, what else". I was playing it on the way to work last Friday and at a traffic signal I found a rider staring at me. Then I realised I was moving my head to the tune and singing along. I stopped suddenly and started staring at the timer next to the red light.

I put on "Ma Rewa". The rest would come shuffling after this. I like to play on shuffle all the time, and the uncertainity of what's going to play next. I had built up a huge cassette collection, between 2000 and 2002. When you get used to listening to cassette, you know exactly what's going to play next. I like the shuffle and uncertainity better.


The experiment

Three months back I didn't approve of the idea of listening to music while riding. I found it dangerous. "When you are listening to music, you are not attentive enough, to what's happening around.", I argued, tying to discourage my brother and friends. While riding in Bangalore you need eyes at the back of your head, rearviews are not enough.

Then one day I decided to experiment. My phone can hold about 10 songs. On my way back from work, I played CCR. Liked it. Didn't find any lack of attention. It was a normal ride and the 30 min ride didn't feel as painful as it did earlier. This continued off and on, CCR, The Who, Rare Earth, Nancy Sinatra.

One fine day I decided to change the genre. Judas Priest - Painkiller and Turbo. I almost hit a car and a bike, overtook at dangerous places. Basically, I was rash. I normally am, what you would call a 'Defensive Driver', looking at rear view 30% of the time. So Metal changed me. On the way back I wanted to try the other end of the spectrum. Charlie Parker. It took me 45 mins to reach home, normally it takes 30.

Indian Ocean

Last week I realised I didn't have Indian Ocean on my iPod, ripped the Kandisa and Black Friday and transfered to iPod. I played it on my way to work last Friday.

Normally I get very irritated at the people coming in the wrong direction on the road and those who suddenly enter into the main road without looking. At times I shout at them, and if I'm in a bad mood, even make sure they get a dent or a scratch. On Friday I found myself slowing down for them and letting them go. "Hille Le" was playing. I unconsciously became more forgiving. At junction, there was a messy jam. It's quite common at that junction in the morning rush hour. I peacefully waited till I could inch to one of the side streets and took a detour, slightly longer way, but better than waiting for the jam to clear.

So, I play "Ma Rewa" and I'm off. I am not affected by the rush everyone else is in. I ride at my own sweet pace, singing along, shaking the head to the tune. "Kaun", "Kandisa", "Bharam Bhaap ke", "Kya Maloom", "Bande" , the shuffle is on. The Sumos and Qualises in the rearview don't look all that scary. I don't feel like returning the favour to the driver who honked at me for no reason. Never happened with any of the other songs.

I intend to continue the experiment. But there's a catch, I'm the only subject, and I'm aware of the experiment. So I'll have to wait untill I forget about the experiment, to observe myself. Complicated ! But music goes with riding, I was wrong earlier. Just need to make sure I don't close my eyes when I get soaked in the music, which I normally do, not while riding.

18 Ferbruary 2006 - Destination Bekal

It's 7:00 in the morning. We are heading west from Mysore, on the state highway to Madikeri. Just at the outskirts of the city, there's mist all around. Visibiliy - a little more than 50m. That is safe. We are doing about 40, the road doesn't allow us to go faster. It's late February, I had never expected that kind of mist around Mysore at this time of the year. Navin is leading, I can't see him. Jees just behind him, I can barely see his tail light. I can see Sreedhar's headlight at a distance on my rearview, wondering at times if it's him or someone else.

Can't keep the visor down, in a matter of seconds there are big drops of water on it. Fingers are wet and cold. "It will get better when the sun comes up", I tell myself, and hope the road gets better.

A Few minutes later, I realise I have slowed down to 30. Jees' tailight had faded away some time back, Sreedhar has been at the same spot on my rearview, only his headlight seems dimmer than it was sometime back. The fog has thickened. Visibility - down to about 20m. Navin is a seasoned rider, there's nothing to worry about him, especially when he is ahead of me. I can see Sreedhar and try to keep him on my rearview all the time. This is first ride for him and Jees. They must be cursing the moment they decided to join us. The road is getting more curvy. We keep riding, for what felt like a long time.

On a relatively straight strech I can see two amber lights blinking, faint. "Our guys or a car breakdown... No the two lights are too close to be cars indicators". Getting a bit closer I can see the two figures. You can't miss Jees even in that thick fog. I get off the road. Sreedhar has parked his bike, he's wiping his glasses. All four of us look at each other and chuckle.
"So Jees, do you ever get this sort of thing in a car", I ask.
He is just smiling, as usual. Early in the morning we had a discussion, comparing long drives on bikes and in cars, and I as always, had said that nothing can beat the bike rides.

I look at my jacket and pants, "We are totaly wet".
"I can't see anything", says Sreedhar showing his glasses, " I'm just following his taillights".
"That's all you need to do. I'll try to keep lesser distance now", I tell him.
"It should get better now, as the sun goes higher", I reassure them.
"Can't miss out this one", Navin is taking some quick snaps.
I get my gloves out, but can't get my hands in them. Hands are wet and sticking to the sides. Manage to wear them somehow and we are on the road again. This time I can see all three of them, riding in the same order. My hands feel a bit warmer, but the gloves, it gives a different feel of the bike. I am not used to wearing them, I've never needed them till today(riding in South India you rearly need them).
The mist is clearing up a little. Visibility is getting better, but not the speed. The road is totaly dug up on the left, apparently for widening. The culverts on the way are being remade for the wider road. We have to get down to the ditch to cross it.
I hope the road, when it is completed is good enough. I recall how the Bangalore Mysore road has been last two years. We have been avoiding that stretch since mid 2004. But yeaterday night when we were riding on it, I enjoyed it, except of course some bridges are still to be completed.
I spot the 'decent place to eat between Mysore and Kushalnagar'. We've stop here almost every time we pass this stretch of road. I overtake Jees and Navin with my left indicator on, and point to the restaurant. We are right in front of it. See Navin nodding, on my rearview. We cross over the dug up part of the road and park the bikes. As we are parking, I notice the familiar mixture of expressions on people's faces. Everyone notices 'serious looking bikers' wherever they stop. And I see different kinds of expressions on people's faces everywhere I stop. More on this one, sometime later.

"Kya kya hai, boss ?"
"Idli vada, Poori, masala dosa, rava dosa, kara baat, kesri baat"
Hardly took us anytime to decide. We were ready to devour anything.
"Domasala dosa, ek idli vada, ek plate poori"
That cannot be sufficient, especially when Jees and I are around. We had another round, then coffee.

Back on the road, the fog is almost gone, and we are speeding up. Roads, still the same. Sun is out complete in a matter of minutes. We stop to take the jackets and gloves off, and put on the sunglasses. It's pleasent now, but afternoon is going to be bad.


We ride on, cross Hunsur and Kushalnagar. On long straight stretch through the jungle I realise I haven' t seen Navin or Sreedhar for a while. I left them behind while passing the Kushalnagar. I slow down. Jees was ahead of me. A few cars and bikes whizz past, no sign of our guys. I decide to stop and wait. In less than a minute, Jees is coming back, joins me.

"What happened", I asked
"Why did you stop?"
"We'll let the guys catch up"

Ten minutes, and still no sign of them. Called Sreedhar's mobile. It rang. On many of the state highways, you are lucky if you are in mobile coverage. Navin's tail lamp had come off. He was getting it fixed.
We pulled out bikes near a culvert and waited sitting on it. Jees talked of how his father had gone around on a Bullet but doesn't let him buy one, and how he badly he wishes he had a Bullet, now. After about 30 mins of wait, we saw our guys coming.

As we approach Madikeri the road is very good. It has sharp steep curves and it's wide and the surface is nice too. The signs and directions are very clear. They have been like that every time I've passed this way. We have no intentions of stopping here. At the junction with Kariappa's statue, I take a left and stop, wait for others to join. When they arrive I told them that this is the way to Mangalore. "We need to go some 80 kms on this upto Sulya and take a left towards Kasargod"

The state highway from Madikeri to Mangalore, ( it joins NH 48 at Mani) goes winding around the western ghats of Coorg and Dakshin Kannada districts. I first rode that strech on 15th August 2004. One of the best biking experiences. I discovered better ones later in this trip.

We ride almost non-stop untill 10 kms from Sulya. The sun hitting us with all its might (or so it seemed). The damp air of the forest is making it worse. "Is it the same sun that looked so powerless through the mist. In the morning, I could stare at it" .

At one of the turns I see Navin's bike parked next to a Dabh shack. Coconut water was nice and refreshing, so was the chat with the guy selling it. Nice break. We decide not to stop untill Kasargod, and to have lunch there. "Fish curry, Kerela style!!"

Diversion to Kasargod, on the Madikeri Mangalore highway is about 10 kms from Sulya. The TTK map shows it at Sulya, our coconut guy had said 2 kms from Sulya. I was wondering if we'd missed it, wanted to stop Navin, but couldn't catch up with him on that hill road. Finally the diversion appeared, we took it. Bad road. "Is it going to be like this all the way to Kasargod?"

Sigh of relief as we entered Kerela. This is what I call a good hilly road. Constant bends, the bike hardly remains straight, and you ride at 35-50 all the way, need to keep playing with gears. Tests your control on the bike. If you can ride on a road like this one, without having to stop, without being on a wrong gear even once, with minimal use of brakes, you and your bike are one. I would anyday prefer this to the straight highways where you can do 85-90.

Kasargod at 2:30. We are sunburnt, sweaty with the humidity, but happy. The ride from Madikeri to Kasargod makes you forget these small things. After lunch, we debate what to do next. I want to take up a room, take a shower and then see the Bekal Fort. The fort is what brought me to this part of Kerela and I want to spend some quality time there, and I want to reset my state before that. Navin is not keen on spending too much time around here. He wants to cover as much distance as possible so that we reach Bangalore by Monday afternoon. I assure him that if we go through Wayanad we can make it. We decide to see head for the Fort, spend some time there and then head south and cover as much as possible.

Preparing for the penultimate strech of the day, 3:30, sun is still bad. I take a generous portion of sunscreen and rub it over my nose and cheek bones. That's the part that gets burnt the most when you have a full face helmet.
"Which country are you from?" . I turn around and see one of the shopkeepers from that complex.
"India, I'm very much Indian". This wasn't the first time someone asked me that, and I know the reason. Three hours in sun and my face gets red. Then general chat followed, "where are you coming from?" , "all the way on the bikes?!! " , "where do you work?".

Bekal is just a small hop from Kasargod. On entering the fort I'm a little disappointed. There's nothing inside the fort, nothing at all. To make it worse, there's no board giving any information on the fort. We go around a bit, find a nice breezy corner facing the sea,take off the shoes, stretch on the dry grass in the shade of one of th walls and dozed off. Stealing a little siesta at a totaly unexpected place gives such great a feeling of achievement. After all I did get my system reset, in a slightly different way than I had wanted to, but serves the purpose.

We get up and go down to the beach, there is still time for sunset. We sit on the rocks, too lazy to walk around on the beach. There are a lot of tourists, families, school kids, groups of guys and girls, and a couple. A honeymoon couple, we guess, with a videographer. Wedding videos are common, almost sort of must, and even choroegraphed at times. But this was for the first time I saw, honeymoon (probably) being choreographed. Couple walking on the beach hand in hand, the cameraman taking the shot. Couple climbing up the stairs to the fort, cameraman standing on the top, zooming out as the couple comes up. Cut ! The shot didn't come out well. Cameraman gives some instructions, the couple goes back and climbs again.

Sun is going down. All four on the rocks, tired to move around. Taking pictures from where we are. Phhrrrrr ! A whistle. It's time to close the fort, but sun hasn't set yet. We move reluctantly, towards the gate. The couple is sitting on a relatively green patch, and the camreaman taking a shot. Just outside the fort we'd seen a sign of Bekal Resorts, thought we can find a place to stay. We go looking around. It's just their office, resort is planned and hasn't come up yet.
At the fort gate, the same couple, on a bike. They come out of the gate, take a U-turn and back into the fort.
"This is for the video", chuckles Sreedhar. And right, there is the cameraman.

Back to the road, head south. Few kms down the road, just under a "James Bond Flyover" * we see a Lodge. We get a small flat for Rs 700, a drawing room, two bedrooms, a bathroom and a kitchen. Kitchen of course was of no use to us. The only catch, there's the main road in the front and railway track behind it. The day ends like any other day on a biking trip does - Food and sleep.
Tomorrow we plan to ride south on NH17 till Mahe, fill up the tanks at Rs 41 a litre then head east through the ghats into Wayanad. Should not be difficult, the roads are good.

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* James Bond Flyovers - incomplete flyovers commonly seen in Kerela. The ramp on either side is completed, but they are not joined. There is normally a 40 to 50 m gap between them. They have been in that condition for years. If you are James Bond, you could drive up the ramp and jump over to the other ramp and just come down. For mere mortals like us, there's a road below.