I went to his place a couple of weeks ago and picked it up, and after getting it completely and thoroughly serviced, and taking care of all the documentation necessary to not bribe a cop in the unlikely event that I’d ever be caught for checking, I decided to commence using it.
Until that occasion, I’ve never used a bike in Bangalore for durations beyond an hour or two at the most, borrowing my pal Kutty‘s pulsar on occasion when I lived at Brigade Millennium to go about a couple of km from the apartment (a disinclination to pay bribes combined with a Kerala registration for which no road tax was paid made me get into this state), or use another ungeared gaadi to make late-evening trips to Indiranagar and back.
But yesterday was a whole new ballgame altogether, as I took the bike to the office for the first ever time, and doing it peacefully. The Mysore road traffic ain’t so bad (touchwood) if you choose not to mess with it. Given the fact that it was a bike that I wasn’t accustomed to, it took me some time to get the feel of it.
After office hours, I had to go to Malleswaram on the bike once again, this time in a condition of drizzle. Travel through Vijayanagar, Magadi Road and Rajajinagar to get to my destination sapped me out of energy, and my behind was not particularly happy either.
After completion of work there was another ride, this time from Malleswaram all the way to my place in Banashankari. Had I known the entire route, it would have been okay, but I kept taking the occasional turn left or right without actually knowing why I did it, and though the gamble paid off on occasion, it did have disastrous consequences at the end of the day, with me having clocked nearly 55 or 57 km of bike travel, most of it within the city in peak traffic conditions.
Think of the situation like this – empty stretches of roads in Bangalore are akin to vacuum, waiting to be filled by vehicles. The pull effect is that much worse in areas concentrated around traffic signals, where vehicles of all shapes and sizes, going in all sorts of directions seem to congregate in any available space.
Though I did initially find it peaceful, the evening travel was harrowing to say the least, and it made me wonder whether the rides were worth it for the time saved in commuting, or was it worthwhile to be late to one’s destination while at the same time have a greater sense of piece of mind. Catch 22.
Maybe it is just something that needs getting used to. But one thing is for sure, the bum doesn’t take too kindly to long-range travel all of a sudden, specially if it is zero km (or less than 8 km on any given day) on the bike for three years in Bangalore, and then fifty five km all at once.
More blogging once the aches and pains have passed.
dunno whether you forgot or intentionally didn’t write, but what about our mysore trip, when you rode more than half the way
n’ yeah, bum pains are a major thing with bike rides alright. hardly happens here tho’, ‘cuz i reach within one or two minutes. 
Hmm try riding from indiranagar to koramangla via the ring road at 9 in the morning. Trust me you’ll rant like theres no tomorrow. But i must admit it is fun riding in bangalore (even on a lil 4-stroke scoterette like mine). And do keep an eye open for the potholes and the illegally constructed speedbreakers. I almost fell off once cos t ey (the speedbreakers) werent painted.
oh, the absence of painted speed breakers almost had me in at about 0000 hours on the Lalbagh road from Shantinagar. I know exactly what you mean!!! Thankfully, all I ended up with was something similar to a kick on the butt, which I’ve been getting since the time I began the bike rides.
Dont wanna freak ya out, but somebody i know died going very fast on one of those darn speedbreakers.
But i guess thats one of the chances you gotta take when you are riding fast. I think there are only 3 legal speed breakers (of legal height and specs) in banaglore!
but thanks for the warning anyway. Will keep mine eyes open. I agree with the speedbreakers part. However, there’s enough potholes anyway to make life miserable. I presume you’re not a native of Blr.
Born and raised in Bangalore
Do i sound that Un-Bangalore?? I get to crib about this city cos its mine
Go ahead, crib. Knock yourself out. god knows there’s enough cribbing to do about this place. You do sound very un-Bangalorean, but then again, I don’t consider myself a good location judge, being mistaken to be a northie on occasion myself (irritatingly so). I’m from Mysore, btw.
Ah i sound un-bangalore cos i am mal born and raised here, and i look like a north-indian too. But bengaluru hudugi all the same.
I keep cribin about blore but i can never not love this place…
Cribbing about Bangalore comes to people as naturally as waking up in the morning and going to take a dump!
I’ve been here for three years ever since I began work, and I’ve noticed that despite hating it from the very core of my being for the best part of two years, the city has now started to show me its better side.
It rocks. But it also has a horrible side.
Oh come on theres enough here to crib about. The roads, the infrastructure, the government…
And why DO you hate this place?
I’m from Mysore. If you’ve been there for an extended duration / lived there for some time, you’d know what a contrast it presents to Bangalore.
Plus the fact that I was not ‘alone’ back then, like in the post where our comments are falling over each others’ in trying to agree. Things have changed. Mercifully, for the better.
Goddamn, my comments thread – longer than post! Yahoo!!
Mysore = sleepy
Bangalore = Wide awake. With eyes wide shut.
Mysore – not sleepy, if meant in a sort of offensive manner.