Random Musings

Let me start off by saying I was one of the few idiots who decided to stay back on campus ostensibly to study for the end sem exams. I realized that there were quite a few of them(12 to be precise). Since we knew we were gonna be stuffed with the stories of how great it was to be back home with family especially on diwali, we decided we needed something to save face(what was left of it). And so it began…

On Diwali day, we had plans to got to the hill top temple to offer our prayers and a chance to wear our veshties( I came in smart pants as well..ahem I did not have one, ordered one asap). We were supposed to depart at 7:00 but something called NFS:Most Wanted was did in fact live up to its name and eventually one had to be beaten and dragged away from the machine and so finally we made it to the temple at 10:00. Offered our prayers and an excuse to take photos of our mugs did not go in vain as you can see :-






We then decided that this was just the dress rehearsal, we needed something grander to make our story(plus this blog) telling/posting respectively worthwhile. The guys hit upon a plan to visit an ancient fort called Singhad which seemed perfect(Well going to IIM-A would be better but you get the idea) . The mode of transport was bikes voted on unanimously (out of no other option). Some Number Crunching : The fort was 40 kms one way, 80 overall. There were 5 bikes , 9 guys, so 2 per bike+1 solo rider. 2 bottles of chilled water (not so much when we got there), 7 coolers, 7 caps and we set off at 3:00 pm.

So it was Muthu[d]+Me, Aravind[d]+Sid, Anurag[d]+Aditya, Sivad[d]+Vijay[d] and Raman the brave solo rider, d for driver


The drive was great with near empty highways and on the road photographs taken by our resident and over enthusiast ‘HI’(do a small circular wave as he does here people) aka Sivaram. The wind in your hair is great at 80 kms and make sure you have your cap on the right way as the foto guy’s was tossed back ½ a km back [we had to stop to retrieve it]. As we got closer to the fort, which was located on top of a valley, it seemed like the ooty/kodai trip I had taken with my family, the circular loops on and on. We had a great view beckoning us and that’s all the excuse we needed to take more snaps.




Finally we got to the fort and it seemed like a nice tourist spot. I thought I was missing something, there was not single tall structure or Age of Empire’s style Castle. Then realization dawned upon me that this was what was left of it. Rubble. Ah big deal, we found another small minaret-cobblestone style setting and took a couple of more snaps!
We left at 7:05:43 pm and drove cautiously as night fell. We patted each others back for making it unscathed past the tricky areas when we realized that the normal roads was where the fireworks began, literally. We had to keep an eye out for lit fuses, wayward rockets and Molotov cocktail throwers in practice(throwing crackers not the cocktails). The ride back was the highlight; the chill biting air at 80 kms is something that needs to be experienced to be believed. We made it just in time @ campus for the few paltry sparklers that no one wanted to light so we did it, the 1st cracker of the day, diwali wouldn’t have been complete without it!



Overall, this is the 1st time in 21 years Im not with my family for Diwali, I was down in the dumps. But this trip did light up my day.

Dedicated to the bimbo biker boys

Labels: Bikes, Diwali, Fun

Posted by Raghav on Friday, November 10, 2006 at 11:22 AM | Permalink