And, the odometer turns over..

There is this lovely tree-verged road that leads to Karimnagar and onwards and I stay just 3 kms off it....

There is this Royal Enfield A-350 that I ride which has been kind of idling in the 90k's for almost two years now...

And, while I have been riding to work and this Dhaba and that Bar and making short dashes (half day rides or at the very most 3/4th day rides), the odometer finally crawled to show 99,730....

So yesterday being a Sunday thought I will be the highwayman of yore and decided to head out on the Karimnagar Highway...here's the write-up

Manage to get out of my place at 11.30, wait for Supradeep (LB500) at Shamirpet (man, oh man, the lake's bodaciously full) after topping up petrol and get a SMS from him saying he can't make it for the ride...

I am like, hmmm...so with such a major milestone of my riding career approaching, maybe its poetic justice that I don't have a camera to chronicle the ride (hadn't packed my SLR) and poetic justice also in that, I am gonna be "solo"...

Saturday evening, way back home from office had a small accident that broke the front brake lever, but then this was the Karimnagar stretch, a stretch that I literally know like the back of my hand and used to haunt on a daily / nightly / weekly basis, so I start up Don and get down to the riding...

ICICI Knowledge Park passes by, and the rippable stretches start! NH-7, the other highway that I used to haunt daily / nightly / weekly is now getting laned and laned and diversioned, the lovely Banyans and Mango trees sawed and blasted and bull-dozed away, so I am like thank God for this road that still hasn't grown up into a boring stretch of asphalt..

Cross Mulugu, overtake a truck while doing three digit speeds and come across a black haired dog squashed to pulp (but with a twitching ear) bang in the middle of the road. Throw up mentally and curse and ride on..

The fields all around are a riot of growth, cotton, maize and rice and I am like what would it cost to buy some acres here and get away from the madding crowd?

Then I am at Pregnapur and the Cell phone buzzes and buzzes and buzzes. I hate it when I get a call on a ride, but stop and check the phone, looks like Supradeep's freind Manish (Electra) is on his way to join me and wants to know where to meet up.

SMS back saying, its a straight road, I will ride on, guess he can catch up if he looks out for me, I will look out too, have a chhai and a smoke and move on again...

All besides the road - at many places dangerously close - are bunches of optimistic women selling Custard Apples in piles and Makki Ka Boota too, raw as well as roasted. I wonder in passing, what do they earn on a daily basis? What do they save out of what they earn?

Kuknoorpally passes in a blitz while I am busy looking around for a lake, I know there is one here but have never managed to really "locate" or chill out at it....and then I come to Duddada, cross it and am at this lovely stretch where the road seems a tunnel of green....canopied almost for 5-6 kilometers...not that this is the only such stretch on this road...but somehow this one is something else, and I glorify in the beauty of the moment, the cloud-shuttered sun creating dapples through which I ride..

Then I am at a 4 kms long stretch of twisties just before Siddipet and I let it rip and rip some more, remembering all those with whom I have ridden these twisties before, the pure, un-adulterated fun of those days, the childlike thrill of overtaking each other with Orang Outan grins and I am past the road that leads into Siddipet town...

I continue with the ride, enjoying just the ride, no photographic ambitions to make me stop, no specific destination in mind, just an eye on the odo and the speedo, overtaking trucks, giving the finger to Bus drivers and Sumo waalahs and by and by I come to Bejjanki.

Stop to check up on Manish, SMS him, don't get an answer, wait some time besides the road, then cross it for some Chhai, still don't get an answer, cross the road back and look towards Hyderabad..

Where I had stopped there was this police barrier and I thus got to see the AP Police emblem in colour, shows two blue birds with heads 180 degrees to each other and there are the three lions on top. I wonder which bird this blue one is.

No sign of Maneesh and I decide to ride on, after all I get bored pretty fast as it is and in this case, there is a road ahead of me :-)

So kick start the A-350 and head out again and some more belting and I am at Sreeram Sagar, get onto the Bund, drink in the beauty of a full, full, full reservoir, ride around on the Bund un-helmeted and then take a gander at the odo meter, it shows 99,872!

I am all for riding on, through Karimnagar but I had promised to be back home by 5.00 so its time to turn back.

Get down from the Bund and turn right, remembering the last time I had done the same, on Muse, though then I had company in the form of 4 other Bullets and hightail it till Shanigaram, stop and have some water and Chhai and check up on Maneesh. Looks like we did manage to miss each other and transpires that he is almost at Karimnagar, so I head back saying I will stop at Pregnapur.

Rip, rip and rip some more, its the same story on the way back, trucks waiting to be overtaken, the Blue APSRTC Buses (and cars and Sumos) coming straight onto poor biker me, the usual road-side escapades with thorn clumps and lantana bushes and Custard Apple trees and me intent on not slowing down, holding onto three digit speeds constantly...

Reach Pregnapur and pass it, stop at Haritha Restaurant thinking I will get a quick bite while Maneesh gets there, SMS and find that he can't make it so fast. I am like, its 4.00 anyway and who needs lunch on the road? :-) So head back again thinking chalo, will get back home as promised and on time...

By now the odo has moved onto the 99950's and I am getting overwhelmed by nostalgia, of all the rides past and getting claustrophobic about what lies ahead of me in life; the emotions confuse me and I don't know if I should stop and contemplate the past and the future of "ahighwayman" ride at a sedate 80, or just rip and get it done with...

Then I am like, let me ride the way I always have on this bike I love so much and open the throttle wide, pass Mulugu in a blitz and then I am on the ICICI Knowledge Park stretch and the odo is now into the 99990's, and then I slow down, intent on seeing the odo turn over..the last digit is still 9, as the first 4 become zeroes, so this is how odos turn over, huh?

Then, I bring my foot down on the neutral finder as on a road flanked by Eucalyptus and on the home stretch, the odo finally turns over and I get to see 5 zeroes on it and a single "1".

That single "1" I guess means that there is a lot more for me to ride. I wonder, "Four and half hours on the road, a small ride for Don, is this a re-awakening of sorts for me? After all, there is that single "1" on the odo, got to make that turn over too, no?"

Headed out thereafter, stopped at Aliyabad for some Haleem (breakfast was Wadas at home, lunch was stretch after stretch of lovely roads, this was just an evening snack), stash wallet, licence, cell phone and other un-mentionables in the sidebox and ride back with darkening skies above me to get home with a mild drizzle drizzling :-)

A nice time on the road, may I have the chance to see this odometer turning over, yet again!