Rendezvous: Mission Accomplished

It all started yesterday when Guru told me about his plans to ride till Vellore with Vijay ( Who's home alone ) at night. Initially I was thinking probably I won't be able to make it. But then we decided that we'd do it together and made our moves accordingly. I left my house at 8.30 yesterday telling my Mom that I was going for a track day at Sriperumpudhur from Guru's place. I convinced here stating that we had to start by 6 in the morning. She gave me a green signal.

Then I stayed over at Guru's place and made sure that everything was on course. We left Guru's home at 3 a.m. . We fuelled up and started riding by around 3.20 a.m. . We moved through the slow traffic near Madhuraivoyal and then once we hit the highway, we were ourselves. After my previous debacle, I was very concious with what I was doing. I never wanted to get into any trouble this time around. Vijay read this well I guess and let me ride his bike once we hit the NH4. We decided to cruise at about 70 kmph.

We comfortably crossed the first toll and then moved on towards the second. Just then it started to drizzle and I was kind of uncomfortable initially as I was very causious. But then as time went by, I started getting used to the bike, the road and the rain. I was so very comfortable that I used to ride quick without my knowledge ( courtesy -disconnected speedo ) and cross the speed limit that we had set. Guru used to come next to me asking me to slow down. This way we rode upto the second toll plaza.

It had started raining heavily and we had to hault there for the next one hour. By this time, Guru was complaining about head ache ( He doesn't complain too much ) and never wanted to proceed further ( In due course we'd planned to extend the ride upto Yelagiri). He then agreed to come upto Vellore atleast. We were waiting for the rain clouds to get cleared. But then it took nearly an hour for us to get moving from there.

Once we hit the road, we were thoroughly stunned by the scenic beauty around. I said to my self " Ah!! I feel like God ". The climate was awesome too. We finally reached Vellore by 7.40 in the morning. We had our breakfast and then proceeded towards the Vellore fort so as to conquer(?) it. We spent some solid time there at the fort clicking a few ( literally only a Few) pics. Then we started our ride back and decided against going to Yelagiri ( One of the Auto drivers told us that it was 95 km from there and we were short on funds ). Riding back, I took over Vijay's bike for the next 30 odd kilometers.

Then we changed over and I took over Guru's Dio. We were starting to get dried up and just then the heavens opened up. Even before I realised what to do ( with the steady head winds and heavy rain along with the traffic in front of me ), Guru and Vijay moved out of my sight. The downpour was so heavy that the droplets literally pricked like hell. I was not able to clock more than 50 kmph initially. But then after a couple of minutes of riding, came the best part of the whole ride ( From my Point Of View ). I had thorough control over the Dio and started clocking 90 kmph constantly. I went past both of them and kept the throttle pinned there riding it like a pro ( I'm not one though, but just the feel ). Soon then they catched upon along with me and we had to overcome a period of technical problem.

We overcame all that and for the last part of the ride I was Guru's pillion and we had to cut through the traffic getting drenched in the rain completely. We were back again into the City traffic and were at the starting point by 12 p.m. ( 11.58 a.m. to be precise ). I got back home and had my lunch and never knew what happened after that. I again woke up at around 4.30 p.m. still wondering whether it was a dream.

I want to share this with my Mom but I'm not in a position to let her know about this. Thats the only thing thats haunting me for time being. In due course we've also learnt a couple of lessons too. Whats better than to have been able to complete a desire in an almost flawless manner? The highlight being this is our Virgin night ride. That left us with no zombies on the road :D

This ride will remain in my heart forever as I enjoyed every bit of it to the core after my first debacle. Thanks to Guru for inspiring me to join this ride and to Vijay for helping me break my mental barrier.

P.S. : In the coming days I may even go on to do a few solo [ ;) ] rides too.