Dakshina Kashi Antaraganga

Its has been a longtime since you hit the highway. All the bottled up frustration of riding the TB in the chock-a-block traffic, shifting gears, stopping, braking,honking, cursing… it had to be unleashed. And then an announcement finds its way into your inbox… the RTMC is going on a ride on the 13th Nov, Sunday. Get your bike ready!!
I had my childhood friend (chaddi dost), Udu coming down from Univ of Nevada, Reno. He rides the Honda Hurricane CBR1000. He was more than happy to jump on my pillion seat, inspite of the we-need-to-leave-by-7 clause.
I spent the Saturday in Teknik motors, my bike was due for its 3rd month birthday gift – the 'free' service, change of oils, routine check up (oh ya, you can actually celebrate B’days like that, try that on ur GF next time around).
The ride was to a place called Antaraganga in Kolar district. The bulleters were to assemble at 0730hrs at Mekhri circle. This was my first ride in a group. There were about 17 bikes, I guess. It wasn’t entirely bullet gang, one BMW 650 and one RD 350 blended well with the big bikes. We had to fill the reservation quota for girls - two of them made it on a RX 100.
We were definitely on Indian Stretchable Time, which meant we left Mekhri circle (in IST time zone you don’t keep track of the actual time). It was a great sight indeed, when you have 15 odd big bikes parked in one line on the road. And ofcourse, the omnipresent mama paid us a visit waving his fine book. Imagine the dub-dub-dub of 15 bullets as we left Mekhri circle, that alone was enough to set your adrenaline pumping. It is said “Everyone makes way for a Bullet” and when there are 15 of ‘em… am not giving that one easily, guess guess...
Bikers joined us at Murphy’s Road and KR puram and we rode off on NH4. My pillion rider was awestruck seeing the direction boards and all and nearly fell off the bike when he saw the ‘rope bridge’ on KR puram. The road was pretty good, and most of the bullets sailed at top speed for long distances. The traffic was also manageble (still thinking of the Everyone Makes Way…??). We stopped at a highway hotel - Kamat for breakfast after about an hour of riding. It was a superb sight, all the bullets parked there, with the onlookers gaping at the roadies.
The gang reached Antaraganga at 1130 or so. There is a stretch of bad road, left turn off the Bus stand that leads to it. We parked the bikes in front of a abandoned police outpost. There was a general chat session, intro and stuff, followed by bike tech discussion, riding ettiquette and experience sharing. Everyone wanted to share their experiences on the long rides. But it can get boring to the listener, coz no amount of words can really describe the feeling. Remind me this, when you are on the wrong end of my narration, if it happens.
Antaraganga is a spring which is believed to be connected to Ganga. It is called the kashi of the south for this reason. Some 200 odd steps take you to this pushkarni and a temple for pilgrims to take a dip and a bath. This is halfway to the top of the hill. A few of us climbed some more. The city of Kolar was spread out below and the view was great.
There is supposed to be a motorable, muddy road that takes you to a village on the top. Uday and I had to get back by 3, so we had to split away from the group, as they continued for lunch. We hit the NH4 by 1345. The traffic on the return trip was heavy and it took us close to 90 mins to get back to Bangalore.
Good trip, nice fun… RTMC, here I come… (waw, I should try poetry)
I know you have been dying to hear this, I should give this to you if you have read this far.
“Everyone Makes Way For A Bullet” And When There Are 15 Of Them, They Make 15.”

Fotos available at http://photos.yahoo.com/manojbhat1