Hell's Angels part 1 - Defy Convention

What does it take for a man to challenge or what compels him to challenge what is already established? - Defiance. This is a strong urge that I experience when what I perceive about myself and what my peers perceive me as has a disconnect. Either the issue is nipped at the bud or explodes into something grand or sinister. For me its always been the later. The trip to Coorg on a bike with no idea of the roads or any prior experience on the highway can be regarded at best as inconceivable - Precisely the point I do not agree with and hence I set out to defy and try and make a statement that I am Dangerous. The process made me realize however that my intent for the trip is a childish assertion making me understand that what people think about me is inconsequential, what matters is my life - the urge to understand and respond to Mother Nature with complete honesty and humility.

The day is 25th of March and the time is 4:30 AM. Myself, Pramod and his Room-mate Sajid set out on the Bangalore Mysore Highway. The idea behind the trip was actually conceived by Biju, the coolest and the wisest 28 Year old on this planet with vast trekking experience. Originally about 4 Bikes and 8 people were to be part of the expedition, with the departure of Biju away from the trip's scheme of things the interest and the enthusiasm dwindled, leaving me and my good friend Pramod to sustain the madness. I have limited experience but not on the scale that this trip demanded. There was only one apprehension I had about the trip- Will my bike sustain the abuse? Actually I would have preferred the Pulsar but as it seemed even my bike wanted to make a statement, and it did. Both Pramod and I believed that we can pull it off, and how?

My disdain for luggage almost had me in a regret when driving through the Blr-Mys Highway early in the morning. I was wondering whether to take a jacket along with me, but then I felt that its summer, so junked the jacket and set out with a thin cotton T-Shirt, that had the caption- "Defy Convention". Defy I did all odds to come down with a very bad case of pneumonia. We were travelling at 70 Kmph against the cold wind and I was frozen stiff. I almost felt like being welded to the bike. The shudder my body felt was nothing like I ever felt before. It was biting cold because of the speed and my bad judgement with the jacket. But it was kinda fun. We blitz through the highway and rip our engines further. We cross Ramanagram and Channapatna in no time. Its now sunrise and God seemed to have some pity on me. The temperature rise and I felt more and more comfortable to rip my stead. We reach a small tea-stall on the highway close to Mandya and take a break.

Its 6:30 in the morning and we had significant distance to cover. We had to cross Mysore as fast as possible and then head to the Tibetan Buddhist Monastry at Bylakuppe as early. We needed to have as much day light when we check out all the attractions that Coorg had to offer. Mysore was now about 60 Km away and Bylakuppe about 180 Km. The morning sunshine and with enhanced Caffeine content in our Blood we decide that we will not stop until we reach Bylakuppe.

We speed up to 90 Kmph taking advantage of the light and superb road and shoot through like a bullet. I had never tested the endurance of my bike at these speeds and it was flawless. Before the trip I had done a full servicing at the Castrol Bike Zone at Jayanagar, kudos to those guys my bike is back to the time when I first fell in love with it and with some one on it. Lot a different thoughts race through my mind. I remember secretly making a trip to Mysore to meet my girl on a train, now I am heading to Mysore on a Bike, I never got the girl then, but times change, now I fall in love every second- Oh, Life is Beautiful. I was getting back to the time when I was a boy, I still call myself a boy but truth is that its not the same. World is different when I was a kid, it was so mysterious. I used to faint with exhaustion when thoughts about the world around me used to consume me. With more sturdier neurons today I can grasp more. But I feel now the same joy as I felt then when understanding a new truth with sustained mental work - The wind in my face, the asphalt shooting past underneath I am close to danger, and danger is exhilarating.

We cross Mandya in a jiffy and cross Mysore at 7:30 thanks to the little guy who wanted to hitch a ride with us. He sat behind me helping us give directions to bypass the high road leading us to the road heading to Madikeri through meandering smaller roads through the city. The road after that had a different story to tell. It was bumpy. Through out the trip we had an unstated understanding, one guy sets the pace and the other follows and when the leader tires setting up the pace the other guy takes over setting the pace and the process continues. This ensured that we had sustained our speed well enough to race past the green paddy fields and vast dry landscape beside the road leading up to our destination and never slacked. This was one reason how we took the road from Mysore to Madikeri (in Coorg) with a vengence though our shock absorbers had a pretty tough task sustaining the bumps at our maddening pace.

We stop for breakfast on the Highway at Hunsur, we were now 40 Km from the Monastry and the time is 10:30. The Dosas were simply divine, maybe its the tire of the journey or the hunger inside us but we were not that keen to understand our love for the South Indian Pan Cakes.

And of course, the Tea, oh, divine. We proceed further on and my ignorance about Coorg takes effect. My impression about Coorg was that the vegetation is very much rain forest like but at Bylakuppe I found the entire surrounding very dry and parched. There actually is no contradiction as I later realised, Bylakuppe is not part of Coorg really, Coorg is further away- A fact I would realise with a lot of emotion later. Now with Eucalyptus trees on either side we head to the Monastry where we will turn our selves into little school boys excited enough to make our Mothers cry.

Pramod Tanvar, my colleague (God in DSP and VLSI Design) and team mate in this expedition, married recently and will be leaving Bangalore and our company soon. This guy has a smile on his face that would warm anyone's heart. This guy has amazing talent in Dramatics and is a walking encyclopedia on Hindi film music and Urdu Poetry. A die hard romantic from Rajasthan, however, is now longing the company of his better half who is right now in Faridabad and has to be content with long and over shooting phone bills. The Mr. Cool and also married - A gem of an exception. I felt proud to have his company and admire his attitude towards life. Thanks to his company, I would not have had this much fun if Pramod had not come down from heaven and joined on this trip to Coorg and Back. His friend and Room mate Sajid Qureshi, I dont know much about him, but through out the trip he had an amazing attitude- cool dude. Guys, thanks, I had a helluva Time - Oh Pajji, Tussi Great Ho!!!!!.

We reach Bylakuppe's Namdroling Monastry (or the Golden Temple) and we reach a different country - The Little Tibet, home away from home for the Tibetans driven out by the Godless Communists. The peace loving Tibetans, a striking feature in them is there zest for life and simplicity. Every Monk will sooner or later would acquire the the latest and greatest in terms of gadgets and gizmoz or Bikes or Cars. But still would keep his head on the right shoulders. Nobody would stop you from entering the monastry. You are welcome, no matter who you are. The Monastry is beautiful, but still you could take your camera and start clicking and no overzealous monk or priest to stop you, you are welcome. The air about the monastry is as if I am at my school. The scholastic air with little lamas running around is very much akin to the primary standards of a school. With the bigger lamas on their bikes and the little lamas with their walkmans with the Tibetan lady crooning. The tire after the long bike ride is suddenly a forgotten dream as we enter the hallowed compound of the Namdroling monastry with the view of the prayer halls ahead of us. The colour of the view sprouted our school boyish eagerness to check out the place. There so much fun under the sun with greenery and the youth of the place. There was a certain innocense to the place that seem to say- "Oh, traveller, I hope you are comfortable here, there are beautiful paintings (murals) on the walls. These painting will sooth you and you will feel fresh. Make this place your home and all apologies if you are not happy". At this my head was giddy with confusion- "Oh take a picture of that, oh also that painting!!!! Oh its so beautiful !!!! ....Oh whats there ? Oh splendid, where is my camera? Oh its right here ? Click Click Click". We were just hanging around at the garden and little did we know that soon our intellectual transformations into little 6 years old will be complete.

We enter the main prayer hall and my ego escapes from my body and hides in the garden outside. The majestic personalities of the trinity right in front of you brings you to your knees with respect. There is no fear but the holiness makes the love within you for life well-up and it shows on your face. The predominant feeling in anybody who was there was innocense. Human being is a fallen angel and will never get to live in the kingdom of God. He has his petty squablings, desires and ego to forever remain ignorant about the grandeur of the cosmos. The gracious smile of the Guardian Buddha arouses the security within you to be comfortable with your childish innocent urge to be forever curious. I looked at the walls adorned with paintings of Dalai Lamas of the past and paintings of Mythological significance hiding within them a fact, which when unlocked will help us bring heaven here on earth. But, of course that is wishful thinking considering the who we humans really are. I was clicking away to glory the colours, so many that I have never seen at a single place ever before. It takes perseverence to sensitize our selves to enjoy the grandeur and is sure is worth the effort packing our bags to arrive here totally unsuspecting of the power, the grace and the sublime of the Namdroling Monastry.

We were ignorant of the bodily tire that we were actually going through. The prayer hall had a hard to explain energy that chanelled through our senses and made us feel vigorous, energetic and fully alert. I have always been fascinated about monastic existence and now I have a semblance of understanding about the objective that a man has to have in his ever precarious journey towards perfection, the ideal, monastic existence makes it easier by keeping the practitioner away from possible pittfalls but nonetheless who said it was ever easy?

I was feeling, though with a realisation that it is short, the innocense that I once had towards everything that was around me. I have lost it but it was good to be in touch with it here again. Reminescing the journey with the passage of time from a fragile kid (always had Mom worried) to a full blooded Man, with very many anecdotes racing my head. But then every thing has its importance and significance but at its own time. My past has passed and its time to move on to explore and realise very many truths and challenges and conundrums that will have me on crossroads. The time had come to bid adieu to Buddha and the other two forces (Destroyer and Creator) with whom I had my own secret conversation of a confused child with the all knowing guardian. We head out to refresh ourselves with fruit juices and my own little shopping where I end up buying a prayer wheel. We head back through the dry Tibetan settlement with colourful prayer flags fluttering with decision in our heads to stop next at Nisargadhama, a sanctuary on a small island formed on the Cauvery. On route we find the anti China propaganda to ban Chinese goods and the propanganda about the Panchen Lama abduction - the youngest political prisoner in the hands of the Chinese. Somehow there is little will throughout the world to stand up to the Chinese. Any country has to have the strength to stand up else it has to succumb to the hell of foreign rule. We humans are such that real peace can only be ensured if we stand up and fight for what we believe is ours- our land, our country, our morals, our values, our freedom with our blood ripping apart our adversaries. Peace and non-violence are things that we must achieve but unfortunately if you want your own country to be defended then you need the necessary evil of war. All I could do then was to wish the Tibetans all the very best in their struggle for their sovereignity.

Anyway, we were getting through the dryness of Bylakuppe and heading towards the greenary that Cauvery has in her womb. The vegetation that so long zipped passed us had a depressing grey hue but things begin to change into olive and so does our heart postponing the realization that we were hopelessly tired. We head out and the bike ride begins to be more fun inspite of our bottoms being in pain. With Pramod in company even I get enthused into singing those very apt hindi songs and humming when there is need to compensate for forgotten lyrics. I realised that there is one problem being a fan of instrumental music. Humming is boring, We need words Baby!!!

Our original objective of visiting the Monastry was over, as a matter of fact thats all we wanted to do. But with time in our hands with a day to spare we just start checking out what more we could do then. As I reminisce now, we were totally out of control. The places we checked out are a lot given the time we had in our hands. No amount of planning would have made us explore so much as you will see now.

The birth of Cauvery happens at TalaCauvery about 48 Km further from Madikeri. The river meanders through Coorg and suffers the Dams both within Karnataka and if fortune would please the Tamilians in Tamilnadu as well. I visioned the Cauvery at this point to be a reckless teenager, but to my dissappointment, summer saps the energy of kids and so is the same for Cauvery - it seemed too wise. Simply that it was not the season where one gets to do white water rafting. The season for that would be between July and August because of the rains, when the Cauvery here turns turbulent.

This place is good for a family outing and most importantly you can make lot of kids happy. We did take the boat ride and the elephant ride. High point here was the oppurtunity to take bath in the cool cool water of the lazily flowing Cauvery - awesome stuff. Anyways it was sunny and we were just fooling around and Pramod and Sajid where at their comic best singing the very old Hindi Songs and totally out of place Urdu poetry. Anyways we did have lot of those photo ops. Those were funny moments and its good to have them around from time to time. Kudos to the attitude of Pramod and Sajid.

With all the fun at Nisargadhama behind us we head on to Madikeri en-route Sunticouppe. My imagination of what Coorg looks like began taking shape and instanly I could relate to my birth place in the North-East, small town Tezpur (Assam), never in my wildest of my imagination did I dream that I would feel so much at home here. The roads here seem to be so familiar reminding me of the majestic greenery and the nice people of the Tezpur. Simplicity of the place made me secure and I could be myself without being reminded of the screwed people you encounter in big cities. This is my turf. Yooohooo!!!!!

You wave at people passing by and they wave at you back, zero hostility, be it an old granny returning from the coffee plantations or little urchins fooling around with a kite. The drive now became a little bit tricky. We were now entering a more hilly terrain and with that we venture on to winding roads making serpentine sweep as it climbs and descends the hills of the Coorg. There is only one cardinal rule one need to adhere when one drives through these hill grade roads- stick to the left, do not overtake and do not take a centre line you can be in big trouble. One gets blinded by the curves that the road takes, hiding behind the invisible face of the hill and suddenly you might see an on coming truck heaving at you. With simple prudence we got to enjoy the otherwise superb road and above all the greenery and big trees that now takes its own sweet time getting behind you - slow and easy. Madikeri was not important, important thing was the journey to get there somehow reminding me of popular quotes on life in general. Sometimes we forget the means but are so caught up with the end. When we travel it is not always important where we are going, every conceivable experience in life teaches something and so does the journey, giving us more wisdom than we can ever imagine. On the bike I was at home usurping the beauty of the land. My aunt, the Coorg. She is patient and is always nice. She lets me play whatever games I want to play and if I get naughty she takes me aside and explains with kindest of words and my love for her makes me understand as well. Such is the motherly feeling that I got to experience and it just washes away all the ill will and the frustration of leading a life that you sometimes feel is rudderless. We reach Madikeri at 5:00 in the evening with about an hour and a half before sunset and check our selves into a lodge. Mayura Valley View was very much affordable and also it was close to the Raja Seat where Kodava Kings used to enjoy beautiful sunsets over their kingdom.

We head to the Raja Seat after we quickly freshen ourselves. The sunset was just around the corner and that was perhaps the only thing on our minds. The view from the Raja Seat was needless to say was too good. The place was reminded of old Tamil, Telegu, Kannada and Hindi movies with the ritual dance of courtship by the "Hero" and the "Heroine" with the odd jealous "Villain" hiding among the bushes and taking a sneak peak at the couple and screwing his eyes and reddenning his chicks to denote jealousy. The view made us very silent. We knew that it was the culmination of the day's trip and we were exhausted but yet some mysterious power plant within still was on the overdrive driving us forward and the view adding to the fuel. We deserved every bit of joy for we really worked hard for it- 270 Km on the bike from Bangalore with good and bad roads is not easy. The sunset was surreal. The moment was very solemn. We looked at each other and suddenly dashed of to another spot to better capture the moment. We walked through the incline on path made out of people with like minded intent of heading on to choicest places to capture the grandeur of the Sun once enjoyed by the royalty of Coorg.

Anyways, the day had come to an end and we got lost for a moment in the wilderness of the slope for walking through precarious paths with tall grass. Finally heading out of the slope we actually found ourselves outside the Raja Seat park. The sun had set and we had all but little option but head back. We were silent and I had very little strength to speak. So much we learnt and experienced in a day and still another day to go. All my friends were making fun of me when I got a 1 GB memory stick for my camera. Well, they dont know me - a shutterbug. I was feeling very proud of myself and I was feeling very proud of Coorg. She made me feel at home and cared for me unconditionally. The day started at 3:30 AM with the customary waking up and readying myself for the trip and now at 7:00 in the evening and Pramod churning out all time Kishore Kumar Hits, though in his own unique style and voice, the day has been an amazing learning experience. I never needed to prove anything whether I could pull a stupid trip or not - if a person puts enough heart and mind behind what he or she thinks can be done, it will be done. The impossible is within all of us, all it takes is to DEFY it. Tomorrow we had the trip back. We go to sleep and amazing thing is that good experience never escaped me even during sleep. Coorg aunty had sent Hema Malini and Neha Dhupia to give me company in my dreams.