The Motorcycle Diaries

This year we ushered in the New Year in quite a ballistic way and were quite glad that it turned out to be exactly the way we wanted it to be despite many misgivings from dear husband. I wanted it to be different for three reasons:

• The idea of spending another year in a crowded pub with strangers was really very unappealing (Wisdom, wisdom)
• Our (Me and the better half) body and spirit was craving for some adrenalin rush thanks to the endless hours of work, pressure of deadlines and blah blah.
• I was thinking what better way to welcome the New Year, discover a new place, shake hands with adventure and if we are really lucky make some new friends.

And quite accidently we fulfilled all the above aspirations and Jithin, my husband finally learnt that the wife (Me, broad grin) simply knows more and it is better to listen to her ;). So after many deliberations, several arguments and discussions, we set off to a little know hill station called Yercaud, located in Salem district some 222 kms from Bangalore in our trusted Pulsar (Boy, are we adventurous or what). The journey replete with many breaks; coffee, food and exercise was quite an experience itself. We took off early in the morning just as the Sun’s rays were slowly hitting and was welcomed by mist everywhere. And before long we reached Hosur on the NH7. As we reached Krishnagiri at around 10 AM, the quintessential village scene was slowly unwrapping itself even as if we zipped, zapped and zoomed on the bike.
To give our tired limbs a break; we would often stop and stretch ourselves, giving a rather unusual sight to several lorry drivers using the NH7. It was pleasant to see women and men coming out of their abodes to work on the vast green fields. The air while passing through Krishnagiri is full of smell of mangoes and we learnt that Krishnagiri is one of the largest Mango producing districts in the country. By early noon we reached Salem and I was quite surprised to see showrooms of brands like Reebok, Adidas and Nautica here—far away from the fashion centers of the country. That’s when Jits told me that it is the next best place to shop after Tirupur where you get these brands in the wholesale rate.
From Salem we slowly moved to the Ghat road which was to take us to Yercaud and a sign board told us that we have to navigate through 20 hair pin bends to reach our destination. That was enough for me to hold on to Jit tightly and pray to all the Gods. While my eyes were closed, he valiantly navigated through the hair pin bends and other vehicles etc. With my eyes closed all I could do was smell the lovely mountain air and feel the cold air kissing my face. And I knew I was finally in the mountains…yiee!! And without much ado we reached Yercaud and made way to Glenrock Estate, a little known estate here. Smiling women and men busy smoking the bidi directed us to this place.
As we entered the estate, the air was redolent with the smell of local food. And my stomach growled telling us to eat. So without even going to our tree house (Yes, we stayed at a tree house) we jumped. It was the regular South Indian fare-rice, sambar, chicken curry, cabbage thokku but may be because it was all homegrown on the estate or maybe we were just too hungry it all tasted heavenly. Later, we trekked to our tree house on this large coffee estate. A minor trek but made challenging due to the slippery-forest terrain but we reached. The tree house was one of the best parts of the whole journey. Not only it provided a bird’s eye view of the entire estate and forest but also connected us to the wild aspects of nature. As romantic as it sounds, it was also scary to be here at night :P. We explored the little town of Yercaud. It is a good place if you want to trek, experience the wild side of mountain life or just do nothing but enjoy yourself and peace and calm. But every journey up and down the valley gave a great exercise to our legs and lungs. Apart from Coffee plantation, Yercaud is also filled with orange orchards, pepper, pumpkin and other citrus fruits.
As the day was closing to an end night was setting in, my husband’s misgivings returned. It is New Year and all we had was us and our tanhaiyee and certainly no dance and music. But we were lucky to meet a crazy and raucous bunch from Bangalore who certainly made it all the more memorable. Jits casually striked a conversation with Sanket who we were told later is the “Pappa” of the group. And he nicely asked us to join them. Pleasant introductions gave way to great conversations and not for a single moment we thought we were the “outsiders” in this group. We heard some funny nicknames Tiny for Kavita; Sheila for the Indian “French” boy Carthik, Daru for Darshana, Pappa’s better half and so forth. As night fell, we talked and laughed (mostly laughed) and ate delicious barbequed khaana while hubby made his specialty Pineapple-Cheese and Cherry.
While the air was nail bitingly cold all the laughter and antics made us warm. The women got the special privilege to make the men dance to item numbers, so Carthik did a Sheila ki Jawaani while Arnab became the badnaam Munni, Pappa danced on trance and Jits hip hopped!! While us women showered them with fake money in form of paper. A true Kotha scene only gender roles reversed :D. Now you know why they say women can make the men dance to their tunes!! But the best antic was yet to come. And it finally came as the clock struck 12 when Adarsh kissed and hugged the rocks; he certainly welcomed the New Year in a rocking way! As we all laughed at his expense I learnt we have to go back and dreaded the prospect to walk through that rocky path dead of the night.
My husband true to his nature held on to me, nudged and prodded me to walk. As we once again made way across the forest with the help of two lovely helped boys from the estate all I could think was the Blair witch project. The next day I was surprised to open my eyes and ears to mist filled mountains, birds chirping and a lovely feeling.
We made our descend from the tree house and Yercaud and I thanked God there was no Blair witch but memory of a great adventure, making new friends and an awesome time.