Tag: Tamil Nadu

My Tamil Nadu Tourism hotel in Mandapam was a pleasant surprise. Right on the beach, next to the Coast Guard base with shining hovercrafts for company, little beautiful jetty on the left. Lovely night on the beach. Absolutely beautiful morning.

Wise men said – Its darkest before the dawn. And we have understood the meaning of those lines whenever the dawn had come upon us. But now when it is dark.

The last few days have been extremely boring and taxing on me. Language has all of a sudden become an issue since there is no way in the world that I can understand a word of either Telugu or Tamil. The journeys have been long and without any real thought. It had all of a sudden become a quest for getting from point A to point B. From Jabalpur to Nagpur to Hyderabad to Chennai, it was pointless. I don’t know what I was doing. And then, the sun rose today.

Its a Sunday. But that’s not the only reason why it is such a bad day for riding.

Its a sooooper lazy day. I didn’t feel like getting off my bed. I wanted a bathtub and me inside it. I wanted the AC on at full blast. And I wanted Quantum of Solace on TV. So it was a very bad day for riding halfway across tropical Tamil Nadu. South India, I guess, is like that.

After the refreshing visit to the factory, getting down to riding wasn’t a very nice feeling. If I had my way, I would have found a nice air conditioned room (it was friggin’ hot) and slept my ass off. Add to it the fact that I was severely low on oil in the clutch case and without any replenishment and you realize the task ahead of me. I hated it.

This was a morning I was looking forward to for the last three days or so. Actually for a long long time. This was the morning I was to enter the pearly gates behind which the machines I ride were first born – whether three months ago or 35 years ago.

There are days when life is all nice and cool. There are days when it sucks. And then, there are days when everything just falls into place and you have to bite yourself to believe it. Such is that 150 kilometer long stretch of two lane blacktop called the ECR. East Coast Road.