MEKEDATU - KARNATAKA

One full day, 7 bikes, 12 people, 11 accidents, only 2 survivors!!! Doesn't that sounds like a good tag line for a Hollywood blockbuster?

Prologue:

We have been trying to plan weekend trips since a long time but due to unprofessional attitude of few people the plans were canceled even before they were fully structured. But at last, overriding the difficulties we made a plan to Mekedatu, a ravine, about 80 km from Bengaluru. Although the distance looked pretty small, but there was something in the way which made it adventurous.

Members of the Team:

Himanshu_______Myself, coolest one

Avinash________ My roommate, tallest one

Nishant ________ The connector

Jazz ___________ Predictably unpredictable

Saswata ________ Never say no

Kundu _________ Killer Commentator

Atif____________Unarguably arguer

Aman __________Has proved his name

Bandaru ________Most elastic (physically)

Vimal __________Most rigid

DK____________ Go along with the wind

JB_____________Rahu-Ketu

The Trip:

We planned the trip to start at about 8 a.m. but due to unprofessional attitude of few of our friends ( worst among them was Jazz, who was craving badly for a trip since last 3 weeks) we got late by 2 hours which resulted in 1 hour more due to city traffic. We started our trip with 7 bikes and 12 guys. At the very start of our trip we met out first accident. I stumbled into Avinash's Royal Enfield (JB was pillion) at a very minimal speed. Among the three whose fault was more, is a controversial issue. We can add two accidents/incidents to Jazz's account. His breaks failed when we were in city (we had to wait long for that too) and he was fined rs 300 by the cops on the highway for not having an insurance. Although, he tried to lure the cops by his cute smile (at least Jazz thinks so about himself) for 20-25 min but to his bad luck they were not of that type.

To make up we brunched directly in kanakapur in spite of the fact that we didn't ate anything since morning. Till kanakapur, there is decent 2 lane road on which we drove really fast up to 100 km/hr speed. After eating at kanakapur we restarted out our journey and there we encountered one lane road, broken at many places, which you will only find in remote areas. But the good thing was, it was almost empty and we can drive bike really fast on that road (although not four wheeler) and the bad thing, you will know quite soon.

I had to stop for some time to rearrange some of my stuff. So in meanwhile everyone bypassed me and went beyond my sight. After that in the event of catching them, I found only Vimal and Uday and wondered where everyone has gone until, I found Avinash and JB standing at roadside of a big sloppy curve. At first I thought why they haven't stopped at the place where beautiful landscapes were visible but at view locked roadside, then I found that they were full of dirt and there bike was in bad shape.

His front brake was broken and rear brake struck with footrest. While we were trying to figure that out, Aman and DK came and fell down after stopping the bike at zero speed. (Aman blames DK for this), my bike also slipped down (slowly) there while I was putting stand. Everyone blamed the sloppy and slippery ground for 1 accident and 2 incidents [:)] and not Avinash's high speed. Then came Atif and Kundu wet in keechad, they had also fell somewhere in ***** (cchiii), Vimal and Uday followed next. And meanwhile I was thinking where in the hell these guys were when I was driving. Then, I and Aman went and brought with us half mechanic (real one was too far from the place) from a nearby village and made the bike drivable.

Then finally we reached the place, Megadatu, a beautiful ravine amongst beautiful landscape through which a kal-kal chan-chan karti river flows, but not before Aman (with DK) crashed into a just opened door of a van. Even though probability is half in van than car, so we gave the reason this time simply bad luck and moved on. Anyways, we forgot all our suffering after seeing the nature and didn't want to ruin the time.

Firstly, we had to cross the river. Why? Because everyone was doing that. Well, all but Atif crossed the river, he had his own reasons. After some time we saw Atif running towards us on the stones upon which it was difficult to walk, again he had his own reasons for that too. Everyone was enjoying the scenery, taking the pictures and hanging out on river bank but Saswata was walking in the water to create situation for a new accident. His foot got deeply cut by an unknown thing in the water. We needed a reason so blamed Saswata for his own accident (one who knows his history of accident can understand this easily).

There was a waterfall nearby, about 4 km from the place and but due to lack of time we decided against going there and then we blamed Guwahati party and Jazz for our shortage of time. So, to prevent more accidents we decided not to waste more time there and to return. 8 people carried Saswata through the river in shifts. We then decided not to drive fast and avoid further accidents. But destiny had its own different plans for us.

After driving off from Mekedatu we met again at kanakapur where we had evening breakfast. ANHAN, one more accident in between, which we knew later during our meal. Vimal (Saswata at his back) was driving on pedestrian along a stretch of bad road, there suddenly came a person in their way and in the event of preventing the collision the bike slipped and Saswata got his hands peeled (fourth time in four months). We blamed the person walking on the pedestrian for the accident. After we drove from kanakapur, I saved a probable terrible accident with a scooter. While I (with JB at my back) was driving on highway at speed around 70-80 km/hr a scooter came in my way and stood perpendicular to me. I managed to stop the bike few inches from the scooter but fell after stopping (thanks to JB for not trying put his leg down and holding me tight) . JB got his new wounds (second one for him). This time fault was of darkness and that scooterwala. Everyone thought it to be last one but in the end Vimal did a big accident in the city at red light, but thank God no one was hurt.

Wondering what this picture is doing here. The third one is Sidhartha. He couldn't make the trip with us because he was hoping to meet some one on weekend. But to his USUAL luck that person didn't turn up and he had to spend the day in guilt of not going with us.

Summary:

• JB got the tag of almighty Jesus after the trip, who bore the sins of all (especially DK's) because he was denied the backseat of Aman's Pulsar (thanks to DK) even after paying for the oil.

• Vimal learnt a lesson of safe driving the very hard way.

• Saswata as usual had his share of bad luck. There are three cases which we were able to figure out, when he gets hurt.
  1. When he drives his own bike
  2. when he doesn't drive his own bike.
  3. when he's a mere pillion rider.

• Nishant still thinks life's all HAHAHIHI and has started a thread on our very own SISO community, thinking he was one of the survivors but as it turned out, that privilege is bound to be taken from him.
• In spite of all these accidents the mistake was never of the rider.

• Overall the trip was quite adventurous because of unprecedented events happened to us. Few of us enjoyed and are eager to make new trips while some of us especially guwahati party has vowed never to do any journey on bikes.