Bike trip to office( over)

It was a periodic pounding , an irritating noise to say the least. From the middle of a successful sojourn at my "happy place" , I got up from my bed a throbbing head ache. It was not going to be a good day, some thing told me. It must be one of those things which humans are very good at , calculations based on memory and prediction , the stuff which machines can't do for nuts . I could say that something was totally out of place even before I went to the loo.

A queer dream it was , the one that I was rudely awoken from. I brushed my teeth with the conscious feeling of a pain in one of my pre molars which grew ever so little everyday. And as I turned around , another pain , somewhere near the heart towards the right , made its presence felt. I knew it was not the cardiac muscle for sure, but it was a bugging pain nevertheless. There was a time I used to think I was if not invincible , at least invulnerable to such "static" pains. But it was all happening to me , I was a physical entity and not just thought like many philosophers would have us beleive . I was affected even by the slightest of mosquito bites and the slightest brush of long hair of a woman was indescribably enjoyable. With such mundane thoughts my day began and I set out with a mismatched pair of socks ( courtesy : my house maid) from my room. As I opened and closed several doors to get out of the container called "my" house , I relished the feeling of ownership... of that space , which nobody could invade . The space of my room , my computer , my bed ... my bathroom . Yes, being alone in this world had its benefits.

Behind the gate stood my bike . The gate opened directly to the road . The houses in Chennai are not like what you would see in American TV series... like "The Wonder Years" , with open lawns and neatly arranged houses , with so much space that you would hardly brush against anyone without pure intention of doing it . Here , evidence suggests that the houses are built by the individual who happened to own that plot of land and it was built with parameters which at that time were to him suitable and reasonably affordable. This results in innumerable permutations and combinations like the one on my street. My house , incidentally I am a tenant is quite different from the immediate neighbours' on the left and the right and across the road, which are all apartments. Mine is a "house" , with me living on the first floor along with another college and work friend. Nothing of much significance about my house except that I live there ;).
My bike still stood there , as it has through so many good times and bad . The bad being several accidents which could have ended my riding and any other do"ing" s... and the good being all those times spent at exhilirating speeds or with interesting company behind . After a customary wipe with the filthy (which could be considered an euphemism!) cloth , my bike was once again transfigured to a noble steed hehe and stood erect almost inviting me to sit , like the horse in the movie "Spirit". Climbing onto my bike I moved it with familiar ease out of the gates and onto the road. Closing the gate behind , I decided to make it to office in record time.

My trusty bike is a Yamaha RX - 135 , made in 2000, in a way they are never going to be made again. The more natural thing to me , I have begun to feel for a long time now , between running and riding my bike is the latter . I kick started it , one of the things about my bike , is that it requires a kick everyday to get it started , like any obstinate human being (like me) needs to get going (hehe). It came alive with the sound which can only be a Yamaha 2 Stroke engine and I lovingly ran my hands over the tank and touched the metal font which had the word "YAMAHA" on either of the flanks. Revving up the engine a couple of times, I slowly released the clutch from the first gear , it sprang forward and I was on my way. As is the case with many heroes on noble steeds ( like in the movie "shrek"), I always face my share of obstacles and fire breathing dragons on the way to the "castle". The only variable missing here is the princess I should say .

Anyway , I gently bent to the left and at the same time turned the handle in the same direction to avoid on of the silly dogs which live on my street. If you think that dogs are animals with great instinct , reflexes and other attributes which make them somewhat better equipped than humans for life on the roads, you are greatly mistaken! I Often see dogs squished by lorries or buses and wonder how they could be so careless. But when I see the dogs on my street, I wonder how they ever survived so many years to reach a ripe old dog age! I am not being unfair to the canine species here, its just that these two dogs are so far removed from the rest of their ilk that they appear to me not as dogs but more as pigs ! First of all, they are really rotund ,what with leftovers from a well to do neighbourhood and a drunken benefactor at nights. Second ,their reflexes are so bad I could easily tie up their legs before they could even attempt to give me a bite . This I say with the assurance of experience in tormenting my labrador at home in Bangalore. And last but not the least , they were afflicted with a severe case of mange which almost made them "Pannis" (pigs in tamil).

My bike journey was now onto the first main road where I need to cut across the main road to enter the mainstream traffic. This I do so with considerable elan and care. An accident in school on a bicycle when I tried to cross a road with only grace and no care makes me extra careful. I realised I needed to make haste to beat my present record and twisted back the accelerator and rapidly changed gears to reach the fourth in few seconds. Within a few seconds, had it not been for an especially long traffic signal , I would have been near IIT Chennai. At this signal , I get my first taste of the heat in Chennai every morning . The futility of daily cleansing struck me as a monumental waste of the country's wealth. Browsing around I looked for a pleasant face in the sea of human traffic. I spotted , as I do once in a while , some pretty software engineers waiting at the bus stand near the signal. Time sure flies when you are enjoying yourself and its true alright.The signal timer reached single 10...9.. and I started my bike . At the count of 5 , the vehicles started moving slowly to cover up the avenue for vehicles going through in the perpendicular direction and get going once the signal is green. This phenomenon , used to appear weird to me initially , but now I know that if this is not done at the right time when there is peak traffie , theres a good chance that you could miss that signal because the already moving vehicles don't pay heed to the signal or rather ignore the red and continue moving with inertia.
Once past this signal , I went through the road where some of my colleagues used to live(Reji) and also where I write the MOCK CAT on sundays. I was moving a somewhat dangerous 50 + speed , when suddenly another guy from a subordinate cross street cut across and I applied squealing brakes to avoid imminent collision. Cursing under my breath about senseless louts , I get through safely momentarily shaken . At the end of that road I took a right to enter Kamaraj Avenue where quite a few people I know stay , including Sanal and his Calicut NIT friends. Its also the road where I get to see attractive women every now and then. You see, its one of the cool residential - cum - good - eating - place kind of street, so theres always a good crowd . I rode past many Honda Activas and scootys , and autos (which never cease to amaze me) . On the Activas , there are the fast college girls, working ladies and sometimes slow elderly gentlemen. On the scooties are the wannabe fast people , who can't go beyond 50 something , but make it a point to block the way for me. The autos are the most interesting. Their movements reflect the state of the driver's mind often. Moving slowly on the side of the road means that he has not found a "giraaki"(customer) yet and is on the lookout for opportunity. A really ripping fast auto with scant respect for any other vehicle save the monstrous MTC buses , means the customer is in the back seat and time is money! . Otherwise , they just like to go slowly minding their business in the middle of the road hehe. With this I reach the end of that illustrious road and take the last left just before the signal.

I was about to venture onto "Sardar Patel" road which for me is quite an important name, because I ve travelled a lot , almost everyday of my stay in Chennai. Its the node in a graph which I have to traverse in order to get any place of importance like office or a movie theatre ;).
Beyond that turn lay the big bad world of Chennai two wheeler traffic. Its as inescapable as the sweltering heat here. However bad this used to be a year ago , when I got my bike, it is now second nature. For example , when you are a beginner on the roads , with a two wheeler , when you see a huge gap on the left side of the road and everyone is trying to go down the centre or the right , you would do the same . "Overtaking from the left " is still a profanity for you. But after being on the road for enough time , you know that the only way to get through some really thick traffic is sometimes go from the left or whatever gaps are available. This of course should be done with extra care , because there can be instances of people trying to cross the road at the very same instance and your combined actions could put you on a collision path. The front brake and some intuition helps a lot here. When you see a bike or an auto slow down in front and there is a possible gap which you could exploit, go for it but not very fast and be prepared for a sudden brake. It pays to be careful on the road , because only when something goes wrong you realise how much trouble it can be. Anyway , Chennai traffic is going to be bad no matter what , so either you learn how to deal with it or get left behind in exhaust ;)

Madhya Kailas and the bridge above it gave way rapidly as I glanced at a speed limit sign which showed 40 and my speedometer showed 55. Thats not much I can assure you because if you have ever travelled at 100 or above you ll know that anything below is just ...mundane. IIT Madras went past me and I glanced at the entry gate. My only memories of this place are those of playing Quake 3 with some of the final year guys the previous year . Traditionally very good at Quake , this college is one of the few places where Quaking is still a religion , if only for a few.
In a way , quake in my college was an offshoot of iit madras , because the first guy who showed me Quake was the brother of an iitm passout ! That was more than 4 years ago and there are now quite a few tricks up my sleeve as well ;). Fading away , those memories made me smile and I swayed to the right to avoid a MTC bus which was ahead and slowing down and moving towards the left of the road. From that point onwards is the "fast zone". Its a stretch of road with no signals , trees lined up on the road(!) albeit only towards the left and actullay stretches along a huge compound wall on the left side. Recently there have been some traffic cops at one or two spots in the "fast zone". My guess is they are there to discourage people from speeding , and not really catch them. How could they ? when they are standing and the possible guilty party would be on a fast bike! Anyway , I consciously slow down at this juncture and as soon as I am out of sight of any such uniformed police, continue at my regular speed. The road narrows down as I reach Raj Bhavan. It appears as though the office building next to Raj Bhavan might be the cause , but its probably because of some lack of planning. The place where I worked for over a year, this place carries a lot of fond memories and unpleasant ones as well! At the junction that immediately follows , I could see office goers like me , united for a moment at a traffic signal in life. This is the Velachery junction and many of the bachelors of the city take a left here to go to the "mansion" suburb of the city (mansion here means a living place akin to a hostel, nothing to do with a palace! ) . Going further down , Mount road enters the scene. This road , I think is the "aorta " of Chennai . Connecting all major parts of the city, its one road which can save you shit loads of trouble if you are geogrophobic ( hows that for a new word ; ) ) like me, and cant remember directions easily! Taking a left at the junction of Mount road and Sardar Patel road ( this is where SP rd ends) , I rush into Guindy . This is one of the most horrible places anywhere for a vehicle phobic pedestrian . To cross the road needs a great deal of confidence and a sense of adventure . There are hardly any signals for a long stretch, a few traffic cops help pedestrians , but still their plight is plainly visible. Occasionally I slow down considerably to let a scared pedestrian cross the road comfortably . For him thats less than half the battle won, because there is the "compound" wall - like divider at the middle of the road , crossing which he has to then go through the anti parallel part of the road which is as crowded.
I went past the Guindy railway station from where I have taken a suburban train to Central (Park Station ) on a few occasions . One of the differences between Chennai and Bangalore ( thats where I am from ) which for me makes Chennai better in a way is the suburban train system.With amazing efficiency and low cost , this is something which every growing city / metro must have ... its amazing how much effort and time such facilities can save. Mumbai is a good example of a city whose very work life is centred on this kind of train system. Soon , I hope Bangalore will have one of these ! The next significant landmark on this road is "Le Royal Meridien", which is the venue for many a politician's stay/function or whatever. When that happens , all common folk like yours truly have to wait for at least half an hour for the array of official bodyguarded cars to pass. Just beyond this lies the great "Kathipara " junction. This is one of those places where traffic from 4 - 5 roads accumulate at peak hours and are regulated by over taxed policemen who dont really seem to have any real control over the vehicles. Taking a curved right along with the rest of the traffic , I entered 100 feet road which is the last main road of my journey to office. Here , something happens to me and to quite a few others beside me , and an irresistable urge to speed takes hold and I let go. Feeling for the last time for that day the hot air blowing into my face , I reach office after a few minutes.... still not able to better my previous record!