Srisailam Ride day 1

It was nearly 10pm on a firday and I was still on my way to office. No I am not working on a night shift. We were having a team outing today and I was going back to office to collect my bike and go home. I had never planned to go for this outing. We were planning a bike trip on the weekend and I wanted to finish all my work before that. But Nataraj wanted the entire team to be present for the outing. I called up Varma to suggest that we will start by 7:30 instead of 5 as planned earlier. He started shouting at me and I disconnected the phone.

I woke up with a start to the sound of my alarm. It was 6AM. Why haven't these guys called yet. I checked my mobile. Oh! There are 4 calls from Murali. But then the last of them was at 12:15 in the night. I was just about to call back and he called again. After a short discussion we decided to meet at Tolichowki at 7:30. By 7 I was ready and had also packed my cramster saddle with every necessary thing. But then I remembered that I am way short of my normal bike trip preperations. I had not refuelled, had not got the necessary tools and even the air pressure in my bike tyres was less. I can fll petrol and air on the way and I decided to ditch the tools and spare tube parts. By 7:40 I was at Tolichowki. Varma and Murali had already reached and weretheir breakfast. While eating Varma explained the route to me. I had a feeling we are taking a much round about route, but then I didnot know the other route, I decided not to protest. In another 15 minutes we were on our way to Srisailam.

I had driven for nearly 2hrs and had crossed Jagdcherla sometime back. Suddenly a heavy man jumped in front of my bike and stopped me. Oh no it is a police personnel again. This is the nth time I am being stopped for driving a KA registration bike in AP. But then this was not as I had thought.

He asked "Kahan ja rahe ho?"
Me: Srisailam
He: Kahan se?
Me; Hyderabad
He: Hyderabad se srisailam? risky hai... Peeche baid sakta hoon kya?

I didn't understand anything and was staring at him.

He: Mujhe Nagarkurnool chod dena. are is bag ke upar kaise baidoo?

With a heavy heart, I adjusted my saddle bag so that he can sit. This guy was nearly 100kg and I remembered that I had asked the skinny Murali to go on Varma's bike since my tyres were lacking in air. We rode on and met the others on the way. I stopped and told them that I will be waiting at Nagarkurnool after dropping the policeman.

We had hardly covered another 5km when mob blocked our way. It was telungana people conducting a hartal. They were not allowing anyone to pass. After all these now it looks like the Srisailam trip is set for an early end. I even started making plans about what to do with the rest of the weekend, if we had to go back. All these time the policman was trying to pacify the crowd. Suddenly he waved toward me and I rode near to him. He told "Hum chalte hein" and got on to the bike again. He had made the people to agree to let bikes pass through. Then I knew why fate had wanted me to carry him from the previous town.

By noon we reached the forest checkpost and had lunch from a small hotel near that. The hotel was just another room attached to a house. While the place looked shady, the served real homely food. We stated of again at 3 and entered the forest region. I left the others behind initially and rode ahead. Once the thick forest started, I slowed down a little. After 20minutes of riding it started raining. My first instinct was to stop near some tree. But then I rode on in the rain and after sometime I found that I was really enjoying it. Without any further events we reached the top by 6. Since we had not reserved any room we had to find some lodge. And it was turning out to be pretty difficult. No place was free. All the small lodges belonged to the temple and they seemed to be not too willing to give room for 3 bachelors. Finally we called Sreenu Anna (He runs a Bullet repair shop in Hyd and he knows the place very well) and he arranged a room for us through some contacts.Once we got the room, there was just enough time to take a shower and have food. By then it was 10pm and with the entire days ride behind us we were all snoring before we even knew it.

The Story of the Celestial Sages

Once there lived an asura called SahasraKavacha. He had 1000 kavachas(armour) around his body and only by piercing all of them he could be killed. And it would take anyone 100yrs to break into one of those kavachas and by that time the person would have lost all his strength. When this asura started becoming a problem, Vishnu took the form of two sages Nara and Narayana to kill him. Nara fought him for 100 yrs and broke his one kavacha. Then Narayana took over from Nara and fought for next 100 yrs. Nara did penance for this 100yrs and got back his strength. This way they broke 999 of the 1000 kavachas of the asuara. By then realising that his life is in danger the asura went and hid behind Surya. Later he was born to Kunti as Karna, the son of Surya. Nara and Narayana took the form of Arjuna and Krishna and killed him in the epic battle of Kurukshethra.