It was the beginning of a long weekend on Friday, April 22, 2011. Our new Manza Elan was about a month old, and Kuhu and I were waiting to launch ourselves into such an occasion. We decided to witness the sunrise atop the Nandi hills. Preparations started the previous day. We bought cakes, chips and cookies, loaded an ipod full of immortal melodies, had a light dinner at 8.30 pm (our normal eating time is around 10) and went to sleep at about 9.30 pm.
We knew we had to leave by 4.15 am in the morning to reach Nandi hills (around 75 km) by 6 am. When we got up at 3.15 am, a light drizzle was on. It was exceedingly romantic. We embarked on our first long drive amidst the rain at 4.17 am, with Shreya Ghosal buzzing one of her most romantic numbers in our ears (the song was from the film “Autograph”). Even in those wee hours of the morning, there were quite a few cars and cabs around, especially the ones which were on their way to the airport.
We raced through outer ring road to Hebbal junction and took a right turn towards the international airport. After crossing the airport at about 5.10 am, the traffic eased considerably. Hence we had the time and space to take some mighty cute photographs of ourselves in the middle of a highway in pitch black darkness. It was an experience of a different kind. We reached the foot of the hills at 5.40 am and it was still dark. About five cars were lined up in front of us waiting for the check post to open at 5.50 am.
We could see traces of dawn in the horizon. The clouds too were almost within touching distance and it was starting to get chilly. Kuhu was starting to shiver as well. As we started our ascent in a cloudy morning, the scenaries started getting from beautiful to magical to heavenly. We reached the top (about 2250 mts above mean sea level) at 6.17 am. We could only see a silhouette of the sun amongst some grey clouds, but even that was a visual delight. As time passed, the crowd started to grow. We walked around a bit, savoured the moments and had a cup of coffee in that chilly weather. It had started drizzling again, and we were feeling as if we were in Darjeeling.
We left the place at 7.45 am and started our sojourn back. A kite, in its mission to capture its hunt, slammed into the windshield as I was blowing my car on the empty roads at 100 kmph. Luckily it was quick enough to fly out just in time without injury. We reached home at about 9.30 am. These 5 hours that we spent in contact with each other, with Mother Nature, music and the magnificent roads, were moments to remember and cherish forever.
No comments:
Post a Comment