Bang in Bangalore - Day 1

I stepped out of the house with a heavy heart not because I was travelling alone. I looked at the dark sky outside. None would expect it to be bluish at this time of the day, rather night, unless you think of a polar existence. It was almost 9 PM as I waved goodbye to people at home carrying luggage on one shoulder and an umbrella on the other. It was pouring in Chennai while I was feeling guilty of not kissing my dream-girl before I left. Of course she would have cried if she knew I was leaving, what else would you expect from a 2 year old?

My wife accompanied me till the bus stand and I was left standing alone for another 30 mins for my bus. A bus came at last, but that would only go half-way and I didn’t hesitate to run into it. To my irritation, the traffic, along with the rain, was not letting me any closer to the railway station. Alighting at the CMBT bus stand, I ran without an umbrella to catch my connecting bus and seriously thought I would miss the train. But to my delight, the traffic cleared soon and I reached the bus stand well before the scheduled departure of the train.

I was travelling by 2nd class AC after a long time and of course I had to feel comfortable. I switched on the reading light on my upper berth and continued my Harry Potter until I felt it was already too late to doze off. Keeping 3-4 alarms on my mobile phone, I slept off in an uncomfortable position that would have stiffed my neck, but luckily it didn’t. I had asked Karthik (my BIL) to pick me up from Bangalore (EAST) station and he was well before time. I reached Bangalore with the fear of feeling cold. It reminded me of one of my earlier visits to the city where I had started shivering the moment I stepped out of the train. But this time, to my pleasure, things were different. I didn’t have to wear the 2 jackets Karthik had brought to the station on my wife’s instructions. I was mocking at him as if he was feeling colder than I.

The day started off with a nice tea-shop tea on the way to his home as we went driving. It was still dark and I liked it. I knew it had been raining here too which was evident by the wet roads. As we reached his house I lost all temptations to sleep. We had another cup of tea at his home and started planning the day. I had to meet couple of relatives and we mixed that plan with our own plans. Around 9, we took off for breakfast at Utham Sagar where I was misled by the menu card that said “Tomato Omlet” which ultimately turned out to be a dull-tasting Tomato-Uthappam. We next drove to Yelahanka to meet my relatives and had a nice time there. Soon, it was time for lunch and we sped off from that place to Empire restaurant where we had our fill of grilled chicken and fish biriyani. Being a crazy cricket fan, I took snaps of Chinnaswamy stadium on the way. We then drove to Double Road to meet another relative of mine, spent a hour there and headed back home.

Oh! How could I miss ‘Death by chocolate’ (DBC)? We reached home – I had a bit of horrible time in driving through the traffic. We headed again to Utham Sagar and then to Corner house where we purchased DBC for ourselves and came back home in his pulsar which I was supposed to ride not beyond 40 km/hr. What a punishment!!!!! We ate dinner followed by DBC and watching a Harry Potter movie I slid into couple of bed sheets to signal the end of the day!!!!!