Morning Ride to Majestic!

I was left with two options for this weekend ride, either a solo ride or a group ride with the whitefield riders. Last weekend I was at my parent's place (Kerala) and during my return journey I caught cold which has left me a little weak. This led me to cancel the lengthy group ride under the sun, and to plan a shorter solo ride to some place.

Whitefield was already explored in the previous ride. Now it was Majestic that I had in mind. Although I have travelled numerous times to Majestic by bus, the exact route to majestic is still confusing to me. Perhaps there are multiple routes from Airport Road to Majestic. I decided to ride to Majestic with a small thought hanging in my mind "I might take the wrong turns and miss the target"

I set the alarm for 6am in mobile phone and went to sleep. I slept late at night and was afraid of not getting up in morning, so kept the mobile phone closer to me. Unlike the last few weeks, I am having a busy schedule in office and have been returning home by 9pm-10pm most of the days. The work load has gifted me sound sleeps during the last week. Today was no different either. I couldn't hear the alarm ringing until my roomate tried waking me up. I got up from bed and ran to get teeth brushed as if I heard an emergency alarm. Got ready in almost 10 minutes and pushed by bike outside house, starting the ride by 6am or was it a 5minutes late, I did not pay attention.

I decided to ride slow today considering my condition. I could have studied the route to Majestic from map, but then I thought trying to reach there without any information other than the sign boards could be more fun. And even if I miss the target today, I can learn from my mistakes and do it the next time. I went past Domlur flyover and then started gaining moderate speeds. While riding I did make it a point to read the names of the places I passed by, from the name boards over various shops, just to trace the route on map and to figure out where I went wrong if I miss my target after all.

I was riding through well known routes when I suddenly reached a place with two roads in front of me, one to M.G Road and the other to City Market and Richmond Circle. Took the Richmond route and within a few minutes I was near the Richmond flyover. Here I ended up in doubt, I did not know whether I should be taking the flyover or the road beneath it. I made my first mistake here I guess, took the flyover and it finally took me to Lalbagh. Riding on this route I found the places unfamiliar and sensed of having taken the wrong route. I decided to continue riding little more forgetting my original target for no reason and to my happiness I find myself infront of Lalbagh gate. This place is known to me and it gave me small idea where in Bangalore I was.

Little ahead I find Wilson Garden written all over the boards. I thought that this route was taking me to Mysore Road. I have been once to Mysore road to visit a construction site. I decide to ride for some more time and start my journey back. At the same time the thought that most of the roads in Bangalore near this area are one way roads kept worrying me about my journey back! A few more minutes of ride and I found "Bangalore Diary" building. I had seen this building before, but couldn't recollect when. The familiarity with the place made me to ride ahead rather than return and to my surprise I found "The Forum". I couldn't believe my eyes, in my calculations I was near Mysore Road and here I find myself in front of "The Forum" at Koramangala. It took me a while to digest. I even started thinking if it was yet another "Forum Mall" near Mysore Road. I have already seen one more Forum mall in construction near Whitefield, in one of my previous rides. But the roads looked so familiar. Yes it was the road to Madiwala which I have travelled through numerous times.

I decided to take some rest near Madiwala, sipped some water from my new bottle. Spa lives near Madiwala at BTM. I make a quick call to Spa with the idea of enjoying breakfast with Spa, but Spa was enjoying a good sleep, it being early sunday morning. I notice that it is only 6.50 am and from Spa's feeble voice, I could make out Spa wants to sleep more! Giving up the thought of having breakfast from BTM, I rode back to Aiport road through the long and steady Inner ring road. I could find some guys jogging along the route and another guy meditating in between his bike ride on the concrete side walls of small bridge. I wonder if he was meditating or praying or performing Yoga, the sight of him sitting there in Yoga posture with his eyes closed and his bike by his side, made me laugh.

The rest of the ride was along a route I cover every weekend, but the roads were less busy. After touching Airport road, I had a tender coconut drink. It was just about 10 minutes ride from there to home. Reached home by 7.15 am. This ride covered around 20kms in 1hour and 15 minutes. Enjoyed the ride well although I missed the real target, but the surprises on the route together with the excitement of having learnt new places in Bangalore made it very interesting. So it is again another ride to Majestic next weekend!




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