It was another weekend in Bangalore. Just like any other. I called my friend Raman. "What's the plan?" "Just came from office, have a lot of pressure these days." He sounded really tiring. But, it was a boring day for me. It was around 8 pm and I was really looking forward to a little adventure. I called him to my flat and told him that we will hang out for a while and then we'll sleep.
He agreed and came to my flat. He was very hungry. As always. I was not surprised to hear, "Let's eat something." We have been going to the street vendors and restaurants every weekend now. "Where should we go today?" I knew he would have something in mind as he has been in Bangalore for a while now. "Street food?" he asked with an expectation of a negative response from me. "Ummm! No! I am hungry too and I don't think that would be sufficient." He thought for a while. With hunger continuously obstructing his thoughts, he finally said, "We were going on an office trip once and were waiting for the bus just a mile from here. We saw a restaurant called Chula Chuaki Da Dhaba and it looked really great." As a first step like always, I typed the name and tapped Reviews on my mobile. Great reviews, great feedbacks and great compliments. "Let's go then." He had come from a rented scooter. We went to the restaurant and to my surprise, it had a unique ambience with a Punjabi touch. "This is really great!", my thoughts exited from my mouth. I turned to see Raman and as always, he was taking photos of the place. With minimum photos of ourselves and the maximum of the places we visit, he tries to capture all the memories. Even the food we eat. He will not share it like a social maniac but will keep them with him. We had a great dinner and Raman was full as indicated by his burp. "Let's go then". It was around 11 pm only and we decided to roam around in Bangalore like any other weekend.
After an hour, we decided to rest for the day and go to our respective places. Although, my heart was still not satisfied. I was sitting for the whole day in a room and doing nothing productive or anything that could be emotionally or physically tiring except talking to a girl. I wanted to go home but a part of me still wanted to do something. Now, I want to tell you that I regretted two things that night. The first one is when I uttered the following words sitting behind Raman, "Let's hire a car and go to Nandi Hills." This I should not have spoken. I will tell the second one when the time comes. Anyways, his response was affirmative and I quickly opened up the application to book a car. Nandi hills in Bangalore is famous for its sunrise view. So, I had to book around sunrise. "1800 INR", I said. "Book it!", he said and "Book Now", I pressed.
"I booked for 2 am and we have 2 hours right now," I told him in excitement. "Here's what we will do, we will go to my place, return this scooter and then take a Bounce scooter and will go to your place. We will then rest for an hour, charge our mobile phones and go at 2 am." That sounded perfect to me. We reached his place and returned the scooter. The good thing with Bounce scooters is that you can take it from anywhere and leave it anywhere in the city. So the plan was to take the scooter from his place and we will end the ride at the location where the car was available. I searched for Bounce scooters in my application and found 2 just near us. We went to the scooter and it did not start. The fuel indicator was at 0 and we figured all the fuel was burnt. We tried another bounce scooter and as soon as I entered the OTP, it triggered a high pitch noise. A noise like zombies are approaching and it's a national emergency. I tried everything but nothing was happening. "Come we will pick a stone and break the meter", I said in an annoying way. He laughed at it. We tilted the scooter at one end and the sound stopped. What we did not think about is the reason that it happened. We were too happy that the sound stopped finally. It was a mistake. The sound was for the fuel level. When the fuel is empty, it made the noise. But, the first scooter never made any noise. So, we did not focus on this. We did not know that and we did not care to figure that out.
Raman rode the scooter and I noticed the fuel meter. My flat was just 2-3 km away from his. So, I did not care to bother him about that. But, actually, I should have. The scooter stopped midway. With the cool wind flowing in the atmosphere, we did what any other Indian would do. We tilted the scooter on the side of the engine to get a few drops of fuel from somewhere. Like always, the scooter started and after another 500m, it stopped. Scooter never started again. In the dark streets of Bangalore, with a dozen dogs staring at us, we had only one option: to walk on foot for 500-700m to my flat. As we approached the dogs, they became more and more aggressive. Somehow they started to grow in number. But they were gentlemen. Since I lived in that area, they did not bark and dispersed as I came closer as if they said, "Ah! it's him again (with poker face)". We reached our flat at around 1:20 or 1:30 and had 30 minutes to charge our phone. Luckily we found a bounce scooter in the locality and booked it before going to my room. After a while, the light went out and I heard loud thunder. It had started to rain. I peeked from the window by holding the curtains from one hand and saw that it was drizzling. Soon, the drizzle took the expression of the dogs and it started to rain heavily. Now the thing is, sometimes you should just hear these signs from the universe. I know people say it's bullshit, but believe me, the ending of this story would make you believe so. The universe wanted us to just stay in the room. Although we got more such signs, but we ignored them all. We never thought about it and I know we would never think again. But, I wish I had asked him to stay at my flat and cancel the plan. But our life had other plans and sadly we agreed to give us a plan a green signal and get ourselves trapped in police matters.
He agreed and came to my flat. He was very hungry. As always. I was not surprised to hear, "Let's eat something." We have been going to the street vendors and restaurants every weekend now. "Where should we go today?" I knew he would have something in mind as he has been in Bangalore for a while now. "Street food?" he asked with an expectation of a negative response from me. "Ummm! No! I am hungry too and I don't think that would be sufficient." He thought for a while. With hunger continuously obstructing his thoughts, he finally said, "We were going on an office trip once and were waiting for the bus just a mile from here. We saw a restaurant called Chula Chuaki Da Dhaba and it looked really great." As a first step like always, I typed the name and tapped Reviews on my mobile. Great reviews, great feedbacks and great compliments. "Let's go then." He had come from a rented scooter. We went to the restaurant and to my surprise, it had a unique ambience with a Punjabi touch. "This is really great!", my thoughts exited from my mouth. I turned to see Raman and as always, he was taking photos of the place. With minimum photos of ourselves and the maximum of the places we visit, he tries to capture all the memories. Even the food we eat. He will not share it like a social maniac but will keep them with him. We had a great dinner and Raman was full as indicated by his burp. "Let's go then". It was around 11 pm only and we decided to roam around in Bangalore like any other weekend.
After an hour, we decided to rest for the day and go to our respective places. Although, my heart was still not satisfied. I was sitting for the whole day in a room and doing nothing productive or anything that could be emotionally or physically tiring except talking to a girl. I wanted to go home but a part of me still wanted to do something. Now, I want to tell you that I regretted two things that night. The first one is when I uttered the following words sitting behind Raman, "Let's hire a car and go to Nandi Hills." This I should not have spoken. I will tell the second one when the time comes. Anyways, his response was affirmative and I quickly opened up the application to book a car. Nandi hills in Bangalore is famous for its sunrise view. So, I had to book around sunrise. "1800 INR", I said. "Book it!", he said and "Book Now", I pressed.
"I booked for 2 am and we have 2 hours right now," I told him in excitement. "Here's what we will do, we will go to my place, return this scooter and then take a Bounce scooter and will go to your place. We will then rest for an hour, charge our mobile phones and go at 2 am." That sounded perfect to me. We reached his place and returned the scooter. The good thing with Bounce scooters is that you can take it from anywhere and leave it anywhere in the city. So the plan was to take the scooter from his place and we will end the ride at the location where the car was available. I searched for Bounce scooters in my application and found 2 just near us. We went to the scooter and it did not start. The fuel indicator was at 0 and we figured all the fuel was burnt. We tried another bounce scooter and as soon as I entered the OTP, it triggered a high pitch noise. A noise like zombies are approaching and it's a national emergency. I tried everything but nothing was happening. "Come we will pick a stone and break the meter", I said in an annoying way. He laughed at it. We tilted the scooter at one end and the sound stopped. What we did not think about is the reason that it happened. We were too happy that the sound stopped finally. It was a mistake. The sound was for the fuel level. When the fuel is empty, it made the noise. But, the first scooter never made any noise. So, we did not focus on this. We did not know that and we did not care to figure that out.
Raman rode the scooter and I noticed the fuel meter. My flat was just 2-3 km away from his. So, I did not care to bother him about that. But, actually, I should have. The scooter stopped midway. With the cool wind flowing in the atmosphere, we did what any other Indian would do. We tilted the scooter on the side of the engine to get a few drops of fuel from somewhere. Like always, the scooter started and after another 500m, it stopped. Scooter never started again. In the dark streets of Bangalore, with a dozen dogs staring at us, we had only one option: to walk on foot for 500-700m to my flat. As we approached the dogs, they became more and more aggressive. Somehow they started to grow in number. But they were gentlemen. Since I lived in that area, they did not bark and dispersed as I came closer as if they said, "Ah! it's him again (with poker face)". We reached our flat at around 1:20 or 1:30 and had 30 minutes to charge our phone. Luckily we found a bounce scooter in the locality and booked it before going to my room. After a while, the light went out and I heard loud thunder. It had started to rain. I peeked from the window by holding the curtains from one hand and saw that it was drizzling. Soon, the drizzle took the expression of the dogs and it started to rain heavily. Now the thing is, sometimes you should just hear these signs from the universe. I know people say it's bullshit, but believe me, the ending of this story would make you believe so. The universe wanted us to just stay in the room. Although we got more such signs, but we ignored them all. We never thought about it and I know we would never think again. But, I wish I had asked him to stay at my flat and cancel the plan. But our life had other plans and sadly we agreed to give us a plan a green signal and get ourselves trapped in police matters.
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