The Need For Speed - fulfilled

Pritish delivered on his promise for a weekend drive last Friday. Soumya, him & me are happily cruising the post-rush-hour Bangalore roads while sipping some Bacardi in his Zen, even as 50 Cent talks of doing the same 'in da club' on the car stereo, when Soumya chooses to get a brainwave. He says it's Friday evening, we got the car, the weekend lies ahead .... so why not head to Pondicherry! Even more surprising was the fact that Prits & me agreed immediately. I think it was the Bacardi doing the talking instead of our brains.

Anyway, concensus arrived at, we were soon leaving Bangalore behind at a furious pace. It's remarkable how Hosur Road transforms from a commuter's nightmare to a speedster's delight around midnight every day. Pritish is a speed-aholic past compare & this was like his wildest fantasy come true. He was soon pushing the car to its limits & one could feel the G-forces come into play as he negotiated his way around (yup, left or right, any which way) the trucks & Volvos on the highway. Thank God for seatbelts!

Soon crossed the border into Tamil Nadu & the road got even better! It was on this stretch that Pritish maxed out the Zen hitting 160 kmph more than once. I can still visualise the speedo needle hitting the limiter like crazy. No wonder Prits was whooping for joy! It was the first time he'd done it. Crossed Hosur in a whirl & that's when the realization hit that we were low on fuel (the effects of the first Bacardi were wearing out). Pulled into a petrol pump, only to be told that they don't accept credit cards .... & none of us had cash.

So, there we were faced with either risking it ahead on low fuel in the hope of finding a pump that accepted plastic money, or turn back to Bangalore (had just enough cash for this). The 2nd option looked prudent & so, out came the 2nd (& last) bottle of Bacardi that we were saving for Pondicherry. The car was stopped at a secluded spot, all 5 doors opened, music on full blast & Bacardi flowing once again. Pritish has this terrific collection of Hip Hop & Trance CDs & I had my share of fun playing DJ on his Sony Explod.

We were soon headed back accompanied by a light drizzle (the cyclone Fanoos had arrived on the TN coast, maybe it was a good thing we didn't go to Pondi after all), & this time I timed our run from EC 2nd phase to Silk Board (it usually takes about 45 mins at the height of the rush hour). It took exactly 4 mins & 48 secs!! Awesome! We must have been doing about 150 ks an hour! Honestly, I've never experienced these kind of speeds for this long a stretch of time (close to 4 hours). Div could have done this, but the highways back home weren't a patch on those here.

Finally got home at about 4 A.M. Nice way to spend Friday evening, I guess. And oh yes, that trip to Pondi is still on .... sometime in January, I guess .... right before the Goa trip with G8 .... there go my savings.