Test Drive...!

Tempted by the newly fitted alloy wheels and low profile tyres we planned a trip to Pondicherry. We wanted to test the car’s traction and control with the new additions…It was a sunny day and after having few snaps exposing the alloy wheels and tyres we hit the road. When we reached the ECR junction via ECR-OMR link road and the sign board read Pondicherry - 140 km.

No matter how many times you driven on this scenic highway you never ever get bored off doing again. The stunning view of the sea seen through the dense Casuarina trees is really a treat to the eyes.

Joakin was behind the wheels and the speedometer of my car first time touched 140 km/hr. The car was very stable in that speed and the road grip was excellent. Mission Accomplished!!

Reached Pondy and checked into a budgeted hotel. There was not much interesting to pen down except my smart mobile HTC 8525 got completely soaked while clicking the below snap!

Mission Karunya

We conceived the plan of visiting our college pretty long back, but for one reason or the other we kept on holding it back. This time we don’t want to put on hold for any reason or for anyone, whoever comes in or drops off the mission is on!

The idea is to make use of the long weekend of Oct 2. As expected Bothai, Ranjith and Ben dropped out and it left with me, Prasad, Job and Vivek.

Sept 28 (Friday) – Day 1

Hitting the road before sun set went for a toss, as-usual work held us back till 9 pm. I picked up Prasadh from his home and hit the road by 9:30 in the night. Filling up the tank in Shell we entered NH4 via Poonamalle High Rd. The plan is to reach Salem, pick up Job and leave to Coimbatore in the morning.

The drive on NH4 was very smooth except for some unmanaged crossovers where pedestrians, cycles, bikes jump into the highway from no where, you have to really watch out for that. With no time we reached Walajapet where we turned left to catch up NH46. We continued in NH46 till Vaniyambadi and took the State Highway towards Tiruppattur to Salem.

After driving for some distance in the state highway, we realized that we had done something terribly wrong. The road was pathetic, construction work going on in a 50 km stretch after Tiruppattur. There was literally no road, you can’t even pave way for the incoming traffic as there was 2-3 feet pit on either side of the road. The road signs often confused us, one time it said Uttangarai 15 Km and after driving for 10 kms it said Uttangarai 25. It was really pretty stretched drive.

Finally we reached Salem by 6 am in the morning. We would have reached much earlier, if we had gone all the way to Krishnagiri in NH46 and taken NH7 to Salem. I was damn tired being behind the wheels all the time. Prasadh had a nice little nap after Tiruppattur.

Route Taken: Chennai – Walajapet – Vaniyambadi – Jolarpet – Tiruppattur – Uttangarai – Salem
Total Distance: 340 Km

Day 2

After much needed rest, we all hit the road by Noon. Prasadh was behind the wheels and I was enjoying the drive capturing the moments with Sony SR60. The drive was pretty relaxed, had a good lunch somewhere near Bhavani. The entire stretch of NH47 was good and we reached Coimbatore by 4 in the evening.

Route Taken: Salem – Bhavani – Avanashi - Coimbatore
Total Distance: 160 Km

After picking up Vivek near Lakshmi Mills, we all left to Ooty. I am visiting Coimbatore after 8 yrs and there is not much of change. The entire city-drive went very nostalgic just glancing the places that we used to hang out during our college days! Meantime we were all catching up with each other after a very long time.

After having a tea and bud break near Metupallayam we hit the Ooty high road (NH67) around 5:45 pm. I was behind the wheels, the Sun was fading out and we need to cover as much as we could in the day light. We were climbing up the hill and it was pretty dark very soon. One thing I hate while driving is people never dim their head lights, always on high beam. Never ever bother about the incoming traffic!

The drive in the hill on the night was a thrilling experience. It was taking hell lot of time for covering even a small distance and there was a huge traffic jam too! It was already 8:30 we haven't even reached Coonoor. If we continue climbing till Ooty, we lose entire evening. So we halted at Coonoor and planned to enjoy the whole night.

Coonoor was a beautiful place and the time we went the weather was not that cold. Prasadh yelled out – “Its like Chennai dude”!

We checked out couple of hotels and finalized one. It was a pretty good budgeted hotel and we got ourselves packed in a four bed room. It all happened so well that only just two days before Vivek had come from South Africa and to our delight he brought us one Smirnoff and one Jack Daniels!

The night went well with Smirnoff…!

Route Taken: Coimbatore - Mettupalayam - Coonoor - Ooty
Total Distance: 70 Km

Day 3

Morning we packed up our things and checked-out of the hotel. There was some delay, as we were all running around to find an ATM :) We hit NH67 around 9 and on our way to the Boat House. The weather was excellent, the Sun was shy behind the clouds but the mist had gone though. It was perfect for some photography!!

We spent couple of hrs pushing our limits with the peddling boat and left for Dodabetta. It is the highest peak in Nilgiri hill range with an elevation of about 8650 ft above sea level. As we moved further up, the air got chiller, dampened and all of a sudden the visibility level was pretty low. We stopped for a while and admired the beauty of this gorgeous queen of hills!

We reached Dodabetta around 12:30 in the noon. After parking the car, we followed a narrow path to the view point. On the way you could get spicy hot masala sundal and other munching stuffs!

The panoramic view of the valley is really breath taking, its all green green everywhere! There is not much to do other than the majestic view of the valley. About spending an hour there we were on the way back to Ooty.

We were looking for a perfect place for a tea/bud break for a while now. Finally we got one. It was a road side petty kadai. The weather was chill and drizzling a bit, sipping hot tea we were serving ourselves some hot bajiis…! At last we got the kind of pit stop that everyone long for!

Prasadh came up with an idea of going to College rather than spending one more night at Ooty. Unanimously we all agreed. What made the trip so fantastic was the flexibility that we had shown, all on the spot nice ideas were honored without being questioned.

We climbed down very steadily and reached Metupalayam by 6 Pm. We hurried ourselves and without any stop in between we reached Pachapalayam which is on the way to our college from Coimbatore. We had a much needed break there and pushed our way to our college.

We passed via Aalandur, Domblipalayam, Irrutupallam (where we stayed during our college days) and finally reached Karunya Nagar. Being very optimistic we approached our college guest house for the night stay, the manager smelled some thing fishing and refused to give rooms. Cursing those f***** we left to <> in Dombli the one & only motel available on that neighborhood.

We nicely settled down after packing our dinner from Mahalakshmi mess - Alandur. That evening was so much fun and nostalgic, thanks to Jack Daniels!

Day 4

We had our breakfast in Alandur. Nothing can match the unique taste of village side food, we loaded mouthful yet the total bill was just Rs 86…!

We left to Irrutupallam looking for Shanti Mess where we used to have account during our college days. We were disappointed knowing that they have shifted to somewhere near Dombli that no one knew. We climbed up the road and had a look at our ‘White House’ where we stayed.

It looked still the same it used to be, except for the fence that was missing. The open windows and drying clothes hinted someone staying there. But no one was there that time. We took our time roaming around the backyard and shot some moments!

We were on our college main gate and as we expected the security didn’t allow us inside. Thanks to Freeda who is our batch mate working there as a faculty took us inside. There were plenty of changes. LH has been moved to SundraRajan block, so the chicks won’t even come out of the campus, no more cat walks seen from Thatha Kadai L

The library, new computer science block & first year block were totally new proclaiming the years that have passed which made us feel older.

We couldn’t able to meet those love pair Subathra and Thomas George as she was in maternity leave but met our Thatha – Thomas Joseph. It was very surprising to see him remembering all of us by Name and the highlight being him searching for Prasadh and when we told him this is Prasadh, he yelled “Yenna ippadi Thadichi poitta?”

He is 70 and told us that this is going to be his last year at service. (he is been saying this for long)

It is very nice to see Thata & Akka still running the shop. We were all excited and Thatha was complaining the business was dull as no students dare to come these days.

We tried going to Kovai Kurtallam (KK) but it already past 4 pm and we were blocked at the check post. We lost all our contacts there and we have to return. We spend some time in Sadivayal and left to CBE.

Prasadh left to Salem to see Kurunji and we all stayed in Vivek’s home.

Day 5

Job and I packed our stuffs and hit NH47 towards Salem. We reached Salem by Noon. Prasadh & Job suggested a hotel which is very famous for Biriyani – had nice lunch. After saying good-bye to Job, Prasadh hit the National Highway again towards Chennai.

This time we took NH7 towards Krishnagri via Dharmapuri to Chennai. Prasadh was behind the wheels and our tyre got flat near Dharmapuri. Luckily found a puncture shop to the left and got it fixed.

Pumped up Prasadh was chasing up this Skoda TN-07 registration and that too a lady behind the wheels...boom! the tyre gone flat again. This time no puncture shop near by, we got the stepney out and fixed it with some struggle. Good that I took some time and fixed my stepney before picking up Prasadh on the first day.

We found yet another puncture shop and fixed up the flat tyre as a precaution. Don’t want to take any chances, after all we know our highways better! We lost around 2 hrs in that mess and I said to myself “I should go tubeless before next trip”

We reached Chennai around 11 pm. The trip was excellent, we all drove very responsibly and to our credit there were no bad incidents. The mission Karunya was accomplished in style!

Route Taken: Salem – Dharmapuri – Chennai
Total Distance: 370 Km