Hema Malani's cheeks,not really. But it comes close.

A couple of days ago, I happened to read an article in the Bangalore Mirror saying that the Bangalore roads today are in a pathetic state. The reporter went on to say that the roads are full of potholes, speed bumps, slush, gravel and all sorts of other rubbish that should be somewhere else.

At that time, I agreed with that guy to the tee. I wanted to write a letter to the editor saying that " I totally agree with your employee. The roads today are freaking pathetic. They are the reason why my back hurts, they are the reason I am late to college everyday, the roads simply suck. All those BBMP babu's eat all the money we pay up as tax. Therefore I want to sue the BBMP and I humbly ask for your help"

But is was today that I realized that the roads in Namma Bangalore (Like Bangalore more than Bengaluru) are not as crappy as I thought. What made me change my mind? Read on.

Well I had been to Utsav today, the BMSCE fest. As you might know BMS is a looooong ride from home ( about 15 km). I left BMS at around 6:45 in the evening, on my bike. And about 5 minutes later, my bike started giving some problems.

If you have seen my bike, you would probably say that that is no surprise. Well it is a 19 year old Hero Honda CD 100, and i am very happy with it. It is an ideal student bike. Just fill it, shut it and forget it. Gives reasonably good mileage. And there are hardly any problems with it. It has never gotten punctured in the 4 years that I've had it. Never needs servicing. Its is just a zero frills bike.

So what happened to the bike? Well it was something unique. The head light kept going off at random and coming back on (also at random). And it so happened that it went off in some residential area (some side lane of Basavanagudi) where the power had been cut off (Its summer in Bangalore, so power cuts are pretty common). But I for one couldn't care any less for the lack of light on the road, happily cruising on bike humming to Pink Floyd's Comfortably Numb

'IIIIIIIII HAVE BECOME COMFORTABLY NUMB'. Then all of a sudden i hit a sharp road hump on the road.

I was just about to curse the road hump, when I realized " Hey! The lights are back on". EUREKA, I found the cure for the Flickering Headlight Instability. The cure was the road bumps. So, all through the 15 km journey, I was looking for pot holes, speed-bumps or, anything that could shake up the front part of my bike so the lights could come back on.

At first I thought 'How could it be to find pot holes in Bangalore'. Believe me or not, I had to ride in darkness for most of my journey. From Basavanagudi to Town Hall to Palace Road to The Golf Course to Mekhri Circle To Sanjaynagar, all i could find were only about a handful of 'Bad patches' on the road.

So what's the moral of the story. Well there a few:

1) Bangalore Mirror sucks. Their research is faulty. Don't read it. (Just read one column that appears everyday some where in the middle. Its always really really REALLY funny. And you know which column. *wink*.

2) The babu's don't eat as much as we think they do.

3) The roads might not be as smooth as 'Hema Malini's Cheeks' but they aren't as rough as an alligator's either.

Cheers