I have loads to write about..Till Friday night I had no idea of leaving to Chennai(or any other place for that matter). But when the Saturday dawned, it had a completely different itenary in store for me..I decided that I will leave for Chennai, not only that, I will also leave with Raj and Venky in the Car.So, after breakfast, we started off in the Maruti 800, for Trichy..It was planned that I will get down at Bangalore and Raj will proceed for Trichy with Venkat.

The route from Manipal is like Manipal - Mangalore - Hassan - Bangalore. We went on till Channarayapatna(CRP)(near Hassan) with no problems and then all hell broke loose. The car broke down at around 5:30 PM and there was none except Venky who knows Kannada..within seconds, suggestions ranging from carburetor fault to air filter block were discussed, decisions made as to what might be the problem and the repair that had to be made. The inaction on our part was blamed on the lack of necessary tools to open the air filter or the carburetor. So, hitchhicked venky in a Trailer to the nearest garage or auto mechanic shop to fetch someone...and me and Raj stayed there in the midst of some goddamned highway, with no vehicles in site till the horizon, for the next 10 minutes. This is one of the most deserted highways in India I suppose.

The next part of the story is one of the (there are many more to come...) most hilarious stories of the trip. Venkat has tried to initiate a conversation with the driver and the cleaner,so that they can drop him at some mechanic shop. He first tried with Kannada, then graduated to Thullu, then had used his horrible Hindi, used a bit of his Telugu skills....all these just got a simple eternal silence as reply from the driver and the cleaner.Think of the dilemma facing our guy. (He didn't use English....for which I am yet to find the reason..) Towards the town limits of CRP, our man hears the cleaner shout "Paolam, Paolam, Paolam" to the driver and guess the bliss that should have decended on our guy.....then as it turned out, our guy got a mechanic, an autorickshaw to take him back to the spot and a candle(how intelligent, smart!!!!)..Till that time, when Venkat returned, we were left to check for ourselves certain basic stuff like Petrol level, air pressure, battery level etc...I think this is what our ancestors would have meant, when they told,"Etha Thinna Pitham theiliyum"..we tried all possible (atleast to our knowledge) ways to start the car(including taking it for a stroll). Raj was busy catching signals(mostly non existent, but sometimes just like Rajnikant's Political entry...U never know whether it is there or not) in his cell-phone....I wonder at the marvel called cell-phone....the signal is available at a particular place and you lower it to speak...its gone... you raise the phone...the signal is loud...you move a particular distance, it is there, you take a step(mind you- a step) forward or backward..its not there....*Gosh*....undecipherable technology...flies over my head. The highway was so deserted at around 5:30 itself, that I laid down on the highway and caught a small nap(another one of my idiosyncracies). When the mechanic did arrive in a rickety rickshaw, it was well past 7:00 PM. With no lights and no traffic, the place was pristine and amazing.I think, time of distress brings with it an unusual beauty to mundane things...I had taken a couple of snaps of the road, the place and the antics we did during the waiting period. I will upload them later today.The problem was in the distributor( or atleast that's what the mechanic said)..Paid him 250/- bucks and left to Bangalore at around 7:30 PM...excellent plans for the weekend night in Bangalore gone awary on the road sides of some goddamned place in the highway. For those who think, this is a great story, the arrival in Bangalore itself is just a prelude. The real fun started once we entered Bangalore. I will post them along with the Photos.