Nandi hills | Bangalore, Karnataka, India

Nandi hills is located about 60 km from Bangalore. One of the most favourite one-day destinations of Bangaloreans. I recalled my previous visit to Nandi hills during the efficycle project. "You will be able to see clouds when you reach the top", one of my friends boasted. So we set out to see how true it was. There is this usual drama surrounding a place after someone tells something about it. The listener always seems to have a greater expectation of the place all of a sudden. And the same happened. Well, we witnessed the sunrise and there were no clouds. Extremely disappointed, we just slept on the wooden benches. Then on, every next time someone talked about going to Nandi hills, I wouldn't say "Yes" at all. I always wondered if it was true. The clouds with the sunrise. Maybe it happens only once a year, I used to think.

On a random winter night, my aunt and sister come up to me and complain to me that I always hang out with friends for road trips. Somehow falling into the vicious trap, after a long wait, I accepted to take them. I was and I am still kind of afraid of night driving, because some people cannot see the road (the guys with High-beam on) and they don't want others to see the road either. Somehow, we made a solid plan to leave at 4 A.M. Of course, ladies take more time to get ready, so we left a 4.30. After filling petrol for the car, we headed off towards airport road. It was all fine until airport road toll booth, me belting 120 kmph on the old Swift.

My sister was doing her job well as a shotgun by playing favourite songs while my Aunt and Zoey were looking into the pitch dark landscape outside. Soon after the toll booth, something amazing happened. "Look ! Smoke !", I shouted at my sister. A forest fire or something, we all assumed. Only after a while did we realize that the fog got thicker and thicker as we drove. The situation was the first for me. Naturally, my sister and aunt asked me to stop the vehicle for a while. But I refused, arguing that we would miss the sunrise. It was extremely dangerous as we couldn't see anything beyond the headlights. High beam made it only worse. How will I drive on the Nandi hills when I can barely see anything, I thought. My sister put on the maps as a guide and we chose to drive at a very slow speed and with parking lights on. Zoey sat frowned at the back, looking outside the window for clues. Me and my sister were sure of seeing the clouds after this incident. But if the fog was persistent, we wouldn't even reach on time. Following instructions from the shotgun and my own senses, somehow we made it onto the right exit for Nandi hills. Soon, the fog seemed to disappear and we could see clear roads again. "Maybe we won't see any clouds", we complained. Almost when reaching the bottom of the hills, we saw that cars were parked in an orderly manner. After asking around, we realized that entry is only after 5.30 A.M. So we waited patiently until the gates opened. After some 7-8 hairpin bends, we reached the view point.

Well, Zoey had a lot of enemies. A lot of stray dogs tried to attack her and with a stick in our hand, we managed to save her. Seeing the sun rise slowly above the horizon was beautiful and peaceful. And yes, to my belief, one of my wish in my wish-list came true. Yes, we could see the clouds. Mountains covered with chunks of clouds. The ground barely visible beneath it. Finally, I got to see the view that everyone claimed to see. The cold breeze made the experience even more amazing. Some visitors were surprised to see Zoey and talked to her through "Shake hands". Luckiest dog, they envied. We had to leave Zoey for a while in the car after the stray dogs began to intimidate us by coming really close, as if to chew off our hands. Me and my sister sat for a while to enjoy the view that lay in front of us, discussing how adventurous the ride turned out to be. We both were really happy, just mind blown really. After a small photo shoot with the scenery, we headed back to the car. "Next time I will take Zoey to Gokarna if she behaves", I announced. "That would be great, but how do we escape this corporate life?", my inner self questioned. "I don't have the answer right now, but I will find it soon".

As my aunt described it in a line, "It looks like the end of the world." Indeed it was. For some reason, the last scene from "Gods must be crazy" struck my head. What "evil" things would I throw into the infinite cloud bed? I would love to push people who indefinitely honk in traffic, people who refuse to acknowledge the difference between "it's" and "its", people who don't bunk when everyone would bunk, etc. I would like to throw away my negative thoughts. Definitely.

What would you throw away?