short city ride

It so happened that my old friend Harman touched home shores after 8 months of sailing in the icy waters of scandinavia. He owns a standards bullet and I, an electra 5S. After a week's rest H wanted to go for a ride. I however have been keeping so busy lately that a long distance ride was impossible to undertake. So on the night of 9th August, i.e. last friday, we set out aimlessly at around 8pm. Chandigarh wasn't the most crowded of the places till around 5 years ago but these days its a different story. Innumerable traffic lights, roundabouts and newly-acquired-money has metamorphosed the traffic scenario altogether and the scenario is at it's worst at office hours and friday nights. We moved through the packed traffic that had barely enough meandering passages to accomodate our bulls. Finally we left the traffic jams behind as we left Madya Marg behind and moved towards Sukhna Lake. The bulls seemed relaxed too and we cruised at 60kmph on the, broad, well-made roads of the city-beautiful. It was extremely humid and the only way to keep cool was to keep riding. The sound of the two bulls reverberated on the empty roads lined with trees. It felt like a reverie. Only once in a while did Harman and I make any kind of eye contact, it was was as if we were cruisuing reassured by the heartbeats of our bulls. As we reached the long stretch of the lake road, we increased the speed a bit and sped down, crossing the lake and the governor-house and took a left turn to dark, secluded alley that moves to the backside of the lake. The road was dark and not very well paved, we rode till we reached one of the two parking lots, it was pitch black. Two couples that were enjoying the seclusion were starlted and pushed off the moment we stopped our bikes (c'mon guys we're not policemen!!). As I mentioned before, it was pitch black, the air was humid and very still. On one side were thick bushes and the land was raised (that's the side where the lake is situated), the other side was plain...and that's all we could see. We both layed down on our bikes, head up; the view of the sky, from between the sparse canopy of the trees was phenomenal. As we gulped down the stout-beer, my sailor friend told me about the constellations and how he was taught to navigate using the stars; it was all greek to me. There staring at the stars we started talking of the old days, of our college days and the ex-girlfriends we had...we've been friends for the past decade and had spent the glory-days together. Now that I'm almost 29, I realised how much we had changed over the years, how much our situation had changed; I don't fall in love as frequently as I used to...not at all actually and I've started believing that short term relations are much better. HA! we were just glad to have lost all those chicks (emptied our hearts and filled our brains for good) and found our "own selves"...happy to be riding alone, yet together...the Loner Males. So we pushed off...and chugged for another 3 hours through the City that we were born in and the City that we love. When I reached home way past midnight....Ma was angry!