The Jinxed Nandi Ride

Finally, after months of postponement, we finally decided to do the Nandi ride the previous Sunday. Sadly, Varma couldn't make it as he had made a last minute plan to go home. So it was only Raghav and I who started off at about 3 AM on Sunday. We were all set to deal with the darkness with my headlight and taillight (specially bought to make this trip finally happen) and everything seemed to be going smoothly until we had to take the left turn to Nandi from the Hyderabad highway. The road from there to the base of Nandi is about 20km. The sun was just rising and the mood was brilliant. There was a strong headwind all the way through to the base of the hill but it was fun nonetheless. Oh, my phone meanwhile had gotten screwed (Note to bike shorts' manufacturers: Ever thought of providing pockets?) and I could only receive calls after the display had died. Anyway, we took a small break and it was here that Raghav realized that his tyres were severely under inflated which we fixed quickly. Soon we started the 8km climb and I very quickly realized that I had severely underestimated the difficulty of the climb. I needed to stop every 1 km or so and I fortunately discovered at one point that my rear brake pads were touching the rim and was causing me the extra pain. It felt like heaven for a while once I fixed that. We rode on until the last 3 km of the climb where the very steep U-turns started appearing. It was here that I got off the cycle and started pushing it uphill. Oh and we met a nice chap named Mahesh while I was fixing the problem. Raghav and Mahesh continued on here while I was switching between riding and pushing my cycle uphill. Finally, after what seemed to be an eternity, I reached the top. I can by no means claim that I completed the Nandi ride. In my book, completing the Nandi ride would be doing it without stopping or pushing the cycle uphill. I'll eventually do it someday. Then came the most fun part of the day. The downhill! I went berserk once the U-turns were dealt with. I had some hope of touching 70+ kmph or so but could only manage a 61.4 kmph. I totally blame it on the wind resistance that day. I finished the downhill in about 12 or so minutes and was waiting for Raghav and Mahesh when Mahesh called up and told me that Raghav had a fall towards the end of the downhill. I quickly went back up the hill a little and saw that he was badly bruised and luckily didn't suffer any head injuries. I thanked my luck for a moment as I escaped unharmed after the reckless 10min downhill. We quickly checked his cycle and it had a bent rear rim and that was sadly the end of the ride for Raghav. Mahesh quickly got us an Auto and after thanking him for his immense help we got dropped off at the bus stop at Devanahalli. We then got a BMTC bus till the airport and then luckily found a cab driver who agreed to take the Cycle. I cycled back from here alone, a distance of about 40km. The heat was cruel. I took a quick break at a Shell petrol bunk and got some water and a Snickers bar and continued on. I finally reached home, exhausted, at around 12.30 PM and went to sleep immediately. Almost slept the rest of the day and night and the next day I learned that Raghav had had an eventful day at the hospital too. He's alright now. Also, no photos since my phone got screwed.
This experience isn't something that I'm going to forget for a long time. Lots of lessons learnt. Looking forward to my next long ride which will most likely be the first of the IISc Populaires.