We have all heard raving reviews on social media, when our brethren living in the North of India talk about the winter. #DilliKiSardi is usually trending at work and your social circles, and me coming largely from Chennai, I had not quite understood the fuss over winter. I decided to travel to Bangalore for a week for some work, and found myself living on the outskirts, so it was easy to zip off on a borrowed bike to the highways on the east of town to Hoskote for my morning tea. The air was bone chilling. There’s a reason why we Chennai folks call Bangalore as a hill station, since we aren’t used to so much of Chill. I used to stop driving every 10 minutes, since I made the cardinal sin of travelling in my shorts on the highway. My body needed external warmth and it was only through hot tea, that my body felt a little satiated.

 

One of the many Tea shops that I stopped at. I would order about 3-4 tea cups at each store during a stoppage. The halogen lighting of the street lights would add to the drama of this scene, where I am waiting with a cup, aimlessly watching passerby’s smoke cigarette rings in the air.

Blowing Rings in the Bangalore Winter

Blowing Rings in the Bangalore Winter

One Cigarette Ring viewed, meant I went and got another tea cup. This went on for about 10 minutes within which I had 4 tea cups.

 

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I proceeded to walk a little further to see how the visibility was on the service lane. I could barely see anything for more than 200 metres. I must admit that the bright lamps on vehicles was the only way I would know that there was a moving leviathan coming my way on the service lane. I decided to keep left on the service lane for the proximity to a tea shop. The last thing I wanted to be doing is to go on a highway for miles and be stranded without access to hot tea. Yes, a reason as silly as that for not going on the highway.

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A few metres ahead at the next tea shop junction, near Budigere Cross, I walked near the men who lit a fire. It was so blissful trying to feel the warmth from the fire. At that moment only the warmth mattered. It didnt matter that Airtel 4G was not coming, or the fact that my bike had little fuel. Everything else could wait. I was having a primal moment connecting me to focus just on the basics. I needed the warmth badly.

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In about an hour from then, the mist cleared and the roads were clear to drive. Atleast on the highways which were elavated I did not see too much mist.

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The roads were clear, and I was heading home after a brief but enjoyable 90 minutes out in the winter. My winter initiation had begun. Maybe Kashmir and Leh would be the next stops.

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