An evening in Paris ..Oooops Kolar

My urge to write on this blogspot continues……………


My Lotus Notes had been flooding recently with mails on the IBM GSDC bash which was held on the 8th of July at Palace Grounds. Be a part of the same to enjoy a grand evening it said.

“So how do plan to go to the bash?” I asked a colleague of mine on late Friday evening on the 7th.

“Do you expect me to go to the party wearing that undersized tee-shirt? I’ve much better work to do” said he and walked off.
“I’m going out for a dinner with my girlfriend” said another.
“I’ve to be here in office. This bash is not meant for me” lamented one more.

It was all these thoughts and some more that left me confused as I faded out for the night, only to be woken up around 11:45am the next morning by a call from Vimal.
“Bhai, what plans for the day"? he asked.
“Nothing as of now, but why don’t we plan something?” I added.
He dropped of the conversation saying that he will speak to Kumaran, hence forth sometimes referred to as Emperor, and let me know.

The next ring, after a couple of minutes was from the Emperor himself.
“Bhai, wanna go to KGF now?” he asked. “I want to click some snaps and come back by evening” he rattled in the same breath.

“Why the f*** would he like to go all the way to KGF to click snaps?” was what I was thinking to myself when Emperor added “Bhai, I’m sure you will enjoy the ride on my Pulsar”.

That was enough to motivate me to plan out the rest of my day.


After a quick Chinese lunch and a brief stopover at STG, on CHM Rd we hit the Old Madras Road on our way to Kolar Gold Fields a distance of around 85 Kms from Bangalore. The clock was ticking at 16:20 hrs then.

The traffic started to thin out as we crossed K.R.Puram and cruised along the NH4. We were soon out of Bangalore and were moving steadily on through small towns and lush green fields. The speedometer touched and crossed 100 Kmph. Kumaran was in the meanwhile sharing his previous experiences he had encountered on this road enroute to Chennai and I was enjoying the cool air on my face.


The rain Gods played a spoil sport as it started to pour. The water droplets were piercing us like needles as the Emperor decided to take a quick tea break and his much needed nicotine shot.

We set off again but this time on a subdued note as we both realized that wet roads can be slippery at times. We crossed the milestones, which kept us updating that manzil abhi dur nahi, in short regular intervals as we got back to our previous set of conversations only to be interrupted by a strange sensation on my back. My whole body was dry but my back was wet. A quick feel of the tee shirt suggested mud as well.

The mystery was cracked by His Highness himself.
“Bhai, actually mera bike mein pichhe ka mud guard nahi hai na isiliye. Lekin aap tension maat lo abhi sukh jayega”.

The time was around 17:00 hrs when we reached the town of Kolar as we took a turn to the right, off the NH4, on the final 31 kms to the Gold Fields.

We crossed the BEML office and township on the way as we neared the mines when Emperor suddenly realized that it was getting dark and he has not clicked a single snap till then. Taking out his Sony digital camera he started to focus at the entrance of the mining zone “BHARAT GOLD MINES LIMITED – production and safety are our aims” the board read.

“We should click at least about 20 snaps before it gets too dark” remarked Kumaran as he loaded a pair of rechargeable batteries into his camera.

We got a little excited on seeing a hugh pile of mud like stuff a little off the road.
“Looks like a mine” we both exclaimed together.
On further query it turned out to be just a Cyanide dump. Cyanide was probably used with the gold ores to purify the metal and there after discarded.



We reached the entrance of Champion Riff Mine which was supposed to be the largest amongst the lot. This mine has closed down about 7-8 years back as the government realized that it was becoming more and more expensive to run the show. We parked our bike outside the boundary and watched in awe at a metallic structure. Standing tall battering the heat and the cold for years together was the Gifford's Shaft – this, as we came to know later is the world’s deepest shaft.




Another round of photo session followed and soon we realized that we are running low on battery power. Emperor blamed it on me coz’ as per him I was using the zoom option just too much.



Not quiet understanding what he meant I decided to pee and to know what happened there I would recommend my readers to click on this link http://invimalsmind.blogspot.com/2006/07/gold-hunt.html

It was already dark when we started on our return ride back to base. The ride in the dark was risky and dangerous as we were maneuvering through the cars and trucks and sand laden tractors and what not. A quick South Indian dinner break at Kamat’s and we were in C. V. Raman Nagar reporting to Vimal by 20:15 hrs.

I would take this opportunity to really thank His Highness Kumaran for offering me this wonderful ride on his Bajaj Pulsar 150 cc KA 04 EP 6412 and spared me of an otherwise boring off day.