What are the odds of meeting someone who shares your exact name, is an engineer like you, lives in the same gated community in Bangalore, hails from Patna, is an active biker, and—just to complete the cosmic joke—both fathers were electrical engineers who also worked in the same organisation, with the same surnames and the same initials?

The probability, as ChatGPT later confirmed, is an absurd 2.5 × 10⁻²¹. Which means this wasn’t chance; this was karma, or the universe having a bit of fun!

The other Gautam Sinha also lived in Prestige Monte Carlo Apartments—an engineer by training, originally from Patna, a dedicated biker who owned a RE Himalayan 411. His father had worked for the Bihar State Electricity Board, as had mine (at different times though). Both were electrical engineers, with the same surname and identical initials—B K Sinha! We became biker friends and started going on bike trips, the age gap of 70:29 notwithstanding!

The backstory: one fine Bangalore morning, at a nearby cigarette kiosk, I met a young couple. He was a young man with slightly long hair and stubble, and accompanying him—also in shorts and a T-shirt—was a young woman, obviously from northern Europe, slim and tall, with a sharp, long nose and blond hair in an untidy ponytail, and an Indie dog with a bandaged and damaged foreleg, lovingly held in her lap. Girlfriend? No, wife—I surmised, since both of them were deshabille, by design or just the norm for a young couple in urban India in their Sunday worst! Well, he was Gautam Sinha and his wife Rimanté, a Lithuanian lady and a fashion photographer by profession. They had met in the UK when he was doing a Master’s in Project Management, fallen in love, and got married.

Young Gautam (YG), as I have saved his number in my phone, is one person besotted with his bike! According to Rimanté, he spends more time admiring and cleaning his bike than with her. YG has attached a number of auxiliary lights to his Himalayan 411, and I tease him, “It looks like a Bihari shaadi ka gaadi—beaming with enough bulbs to announce a groom’s arrival from a kilometre away!” Rimanté does not go for long rides, complaining that, and I quote, “…romance be hanged, long rides are very hard on my fundament!”

Thanks to YG, who finds unique locations and plans all the rides, I’ve started exploring nearby spots through day rides.

Ride 1: Dandeganahalli Dam; November 23, 2022; 135 km; 2 riders

We started off towards Dandeganahalli Dam at 6.45 am, about 55 km away. Young Gautam led the way. Some distance on the highway, then into narrow village roads, and the last 3 km of really broken road that required off-roading. I hadn’t thought my knees were up to it, but I could manage the off-roading standing on the foot-pegs. What a heady feeling—being able to navigate the bike on broken terrain à la motocross at 70!!!!

The dam is a serene, beautiful place, abutting a forest on one side and an isolated village. The forest department had put up a customary board warning visitors not to stray towards the forest.

On our way back, through kilometres of winding village roads, we rode to the top of Kundana Hills, a small hill with a long history! It had probably been a lookout post for Tipu Sultan’s army and had a solitary pillar, called the Garuda Stambh. The view from the hilltop was amazing! One could see planes landing at Bangalore Airport and a wide vista beyond.

All in all, a successful ride of 135 km between 6.45 am and 12.15 pm, and a vindication that I could still ride with a guy less than half my age!!!! More rides to come…

Ride 2: Gundamagere Kere; December 23, 2023 | 90 km | 8 riders

We started a little later than the usual 6 am, with a contingent of eight riders from Prestige Monte Carlo Apartments. The bikes (in descending order of engine capacity) included a Triumph 1200 ridden by Mr Ganapathy (a gentleman of leisure); Himalayan 411 (YG); two Triumph 400s ridden by Mehul (an undergraduate student and Mr Ganapathy’s son) and Anikaait (a young engineer); two Honda CBR 350 H’ness ridden by Aditya (manager in an ITES company) and yours faithfully (retired but not tired); one Bullet 350 ridden by Mehul’s friend, whose name eludes my memory; and Trina (communication designer by day and rock singer by night) on her Jawa 42. Incidentally, I’m the adopted Dadu (grandpa) for Anikaait and Trina—a role I have embraced with pride!

After a 42 km ride, we saw a beautiful, large lake at Gundamagere Kere (‘kere’ is lake in Kannada). There was an imposing hill behind the lake. The backdrop was pristine. The ride included about 4 km of off-road. I was scared that Trina, on her first serious ride, might have a fall! Luckily for me—and her too—she made it across the trail stretch.

At the dam, we ventured a few kilometres further until the trail petered out at a village at the bottom of the hill. The ride back was uneventful but very satisfying. Between 6 am and 11 am, we logged some 90 km—not bad for a breakfast-to-lunch ride!

Ride 3: Penukonda Fort; December 30, 2024 | 280 km | 2 riders & year-end finale

YG planned the last ride of 2024. The destination was Penukonda Fort, once the second capital of the Vijayanagara Empire. Penukonda Fort is rich in history. The route chosen was NH44 through Devanahalli, Chikkaballapur, Palasamudram, etc., covering 138 km with an estimated ride time of about 2 hours and 10 minutes.

YG and I started very early at 5.30 am. It was dark and chilly, with a light mist. YG, with all his auxiliary lights blazing, lit up the road ahead, and my Mad Dog auxiliary lights added to the illumination. We were soon cruising at a comfortable 80 kmph. By the time we crossed Devanahalli town, the sun was rising.

Soon we were overtaken by a group of bikers riding KTMs, zooming past with their odd rasping cadence. We crossed into Andhra Pradesh after Bagepalli, and the surface of the highway improved perceptibly. The nature of the road changed to long, lazy curves, one following the other. At one point, we left NH44 and followed the road towards Penukonda Fort. The terrain became more hilly, offering stunning views.

The last stretch leading to the fort was a thrilling uphill ride with many switchbacks. We parked our bikes and explored the historical ruins. We met another couple of riders on Royal Enfield Bullets and exchanged notes. On our way back, around 10 am, we stopped for a hearty breakfast and were back by 11.30 am.

Two riders, 280 kilometres, hours! A perfect farewell to 2024—and more rides to come in 2025!

More rides with YG to come!

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