What drives me

I bought my first car on my 26th birthday, a dark grey Hyundai Accent sedan that was so beyond my budget and my standing at that time that I vowed it would be another 5 years before I even considered buying another car. Four and a half years down, it has served me well.
I started driving a few months after my 18th birthday, but the craving to pilot my own destiny, as it were, has been with me as far as I can remember. The 100cc bike craze completely passed me by; whenever I attempted to seat my fat ass on a two-wheeler, it was more about peer pressure than any genuine attempt to appear sexier to the girls. Four wheels or none, that was my motto.
When I changed jobs (and cities) 3 years ago, it was like a dream come true on the driving front. Mumbai for all its virtues, is a driver's nightmare. The only real driving experience from the metrop is the Pune expressway; the Goa route is another, but the Ahmedabad one sucks. That's it. 3 highways out!
Welcome to Bangalore, the city that was meant to be driven out of. Connections to practically every nook and corner of South and Western India have meant that there is no shortage of weekend trips one can make. The fact that the city is fairly easy to get out of also helps.
Since moving to this city, I have taken my faithful steed to Chennai twice (once via Chittoor, the other time through Hosur and Krishnagiri), Pondicherry, Ooty via Mysore and Bandipur, Chikmagalur via Belur-Halebid and Sravan Belagola, Kudremukh via Hassan and Sakleshpur and most recently Murudeshwar via Shimoga and Honnavar.
This still leaves the Hyderabad route and the NH4 Mumbai highway, not to mention the coastal road to Mangalore after Hassan! So you can see, quite a bit of fodder for this blog still to go!!!