I woke up late at 8am with a gloomy mind as I had woken up 2 hours later than intended. Still did my yoga, packed my bike and hit the road at around 130 pm, some 7 hours later than I intended to.

I was hoping to put some miles on to my fatbike and in the process prepare for an upcoming Himalayas hike. I was only 3-4 miles in when I had to choose route as there was a fork in the road. One was a safe, known, highway road to Hubli that I knew would take me some 5-6 hours. The second was an unknown, longer but scenic route. The time this would take was unknown but the daze of having slept longer made me choose the second route without much thinking.

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I rodé through old parts of Belgaum and hit the outskirts. This was a pleasant route as there wasn't much traffic and I rodé past the Yellur-Rajhansgad fort. I was looking for directions and a villager on a motorcycle led the way to show me the scenic way. The ensuing event shook my faith in humanity.

This uneducated villager not only rodé slowly for some 6-8 km with me but then invited me to his home for lunch. He insisted that I eat lunch with him. Eventhough I wasn't hungry, I decided to accept his invitación and his family fed me some paddu ( steamed rice balls). Then he mentioned how he believes that there are only 2 religións in this world, men and women. Based on the memorabilias in his house, one could guess which caste he belonged to. But he hadn't asked me about my "caste/religión" but instead had invited home and fed lunch!

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Then, he showed me his brick making factory before showing me the scenic way to Kittur/Hubli.

I enjoyed the unpaved, backroads he had sent me on while still being in complete disbelief at my experience.

I made my way to the freeway around sundown and after refuelling my body I set to ride in the remaining 30 miles. That was mostly uneventful until I stopped to adjust some gear in Dharwad. The owner of that sweets-shop invited me into his shop, offered water and dark chocolates. I said, I don't use bottled water. He said he just refills the bottle with filter water. Then he mentioned that he's a cyclist too who's training to bike Leh-Manali in the Himalayas. This conversation happened at around 10-1030pm!

Finallly, I rodé into my cousin's home at around 1130pm.

Was my decisión in the morning to take untested/unknown road worth it? I had no complaints other than having lost my faith in humanity again..:-)

Next day, I met my high school/close friend and described to him the previous day's experience. And, he commented that, "Nee bahaLa pooonya maadirbeku." It translates to, " You must have accrued a lot of good karmas". I replied that it must be ancestral inheritance.