From Shivpuri to Bhopal (=BhopeAll, where all get Bhop'd) the country was pretty greenthis time of the year. We had managed to leave comparatively early, so even though the distance was @ 340 km, there was enough time for some monkeying around, which is what the riders did. It was dark by the time we hit BhopeAll. Seeing the condition of the M.P. roads so far, (worse was still to come), we understood why Diggi Raja had lost his Raja-gaddi. The roads were bad, electricity was "kabhi-haan-kabhi-naa", (mostly naa) and the hotel was bad. We got truly Bhop'd!

Next morning we managed to quit BhopeAll in good time and hit Betul much before dark, and though we had planned a night halt at Betul (halfway between BhopeAll and Nagpur), we decided to Bash on regardless. We hit Nagpur much after midnight and wise guy King Shook (that's his real name) decided to shake us up by shooting us at ZERO POINT, which is the Centre-of-Gravity of India. (There actually exists such a place, and it is Nagpur). We were all pretty bushed and wanted to fall asleep, but nobody had the guts to argue with a guy who, as his name suggests, had Shook many Kings!

Eh? Who's King Shook? I forgot to tell you. King Shook is from TV Channel AXN, and was with the rally all thru, right up to KanyaKumari. Along with him was another dandy guy named Jeetu, (Jeet who?) who was wielding the camera. You have probably seen this whole adventure on AXN TV already, or will see it soon. King Shook actually Shook at least one King, the King of Tripura, his own grandfather (just as we all do). So King Shook is fine! His grandfather was King of Tripura, during Angrez ka zamana!

We slept until late into the next morning, since we had gone-to-bed so late last night. King Shook again made the riders go here and there, do this and that, and ShooK (shoot) them at various landmarks in Nagpur. We spent the day in Nagpur and slept in Nagpur. Next morning we were off to Hyderabad. The distance chart showed some figure below 300 km, but the actual distance turned out to be 515 km. Some body had goofed. He had not attended Dilip Bam's Geography classes at IIMM--MBA Institute. Never mind.

Hyd is better than most metros. It has provincial+cosmo atmo. Hussain Sagar and Tank Bund are unique to Hyd and the statue of the Buddha on a rock island in the middle of this lake is an absolute 'must see'. From Hyd it was on to Kurnool where we halted for the night and proceeded to Bangalore. About 100 km before Bangalore