Married to the Bullet:Part-3:Mumbai Trip

Date: Dec 19

Odo at 2565 kms
Days of Marriage: 85

My sister, Aparna a.k.a Tintu had got transferred to Mumbai for work and wanted to find out a place for stay. One day I get a call from the Atom Bomb (read very short fuse) asking me to nibhaofy my brotherly duties and get her a place to stay based on my knowledge of the Mumbai terrain. My repeated queries to use their company’s portal to get an acco fell on deaf ears and hence my Mumbai plan was put in place.

So one fine Saturady early morning I beat the sun to wake up at 0500 hours and embarked on my longest trip so far. To add to the excitement was the Lonanvala ghats which I had to climb up and the expressway tunnel and going beyond my past escapades to Lonvala.

Finally I set foot on my machine and kicked her to a blistering start in the cold morning and she roared to life. Revved her up and zoomed past Wakad in no time and touched the NH4. This time I was really prepared for the bumps that came along the way and made sure that my ass didn’t take a beating and nor did the bike. Reached Lonvala in flat 50 minutes. Had chai from a tapori on the descend just after the amby valley turn and mentally prepared myself for climbing the ghats.

By that time the Sun had woken up and was giving me his sleepy smile and I climbed the ghats with ease. Have never been fond of heights and was a lil shaky driving the bike up at such high altitutde with cold winds blowing at you. Well that was just the trailor and the whole movie happened when I entered the expressway. The NH4 and the Mumbai-Pune expressway are joined at the top of the ghats and this is the only place wherein you can drive the bike on the expressway. There were cars, trailors, Volvos all zooming past at 100+ kmph and was even afraid to shift lanes in the first place. Then came the tunnel I hoped for. It’s a very short tunnel but driving a bullet thru the tunnel and the reflection of the sound was simply awesome. The whirlwind descend started from the ghats and I was extremely cautious as I hadn’t done this before. Reached Khoppoli and then Panvel and stopped for another chai. On the way I saw a Bolero going at top speed and wanted to check out my speed demon skills and tried to catch it. Finally managed to catch up with it. Asked a guy of how to go to Mumbai and he asked me if I am planning to take my bike on a ship????. I was laughing my heart out and the guy prompted me this is JNPT port and I had to take a turn 20 kms before if I had to reach Mumbai. So much for being a speed demon!

Finally reached Nerul where my sis was put up with her friend a.k.a Jaysree and picked up the Atom Bomb and proceeded to my friends place in Thane. After having such an exhilarating drive on the highway the city traffic at Thane was pure fart. A lot of inquiries and we managed to reach Ghodbunder road and Hiranandani gardens where my friend Rohit a.k.a Sethji was put up with his wife. Apparently his wife was in office and we had to disturb his peaceful Saturday . A lot of calls later we decided on three places nearby for the acco. Visits to these places and meeting up with a lot of girls with really quircky sense of humor (never gave a clue as to when to laugh ) my sis never liked any of the places . The sun was setting and had a night which was young and packed my sis off to her place and caught up with my old friends Dony who was soon biting the dust and Darshan whose days were numbered long time ago and was responsible father nowadays.

Found a nearby restaurant which sells you water which makes u drunk. The waiter duly informed us that there was the latest whiskey on the cards called "Black DanYell". We were wondering what it was and when he showed the bottle it turned out to be "Jack Daniels". A couple of drinks later and some good food we found that the bill was over inflated. A day with the Atom Bomb had definitely reduced my fuse and it was blown in quick time at the sight of the bill. A good dose of verbal barrage with the Manager and the bill was reduced and we paid the amount.

Spend the night at Dony’s place and proceeded to Darshan’s place in Mulund in the morning to catch up with his little daughter and wife. The pleasantries were interrupted by a phone call. The Atom seemed to be up and running and reminded me of brotherly duties. So fixed the meeting place as my friends house in Thane and she came along with her friend from college a.k.a Jaysree. We four then went on the mission hunt for an acco and was finally able to get a place true to her liking nearby Thane. So the brotherly duties were done and we were off for Lunch at Hirnandani for a refresh. After spending a couple of more hours with my friend and his wife the time was ripe for departure.

This time there was no fear of the ghats and no fear of the expressway and I just zoomed it back to pune. Took a brief respite on the lonvala ghats to wave to the smiling sun before he went for his sleep.