Bike Trip to Bhutan: Epilogue

The following are the characters who have been involved in this trip and has been incidental in making this trip a success. There are also many good samaritans inside both India and Bhutan who have gone out of their way in giving us directions and even helping with bike repairs.

Characters:

Lawyer: True to his name he is an aspiring lawyer but caught in the wrong industry. He can never be politically and diplomatically incorrect.

Bevdaas: Bevdaas is no brother of Devdas. He is the man who brought many liquor companies out of bankruptcy on his 3 month stint to UK. He is the only man who has seen the world from “west to east”. His favorite song is “Saat Samundar Paar mein UK Peeke aagaya, mein UK peeke aagaya” starring Divya Bharti in Vishwatma.

DON: Anything related to the DON is pure intrigue and moreover I don’t want to die. Don doesnot exist and no one has ever claimed to have seen the DON. Rumor has it that the only way to spot him is near a dukhaan selling Bhajia Pav.

Poet: Poet was nick named thy for his apparent lack of creativity. He is the only human being ever married to a bike. The reason: Bikes don’t call up thrice in a day, do emotional atyachaar and don’t have to match any Horrorscopes to get married to one.

Road Rash: True to his name, rides bikes in any sort of way that a normal person does not and cannot. Wheelies and stoppies are his specialty. He is capable of riding any bike like a rocket and is pursued by both ISRO and NASA for his exemplary skills.

DJ: Aspiring Disc Jockey living in the land of the Nizams. Develops instant affinity to any pretty thing that moves on two legs.

Submarine: A cousin of the Poet. Named thy for living under water.

Teacher: A cousin of Road Rash and a teacher of many a nursing canary.

Taipan: Like his Australian counterpart, known to offer stinging remarks if you aggrieve him. Found in the jungles of Guwahati and Bangalore. Also an avid photographer and known for his penchence for routers.

KayMoo: That’s his original name. An avid globe trotter and a caroms player.

Disclaimer All the characters mentioned in this are real and any resemblance to any person living or dead is entirely intentional. The characteristics of the characters may or may not be real.

Some photographs are marked indicative. Those are not captured by the rider.

The Making
This mother of all trips was the lawyers brainchild. The lawyer had been to the UK for a couple of months and was deputed in Chennai. He wanted some sort of escapade on his bike when he got back to Pune. Bhutan appealed the most to him as this was the only peaceful place in the north east. Lawyer dropped the bomb on the table and the Poet eagerly jumped in. Bevdaas was in the UK, so too was the DON. Bevdaas return to Pune was on the cards but it was scheduled in March. The poet could not wait for such a long time as the danger of the swiss canary was looming on him. The poet wanted to make it to Bhutan before the swiss canary got to him. Don had more serious businesses running in the UK and hence was unavailable. So it was left to the lawyer and the poet to chalk out a schedule that would take them to the makzut called Bhutan.

The Poet and the Lawyer spend a couple of days working out on the roles and responsibilities. That’s when the Poet accidentally came in contact with Road Rash. Road Rash was in for the trip. Now the itinerary was chalked out by the Poet and the Lawyer and was versioned more than four times before the ultimate version was chalked out with the help of subject matter expert HVK of team-bhp fame. HVK gave the pass certificate to the plan and the trip was ready to be executed

Next thing on line was the info on obtaining permits and the Indian consulate was contacted in Phuentsholing for the thorough process. Apparently all u needed was a passport or a voters id card and visa would be given for arrival. Similarly permits needed to be taken for the bikes and the docs needed where the usual ones (RC+ Insurance).

So everyone were ready to roll and that’s when the unexpected news came. The Lawyer had got the summons from the Judge and hence would not be able to make it! That was a major setback. No amount of manipulation and coercion would work with him. So it was left to just the Poet and Road Rash to execute the trip. The final date was decided as Feb 23. Road Rash would start from Blore and Poet would follow the next day from Pune.

Now it was an individual game. Each had to get things for himself and his bike and there was only one weekend left. Poet always wore safety gear and Road Rash never. Poet drove one of the oldest bikes and Road Rash the latest bikes (hence did not need anything for his bike). So the Poet had to get things for his bike and Road Rash for himself. The Poet had bought the much needed bike accessories for his solo trip to Kerala and that seemed to be enough. But there was a thing missing from the Poets biker wardrobe - waterproof boots. Poet pushed off to DSG and the price of a pair of boots popped his eyes out. 25K for a pair of boots!!! That was the freaking cost of the trip!!! Poet rushed to the poor biker’s shop of Adventure world and bought a set of cramsters for a measly price of 4.8K. So the poet’s wardrobe was complete. DSG Jacket, Alpine Stars knee guards, Pro-Biker Gloves, Vega Helmet, Cramster Saddle Bags and finally the Cramster Boots. And a lonely planet to aid in the discovery of Bhutan.

Riding Gear

Poet called up Road Rash on his wherewithals and there was another set back. RR apparently was trying to wheelie his bike at rocket speeds and the rocket went beyond his control and had hurt his knee in the process.

So much of the trip! Sighed the Poet. He would have to make it all alone and he did not have enough craze and gas in his tank to do a solo trip. But Road Rash’s leg was apparently made of rubber and was back to normal the next day. Road Rash called up to say that the mission was on and he is on the way to his folks place to take rest and get his rubber polished. Well that’s what one call a good news!

The day before the journey Road Rash called up (at 7.30 PM in the night)to say that he couldn’t find a biking store in the whole of Bangalore and was ready to ride without any gear. Road Rash still wasn’t serious about his safety inspite of his wheelie fall. Poet insisted on the safety gear and Road rash blitzed his way through heavy Bangalore traffic to a cramster store and managed to pull out a pair of bionic knee guards and an armoured jacket just before the shutters were pulled down.

So on Feb 23, Road Rash set off to XX and the Poet went to Office for his training. By evening RR had made it to XX and the Poet had finished off his training and had packed his stuff for the early morning trip the next day. The Poet eagerly opened up his laptop to scribble on face book the supposedly bold adventure he was ready to overtake. That’s when his old pal DJ came online after a small time frame of 5 years. Poet was ecstatic to meet DJ as he knew he was in Hyderabad and would come in handy in case of an eventuality. So the Poet promised a rendezvous with the DJ for Lunch in Hyderabad the next day.

Married to the bullet:Part-11: Ajanta and Ellora

Date: 17 Apr 2009
Days of Marriage: 6 months 22 days
Odo at 10282
Prologue:
The "Dancer" had this fantasy of visiting Bibi-ka-makbara for long. Guess he intends to build one though the recent travails of his love life seemed to be going in a different direction. Roped in the “Biker Dude” a.k.a Tenneti who had missed a couple of trips due to his UK trip and wanted to do some hard biking. So the “Limping Dancer”, “BikerDude” and the “NightHawk” brainstormed for the right itinerary to unlock the code of Aurangabad in two days.
Thus the Aurangabad trip was born and the distance was 360 kms and the plan was to drive till Aurangabad (240) (the “Dancer” was extremely vocal that we should hit all the way to Ajanta on Friday evening!!), early morning ride to Ajanta (120), afternoon drive back to Aurangabad and nxt day visit the places in Aurangabad and zoom back to Pune in the afternoon on Sunday.
Action
So we decided to fix e-square at 1630 hours as the venue for departure and went to office on a Friday morning with a makzut in life. Unfortunately I had a meeting and the trip got postponed by 45 minutes and we started to roll by 5.15. The traffic was dense in Pune at that time and by the time we got off the city lines and Nagar road, it was getting dark. Hit the high way hard as if these were the last moments of the life (making max use of day light) and managed to get to Shirur before the sun really went to sleep. Had a small pitstop for a chai to refresh and to prepare for the drive in the night.
The drive from Shirur was good for sometime. As usual the regular nightmares were the vehicles coming from the opposite direction (inspite of a divider in between) in high beams bcos of which you can’t see a damned thing. But this experience was even more horrendous. We couldn’t see the road and due to some construction work the four lanes were merged into two with vehicles from opposite direction coming on your same side :-(. And to add to the confusion was that sometimes it happened on one side of the divider and other times at the other side. These mergers happened at least four five times and there was no signboards or warnings to show where one side of the road ends and we where all riding like “hens in the moonlight”, couldn’t see where a damned thing even the road, couldn’t see where the road ends and when to shift the lanes. There was a drastic reduction in speed and we all followed the tail lights of the cages (four wheelers) in front.
Nightstay:
Managed to reach Ahmednagar by 2100 hours and the vocals of the “Dancer” had gone for a walk and he was a meek lamb about hitting Ajanta on the same night. Thus we chose to stay at Ahmed Nagar in the night than take any more risks on the highway. Tried out “Yash Residency” and “Paradise” but both of them were booked due to some big shot marriage in Ahmednagar. Finally we chose “Vaibhav” and checked in and had our dinner and a few pegs at hotel “Rajayog”. Hit the bed dead.

Early Morning roll:
In the morning we were ready to roll by 0630 hours to Ajanta. The drive was lifeless on this. Only company was the cattle which crossed the road and all those animals who were forced to donate their bodies to become a part of the highway by zooming vehicles :-(. The ride was good and touched a high of 103 on my bike and reached Aurangabad (110kms) by 0830 hours. Got some well deserved fuel for our bodies and bikes.
The next part to Ajanta was slow because of the two lane road and the traffic was dense. Finally after a 20 minute drive we were able to break free the shackles and get going. The hot wind was blowing right on our bodies and we where driving straight into the wind. Taking the curves were a lil risky as at the turns there was no wind resistance and the bike seemed to develop a spurt in acceleration when taking the corners. Could see a couple of gruesome accidents on the way and one worth mentioning was a full head-on collision between two trucks. Nuthing much was left of both trucks and the police were all over the place. TC’s inquiry as to “Koi bacha kya??” to a policeman yielded the reply that “Sab bach gaye!!”. That was some great miracle considering the plight of the trucks.
Soon we stopped to have some lassi at a place (40kms from Aurangabad) and were muching on it when these two tankers with humongous cylinders on them arrived but unable to go further bcos of low lying electric lines. The cleaner promptly got down with a 10m stick, pushed up the wires and the tankers rolled on. Was quite amazed at the level of preparation ppl put into their trips :-). The lassi was awesome with ice-cream and Kaju dropped on it and we all had a couple.

Ajanta
In another two hours of drive (by 11.30), the best part of it came up and down the Ghats near Ajanta where I could shift by bum on the bike atlast!!, we reached Ajanta. We parked our bikes, got into the connecting bus and reached the foot of the mountain. A small climb up the mountain awaited us and made hard due to the sun bearing down @42 degrees. The caves were cut on one side of the mountain and most of them are highly protected and even AC cooled. Photography is permitted but without flash. Some of the painting had disappeared off the walls and the govt has done a good job to protect the remaining ones. All of them are Buddhas and his different forms and we went through each and everyone though we understood little. The final cave is incomplete and we were resting when this monkey with a long tailed appeared. Oh boy, he was really photogenic and was posing for the cameras all along. Had a spicy Biriyani at the MTDC restaurant and was ready to roll back by 1600 hrs.
The drive back was monotonous (yes, except for the small ghat) and we stopped for the lassi again at the same place. The “Juice” guy gave us some juicy tips on where to go in Aurangabad (esp Mahismal) and we changed our itinerary to accommodate it. We zoomed on and reached XXXX and to our amusement and goodluck found that Ellora, Daultabad, Grushneswar and MaeshMal were all in the same direction and within 15 kms. So we again changed our itinerary to stay near Daulatabad in the nite and drove fast to catch Mahismal in the sunset . The road in between was newly laid and was an awesome drive. We were zooming in front of a speedy sumo and trying to overtake a van when we saw a pup running in from the edge of the road. TC braked hard and managed to avoid it, me too braked and nearly bumped into TC and avoided the pup only to see it go under the sumo :-(.

Mahismal
We reached Mahismal 15 minutes late and just missed the sunset but the view was simply awesome. If you go to Aurangabad never ever miss this place . Parag a.ka. "Lawyer's" suggestestion was to “Trek down Mahismal on the rock face to the cave below. It’s a small trek and takes about an hour each way, but at one point is quite treacherous where you need to walk sideways on a narrow ledge clutching a rock face. JK – it’s something like the last rock patch at Rajgad, though definitely not that long”.

Nightstay at Ellora
We tried to find an accommodation nearby and found a stingy room with bumpy beds and sought for a better alternative. Inquiries to an auto driver prompted some ridiculous questions and an FBI treatment from him.
Are u a Hindu?? Are all of you Hindus??? Where are you from??. I was a lil taken aback by the question and nodded in the affirmative and said “Pune”. He said there is a place called Bhakti sagar “jo sirf apne logon ke liye hota hai”. He even got out of the Auto to check our number plates!!.
Well on further analysis we decided not to go for this and decided to go for ellora to find a place. No business for narrow minded people!!. We saw a place called Kailash and found it to be a semi-urban hotel with an awesome lawn and greenery to do some star gazing and a sweet spot to down a couple of drinks while enjoying the breeze. We checked into a cottage, freshened ourselves, spend a goodpart of the night on the lawn and enjoyed the “Royal Challenge”. The discussion was on the “soup for your soul” and covered a lot of ground. The 330kms of drive also took the toll and hit the bed dead.

Grushnewar and Ellora
Sunday morning was ready by sharp 7.30 (Look at how time have changed, up by 7.00 am on Sunday!!!) The morning beckoned us and we were off to Grushneshwar temple, one of the 12 shivlingas in India, and Ellora nearby. Ellora caves were only sculptures and no paintings. Most of them were based on Buddha but had a couple of them on Shiva too. One fascinating thing was a three storied building called “Teen Tal” made of pure rock. It was getting dull after a while and we decided to skip the rest (limper’s limp was getting real bad).

Daulatabad Fort
Returned back to our hotel, picked up our bags to Daultabad. The fort was 15 kms away from Ellora and we reached by 1030 hours. Dancer kept track of the bags while we took a guide and went up. The defense of the fort was awesome and and the testimony to this fact is that it has never been captured through straight means (other than insider bribing). The fort has a strong gate and if the enemy manages to crack it he gets a narrow corridor where death waits for him in different means. The actual fort is separated by water (filled with crocodiles, now no more) from the entrance and if he makes it to this he has to pass thru a small corridor with an opening on top from where the insiders poured hot water on him. The corridor gets pitch dark (u cant see ur own skin) with an opening on the wall which makes you end up 20 ft down in the crocodile filled water below. The defense is simply amazing since it has been made without any technology. Also don’t miss the Chand Minar and the Bharatmata temple.

Bibi-ka-makbara
We walked at 1200 hours back to see a rather red-faced Dancer who seemd to be waiting for too long. We had a couple of glasses of “Ghanna” and rolled towards Bibi-ka-makbara another 15 kms away. After driving thru some traffic we reached there. It looks exactly like the Taj Mahal but the opulence was really missing. More of a poor man’s Taj Mahal.

Last ride
We were really short of time (already 13.30) and rushed our bags to get on the bikes and decided to take the next stop at Ahmednagar for Lunch. We were driving at 90+ till my bike went to reserve and stopped for petrol. TC wanted to swap the bikes and me took over the Unicorn. Its really smooth unlike mine and was driving at 100 and wanted to go further. Touched 105 and ran into a gush of wind which brought me back to 90. Accelerated again, with me flat on the petrol tank and touched the magical figure of 110. TC also managed to touch the three figure mark on the bike. One thing that Unicorn missed was the sheer confidence that the Bullet gave when overtaking. TC enjoyed the same on my bike but disliked the wind resistance and the vibrations.
After a pit stop for Lunch near Ahmed Nagar we blasted our way to Pune at constant speeds of 90+ and reached Pune just after dusk.

Married to the bullet:Part-10:Matheran Trip

Date: April 12, 2009

Days of Marriage: 6 months 17 days

Odo at 9850 kms

The last weekend I went nowhere thanx to the "camera drop" and the amount I had to shell out to get it fixed. This weekend I was not willing to sit at home and rot my ass, so when my flatmate sent out a mail asking for the nearest destinations that we could visit, along with his brother who would pop in from goa, I was really excited about burning my tyre on the asphalt. Finally after a couple of days with mails going here and there we decided to fix the destination as Aurangabad. Did my R & D (I always do) on the place and send the final mail stating that the road was smooth like a carom board and its going to be a 720 km round trip if the Ajanta caves are to be covered. The sissy in concern, chickened out hearing the distance and I was left sitting at home on Saturday sulking about the lost opportunity.

In the evening the other roadie Kapil a.k.a “Dancer” returned from his usual MG road eye candy visit and he suggested to have a short trip to matheran. Well me being really pissed off at that point jumped in to say, “Voila-we leave tomorrow morning” for the short 250 km round trip. I thought of roping in my friend from college days Deen a.k.a “Doley Deen” , the proud owner of a brand new machismo 500, to help him get his machine run-in to 500 kms. The lazy bugger didn’t want to wake up by 0600 hrs so we postponed the time to 0700 hrs for him.
So the riders along with their machines were
The Man: Deen (DD) a.k.a "Doley Deen" . Known for his eye-popping biceps and for his verbal assaults

The Machine: Machismo 500

The Man: Kapil (KK) a.k.a the "Dancer". Due to the way he dances both on and off his bike

TheMachine: Passion 100 (Dont be fooled! He rides over the top speed of the bike and is always bang on the money)

The Man: Jayanth (JK) a.k.a "NightHawk" -for being the nocturnal animal that he is

The Machine: Electra 350

Finally after a couple of hours sleep in the night, the next day dawned and we were ready to zoom. We met at my place in Aundh, filled up petrol, took the Baner route and entered the highway. The itch was there to zoom past 100 as usual but then DD couldn’t exceed 60 before his first service. So we strolled on the highway for some time and then zoomed off in the last 20 kms and reached Lonavala in 70 minutes.

Had chai and vadapav at our usual tapori on the descend just after the Aamby valley turning and waited for DD to catch up. He caught up in around 10 minutes and we had another round of steaming chai.

Then murphy’s law struck. The Machismo 500 simply would not start. Here the kick was not a good option because it was simply not moving even after we were standing on it. Seems the 500 needs a bigger kick than a 350. After a couple of inquiries, found out a mechanic very nearby in the Kumar Resorts “Galli” and convinced him to look at the bike. That’s when I get the phone call from KK that DD’s bike has started and they are on the way. My fuse (which is short ) was blown and the "assaulter" was getting assaulted and asked them to get back. The words had the impact and they returned only from the same direction (seems they had gone in search of me). The mechanic just inspected the vehicle and said that the problem was bcos of the float valve getting stuck and hence was no problem. "Just give it a tonk using a spanner and the float will float gain". We thanked him, dropped him back and set off for matheran.

Now the lonavala ghats were like usual stuff for me and we drove up and down fast to reach "Chowk" from where we took the right to matheran. The road was bad in patches but we were still going at 70s and managed to reach there in around an half hour. Me and KK took the left climb to matheran and the drive up was just orgasmic. I was literally roaring my bike up the hill and was going in 40s and 50s except at certain parts. We reached up in half an hour and was surprised to see the number of vehicles on the dusty hill top.

It seemed to us as if the whole of Maharashtra was on the small hill top -all omni taxis and lots of other vehicles. We managed to park our vehicles and waited for DD to catch up. The wait turned out to be a full one hour as our pal had missed the left turn for the climb up (which duly had a big sign board in front) and gone a further 20 kms ahead. Now the "assaulter" was back to his level best of verbal barrage for us not stopping at the turn.

We took the entry tickets. The best thing about the tickets here is that they all have a map behind it for your reference. So much unindian that is!. We started walking a lil bit and realized that the chickens in our tummies were crying out and we walked a couple of kilos to bazzar peth to feed them out.

We found out a bar looking restaurant called “Divadkars” and seemed to be a pretty nice one with a good ambience. We decided to have food on the tarmac just outside and was duly informed that there is no better way for the monkeys to feed on you and was duly dispatched inside . We downed only a lil bit of eggs and the chickens that gave them and a breezer (its a baby drink) so that we could continue our exploration further after lunch.

It was already 1400 hrs and we decided that we would cover three points, the Maldunga, the Monkey and the Hart points in a couple of hours. The transport modes available are the horses, the cartpullers, your good old legs and the ambulance. We gave the horses a miss and relieved the cart pullers so as not to break their legs to save ours.

The legs were set in motion and we were off to maldunga. The maldunga is a detour from the main route and its much denser than the other routes and after much walking, climbing trees and running down we reached the point. It was an awesome sight and the view was good. We took pictures and DD was into his adventurous ways of trying to pose for snaps that could have led to a full insurance claim, if he slipped.

We then started to the monkey point and the machismo was as usual behind and whining all the way. After another “ded” kms we reached there and surprised to see only a single monkey on the monkey point. Was wondering why they didn’t name it “the” monkey point???. It seemed to me that all the other monkeys were on their annual mandatory leave on NASA space shuttles to the moon :-). This place also had a small tapori rightly called the “Monkey chai point”. The view was very similar to the Maldunga point though with a different offset. We had a chai that too a steaming hot and refreshing one just made for us. There came a couple, with a couple of kids in tandem. and they were throwing biscuits to the monkey. Out of the blue one more monkey appeared and both of them were beating "Yuvraj singh at point" in their catching skills :-)

We then inquired abt the Hart point and found that the view was again similar with an offset and our machismo this time again wouldn’t start. Even after a lot of coaxing and cajoling he refused to start. So we decided to call it quits and return back to the main entrance.

DD suggested us to take a different route (he simply didn’t want to walk) and we took the route and couldn’t find anyone on the same. That’s when we saw this tree in the shape of a channel [V] logo and a rock in between and asked the dancer to pose for his photo in the [V] The dancer was more aggressive and waltzed his way onto the tree and stood on top of the [V] with his legs wide apart. We took the snap and he theatrically jumped from the tree and landed his feet on a small stone and hurt his ankle. Now I needed to take care of a "whiner" and a "limper". Finally to our relief after a km or so we found the semblance of human civilization and soon joined the gate
A couple of bottles of chilled water on the mouth and head to refresh ourselves and we were back on our machines and zoomed down hill. The omnis drive pretty fast so I just followed one of them going in the 60s and was promptly downhill in 15-20 mins. DD went up to fill petrol as we waited for KK to join us. This time we gave the chowk route a miss and chose directly to go to Khoppoli.

We were trying to ride at around 80 and the wind was blowing into us laterally. It seemed to me that my front tyre was going in one direction and the back tyre in another. I thot my back tyre had got punctured and stopped to check and found nothing. That’s when I realized that its bcos of the wind. Wind riding at high speeds is extremely risky and the bike can sometimes shake bcos of the wind. So we slowed a lil bit and then took the turn to khoppoli. We found a straight road with an ascend and DD was in a mood to race his machine. We stood side by side slotted the gears and accelerated hard up the ascend and to only find that there was a steep pot-holed descend after that. I saw DD trying to hold on to his bike while he was going downhill @ 70. I promptly shut my accelerator and strolled down. So much for the drag race :-(

That’s when I saw this sporty looking scorpio going at full speed probably half a km ahead and spirit of racing to catch up with him revved. Began to drive full throttle and since the corners are easy to take on the bike caught up with him in no time and whizzed past him and found that have reached the pune highway. Waited for the others to catch up while I enjoyed a good refreshing “NIRA”.

Soon the guys caught up and had a NIRA and were off to Lonavala. Waited for them at the turn into Lonavala and KK caught up in no time but DD was no where to be seen. Finally after 5 minutes he caught up after a minor fall on the ascend. Nuthing much happened- the bike just dropped from his hands at zero speed and the damages seemed to be minor. The handle had a minor dislocation and the foot rest was a lil torn and the indicator joiner was broken. Not a scratch on the chrome though. We took out his spanners fixed the handle and swapped our machines. DD promptly zoomed off on mine and I was left strolling the bike at 60.

There were a lot of differences I noticed with the Machismo 500. Firstly, the seating position is more elevated than mine and it looks as if you are really sitting on top of the bike. It is also easier to uppen your gears with the back heel on this one than mine. The acceleration of this bike is awesome. It aceelerates from 0-60 in no time and it doesn’t even feel like you are drving at 60, its more of a stroll. One problem I found out though, at 70, the vibrations are a lil too much compared with my bike and the worst thing is that you can feel it on your balls.

Finally caught up with both of them at Dehu Road and KK and myself went to Aundh and DD to Koregaon Park.

Married to the bullet:Part-4: Murud Janjeera Trip

Date:Jan 17,2009

Days of Marriage: 2 months 22 days

Odo at 3850 kms

One fine Friday evening Jeevendra (JS) a.k.a “SMAART BAOY” was sulking about his lost opportunity to join his gang for the next day’s Murud Janjeera trip bcos of his NCFM exam (ever heard of someone missing a trip bcos of NCFM???) on the same day. Well I personally didn’t want to go for any reason because it was not my gang and I knew no one there.

Our pal wrote the NCFM and came back winning and we had nothing to do on a Saturday evening. That’s when the idea of the trip was born and executed in the next half an hour and we were raring to go by 5.00 pm to Alibaug, stay overnight and get to Murud the next day.

So we started on my same old pune-mumbai highway (you have heard about it umpteen times now) and managed to reach Panvel by 18.30 Ish and it was getting dark. Didn’t want to drive much in the night because the highway from Pen to Alibaug is just two lane and there are no dividers too. But since the makzut was already decided we continued on our journey.

I couldn’t see a damned thing in the dark and my headlights were as effective as light house tower 20 kms away. To add to the grievance was the reflection of the vehicle behind me on my helmet courtesy my big rear view mirrors. We chugged along at a slow pace of 60 through the topsy turvy road and was quite uneventful except for Logan guy who overtook us real closely enuf that we almost went off the road.

We stopped at a Daba run by a sardarji midway and had kurkure and sprite to refresh the dimaag which had gone off to sleep while driving.

We were chugging along when we saw a thick strip of striped metal almost hanging across the road at a bike height. On getting close it was found out to be the side bar of a truck trying to take a U-turn. We braked hard and fairly managed to avoid any disaster.

Our pal was on the phone and inquiring where others where put up and much to our dismay it was found out that they were put up in Divee Aghar which was almost 150kms away from the place. :-( We stopped (30 kms before Alibaug) to find out what the heck was going on and it seems there was a different route they took from Pune to Divee Aghar and they would be joining us by boat in Murud the next day morning.

No hard feelings on this one and I started off my bike and set the gas to Alibaug . I suddenly got a call and didn’t pick up and continued my journey for another km or so when I got the next. Picked up the call and found that it was JS calling me. I just asked him whats the humor ur finding sitting behind me and calling me on my phone. Turned back to see that he was not there. For a moment I thought whether he had fallen off the bike and reversed and set off only to find him standing at the same spot from where I had left. It seems I had forgotten to pick him up J. The shopkeeper nearby was rolling on the floor laughing. :-) :-)

Finally after a bad patch of road and an amazing lil climb, the road was too good with reflectors beaming in the dark (made it look like we were driving in dubai) we reached Alibaug by 10.00. Found a motel and went for gulping some beers and some good sea food along with it in a nearby hotel. After 3 beers (JS saved one for the next day morning, yuck!) we decided to close the day and dozed off to oblivion.

Nxt day woke up early morning and checked out for Murud at 0630 hrs. Stopped in the midway at Kashid beach for some refreshing bread omlette and jumped in the sea with a rented football in hand. The sea was quite smooth and beach was good, but not much waves to my disappointment. Spent an hour dancing to the tune of the waves and relaxed for a while on those beach chairs when JS was gulping his saved GARAM beer! :-)

After a 20 minute ride we reached murud, parked our bikes and set off on the boat to the fort. We were joined by the other gang in another 5 minutes (not to mention the reception the SMAART BAOY got from the ladies) and set to roam around snapping.
After the time trial of 1 hour elapsed (that’s the time you get to see the fort) we parted ways and we got back to the jetty. Set off on the Bullet and zoomed off to pune uneventfully.

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.

Married to the Bullet:Part-2:The Lohagad Trip

Date: Oct 10

Odo at 1200

Days of Marriage: 15

Craving for a good drive and knowing no place around Pune, I persuaded my roomie Kapil (KK) and my friend Joydeep (JD) to take up a Lohagad Climb on my only familiar route the good old pune-Lonavala route. After much persuasion both of them agreed. Joy didn’t want to take his antique eliminator along and joined as my pillion. Kapil was hesitanat to take his Passion on the highway and his experience on the highway was nil.
We took the Aundh-Wakad route and reached waked and then sped off to the NH4. There is a small diversion to take otherwise you might end up on the expressway. So we waited for Kapil at the diversion to signal him. He caught up with us and we got on to the NH4. We zoomed off to lonavala and stopped at XXXX for a cup of steaming chai and waited for Kapil. After 15 minutes of wait and his presence nowhere in sight we used our business continuity plan a.k.a the mobile phone. He didn’t pick up the phone and we diecided to get on our way. Partly thru we get a call informing us that our pal has reached lonavala. So we joined him there and had breakfast and took the slight return trip to lohagadd.
There are no signboards anywhere and ppl gave us confusing directions and we finally managed to end up on the right road. We were driving and driving and there was no fort was in sight. We took a small stop at a restaurant for a chai and was duly informed that we have overshot and Lohagadd was 30 kms behind L. So we returned back in the scorching sun and found a boat ride on our way back.
But there was a slight problem. There was a descent to make which was full of gravel and kapil was the first one to go. He slid the bike by jumping around stones and somehow reached down. I was a lil hesitant on my 185 kg monster but the descend was smooth probably bcos of the (185 + 63) kgs that came along with it. We took a couple of snaps of the ducks along the water and took a speed boat ride and went for Lunch. The lunch was good and we were sulking about the climb to make.
Finally we reached Lohagad and was informed that there was 1000 steps to climb L. We started off with hope and with so many pitstops and water breaks in between and an hour of excruciating climb we reached on top. The view from the top was awesome though there was nothing but a plane ground with dilapidated buildings and a temple on top. We went around the whole fort snapping before the camera decided to call it quits. We rested on top, made an entry into the registrar and went downhill at a fast pace. We were at the foot of the fort in 20 minutes.
Had refreshing Nimbu pani from a vendor and zoomed home without any breaks.

Married to the Bullet:Part-1:The Lonavala Trip

Married to the bullet.
This is a series of trips that I have done on my bullet. First part of the series many more to follow.
Date: Oct 1, 2008
Days of Marriage: 5
Odo at 300 kms

My first long ride was to Lonavla.. a cool…60 kms from Aundh in pune to meet by cousins and my grandswho were on a National trip.. The night before couldn’t sleep thinking about powering her through the highways.

Morning got up even before usual time (that’s new for me) and slowly started the bike and headed my usual way of office. Once I got to the Highway there was nobody stopping me. I revved the bike on the NH (couldn’t take the expressway as the bikes are not allowed) to touch 50, then slowly took her to 60 and then 70 and stopped there bcos it was the run-in period.Well I could see trucks in front of me which u normally dare not overtake on any other bike but here everyone made way for the bullet. It is quite a nice sight to watch when u come on at full throttle and u can view in the rear view mirror of the truck the driver’s eyes lighting up at the sign of the bullet and then gently making way for it.

Took a break a for a cup of chai and revved her on to Lonavala.

Something that you experience on her is the inner peace she gives u when riding her. Have tried lots of bikes but nuthing like the bullet. Once u make the peace with her..you have to be gentle..ofcourse..she responds. It seemed to me like the union of the two souls and in no time I reached lonavala.

They were waiting there near the railway station. It was the first vehicle I owned and I wanted to show my bike off. My mausi (mothers sister) was standing just behind their Qualis and I powered my baby a lil bit and braked hard in front of her, the front tyre screeching to a halt just in front of her .

So all had just one question why this bulky, noisy, oil leaking machine? How can a lean guy like u ride this???
I was well prepared and suggested no better and stable bike on the Indian roads and blah blah.

The best thing is every one wanted a ride on it. The lady who got it was my cousin and the beautiful lass she is, I didn’t disappoint her.

We proceeded to INS shivaji to meet my cousin who works with the Navy and the best part was that he had got his bullet the day before, though he got it 15K cheaper through his canteen service . It was quite a sight to see two brand new bullets parked in tandem.

Left the bullet at the military base and took a quick trip to Aamby valley and got back to Lonavala. Saw Aamby valley from outside and the sunset and proceeded back to the base. From there we got both our bikes and rode back to Lonavala. Here the beautiful pillion made way for a ex-bomb with her chirpy kid.

Said adieu to them and rode my bullet crazy in the night till I literally jumped in the air over a couple of speed breakers mid way. That brought me to my senses and rode safely back home.