punYeAH !

Those of you, [ in case there were any], who wondered what was the last post all about . here it is!

I completed a round trip of Pune, & biked both ways, in a matter of 28 hrs. :D
Just cant stop gleaming about it.

The occasion -- was Sangram's Bday and a plan to surprise him by landing up at his place at midnight.
Wasnt so simple actually.

2 pillion riders had already chickened out after hearing my plans, [& giving me the you-were-the-boy-my-mom-always-warned-me-about looks]. No hard feelings pals ! SMS finally agreed, since he wasnt telling his mom anyway!

Quite naturally, I expected stiff resistance from my parents when I told them about it. What I didnt expect was that they would be so averse to the idea. Apparently they were :(
I was totally disheartened & inconsolable, and in a brattish kind-of way let them know that.
With hours left for me to board the routine ST to Pune, I made my 2nd desperate plea [of the day! I lost the total count.] to my parents. & finally, after doing something to their innumerable [justified] fears they relented. That was the instant of the last post.


Before they could call back and tell me they had changed their minds, I scooted off, picked up manpreet & was on my way to punYeAH !

Air gauge - Check
Petrol - Check
Speedometer - Not working and not enough time to repair !
Everything else, seemed in order.

The reason, for hurry, was also that I intended to cross the Khandala Ghat before nightfall, else not climb it at all ! For the uninitiated, Khandala Ghat, has very steep climbs, and hairpin bends, making it very accident-prone. Unlit roads compounded by, thick evergreen forests, means that it is pretty dark pretty early --> pretty scary !
Since I was determined not to speed extravagently, a failed Speedometer, meant that I had to rely on my familiarity with the machine, its gears and their sounds at various speeds, to make an approximate guess of how close I was to breaking my resolution.

Everything other than that, seemed to be going nice and smooth!
Left Bombay, reached Panvel By-pass road - The road was smooth and clearly well-maintained. Thereafter stopped at Dattatray, the Wada-Pav vala quite a few ppl. halt at anf for. Poured 400 Bucks of oil down the hole :D at a pump!
Since we had had more than our scheduled qouta of stops, halting once earlier, we decided that, we wudnt stop for trivial reasons, hereafter.
We halted at Khopoli, the township at the foot of the ghats. It was at this point, that it actually struck manpreet, what a tall-order it actually was. :P Till this point, this first-timer on this road, was comfortably dreaming of a roll all the way to pune. So much so for Peshwai.

That day, the vehicle didnt call for any forseen issues, so we decided to take the hills upfront!
We hadnt been half-a-km in them, when we realised that it wasnt going to be a ride around the park. For one, it was among the steepest climbs I had driven on. & if that wasnt concern enough, our particular configuration, posed a very tricky situation.
Manpreet being considerable heavier than me, impressed his weight on the rear wheel. So on this upclimb, this meant that any start from near-zero speeds was accompanied by a wheelie. The power of the rear wheel wasnt been transfered to the front wheel, and it resulted in a clutchful of extremely tense moments. Manpreet caustically reminded me, that this prolly was one of the reasons, why my parents wanted me to avoid the road in the first place. Ya ! Like that hadnt crossed my mind, and was the exact moment I wanted to be reminded of it ! A quickfix solution, that had to be implemented on the move, was to transfer our weights forward. So with the bike, in slow motion, I moved by butt on to the tank, and manpreet moved into the drivers's seat, [only literally though] . With this quick thinking, [cough cough], we managed to get past our initial jitters.

Reached Khandala almost uneventfully thereafter.

The road past khandala, to lonavala was breathtaking to say the least. It seemed like, this was where one shud, give speed a damn, throw off the helmet and zoom about at crazy speeds. DIDNT DO IT [incase any 'adultified' adults are reading this]!
Past lonavala, the climate got cooler and much pleasant. The sun was low in the sky, and wind was gently breezing past my hair. The road was straight and top-geared implying that I could relax for a bit.
I almost in an overdrive of photographic enthusiasm, got the bike off-road, and I didnt even have the camera. :P Manpreet got real wild, and saw to it that I spoke minimal thereafter, and didnt doze off either [which is often the case, if i dont talk for long].

As darkness, set in , it brought unexpected & unwelcome showers. SHIT !
The roads got all slippery, and with the winds lashing the helmet windscreen, had to pull it up and remove the glasses as well. Shorts, a thin cotton sleeveless and a whipping cold, with showers freezed me from the inside. U know you are freezing, when parts of your body, that you didnt even know had temperature sensors, scream for relief from the cold. Stopping was of no use, since there wasnt a shelter anyway & failing daylight, the last 25 kms, could still stall me for good.
But then, near Dehu Road, things got worse -- rain, sweat, chilling winds and unaccostomed to driving meant that, my calves cramped up slightly. Anyway, I trudged along for another km or so, finally halting at a roadside joint, waiting for the rain to subside.

After 15 tense moments it finally did, and we got to move on. Thereafter followed pretty clear intructions, given by Sushants' Dad and reached Pune Central to get some shopping done !

Masti @ Pune & Return Journey -- later !
Way to sleepy now !