It had been a magnificent year of 2010 for me, I had quite a lot of trips so far on my beloved bike & little did I knew, that it was just a beginning. The month of June 2010 brought enormous joy to my life which made it the most un-forgettable month of the year. I had just been to Rajasthan, Alibaug & Shirdi in first week of June itself & urged for even more trips in upcoming days. Many of my friends who missed out on our last trip to Shirdi, did wished to join us for another bike trip soon & so we were set planning for another road trip again in upcoming days. It had started raining occasionally as it was the month of June & Malshej Ghat seemed to be a nice option for our trip. We had a few other options but we decided to go alongwith Malshej ghat. Initially at least 10 of us were supposed to go on this trip to malshej ghat & none of them apart from myself, Shailesh & Pravin had been to malshej before. So my other friends were not so enthusiastic about the place called as ‘Malshej ghat’ but I hyped the beauty of Malshej to such an extent that everyone wanted to see it with their own eyes & experience the beauty of Malshej.
A short description of Malshej as per wikipedia:
Malshej Ghat (Marathi: माळशेज घाट) is a mountain pass in the Western Ghats range in Pune district of Maharashtra, India. The site is nestled in the lofty rugged
hills of the Western Ghats. The best time to visit is between August and September. At this time of the year, the hills are clothed in a soothing shade of mint green and the weather is cool due to the monsoons. Known for its misty tops and ice cold cascades at this time of the year, the site is a very popular weekend getaway for most of the city's residents at that time of the year. It has got number of waterfalls and the greenery is just awesome during the monsoons
The site is home to hundreds of different kinds of flora and fauna especially the avian population such as quails, rails, crakes, flamingos and cuckoos.
So the Riders/Pillions for the ride were decided as follows almost a week before the ride.
Riders
Shailesh (Honda Unicorn)
Pravin (Bajaj Pulsar Classic 150 )
Najmuddin (His friend Nikhil’s Honda Unicorn)
Percy (Yamaha FZ-S)
Myself (Yamaha FZ-16 LE)
Pillions
Sneha
Shruti
Tushar
Percy's friend
Najju's friend
I was assured this has to be a great expedition with so many of my finest buddies riding together to one of the best locations around mumbai. But as we all know, things don’t work out always as planned. It was Saturday 19th of June 2010, the day before our actual ride & things began to fall apart from sequence.
The four major setbacks to our ride were as follows,
A) Pravin backed out of the ride due to some private reasons. As a result one of our pillion had to stay back.
B) Najju could not get his friend Nikhil's Honda Unicorn as it was due for some service or some other reason. As a result, Najju & his pillion friend were out of the ride too.
C) Percy's pillion friend denied riding at last moment so he opted out of the ride too.
D) Shruti backed away from the ride for some personal reasons.
To sum it up, it was just myself, Shailesh, Sneha & Tushar at the end of the day for tomorrows big event (which didn’t seemed big anymore). Sneha was too resolute to abandon the ride & so was I. Shailesh had no issues to ride either & Tushar is known as 'Always Ready for Anything' guy in our group so he was definitely in. Hence we decided to ride with just two bikes instead of five bikes as expected. I felt very bad for Najju as he was amongst the most desperate ones for this ride & definitely heartbroken due to his inability to ride with us in the absence of any extra bike. Hence I decided to persuade Percy any possible way for the ride so that Najju can ride pillion with him at least & enjoy the beauty of Malshej while I get company of two of my best buddies altogether (As it turns out, it proved to be best for me later)
I met Percy around 8.30 pm & we both went to fix a puncture in my rear tyre. I was kind of disappointed to have first puncture in my new bike just in advance from one of the most anticipated rides of my lifetime so far. While the mechanic fixed the puncture, I tried to convince Percy to join us. He desired to join the ride himself but he was upset since his pillion had cancelled the plan & he was looking forward to ride with the subjected Pillion since quiet a long time. It took some time but at the end of our conversation, he decided to screw with his pillion & join the ride. His only condition was no heavy rainfall at night or else his parents would not allow him to get out of house at 5.00 am for a bike trip to one of the deadliest ghats around mumbai. Now that was an understandable condition & hence I couldn't reason with him on that, so I just asked him to pray for NO rains.
It looked fine now, 3 bikes confirmed & I wanted to call Najju right away & inform him to get ready as his pillion seat was practically confirmed. But I didn't call him that soon. Well I had a reason,
I & Najju love to see that part of Dil Chahta hai movie again & again where Amir khan gets up Saif ali khan from his sleep & asks him to get ready for goa trip all of a sudden. I planned on doing something similar here although riding to Malshej is nowhere similar to Goa, but what the heck!! :)
So all set, I confirmed with Tushar & asked him to reach Kalyan station by 6.30 am by train & we would pick him up from there. Tried to sleep but couldn't due to obvious delight & some other unmentionable reason too. Slept somewhere around 2.00 am finally & got up with the alarm at 4.30 am. Immediately ran out to the window to see if it had rained & thank god there wasn't a drop of rain. Called up Percy/Sneha & they were on schedule. I went in to have a shower by 5.00 am & all of a sudden it struck to me,
If I go ahead & try my little Dil chahta hai episode with najju, a number of things may go wrong like,
a) His parents might be disturbed if we all go so early to his house.
b) He may take a lot of time to finish his usual chores & get us too late from our decided schedule.
c) He may be too deep asleep & might not get up at all or wouldn’t wanna go for the trip..
Naah, that last one is not possible.. Just one tight slap would be enough to get him out of his sleep & back to his senses :)
So I called him right away & he didn't answer. Can’t blame him though, as you can't expect anyone to answer your call in one ring at 5.00 am so I called him again & again for a number of times but no luck. I was having a devilish smile for now I knew I had to go for the Dil Chahta hai style as I had no other option. But Luckily or Unluckily, the bugger answered the phone in a sleepy voice after 4-5 attempts.
ME - Kya kar raha hai saale ? (Wassup dude ?)
[What a lovely question to ask someone whom you just forced out of sleep at 5.00 am]
Najju - So raha hu yaar (I’m Sleeping, Dude)
ME - Chal uth ab, get ready we are going to Malshej
Najju - How can I join you all ? I have no bike.
ME - Percy k saath aaja pillion seat pe (Join with Percy)
Najju - Hmmm.. Ok
ME - Get ready fast in half an hour.
I got ready in a jiffy thereafter while Percy was already on his way after refueling his bike as I had refueled my bike the earlier day. We met in my garage by 5.20 am, warmed up the bikes & fixed my slightly broken rear number plate till then. Left home by 5.30 am & picked up Sneha & Najju enroute. I called up Tushar & the idiot had not left his home at malad yet. I was very annoyed at him but had no option so we decided to keep on our schedule & wait for Tushar at Kalyan station instead. It was nice chilly morning & we were enjoying the cool breeze. No sign of rainfall whatsoever but I expected it to rain at least in later half of the day when we reach Malshej. As soon as we reached NH3, we gunned our engines & we were cruising at high speeds crossing 110+ kmph a number of times with ease as there was no much traffic at all & the highway was well lit & smooth roads all the way greeted us. Percy & myself had ridden extensively in cities but we had never been to NH3 together so we were ripping our bikes to our hearts extent. Crossed Thane in no time & we took a small break somewhere before outskirts of Kalyan-bhiwandi bypass road. Chilled out for some time & all of us feasted on some snacks brought by Sneha for the trip. Its always good to get girls for trips, they always end up managing the food issues to certain extent. Clicked some pics with Sneha's Digi-Cam but the pics didn't came nice due to some setting error & low light condition apparently as it was just before sunrise. Called up Shailesh & he was surprised to know our location as he didn't expect us to reach Kalyan before 8.00 am. He had just got up & would take at least an hour to get ready & pick up Tushar from Kalyan station before we all could finally regroup. I called up Tushar & he had just reached Dadar station & it would take him at least another hour to reach Kalyan.
First click of the day
So officially we were too early now & had some time to kill. We sustained our journey slowly for the residual part till kalyan as we had ample time now & the roads post kalyan-bhiwandi bypass were not at all in good shape as we all knew because we had ridden on these roads a number of occasions before. I thought of going to Shahad instead of Kalyan as Kalyan station is usually too overcrowded, while we could relax easily on railway platform of shahad station. So we reached Shahad station by 7.00 am & thus began the long wait for Tushar & Shailesh to arrive. I, Najju & Percy were having a good time teasing Sneha on one or the other topic while we all relaxed at Shahad station & time seemed to be passing soon.
A pic on the railway station
Shailesh & Tushar were in constant touch with me & I was urging them again & again to reach ASAP but due to end numbers of reasons which I don’t remember now, they reached Shahad station not before 9.15 am. As soon as I got a call from Tushar that they were reaching Shahad, we left shahad station & met them enroute just outside shahad station. We did not waste any time in formal greetings as we were already too late & our first destination for the day was 'Birla mandir' which was just a few kms ahead. We reached there by 9.45 am & then we all of us formally met & greeted each other in our own special way by exchanging a lot of bad words for those who came late. Anyways that was all friendly & we went ahead for the darshan in temple. Clicked some nice pics there.
Birla temple
From L-R -> Percy, Mitesh, Najmuddin, Tushar & Shailesh.
Sneha
Post darshan, it was time to exchange pillions, Tushar hopped on with me on my FZ while Sneha accompanied Shailesh on his Unicorn since she was havin way too problem on the small seat of FZ & Unicorn seats were far too comfortable. Tushar clicked lots of nice pics while sitting pillion with me.
W left Birla mandir by 11.00 am after spending some really good time there & next on the schedule was 'Titwala Ganpati mandir' which was again just a few kms ahead.
Brief description & history about Titwala ganesh mandir is given below.
Titwala (Marathi: टिटवाळा) is a small town near Kalyan in Maharashtra, India.situated at the banks of seasonal river Kalu, It is the site of a venerated temple of Ganesha, and also the putative site of the hermitage where Shakuntala was born.
The Siddhivinayak Mahaganapati Temple at Titwala is a popular temple. Lakhs of pilgrims flood here on 'Angarika Chaturthi' a holy day in Hindu culture.
Tuesday, the day of Ganesha, attracts a fair number of 'Bhakt', worshippers, to the Temple. A scenic place surrounded by lush greenery all around attracts lots of couples and tourists from suburbs of mumbai. Though a part of KDMC, it is relatively backward in terms of infrastructure and civic amenties, the town, of late is slowly put on the developmental path with the recent growth in reality sector. Titwala(e) is getting urbanized with recent population increase and increasing share of young people while the western side is largely conservative owing to the large number of native inhabitants
History
By propitiating Ganesh Idol, Consecrated by sage Kanva, Devi Shakuntala & king Dushyant came together after a long period of disagreement. Shakuntala & king Dushyant got married before the original idol of Ganesha. The original Idol from Mahabharat period vanished, while constructing lake.
Peshwa Saradar Ramchandra Mehendale got the present idol. The Madhavrao Peshwe consecrated the present day idol.
Travel
Titwala is the third railway station from Kalyan on the Central Line. It can be reached by suburban rail.
All 3 bikes of our group were riding at easy pace in a close formation & we reached Titwala by 11.30 am. We parked our bikes & got darshan of mahaganpati quickly.A view of Titwala ganpati temple.
Thereafter we all went out of the temple & were fascinated with the adjacent lakeside boating facility in the vicinity. We were no doubt behind schedule but all of us wanted to go for boating so without any second thoughts, tickets were bought & we hopped on the boats & started pedaling those pedal boats. We were in two boats since the maximum capacity of one boat was 4 people.
Some pics clicked by us in the lake.
A little splash of water from somebody on one boat to another boat lead to a big water fight where everyone of us started splashing water off the lake on the other boat & at times on the person in same boat too. I don’t remember who started it but when we were finally out on dry land, it came to our mind that each & every one of us was completely drenched in water from top to bottom & our entire clothes along with our bags, jackets were fully wet. People around were gazing us in disbelief as to how we got downright showery in a completely sunny afternoon. Anyways we couldn't care less as we were having damn fun.
A picture post our water splash event.
It was past 12.00 pm & we decided to get back on roads as we still had a long distance to cover before our final destination
'The Mighty Malshej'
I was worried for my rear tyre it had a puncture which i fixed yesterday, so I decided to check my tyre pressure which I did at a local tyrewalla who did so with his old age air guages. (Big mistake.) Finally a bit more convinced, I was riding again at decent speeds along with the rest of the group. We had been riding for at least an hour now & all of us were hungry so we decided to have some snacks for now & have a mega lunch when we reach malshej. We stopped at a small village enroute & had some fresh hot Bhajiya/Vada pavs.
I gave my Vada pav to Sneha (Moti) just to pose for the pic below & after clicking the pic, she ate my vada pav too in an instant :(
All of us loved the delicious snacks & had it to the full extent. The person who was making the vada pavs inquired where we were going & when we told we were off to Malshej, he made a comment which disappointed us all a bit. According to him it hadn't rained at all in that region & malshej wasn't even 10% as beautiful as it would be just after a couple of months from now. He suggested us to visit in coming months instead of today. A bit disappointed but not disheartened altogether, we decided to keep going & enjoy whatever malshej has to offer us for today & then maybe return once again in coming months.. (After so much of problems in planning first Malshej trip, I was sure at that point that we would never be riding to Malshej again any sooner than next year but little did I knew back then, Malshej is not gonna let us away from its astounding beauty in coming months & I would end up visiting malshej two more times in just a couple of months & so would all the rest of my group)
Anyways, back on road after a fantastic snacks break, we decided not to stop anywhere now as we still had approx. 50 kms more to reach the foothills of Malshej ghat from where the actual expedition begins. The views were getting better & better by every passing km & as we reached on doorstep to Malshej & we all had a feeling that this is gonna be more amazing then we anticipated. Percy & myself were enjoying the views, the roads & the ride & often ripping the bikes to 100 kmph+ mark when the roads were good with no traffic around. Shailesh maintained an average speed of around 60 & hence he trailed behind many a times & we had to stop for him to catch up. Saw many amazing views enroute but didn't stop for pics as we were already late & anyways Tushar was constantly clicking pics sitting behind me as pillion so we did not worry about capturing the beauty.
My Favourite Pic
Finally at one particular point, the view was so amazing that I couldn't dare move ahead without some of the pics with us in the background so I pulled over to the side of the road & so did Percy. All 4 of us were awestruck with the view & started clicking pics in every possible way. Shailesh & Sneha reached there after some time & joined the photo session too. I'll let the pics do the talking.
My Personal favourite Pic
Our beauties
It was definitely the foothills of Malshej as we could see the high mountains clearly from that point so as much as we wanted to stay there & enjoy the view, we were dying more to ride ahead & discover what else does malshej has in store for us. A little bit of teasing Sneha again just for fun as we made her walk almost a few 100 feet before finally letting her sit on shailesh's bike again.
Ghats had definitely started with steep roads & bending curves every now & then. I had exchanged My FZ with Percy as I still had a feeling that something was wrong with my rear tyre & hence Percy took over my FZ while I was riding his black monster. Riding FZ in those ghats was amazing fun. Cornering with FZ is almost double the fun as it would be on any other bike. I am not so good at cornering but just couldn't resist with those tempting corners & amazing roads so did try a few times but eventually decided against it as I was riding with Tushar who was quiet heavier than me & there was a good chance I might go off balance in an event of urgency (Which proved to be correct later.) So just slowed down & decided to ride together with shailesh & also enjoy the amazing views which kept on mesmerizing us with every next turn we took. Encountered a few small streams of waterfalls where Sneha wanted to take a halt but we did not stop as we wanted to see what more Malshej has to offer. Clicked some more pics
Finally reached the top of ghat in some more time by 2.30 pm & enjoyed the view. As told by the locals, everything looked dry. Nevertheless it was far more greenery all around for most of us & everyone seemed to enjoy the views. I'll let the photos do the talking again.
Stopping where it says DO NOT STOP - Isn't it fun in breaking rules sometimes ? ;)
We decided to move a bit ahead in search of some dhaba for food but no luck for few kms. Finally we saw a small road off the state highway NH222 to a small settlement which looked like a hotel/resort. Few pics on the way to the resort
We parked our bikes in Pay&Park there & on enquiring we were informed this is the MTDC resort of Malshej Ghat. We went inside in search of a restaurant & did find the restaurant but unfortunately it had no food to offer. Disappointed but not so much because the view from that place was far more amazing than the views we had seen earlier so we decided to venture a bit ahead & were surprised to see an amazing stretch of land just behind the MTDC resort which gave us view of entire Malshej valley. We decided to settle down at the edge of the valley on some of the stones & enjoy whatever snacks/food we had. We all guys except Najju went for a small PEE break & standing on the edge of the cliff, facing the slow gushing winds, I was just about to relieve myself since I was awaiting this Pee break since quiet a long time. It was such a relief but one strong blow of wind towards my direction from the valley while I was peeing & the flow of Pee stream was reversed directly towards me due to the strong winds. All my friends laughed a lot at that moment & they learned from my mistake & did not dare pee in the valley while facing the wind force. I realized Malshej was teaching me a lesson, it was something like this,
'Stupid city dwellers, You Pee on my beautiful valley & I'll make you Pee all over you'
Nevertheless I apologized to the Mighty Malshej & turned around as I had to desperately empty the rest of my tank in other safe direction.
All relieved now, we were back to the stone bed where Najju & Sneha had settled themselves along with the snacks all out from bags. We chit chatted, admired the beauty of valley, teased each other, clicked pics, had snacks, played some stupid games, passed on jokes, enjoyed seeing the beautiful girls who seemed to be newly wed & were here on their honeymoon trip as per Sneha’s logic after seeing their hands full of mehendi but that didn’t scare us off. Finally we decided to leave the place at 4.00 pm.
Some of the pics clicked there
Have a look at that tunnel (in the middle of the pic)we just crossed
What a pose, sirjee
Amazing valley.. Ain't it??
Thank God Sneha didn't climb with us on that rock
We didn't want to leave that place & wished to see the sunset in the valley from that very cliff but our stomach didn't allow us to bear the hunger anymore & we frantically required proper lunch so we were back on our bikes & on the road after a short photo-session in the parking lot.
On enquiring, we were told there was no dhaba nearby so we have to ride down from malshej in order to feast ourselves. So we officially turned around & started our return journey. Sneha was very sad as she wanted to enjoy the cold waterfalls but there were not much waterfalls around which were accessible so we had no options. The descent was quicker than we thought & we reached a small stream of waterfall which we had seen on our way up. We wanted to get in the water & get wet at least for some time but it was already past 4.30 pm & all of us were very damn hungry. Shailesh opted out initially from going in the water but what the heck, we all wanted to go in so we just parked our bikes, took our bags, jackets & rushed to the streams of water fall. First touch of water on our bare hands & we had common words from our mouths ' bohat thanda paani hai yaar' (water is too cold)
But that wasn’t gonna stop us & we all were completely drenched in that cold water streams in no time. There was quiet a crowd building up so I, Najju, Percy & Tushar decided to trek upwards the hill in search of better location of waterfall to enjoy without any crowd. The climb was not so difficult & only a good 10-15 minutes of climb upwards the hills & rocks, we found an amazing big stream of waterfall & quite a bigger pool of water developed underneath it. We decided to go down again & call Sneha/Shailesh & enjoy our new found location together in a group. It was a difficult task for Sneha to climb up the hills bare foot but Najju & Shailesh did a good task guiding her & lending a helping hand or rather i should say helping her throughout the climb. Finally we made it to our secret beautiful spot & then it was fun time. Splashing in water, enjoying the cold streams & luckily we had a pack of biscuits left which we enjoyed in the pool itself.
Pics time..
It seems I'm freezing
Finally it was past 5.00 pm i guess & it was definitely late now so we changed our clothes as the weather was too cold to ride with the wet clothes. I took over my FZ again now (I don’t know why but I just did) & we started our return journey. It was just a few kms from here for ghats to end & we can find a nice dhaba for food. Within minutes into the ride, I & Percy started ripping the bikes & cornering on every corner as we were all charged up now after getting fresh in the waterfalls. We came way too far way in some time so I pulled over & so did Percy. We waited for over 10 minutes for shailesh/Sneha to reach to us & when they reached we signaled them to continue ahead & we would catch up with them after relaxing for some time. Eventually after further 10 minutes of chitchatting on the side of the road, we decided to get back on the road & catch up with shailesh who was probably a few kms ahead of us by now. We ripped our bikes hard again. I was leading while Percy was keeping up with me at a safe distance of about 100 feet. I was enjoying cruising on the amazing roads surrounded with trees from both sides & all those lovely corners which can be easily ridden at speeds above 70-80 kmph. I was on a roll, my bike was in my total control & she honoured all my commands & the day just seemed to get better & better but I had no idea Universe has its own plans to prove me wrong altogether in a just a few up-coming minutes.
It all started when I zipped passed comfortably a bike carrying 3 passenger at speeds of about 90 kmph & noticed just about 300 metres ahead there was a decent right handed turn which seemed to be easy for even the speeds above 100 kmph. As I neared the corner, just about 200 feets from the corner I went down on accelerator & decided to take on the corner at speeds of about 70-80 kmph just with use of engine braking & no accelerator until I see the other side of the corner clearly. I let go off the accelerator completely when the last speeds I saw on my Speedo was 91 kmph & all of a sudden a SUV (Mahindra Xylo most probably) emerged from other side of the road just past the corner & came all over to my side of the lane after finishing the corner.
I knew if I wouldn’t apply brakes now, I'm gonna crash right into the SUV in few seconds since that SUV was charging up as fast as I was going in its direction, so I applied front as well as rear brakes ensuring not to lock the front disc which would end up in a disastrous skid on the road. All the while I was gradually coming to as much as left side of my lane without running out of the road so that I could let that SUV correct its path & go back to its lane & avoid crashing with the me. My speeds might have slowed down upto 60 kmph or so when the SUV driver just adjusted its lane after seeing me in the opposite lane & the SUV crossed by us with just about a feet or so between us. SUV was at about 70+ speeds when it passed by me just before I could reach the corner & I had managed to slow down considerably by that time but little did I knew that the damage was already done.
I had come too wide on the left side of the road in order to avoid crashing with the SUV head on & unluckily the entire side of the road was full of fine gravels usually found on roads. I had to move back to the centre of my lane & my speed was still quiet high so I had to apply brakes again this time much harder to avoid going over the road & crash outside the road. I applied the brakes, front tyre skidded due to gravels, I let go the front brake a bit before applying it again & bike did stabilize for maybe just a micro second until it felt the earth beneath me just moved as my rear tyre skidded on the gravels heavily way beyond my control & gave away (I came to know after 2 days of the crash while checking my rear tyre pressure which was 38 PSI as against the recommended 33 PSI. My tyre was over inflated by the stupid tyre guy at Titwala which most probably may have caused me to lose the traction since the rear wheel was over inflated).
In an instant, I was on my way down on road, seeing the whole world upside down. I didn't let go my bike's handles until it almost came to a standstill just at the end of the left edge of the road & thankfully as I was trying to do, I didn’t go & crash outside the road which could have been far worse.
People say you see your whole life pass in a flash before your eyes when you are in a near death situation, well nothing of that sort with me. (Maybe I’m too young to die or I’m just a pure case of memory loss)
I was well awake & in the reality the whole time of my crash. The bike did drag me along with my helmet on the rough concrete road for quite a few feets & I could hear the rough concrete scratch up the outside of my helmet thoroughly while my head was completely safe, stable & out of any shock inside the helmet.
(Now I often wonder seeing my all scratched up helmet that how it would have been if I was to be without my costly strong & safe AGV helmet worth Rs 2.5 k)
World stopped spinning in few seconds & I was lying down right beneath my bike with left leg over the bikes tank & right leg under the bikes crash guard. I wasn’t dizzy at all & seeing the fantastic view of the road right from the road level itself. Never been so close to the tarmac ever. I was shaken a bit over what just happened so got back to senses, tried getting up & did manage to get up from a complete sleeping position on road to sitting position. Tushar was in sight Just a few feet away from where I & my bike were.
He was on the ground too & attempting to wake up on his own. I called out to him & he lifted up his hand gesturing something.
Next, what I saw was the most relieving sight ever in my life.
Next, what I saw was the most relieving sight ever in my life.
I saw Percy & Najju approaching the corner & slowing down in an instant pulling over to the left side of the road. I didn't manage to see the look on their face but I'm pretty sure I heard some loud rumbling of something like ' Oh Fu*k how did this happen' from their mouths while hastily parking their bike close to me & rushing to help us.
I'm sure it must have been a dreadful sight for both of them & they responded pretty well. By now I was thoroughly in my sanities & started gauging the damages to my body at first & I remember exchanging a few words with Tushar as to how he was & his positive reply got me back to life too. I guess Najju & Percy both were terrified to see the my heavy bike over one of my leg so they rushed to help me first but I knew my leg was absolutely fine & protected by the crash guard but I felt Tushar was wounded much more than me & he didn't express any pain on his face so I recollect requesting one of them, either Najju or Percy to go & have a look at Tushar & help him get back on feet. I guess Najju went over to Tushar after both of them successfully lifted off my bike & kept her on the side stand. Percy aided me get up & then all of us came together again. Meanwhile the 3 passenger bike which we had overtaken just before stopped by us & helped us all gauging the damage.
There was a lot of helter-skelter here & there & all I could remember 5 of them (Percy, Najju & those other 3 guys) trying whatever they could to help us. I saw one of those guys withdrawing a Rs 20 note from his wallet & handing over his friend asking him to fetch a bottle of mineral water from a shop just a few 100 feet away (I was surprised as to where the shop came from in the middle of the jungle & on my future trips to malshej I had tried to search that shop & that corner where this accident happened but I couldn't succeed.)
There was a lot of helter-skelter here & there & all I could remember 5 of them (Percy, Najju & those other 3 guys) trying whatever they could to help us. I saw one of those guys withdrawing a Rs 20 note from his wallet & handing over his friend asking him to fetch a bottle of mineral water from a shop just a few 100 feet away (I was surprised as to where the shop came from in the middle of the jungle & on my future trips to malshej I had tried to search that shop & that corner where this accident happened but I couldn't succeed.)
Questions in full swing poured in from all of the guys as to how it all happened but all we could explain to them was a short description of how i skidded due to rear wheel on gravels in order to survive crashing a SUV charging up after a corner in my lane. I remember one of those 3 guys exclaiming in marathi to his friends & recalling that fast SUV driving recklessly across them too just a few 100 metres back. Meanwhile I had completed the damage assessment on my wounds. Few negligible scratches on my right hand fingers & knuckles, two big holes in my jeans on right knee area & entire knee scrapped up well. My favourite Nike jersey torn from top right shoulder with a big round hole of about 1 inch in diameter leaving the same size of wound on the shoulder & lastly the greatest damage was on my right hand which was scratched for almost 7-8 inches below my elbow with skin completely peeled off & blood gushing out slowly from countless little cuts on my hand. All the wounds were concealed with the gravels & mud on the road so they were not evidently noticeable. Najju & Percy helped me remove my jersey & get some air. Meanwhile Tushar's wound assessment was also completed by our fellow friends & by god's grace he was far less scratched up then I was. His wounds were prominently much lesser in the same areas where I was wounded, right arm & shoulder along with right knee
One of the guy from the trio came running with a bottle of water in his hand & then the senior most of the 3 guys took the bottle & started to pour water slowly on my wounds to clear off all the gravels. It had been almost 15 minutes since the accident & the pain that I faced in those entire 15 minutes combined could not match the pain I went through with just the first drop of fresh water on the biggest wound on my hand. It was a slow agonizing process & he cleaned the entire wound with water while percy/najju firmly holding my right hand as if I would run away any moment from that excruciating pain. The process was repeated with my shoulder & knee wounds which were far less wounded then my hand so a bit of relief there. The injuries were almost clear of all mud & gravels & then I almost cried with just a thorough look at my hand which was almost un-skinned entirely exposing the light layer of pink skin underneath. I didn't worry about the wound; all I worried was for that my hand would never be same again & the mark would always be there.
By the time, Tushar's wounds were cleared with fresh water too & then the small medical kit in my bike was completely utilized with whatever antiseptic cream, bandages we had to apply to all wounds & cover them with cotton bandages. There was not enough for both of us so we shared somehow & then decided to stop at any clinic in a nearby village. We all had stabilized by now & those 3 guys decided to leave as the situation was well under our control. I Couldn’t figure out how could I thank them for whatever they did for us, giving a few bucks was an option but that would seem too cheap in return for their generosity their help was not measurable in monetary terms. So finally I thanked all 3 of them from bottom of my heart & so did Percy, Najju & Tushar & they left on their way.
I was dying to assess the damage to my bike so now it seemed to be an appropriate time after we were being taken care of. At the very first look, I could figure out that the handlebar & crash guards had totally taken the beating & were almost useless now. Handle was bend downwards to the tank while right side of crash guard was almost more than 50 % away from where it was supposed to be. Headlight & right side indicator were scratched completely from the right side & exhaust was all scratched up. My bike key was still inside the bike so I got the bike in neutral & attempted to start the bike & with a few crying cranks, my baby was back to life. I was much more relieved now to know at least the vitals of my sweetheart bike were running fine & the damage was just from outside. I wanted to ride her but before even I could try, I was straightaway angrily denied by both Percy & Najju from doing so. I insisted a bit to ride the bike like a small baby crying for chocolate but damn, they were strict like a caring mother. So all I could do was listen to them.
I dont think I actually thanked them there itself for all their efforts but I know Najju/Percy since quiet a long time so didn't dare to thank them there itself since it would mean a straight slap on my face by both of them for thanking them. My other T-shirt was still wet so decided to wear my torn jersey back but Najju did not let me do so & handed over his comfortable sweatshirt type jacket which he was wearing all throughout the morning & it could be easily worn by me since it had a chain in middle. I wondered how lucky really I am to have my best buddies around in the times when I need them the most.
So we hopped onto the bikes again, I wanted to sit on my baby only so Percy being more experienced, he took over my crashed bike while Najju happily took Tushar as pillion on Percy's FZ. We had contacted Shailesh from the accident site itself & I had spoken to him personally about our accident & told him not to worry as we were fine. We had asked them to wait for us wherever they were but it took us too long to re-commence our journey so Shailesh/Sneha got impatient & had started their journey in our direction. I kept on asking Percy how is the engine response of my bike, how is the power delivery, how are gears, how is clutch & accelerator etc. He patiently answered each & every one of my concern in detail. In summary, by bike was actually fine like me, with only visual damages from outside & no internal injuries. My hand & knee pain was subsidizing & it pained now only when i tried to stretch my hand/knee too suddenly. We continued riding for some more kms when we saw shailesh/sneha coming from opposite direction. So we slowed down in order to let shailesh take a U-turn & we all re-grouped again after almost an hour but didn't stop since we were looking for a doctor's clinic desperately.
Shailesh informed me there was a village just a few kms ahead & we reached there in no time. It was a sunday evening so i was too worried if we could find any clinic open but God was with us this time. Got a nice little clinic right by the roadside & we parked our bikes. There were just two young girls who seemed like interns/assistants/Nurse. I went in & inquired if we can see a doctor & she inquired what it was all about. I told her in short about our accident & rolled over the sleeve of my jacket to show her the wound. She asked me to get inside the clinic & called out her colleague for help with all the required stuff. My jacket was removed again & by the time all 5 of my friends had surrounded me for the assessment of my wounds again. Najju/Percy seemed ok with the sight but Sneha was not. She didn't utter a word & was in widespread shock I guess. Shailesh was cool headed as customary & he did try to boost me up by saying that I would be fine soon (though I knew that’s not true.) Tushar looked cool as always as if nothing had happened. I tapped at Sneha's hand while she was still in disbelief over what had happened, I assured her everything was fine but she didn't seem to catch a word, nor utter a single word (now this was unusual for us).
Girls.. Always emotional, ready to cry any moment & I just wished as a last hope for her not to cry there & thankfully she didn’t.
Both the nurses started working their magic on my wound, cleaned it with Savlon, applied some cream & started bandaging it. Tushar was awaiting his turn so we asked another nurse to look after Tushar's wounds & so did she.
One after one, I exposed all three of my major wounds to the nurse attending me & she was surprised every time seeing the new wounds as she thought I was just hurt oh hand. Finally after all done, she asked if I was hurt anywhere else? :) I had a naughty smile that moment but I controlled the emotions & said.
'NO' (There was such a relief on her face then)
'NO' (There was such a relief on her face then)
Now I don’t know if it was the after accident effect or what, but I felt the nurse attending me was indeed beautiful & quiet young to be a nurse. I had kind of a crush on her in those few close moments. I was just lost in my thoughts when she nursed my wounds, so when she suddenly said I would need an antiseptic injection, I couldn't deny & then immidiately I cursed myself since I knew the injection would be sting like 'Salt on a wound' but to my surprise that big injection hurt quiet less maybe because it was injected on my butt by a nice young nurse whom I found to be beautiful. Tushar was next & as always, that guys had a smile on his face. We all were a happy group by now & started passing jokes & comments especially after my group of friends found out my crush for the nurse. Sneha made full use of the clinic washroom to change her wet clothes from waterfall as she couldn't change right there like we guys did so I made fun of her that how selfish she is to go & get ready with make up & all while her friends just met with an accident. We all laughed nicely over that & some other jokes & felt for a moment, nothing went wrong at all today.
Our work at the clinic was done & had to say goodbye to the beautiful nurse. My friends did joke about requesting her number for a date or something but I gave it a pass. Some sweet memories have to come to finale there itself in order to persist being sweet forever. Exchanged few final words with the nurse enquiring about how long it would take for us to get our wounds healed & she wrote a few prescriptions for me & I got a last memory in form of her writing which was also beautiful as against the writing of doctors generally :)
Thanked her for the help, paid the bill which was quiet under Rs 200 for both me & tushar while I expected at least Rs 400-500 with all those injections etc. Well, she charged us less which may be a sign that she liked me too :)
Perhaps I wouldn’t ever find out.
Perhaps I wouldn’t ever find out.
Left the clinic on good happy note finally & found a nice little dhaba within few kms of starting the ride again. We all pulled over & ordered lots & lots of food. Non veg delicacies for Shailesh, Najju, Percy & Me while Tushar & Sneha enjoyed their veg dishes. At the end at around 6.15 pm we had our sumptuous much deserved & much awaited lunch & by god it was tasty. Some of the pics at lunch table
Post lunch we all discussed how stupid I was to not wear any of the safety gears that I was carrying along with me in my
bag pack. I had everything in my bag which would have made me walk scratch less from my accident if I had worn them.
I had elbow/knee guards which would have saved my entire hand & knee.
I had decent hand gloves to save my hands even from those small bruises.
I had a nice thick denim jacket which would have easily saved my shoulder from scratching up.
I did not wear any of them just because none of my other 5 friends had any of that protective stuff so I felt like an idiot riding along with all that safety gear while rest of my group rode unprotected.
Anyways it was of no use to cry over it now, I just swore to myself not to repeat my mistake again & after seeing my wounds, even the rest of my group accepted the fact that all my gears could have saved my skin & so even Shailesh/Najju/Percy were convinced to get all the gears soon & henceforth ride on long trips only with enough basic safety gears.
My wounds were paining every now & then but it didn't bother me much & I had been pillion since quiet a long time now so wanted to ride my baby again. I discussed my intention to ride again for the rest of the journey but none of them was willing to even let me think about riding today & somewhere I don’t blame them. After few discussions, finally I expressed my factual concerns to all of them & acknowledged the following facts whole heartedly,
Yes, I know I just had been through the biggest accident of my life.
Yes, I have been injured too badly & may not be able to ride comfortably today at least.
Yes, My wounds are bandaged & I need to rest on the pillion seat until I reach home safely.
And most important of all,
Yes, I am afraid to ride again as I'm no longer as confident as I was just a few hours ago.
But I wanted to overcome this fear as soon as possible.
I want to be in love with my bike again & not think of it as a killing machine.
I want to learn from my mistakes today & adapt accordingly for future.
Yes I know I got knocked down, but I wanna get up again..
Right now..
This very instant...
Right now..
This very instant...
Well, that was just a dramatical summary of what I expressed to all my friends on the lunch table & finally after some more convincing, especially with Shailesh backing me up a bit more, they all allowed me to ride but not from here since these were still the dangerous village roads & it would be safe for me to ride from Kalyan city instead.
Couldn't ask for anything more, so happily finished our lunch & got out to my bike. Clicked a few pics as Sneha thought we looked cool wrapped up in bandages so she wanted to preserve the memories in her camera. So once again on public demand, I & Tushar got topless & posed for the camera for the last time & clicked last few pictures of the day.
(Warning : Discretion advised, the pics may be seem harsh to you)
Yours Truly.. Completely bashed up & still sporting a fake smile :)
That was my favourite jeans too.. I still wear it as shorts after cutting down the portion below the knees :)
Thats my hand (Completely fine now with mildly visible scars only)
Mr Tushar - Like I said, ALWAYS SMILING..
The sun was setting fast & we wanted to cover as much distance as possible before sunset. I was back on pillion seat of my bike with Percy & this time we all maintained same speeds & rode in the group. Reached Shahad station by 7.30 pm & it was time for shailesh to say goodbye. Tushar decided to take train from Shahad itself so we all bid goodbye to each other. I got down & hugged Tushar while biding him goodbye & apologized to him whole heartedly for my mistakes today & he shouted back,
"Pagal hai kya tu yaar, teri koi galti nahi thi" (Are you mad, It wasn't your mistake.)
I chose not to argue further & just thank him with a smile for his kind words because I knew, somewhere down the line, it was indeed my mistake to certain extent in some way or the other & the accident may have been avoidable.
Anyways no use of crying over spilt milk now. With last few words exchanged amongst each other, Tushar & Shailesh left for the day finally.
Anyways no use of crying over spilt milk now. With last few words exchanged amongst each other, Tushar & Shailesh left for the day finally.
Now it was the time for me to bond with my baby again. I took the rider seat for the first time after my accident & grabbed the handlebars in my hand. The very first feeling was, Damn the handle bars feels sporty with their position being so close to the tank now :) Najju & Percy were still apprehensive about letting me ride but I could feel they were far more supportive this time around. I ensured them I'll ride slowly. Percy insisted me to ride his FZ which was in perfect condition to ride but I politely denied the offer as I wanted to ride my baby only. Najju decided to sit with me as pillion instead of letting Sneha sit with me as he was a bit lighter as pillion & it would be easy for me to ride with him as pillion. I appreciated his offer too since we still had about 70 kms to cover in moderate city traffic & I didn't knew how fit I was to ride so if I found out after some time that I'm too unfit to ride, then at least I’ll have a backup rider with me to take up the responsibility.
So we hopped on our respective bikes & Sneha joining as pillion with Percy. I apologized my baby for scratching her up from the entire right side & then I started her & she accepted my apology with a nice roar of engine with press of a thumb. We were on road again & managing that evening traffic in Kalyan was really a pain in A** especially with a bruised hand. My knee appeared to be satisfactory & shoulder pained every now & then but the major problem was with my right hand. Turning handlebars on right side was a piece of cake for me but with every left turn of the handlebars, I had to stretch my Right hand quite a bit which made me cry with immense pain every time. There were a few quick left turns of the handlebars in the traffic which took my breath away with all the pain it caused since I had to stretch my right hand in an instant. I decided to go just a few more kms & hand over the bike to Najju & set relief to my pain. The roads from shahad to kalyan were infested with quite a lot of potholes & every jerk in a pothole seemed to send a shiver down through my right knee. I was not using my right leg for rear brakes a lot & totally relying on my front disc brakes. One particular pothole just after kalyan station shook me up pretty badly & I felt my healing wounds had started bleeding from beneath the bandages on my hand. It was time to stop being so arrogant & hand over the bike to Najju so I was just about to pull over & hand the bike to Najju when I thought one last time, its just a few kms from here & we would be on the smooth NH3 & it would be a nice pothole free ride then requiring no more instant left turns too stretch my right hand so I decided to hold on enough for final few kms.
As it turned out, I may be right. I was getting used to the pain with each passing km & we reached NH3 within half an hour. From thereon it was an absolute delight to ride my baby again. Smooth well known roads allowed me to take my baby upto 60 kmph easily & both myself & the bike were absolutely fine. Stretched her a bit more to upto 80 kmph on an empty stretch & encountered no problems whatsoever. To my surprise, Najju wasn't shouting at me for cruising at 70-80 kmph on NH3 so I kept riding at that pace & did not try and stretch any further. I was more than happy now since everything seemed to be settled in my favor at last no matter what & I said to myself that I'll live another day to sit back & write this long boring trip log one fine day while remembering todays magnificent day.
Suddenly it started showering & I couldn't thank god more. We all wanted to experience the rain & we finally did experience some last heavy showers of rain. Initially I decided to continue riding in rain unprotected but as the rainfall got heavier, Najju insisted me to have his raincoat in order to keep my bandages all over my body from being wet. I pulled over & had his raincoat on while poor Najju himself got completely wet in rain without any raincoats to protect him from getting wet. To our luck, rain subsidized in some time after we crossed Thane & the roads were dry again as it had not rained at all in that part of the city. I was enjoying the cool winds & amazing roads again while my bike showed no signs of any fatigue whatsoever. Percy was riding right beside me maintaining safe distance & adjusting to whatever speeds I was riding on. I remember going over that 90 kmph mark once again on a long empty stretch just for the sake of touching the speeds which probably caused my accident today. So maintained the bike at 90's for just a few seconds & that concluded what I wanted to prove to myself.
I said to myself, I ain’t no God, I'm just a human, so I will go down if I'm not careful enough.
But if I go down, I would attempt to rise again if almighty god leaves me capable enough to rise again.
I was undoubtedly taking back home a lots of bruises & wounds from today’s accident but more importantly, I was taking back quite a lot of experience with me today. I promised myself to never overdo my limits, never exceed my abilities, never ride faster than the speeds at which my guarding angels can fly over me, never take things & situations for granted especially on the road when I'm riding the two wheeled monsters. I promised myself to be confident enough to ride again another day, but not be over confident to not see another day altogether. Well those were just a few thoughts while I was riding back silently towards home.
We cruised back home by 9.00 pm & dropped Najju at first to his place. Finally thanked him with words (which I know wouldn't ever be enough for whatever he did throughout for me after my crash) & did get the expected reply from him "Dont thank me yaar." He asked me to rest well & call him if I need him for anything & actually I did need his help the next day for getting back my bike in perfect condition again. He assured me he’ll be there whenever I call him. I felt like thanking him again but then again I resisted myself because that day I did realize,
‘Thanks’ is merely a formality which is not at all appreciated by true best friends.
‘Thanks’ is merely a formality which is not at all appreciated by true best friends.
Finally we dropped Sneha at her place; she was all tired but had a smile on her face. She asked me to take a leave from office tomorrow & rest home (Everyone asked me to do so but I didn't since my bike’s service center was in lower parel where I had to go for my office too).
We bid goodbye to each other finally.
Percy was last to leave, I thanked him for each & everything as I couldn’t really imagine the scenario of my accident if he hadn't joined the ride & then subsequently Najju couldn't have been there too.. So I thanked him with all my heart. And as expected, he yelled me as if I'm thanking him for no valid reason. But I still thanked him one more time & then he left with one last touching line,
"No need to thank me dude, If I was to be in your place & had met with an accident like you did, you would had done the same for me"
I just smiled back since I knew it was true.
Yes, undoubtedly I would have done the same for him, Najju or any of my friends.. or for that matter, I would have done the same for even a stranger, as today I was helped by unknown strangers whom I'll never ever see in my life again most probably..
With that last line we left in our separate directions on our respective bikes.
I reached home in some time & couldn't park my bike on main stand due to my almost unusable right hand so left my bike on side stand. Climbing two floors to reach my home really tested my knee pain & it hurt now as much as my hand hurt me. Got inside the bathroom & changed the clothes somehow with a full sleave t-shirt & full length track pants. It was such a pain to remove the blood stained sweat shirt of Najju & wear my t-shirt & I suggested myself to get used to the pain for many more upcoming weeks as I had decided not to let my parents know about it (I was successful in hiding my wounds for 5 days before my mom finally found out after having a suspicion as to why do I go to bed with full clothes in the month of June when temperatures are really high)
Did not have dinner as my stomach was full due to late lunch, spoke with mom casually for few minutes before finally going to bed by 10.30 pm.
I made sure before sleeping, I finally thank Almighty God who pardoned my stupidity & let me see another fine day with my wonderful cluster of friends & lovely family.
Cheers,
Mitesh..
TRIP STATS
Final Riders:
Shailesh/Sneha
Percy/Najju
Mitesh/Tushar
Bikes:
Honda Unicorn, Yamaha FZ-S, Yamaha FZ-16 LE.
Honda Unicorn, Yamaha FZ-S, Yamaha FZ-16 LE.
Total Kms:
Approx. 290 kms
Approx. 290 kms
Total hours :
16.00 hrs ( 5.30 am to 9.30 pm )
16.00 hrs ( 5.30 am to 9.30 pm )
Total expenses :
Fuel - Rs 600
Food - Rs 100
Medical treatment - Rs 200
Repairs on bike - Approx Rs 1,600
No. of accidents :
01
01
No. of injured :
02
02
Ratings to the trip:
****1/2
