It was my best pal Najju’s birthday in the month of November so I & few of my friends came up with a plan to surprise him. Originally the plan was to celebrate Najju’s birthday on 5th November at Amby valley (lonavala) which would be a surprise to him as we(I, Karan & Percy) would kidnap him by inviting him for a short ride to marine drive & then ride straight to lonavala. I had discussed the above plan with Karan-Percy quite in advance & they were all set for the plan until just a couple of days prior to the plan, Percy backed out of the plan due to some personal reason. The plan all of a sudden now seemed to be in a mess as percy backed out & we were left out with my one bike for the ride. Out of no choice, I had to eventually give up the idea of surprising Najju & asked him to get a bike for the ride so that at least the plan doesn’t cancel up. Najju promptly agreed as soon as I told him for the ride. Just a day before the ride, I spoke to Shailesh & asked them if they can join for the ride but as exams were just a couple of days ahead, he opted otherwise. However, our common friend Ashok had his birthday on 6th November so we decided to surprise him too as we could celebrate his & Najju’s birthday together at Pravin’s rented house (where pravin, Ashok & Bhim go for group studies). Shailesh volunteered to arrange for the cake & we were scheduled to meet him at Kalyan station by 11 pm on 4th November, cut the cake at Pravin’s house & party till 2-3 am & then carry forward the ride to Lonavala for the sunrise view. The plan was all set now.
Finally the day arrived & I was all excited throughout the day. I was supposed to be the navigator for the trip as I had ridden to lonavala once before this but that was with a large group of 50+ Xbhp bikers & I was least bothered about directions back then. But it was different this time, I had to be responsible for getting us to lonavala via old NH4 & that too at such hours of night that we would hardly find any help if needed to confirm the directions. After extensively detailed study on Google maps as well as the guidance from few fellow biker friends on xbhp, I was confident enough to lead the ride safely till lonavala. To be on safe side, I had Google maps installed & cached copy of map preloaded on my GPS cellphone which turned out to be really helpful at times. It was approximately 8.00 pm i.e. just an hour before the ride was supposed to start when I got a call from Nikhil (Najju’s close friend with whom we had been to our Shirdi ride) who was keen to know about our plans for the night so that he could surprise Najju. I gave him our detailed ride schedule & invited him for the ride till Kalyan at least where we were planning to have a get together for the birthday bwoyz. He agreed but he decided to leave a bit late as he had some work so I asked him to reach Kalyan station directly as per his convenience & I would pick him up from there. I contacted najju/karan & both of them were ready to roll so I set out by 9.30 pm. After a 10 minutes wait, najju grouped with me near Percy’s house where I & Percy were having a chat. Percy was apologetic for not being able to join the ride. As najju arrived we were surprised by just a glance at what he was riding that night. It was a brand new HONDA AVIATOR scooty run just 70 odd kms yet. Najju borrowed it from a close friend of his & even he was unaware that the scooty was brand new. We all knew what this meant. NO SPEEDING since the scooty was in run-in period & hence our group speed couldn’t exceed 60 kmph which was a bit of a disappointment right at the start of the trip. I requested Najju to check if he can get any other bikes from his friends & he did so but all in vain. However it was no turning back now so we were on the road before 10.00 pm after bidding goodbye to Percy.
The ride till dadar was a swift one where we picked up Karan who was already waiting for us. I spoke to Nikhil on the way & even he had left his home by then. Shailesh was expecting us by 11.30 but I spoke to him regarding the new bike issue & as a result we will be late so he agreed to postpone our meeting time further. All of us were on schedule now. I had to collect Ashok’s birthday gift on the way from Shruti’s house at Thane. Her place was a few kms away from highway so I decided to rip ahead & let najju ride at run-in speeds straight till kalyan bhiwandi bypass while I take a detour to thane & be back on road after collecting ashok’s gift. Karan was pillion with me for the first time on such a long ride so I had to be a bit careful considering he weighs almost one & a half times of my weight. As soon as we reached NH3 (eastern express highway) I bid goodbye to najju & ripped ahead. The roads were traffic free as expected & thus a short 15 minutes ride at triple digit speeds took us to Shruti’s place before 10.30 pm. There was ample time with us as I expected najju to ride slow till kalyan & I could easily catch up with him so when Shruti offered for a homemade coffee by her mom, we couldn’t deny. A short chitchat + coffee break with two of my best buddies & we lost the track of time. It was already approximately 11.00 pm so time for us to be back on road. I collected the gift bought by shruti for ashok on behalf of all of us & we got straight on my bike, but not before thanking Shruti for the great hospitality.
I was pretty sure Najju couldn’t be behind me as we had an amply long break at thane & by then najju would have crossed Thane already so I ripped all the way till kalyan bhiwandi bypass, hoping I would see Najju on the way itself but there were no signs of him anywhere on the way no matter how fast I rode. Finally I reached the bypass by 11.15 & just after making the right turn, I found Najju as well as Nikhil waiting out there for us with their respective Honda bikes. We had a small chat as I got to know Najju was the first one to reach there just 15 minutes ago, followed by Nikhil who stumbled upon Najju straightaway as opposed to what we planned & thus his surprise was spoiled to a fair extent. We moved ahead as Shailesh was waiting for us at Kalyan station. I had called up Tushar, our fourth companion for our lonavala trip, who had already reached Kalyan via train. As we rode till kalyan, the clock ticked past 12.00 & we wished najju Happy birthday while riding on bikes itself. As expected, He started getting a lot of call from friends & family & that bugger actually stopped to answer few important calls. We were already behind schedule but couldn’t complain as it was his birthday & further it was myself who had caused a 15 minute delay already before. Anyway, All of us grouped at kalyan just after 12.00 am & after a short introduction sessions amongst Tushar, Karan, Najju, Nikhil & Shailesh we were off to Pravin’s house which was just a few minutes ride away from kalyan station. Shailesh (with his Pulsar 135 S & Tushar as pillion) took over my responsibility for a while as he lead the group out of small lanes of kalyan. Slowly this was turning out to be a wonderful plan already as once there were just 3 of us scheduled for the ride & 1 bike at our disposal while now we were 7 of us riding on 4 bikes & 3 more friends waiting for us ahead.
We reached our destination somewhere around 12.40 am & we parked our bikes. Pravin had been made aware of our surprise plan & hence he was expecting us since 12.00. Finally we all grouped at his place & the entire room was filled with wishes, laughter & jokes in no time. I knew all of them well but there were lots of strange faces to each other out there in that small room. Ashok, bhim had never seen or met Nikhil, Najju & Karan before & vice-versa. Still, there was no sense of discomfort to anyone. Everyone was enjoying as if long lost friends finally met after years. Finally the cake was presented which looked splendid & both the birthday boys took turns to pose against the cake before cutting it together.
The Lovely Butterscotch Cake
Najju - Birthday boy No. 1
Ashok - Birthday Boy No 2
After a gala time out there, we (najju & myself) proposed to rest of them to join us for the trip to lonavala and carry forward the party there. Luckily, we had 5 bikes (including pravin’s old but trustworthy Pulsar 150) & we were exactly 10 guys so the odds were with us & it could turn out into a great night ride. However, Ashok, Bhim & Shailesh were not intrigued by the idea as they were seriously in mood to study for exams & we had already wasted enough of the precious time partying. Hence we decided to go ahead with the trip as originally planned, just a new addition in form of Nikhil who couldn’t deny Birthday boy’s request especially after having all this fun who would wanna go back home alone while your friend’s ride ahead to Lonavala. So we bid goodbye to Ashok/Bhim at approximately 2.00 am & got back on roads. Shailesh/Pravin were kind enough to accompany us on their Pulasr 135 till the nearest junction on Kalyan-Shilphata road.
Within few hundred meters, Nikhil’s bike started giving some problems to him & he pulled over. We all stopped & joined him too. Soon we found out Nikhil’s Unicorn was completely out of petrol. Nikhil was surprised by this as he had sufficient petrol according to him. Anyways there was nothing to worry about as Pravin informed us that there’s a 24 hours open petrol pump just a few kms up ahead so Nikhil hopped on as pillion on my bike & we got petrol for him in a empty bottle within few minutes while others were waiting for us where Nikhil’s bike had given up.
My Bike totalling up 9999 kms when we reached petrol pump & awaiting the big 10,000 kms mark on ODO meter
& here's the big !0,000 kms while returning back.
We returned soon & Nikhil got down from my bike & started refilling his bike’s petrol tank with the bottle of petrol we just got. As he did so, everyone else greeted Shailesh & pravin goodbye. Shailesh warned me to ride safely up ahead as the road was not so familiar to me & I had to be responsible for rest of my group as they were bound to ride slow due to najju’s run-in condition scooty. I assured him not to worry & he asked me to keep him updated from time to time. Pravin on the other hand was dying to join us on the ride but he couldn’t as Ashok/Bhim were waiting for him back home & they all had a study schedule to keep up with. However he promised me that we’ll ride again soon to lonavala at night (& we did ride together at night to lonavala on the night of 22nd may 2011 which was a farewell ride to Pravin as he was migrating to Pune next day for new job)
With all the wishes exchanged, Karan hoped on with me & I zoomed off ahead as I wanted to recover the lost time. However, I soon realized that no one was following me so I stopped within a minute & stood there waiting for the rest of two Honda’s to join us. Karan tried calling up Tushar & though the call wasn’t clear, Karan was absolutely sure that Tushar asked us to come back & we had no idea why. I was worried Najju or Nikhil had met with an accident or something & tushar is calling us back for help so without wasting a further second, I made a U-turn & ripped back in search of Najju, Nikhil & Tushar. Within a minute, I was back to the point where we all were before & I was surprised to see the entire band of boys including Shailesh & Pravin were standing out there exactly at the same place where we left them & all bikes parked too. I parked my bike close to the group & inquired what’s wrong now as I got down from my bike. I was informed that we have been robbed of petrol near Pravin’s house where we parked our bikes for over an hour long break for Birthday party celebration. As I was trying to grasp what was going on, Shailesh started checking my bike for signs of any petrol theft & he confirmed after seeing my petrol pipe that an attempt was definitely made to steal petrol from my bike too but luckily I have a petrol lock in place which I always use (especially when I have full tank of petrol worth over Rs 500-600 like I had that night) so the attempt to steal from my bike was foiled. Najju’s Aviator had no exposed fuel pipe since it was a scooty & hence it was completely safe. However Nikhil & Shailesh weren’t that lucky as both were at a loss of petrol from their respective bikes. Shailesh’s P135 lost petrol but not as considerably as Nikhil who lost his entire reserve of Petrol worth Rs 200/-. Moreover the bastards who stole the petrol from our bikes, never replaced the fuel pipe of nikhil’s unicorn & as a result the bottle full of petrol which we just got a few minutes ago & poured into Nikhil’s tank drained straight out of the tank in no time & as a result they couldn’t move ahead while I raced off thinking everything was fine. The entire bottle of petrol was spilled on Unicorn’s engine & the road below. We had a faint idea of the fuc**rs who might be responsible for this pathetic act as Shailesh reminded us of a group of guys who saw us parking our four bikes & heading in for the party. Irony of the situation was that as we were standing out there, few guys on two bikes just passed by us & Shailesh/Pravin were quite sure that these were the same guys. I wanted to chase them down & beat them up but rest of the group especially Shailesh didn’t favor my idea as we didn’t have any proof that those were the same guys & it wasn’t worth fighting over a few hundred bucks of petrol. Nikhil was quite depressed at the series of events that had just occurred & even though he didn’t react as much, the frustration was clearly evident on his silent face. However, everyone cheered him up & he was back on bike as a pillion while we rushed back to the petrol pump to get some petrol again. This time the fuel pipe was checked & re-checked again before pouring in the petrol from bottle & finally the Unicorn was ready to roll.
After a final exchange of GOODBYE’s we all were on the road. We crossed the Shilphata tollbooth in no time & proceeded towards NH4. We were done with Kalyan-Shilphata road in next 15 minutes & we were finally on NH4. I had never been through these roads before so I stopped at every junction & made full use of my GPS phone & google maps to guide us through.
I suspected a punctured rear tyre since quite a long time now but maybe that additional bumpy feeling in my rear wheel was because of heavy weight of Karan riding as pillion with me throughout the night so far. I had checked my tyre pressure before the ride but there was no harm in doing so again & hence I pulled over to a HP petrol pump on NH4 while signaling Nikhil/Najju (NN) to ride ahead & I’ll catch up with them. As I pulled in the HP petrol pump, there were a few sleepy attendants already deep asleep right next to the fuel stations & I didn’t want to disturb their peaceful sleep so I went ahead straight to the air pressure checking point & started checking my tyre pressure with the air pressure pipe. I asked Karan to have a look at the readings on air meter as I refill my tyre & the first reading from Karan was 26 PSI of tyre pressure as against 33 PSI which I needed for my tyre. So it was confirmed that I’m riding with a punctured tyre. As I kept on the pressure pipe, Karan kept narrating the readings straight from the meter. Karan words were unbelievable though. He said somewhat like 24.. 21… 18.. 13..
Now I was in a Panic mode. I asked him to check the meter correctly & he was damn sure he narrated the meter readings correctly. I wanted to increase the tyre pressure from 26 to 33 & now it was 13 already. I went to the meter, reset the tyre pressure target at 33 & started to refill the air again in my rear wheel & requesting Karan to pay close attention to meter readings which are supposed to rise & not fall as it was doing so far. Prayed to god before trying again but still no use, as karan confirmed our failure by saying 12.. 10.. 9..
Now that was enough for me to give up my attempts to fill the air in tyre myself. I pressed the rear tyre with my fingers & thumbs & the tyre was almost completely flat now. I was instantly in a state of disbelief over what had just happened. Thankfully, it struck to me that I can seek the help of those sleepy attendants at petrol pump so I ran to one of them & got him up from his sleep. As I inquired him about the air pressure pump, he straightaway confirmed that the said air pressure pump is out of order. I was so damn pissed at him when he said those words as there were no signs out there saying that air pressure pump was not working. Infact the pump appeared fine just like any normal pump. Anyways I told him what had just happened with my rear tyre & I asked him if he can help in any way. He guided me to another petrol pump just half a kilo-meter ahead & he assured me there would be a air pressure station there. I left the HP petrol pump soon as I got that information. The rear tyre was absolutely flat so there was no way I would let Karan sit on my pillion seat & risk my rims & similarly there was no way I would let him walk while I ride ahead so we both decided to walk the next 500 meters & drag my bike with us. Karan offered me his helping hand to push the bike quite a bit. Finally, we were at the next petrol pump where I inquired about air pressure pump & I got disappointed straightway as the attendant guided me to a petrol pump one km ahead. I had no option but to go ahead pushing the bike. It was approximately 3.00 am & we both were walking under open skies on national Highway 4 with a perfectly mechanically fine bike with full petrol but yet having to drag the bike just due to lack of air pressure. Karan helped a lot by his stupid jokes & sarcastic comments to lighten my already spoilt up mood. But yes it was indeed a different experience walking with one of your best friends in the middle of the night. We knew back then that we would remember this incident forever & till date whenever we speak about our ride to lonavala, this walk was one of the prime highlights of the trip that we remember. Soon, we were at the next petrol pump with high hopes of getting my tyre fixed but we were disappointed again. This happened for another couple of times as we were sent off wandering from one petrol pump to another but no luck at all at any of the petrol pumps. By now I was sure, Najju/Nikhil (NN) must have realized that I’m not with them & they would wait for me. There was little network connectivity & we managed to inform Najju the problem that we faced so he returned back to help us out. Finally we 3 friends were together but still no signs of a petrol pump with air pump in working condition. I was tired of dragging my bike over 2-3 kms now & hence when Najju returned, I asked him to take Karan as pillion on his Aviator & I got on my punctured bike & took off. The bike felt a lot heavier due to minimum air in tyre so I kept riding at average speeds for about a minute or so when I noticed a Reliance petrol pump & I pulled in with high hopes at least from Late Shri Dhirubhai Ambani’s petrol pump. Luckily, Dhirubhai didn’t let me down & a young attendant promptly got out to fill air in my tyre. I was so relieved as my tyre was finally inflated again from 8 PSI to 33 PSI pressure. I tipped the guy well & set off to regroup with Najju & Karan who were waiting for me just ahead of the petrol pump. Finally we all were happy & ready to roll by 3.30 am. I requested Najju to take Karan with him as my tyre was punctured & I didn’t want to risk it further. They both agreed to my request & we soon regrouped with Nikhil & Tushar who were waiting for us since more than half an hour. We briefly narrated what went wrong with my bike & then we left soon riding together in a formation again.
We crossed kalamboli circle & I was on somewhat familiar roads now as I had ridden on these roads a couple of times earlier. A fellow xbhp’ian biker had helped me with a precise step by step milestones from kalamboli to Lonavala & I kept of referring it from my cell coupled with the help from my GPS maps which ensured we were right on track & just 50 odd kms away from lonavala. It was just about 4.15 am & we were confident to reach lonavala before sunrise. We maintained decent cruising speeds of 60-70 kmph & crossed Khopoli in few minutes & we were on Khandala ghats before 4.45 am. I recollected my earlier ride with sportbikers to lonavala & cherished those moments as I was at the beginning of Khandala ghats. I asked najju to ride alone for the ghat region & not risk with a heavy pillion like Karan but he ensured he’ll be fine so we started ascending the ghat. I stacked close to najju maintaining a safe distance & we all made it safely till the point from where NH4 meets the Mumbai-pune expressway & bikes are allowed just on this section of the Mumbai pune express highway. We took a brief halt before riding ahead. We discussed the ride so far & I gave the rest of them a brief description of the Mumbai pune express way ahead & cautioned them to ride safely.
As we rode ahead, we encountered some smooth roads of Mumbai pune express highway coupled with some traffic of huge 18 wheelers, few of them broken down right in the middle of the expressway. As I rode through this stretch of the road, I remembered back the earlier ride to Lonavala & encountering a much worse traffic especially in the tunnel. I knew we had to look out for an exit just after the tunnel & I had already informed the same to Najju & nikhil who were religiously following my lead & I had them in my rear mirror throughout the ride so far. I was frankly nervous as I didn’t want to miss the exit to lonavala which would mean we continue riding illegally on express highway as bikes are not allowed further on expressway past the lonavala exit. Luckily, the exit to lonavala is very well notified by the authorities with a huge board as far as 1 km away from the exit & after that every few 100 metres there’s a board asking bikes & three wheelers to keep riding in left lane & take the exit. So we finally made it to the exit & suddenly in no time we were riding on dark silent roads leading us to lonavala market which was another 4 kms away from the exit. I recollected the roads to Amby valley very well from my last ride so luckily we didn’t need any help to ask for directions to amby valley but then again, even if we did need any help, there wasn’t a soul out there at approximately 4.45 am to guide us through. Soon we encountered a few milestones stating Amby valley ahead which gave me a sigh of relief as we were on right track. It was past 5.00 am when we saw a few locals just preparing to open their roadside shops & I pulled over to one of them asking for a sunrise point up ahead from where we can see sunrise properly. The local guy informed me to ride up ahead till amby valley & although there is no specific point as sunrise point, there would be ample points from where sunrise can be witnessed. So we kept riding ahead & crossed I.N.S Shivaji & the other milestones like bushi dam which I remembered vividly from my last ride to lonavala. Soon we were off from base villages & riding on smooth curves of amby valley. It was still dark all over so we were riding cautiously sticking close to each other. I was riding solo on my FZ & the roads were so damn tempting to try my hands on some cornering session but I couldn’t do so as Nikhil & Najju were at limited speeds & I had to stick to them. The already cold temperature of lonavala was getting colder as we climbed up the altitude. It was my second ride on these roads & I was amazed by the beauty & the curves of the roads as much as I was on my first ride here. I’m sure NN were having a blast as well tackling the corners. I was particularly worried for Najju as he was riding a Scooter & that too with a heavy pillion like Karan but he managed well. After some 20 odd minutes of riding on smooth roads leading us to amby valley, I saw a huge crowd of people & cars & bikes on the right side of the road & hence I slowed down. NN stopped besides me too & we were wondering what the hell were so many people doing out there so early morning with loud music playing all over. We decided to give it a try & find out what was going on so we went offroad & rode through the haphazardly parked cars/bikes & finally reached a point from where we couldn’t ride any further. We got down from our bikes & did a quick situation assessment & it looked like there were atleast about 100 young guys/girls roaming around the entire place, eating food, having hukkas over bonfire, playing loud music from cars & having fun. It was a total open air party scene out there. As we were assessing the situation, few locals residing in their nearby huts came to us asking if we need any bhajiyas, omlette, hukkas, bonfire etc? We ordered some plates of various bhajiyas as we settled down on the chairs nearby. One thing we all were feeling was the extremely unbearable cold weather out there. We were at the edge of the hill & the cold wind was sending a chill down our spines. We had denied for bonfire earlier as we loved the cold climate out there & wanted to enjoy it but within a few minutes, it got unbearable & so we called up the local guy & asked him to set up a bonfire.
Too dark out there & my cell phone flash wasn't so strong
Garama garam bhajiyas over bonfire :)
As he set up the bonfire, the atmosphere out there just began to lighten up as the darkness of clouds started disappearing with first rays of sun. As the visibility started increasing due to the light, we realized we were sitting at such a beautiful place with a mesmerizing view of the entire valley. The picture clicking sessions started but we were not carrying any digital cameras so my multipurpose cellphone was once again to our rescue. The bonfire was set & we were sitting almost at the edge of the hill with huge winds from all directions & just to make the timing perfect, our garama garam (hot) bhajiyas (snacks) arrived & we munched on them like hungry dogs.
The dog who pissed on my jacket - I guess :(
Our beautiful babies
Karan's gift to Najju.. Some imported choclates
& finally the mesmerizing views down the valley.
Three Cheers!!
The once upon a time CAKE
It was somewhere around 7.00 am when we started packing up for leaving & after a few clicks, we were back on road by 7.20. the most surprising thing was when we asked the local guys how much we owed them for the bhajiyas & tea, we were told somewhere around Rs 500/-.. the breakup of our bill was Rs 200 for bonfire, approx. rs 200 for bhajiyas & approx. rs 100 for tea. We were in shock but still laughing out aloud as it was najju who had to pay up as it was his treat. Unfortunately, najju was low on cash & hence Nikhil & I had to help him with a couple hundred bucks. That was one treat which none of us will ever forget & we promised each other from hereon we will always ask price of the things first before ordering them. Nevertheless, Najju didn’t mind paying up since his handgloves were lost from our chairs & he found them safely with those villagers & hence he was not complaining as much as he should have.
Finally it was time to leave. Nikhil was in no mood to ride slowly now since he had to rush back to Mumbai ASAP so he decided to ride ahead alone while we both can easily cruise back to Mumbai at our own pace. As a result, Karan was back on my bike as pillion & Tushar, who had been riding with nikhil all night, hoped on with Najju. Karan managed to click some nice pics on the way while descending from amby valley.
Beautiful curvy roads
That shud be censored
We crossed the entire amby valley stretch in a matter of few minutes & we were in lonavala market by 8.00 am. Nikhil & najju needed their bikes to be refueled so we took a fuel break where Nikhil took unusually long time in the washroom which gave us ample time to click some pics around at the petrol pump.
Some creative photography by Karan
No I aint advertising
The famous Maganlal chikkiwala of lonavala
Finally we were set on road again with our last destination as Mumbai. The ride back home was uneventful slow & simple.
Good 1
Entering the tunnel on mumbai pune expressway
Nikhil ripped past us once we were out of lonavala & it was just 4 of us now. We loved the scenery all around which we couldn’t see at night. At some point near khopoli, Najju asked if I wanted to test ride his Honda Aviator & I couldn’t deny since I knew how hard it would have been for him to ride a gearless scooter all the way in excess of 200 kms till now & that too at limited speeds. Even though I was unwilling to let go my sweet powerful FZ, I switched over to Honda Aviator as even I’ve never had much of an experience with gearless scooters so this would be a nice time to experiment. Karan hopped on with me on Aviator as najju & tushar zoomed off with my FZ. As I rolled the accelerator on Honda Aviator, I missed my FZ the very first second as there was no punch at all in the acceleration. However it was typically a Honda machine so it didn’t disappoint as much as I expected. The power delivery kept increasing gradually with a silent engine & soon I was at 60 kmph on open roads but can’t go any further due to run-in limits. It was pathetically irritating to ride at 60-65 kmph on smooth inviting roads of NH4 on which even double the speeds of what I was riding are doable safely. Najju was mostly invisible as he sped away but he stopped at regular intervals for me to catch up with him & as I see him, he used to speed off ahead again. I could understand his need for speed since the poor soul was riding all night at slow speeds & hence I didn’t ask him to stick to me. On the other hand, I was having a nice sleepy time riding the Honda Aviator, enjoying the early morning wind & chatting with karan about miscellaneous things.
Some beautiful stretches of road
We reached Panvel by 10.00 am & missed the turn via panvel city so we kept riding towards JNPT. Najju was ripping ahead but I soon realized we had to take a right turn for Mumbai from one particular point but there were no signs saying so & hence najju had ripped straight ahead towards JNPT which is a dead end. I had no option but to follow him & catch up with him. Karan kept calling Tushar/Najju but couldn’t connect. Finally after some 2-3 kms I saw Najju stopped at the side of the road & I pulled over to him & yelled at him for ripping ahead when he was riding on strange roads & no idea of directions. We made a U-turn & from thereon it was a steady ride till Vashi. As we crossed vashi, I saw someone waving at us & after a close look, I found out it was Nikhil waiting for us at the side of the road somewhere near Chembur. We asked him why was he waiting for us & he replied he was waiting here since quite a long time for us to catch up with him. I didn’t get his point but nevertheless, I was happy that our group which started together on the trip will end the trip simultaneously & all of us are safe so far on the ride. So our three bike started towards Sion cutting through the traffic & karan proposed us to have a small breakfast somewhere nearby at a popular food joint which he knew. We were hungry for sure so couldn’t deny his offer. Nikhil however was in no mood to eat so he split with us again with final goodbye at Sion circle & we were directed by Karan to a huge fast food joint for some garama garam samosa paavs. As we waited outside for karan to get us the breakfast, tushar was getting impatient as even he was late for office. After wasting about 15 minutes, Karan declared it was too crowded in there & our order will take some more time so we left the place unhappy & hungry as Tushar was running late & we had to drop him at dadar. I got back on my FZ again & we reached dadar in no time where tushar was dropped off after final goodbye & we went ahead to drop Karan at his place near shivaji park. I was stopped by a police officer for checking & I signaled Najju to go ahead & not wait for me.. The policemen noted down all my details, checked my papers, checked my bag & interrogated me a bit as an advanced check since USA’s president Barrack Obama was supposed to visit Mumbai the next day i.e 6th November 2010. I was all clean & my bike’s documents were in order so I was let back on the road but not before wasting my 10 minutes. Nevertheless, I went ahead & dropped karan to his home where we had a small chat before I finally left for my home. Najju was nowhere in sight so I figured out he must have left for his home & hence I sped off to my home (Later I came to know Najju did see me at tardeo circle & we both were at different signals but he couldn’t call me up as the signal went green & I zoomed off & he had to ride at slow speeds so he couldn’t catch up with me) I called up Percy on the way as my laptop was with him & I wanted it to see our ride pics so I stopped by Percy’s house on the way & picked up my laptop. He seemed a bit upset as he was supposed to ride with us on this trip but he couldn’t & by the look on my face, he could judge that we had an awesome trip. Anyways I assured him a trip to lonavala, lion’s point soon (which we did on 16th may 2011, although in his CAR)
I reached home by 12.00 pm & got straight into shower for a refreshing bath followed by a nice omlette breakfast over watching pics of the ride & I loved the pics. I Slept at 1.00 pm & got up again at 5.00 pm all refreshed. Percy called up for a short ride so I invited najju & we 3 rode to karan’s house in evening where karan finally gave us a treat of pani puri. Thereafter, we all went to dadar chowpatty & saw our ride pics on my laptop over usual Percy-karan hilarious arguments before finally leaving for home by 9.00 pm. Crashed straight to bed once I reached home. What a wonderful day it was. What a wonderful & unforgettable Birthday it would always be for Najju.. I just wish my birthday next year could be like this or even better.
Najju's birthday celebration ride to Lonavala
Just 3 days before the biggest exams of our lives, we ride with best buddies to Lonavala for celebrating Najju's birthday.
Date - 05th November 2010
Riders - Najju, Karan, Tushar, Nikhil & ME
Bikes - Honda Unicorn, Yamaha FZ-16 LE & a brand new Honda Aviator :)
Destinations covered - Marine lines -> Thane -> Kalyan -> Panvel -> Khopoli -> Khandala -> Lonavala -> Lions point -> & same route back home
Major Highways taken - NH3 & NH4
Total Kms - Exact 289.9 kms
