And This is How We do It...

Well, I was sapped out. No energy left, no drive to go out and do anything. And then the call…Amit Sharma, telling me that the ride to Nighoj was on and we plan to leave at 3pm.
It was a hot, sunny Saturday morning in Pune and the heat made it more of a jostle with the mind to push ones self to go out, and go out riding. Anyway, 16 exams done and one last exam left on the coming Monday, I was in a dilemma, I was fed up of the constant studies and torment of our system, Fergusson or even the Pune Uni isn’t that good at managing dates of exams for its students..I really was in a bad state mentally, really.
Chatting online with a close friend I hadn’t met in ages we decided to have lunch together and then I (by now having decided to buck the system and follow my own agenda) would leave for the ride along with Amit, I didn’t know who else was coming or even why we planned to ride in this heat and that to in the afternoon…but you know what? I didn’t give a damn.

Nandu’s was the joint at which we met…the moment I rode in I saw the Pune Photo-walk guys there and I thought they were shooting something around. In less than a minute I realized they were gonna be tagging along in a car! Awesome shit! Met Amit and we settled down in the cramped comfort of the footpath resto and ordered our parathas.

My friend who was to meet me, Sayani, then reached, looking awesome as she usually does, lucky bugger was leaving for Calcutta the next day . Anyways we all had our lunch and then my byes were shared with Sayani.

My steed for this ride was the New RE Classic 500, the set of wheels I’ve been waiting long for, I couldn’t wait to get her onto the highway. Toodles, as I called her, was still 50 kilometers short of the customary 500 km run in..and I was eager to get it over with.

Amit and I left, surprisingly on time…something that’s actually like breaking a rule in FireLords :P.

This was the first time I was venturing so far out on the ahmednagar highway…I always had a notion that this length of highway was screwed up and would make for an irritating ride. I was so wrong, it turned out to be better even than the old NH4! Smooth as silk and the classic flying unrestricted on the tarmac..
Thankfully, it became cloudy and so I could really enjoy the ride to, and the views around reminded me much of lucknow/up and how the road make up was, there.

Girish Lone was riding pillion with Amit and so we made a group of complete photo fanatics, each and every one of us was a person with a deep interest in the art. A rare conglomeration one gets to experience on one of these rides 

It started drizzling, I stopped and covered up my camera bag and started again only to find that a kilometre ahead, our rider without a jacket had stopped and the duo were taking shelter under a bus stop shed, I stopped too taking a much needed butt break…I had been off the riding scene for over 2 months now.

For me, the sight of the brand new 500, with its almost chrome-like finish of the engine, making ‘tink tink’ sounds of the cooling power house and the sound of the instant evaporation of the raindrops as they hit the silencer..was quite amazing. The medley and the melody the two sounds produced was like music for my soul..i just sat there gawking and feeling happy for myself, touchwood .

The drizzle subsided and we were on the road again, the new found power of the 500 was like fuel to the fire of this Firelord and I couldn’t hold my self back anymore, I cranked the throttle, the bike, as if suddenly assumed another avatar, just flew from its mundane jog at 45kph and I found myself at 110 kph with a shift of a gear..wow!

Soon we reached the detour for Nighoj,




a barren land with a few temples and some villages thrown around it. Nighoj is home to one of the most awe inducing rock formations in the country I guess, a river has long been busy at cutting through the rock and making sharp turns in the rock, a cave like structure with no caves…and a stream running through all this at a snails pace...

Turning left, we headed towards our destination, stopping shortly for a drink. We encountered many small villages and townships along the short detour from the highway, here the road was a tad bumpy and I was enjoying the weather on my steed. She handles pretty well, I thought and right then I saw a nice stretch of field beside the road. Perfect place for a photograph of the bike I told myself. The self obsessive streak took over and I stopped and pulled out the camera. Amit and Girish also stopped and joined in 


After our country road shooting session got over we again headed towards our actual destination, reaching there with little time to spare before the sun would start racing to light up the opposite hemisphere..i got busy shooting the bike as usual and the others went into the formations, literally!


I realised my mind was so fed up of the studies shit that I had been going through that I didn’t even wanna walk to the other side of the riverbed…I know I missed some gr8 shots because of my laziness..need to guard against that in future but then again…I was on my own trip this time round :D

So me, just doing nothing really….lounging around looking at the structures, shooting the bike…again and again..doing nothing I didn’t want to, felt gr8 after so long…aaahhhh…just a beer would be perfect 


The sky was overcast most of the day but what a sunset we witnessed! Wow! Just the last 15 minutes was so worth the whole ride..I was loving it..



The guys came back after their share of long exposures and clicks, we had a group photograph and were on the road again. Boy! Pitch dark and an awesome spread of light from the halogen of the classic…curvy roads and doggy potholes…I was having an awesome time! Maybe lifes not that bad , my exams get over in 2 days and then I’m a free rider yay!

We stopped for dinner at a roadside dhaba once we were on the highway..good chilli chicken I have to say :D. Done with dinner and with a brief spell of rain behind us, we left again. The smooth tarmac felt like a runway and I pushed the bike to her limit..and she responded with unequalled urgency , I was quite impressed but still had my fingers crossed. I guess we reached pune in record time…covering around 45 kms in 50 minutes or something…man the last stretch of highway was so much fun! Barrelling through the scanty traffic is an awesome experience and if you have a cool wind hitting you and a few drops of rainwater…just makes it even more perfect…doesn’t it?


Nighoj, I’ll see you again, soon.