A Race Lost and a Love found

It was a Tuesday and after surviving 5 hours of lectures and two hours of lab on a not so bright evening I headed towards the parking lot only to find that someone had sprayed dirty water on my motorcycle . Wasting no time I pulled out a piece of cloth from a bike nearby and started cleaning . The onlookers gave me a weird look.Never mind, once that was I had to pick up Satish from a paanshop nearby and drop him at St. Lawrence School Bus Stop on my way home . My home is just 10 kms away from my college . On a heavy traffic day its a 15 minute ride.

A beautiful six-lane Palm Beach Road falls on my way to home . When my mood is very good I tend to rip it apart at around 100 kph . The mood was not good today and I was cruising till reaching the Palm Beach Circle. There came a guy with his girl on his Bajaj Pulsar 180 .Now, I have a habit of shooting of from the signal as soon as it turns green and till now no biker has chased me down . The cagers (cars) chase me down easily but that has never bothered me . Now this this guy started racing his 180 cc machine with my 150 cc(TVS Apache 150) and my ego was hurt . I knew had his bike would beat mine hands down but the I was speeding for a few kms till the so called race was ended and the Pulsar as expected won but just. I was at time time I look into the speedometer and the needle was at 120 mark , a personal best for me. After dropping Satish at the bus stop on my way home I was cursing and abusing Kane (My motorcycle) for letting me down before a girl .

I was thinking about this event for the whole of evening and early morning I had a horrible dream. My dad was snatching the keys of Kane for some reason . I woke up and looked at the clock and it was 5 Am in the morning . Immediately after brushing took a bucket and a piece of cloth and rushed towards my bike and started washing it as if i have bought it just yesterday . The lost race was nowhere in my mind while washing and after 30 Min's Kane was shining under a tube light . That's when I found out that a thing which was just my ride till yesterday , actually turned out to be my love . A love which I cannot afford to miss and it will never be from me .

Regards

Rahul

Cliff Hunt Ride

It was a dull Friday evening on 16th of January and the thoughts of college reopening on Monday had started bothering me . I went googling in search of a nice destination near Mumbai and zeroed in on Jawhar - Vikramgad for a Sunday ride . Saturday night i happened to see Amol's post, in Mumbai Bikers Club(MBC) forum , of riding to Malshej Ghats. I immediately called him and confirmed my presence , by then i had forgotten about Jawhar since Malshej was a place i wanted to visit since long time .
Sunday Morning at 7:45 met him at Nirmal Lifestyle Mulund and the ride started . Halted near Kalyan for a breakfast . The hotel looked decent but the idli's i had was strictly okay . Two R1 s zoomed past us and that brought a smile on my face . By 9 we left the place for Malshej Ghats and by 9:30 we had crossed Murbad . Near Murbad bus depot i almost hit a cyclist , a fault of mine . He was lucky and i didn't dare to look behind . After crossing Murbad the roads were awesome and almost empty . Amol was a ripper and I prefer cruising . He was ripping for a few kms and then would wait for me to arrive . I got a call from nature and stopped to answer and what a place to piss , awesome feeling in being one with nature.



Amol was still ripping and i was stopping and clicking pics and met Amol at a place where the view was simply mind blowing.



After 10 minutes of admiring the nature and the view , we left for Malshej Ghats . After reaching the top of Malshej , Again brought out the cam and captured some moments .



Few moments later we were riding to Shivneri Fort clicking pics on the way and soaking in the view nature had offered me . The roads were good with some bad patches in between. Shivneri is about 50 kms from Malshej. As soon as we reached the fort we wasted no time in begining the climb . Amol was explaining me the meaning or rather logic behind the names of gate .
Some of the places on the fort we visited.
Shiv Kunj : Shiv Kunj is a memorial, in honor of Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. Inside Shiv Kunj there is a beautiful idol of Bal Shivaji and Jijabai .
Kadelot: This is the place where prisoners were punished by throwing them down the fort. This point is on the northern end of the fort.
Ganga Jamuna : These are the water cisterns behind the Shiv Kunj. Water in these cisterns is potable. This Tank was an architectural marvel . On whole of Shivneri there are more than a dozen water tanks.
Shiv Janmasthan: This is the place on the fort where the birth of Shivaji Maharaj took place. This place is named as Shiv Mandir. There a cradle of the warrior king.

To the East is the Junnar Township . To the west are the breath taking views to the north is the Kadelot point . Didn't visit the southern part .

West of Shivneri

Junnar Township to the East

The kadelot Point to the North

The fort is very clean and there are 4-5 well maintained gardens, but we humans are prohibited from stepping inside . There are many people selling Lemonade and Buttermilk on the way. On my way out of the fort I found some huge Honeycombs , never seen such big ones in my life before. It takes around 90-100 Min's to climb up and down the fort . By the time we reached the base it was 1:30 and I was hungry and so was Amol . Amol wanted to buy some dried grapes from Lenydri , had a halt there and were on our way to MTDC resort in Malshej for lunch. On the way we saw a lake and immediately were tempted into riding till the bank. Some clicks there and we were at the MTDC resort within 30 Min's . I was there i remembered that it was the same lake i had seen on pulsurge's ride . Lunch was pretty good and not expensive . But what followed was the most interesting part of the ride . After the lunch i happened to sight some cliff and in no time we were there brandishing my digi-cam. Some slippery moments and some pics later we found another cliff near the Malshej tunnel which looked inaccessible .




After some clicking , left the resort for Powai , as we reached the tunnel Amol got a wild idea and we tried to make way into the inaccessible path i was mentioning above. The path was very narrow ant the stones and gravels made it more difficult . I could see my death couple of inches to my right . Somehow i managed to gather guts and reached a safer place . Clicked some pics and left for Mumbai.

U can see the tunnel behind

Another angle of this cliff

Thats it guys meet u after my next ride.





For More Pics ..... Click here


Regards
Rahul

Kamshet Ride

I happened to have had a fierce arguement with my dad for not letting me ride to Ganpatiphule . On Sunday evening he allowed me to ride solo to Kamshet . Wasting no time i called all my biker buddies to ask if they are giving me a company , but being a weekday everyone was occupied with some work and i decided to ride alone . Monday morning after giving my bike a wash and dusting my jacket ,i left my home at 8:30 am .

Till Panvel the traffic was moderate and once on the NH4 I was greeted with cold winds an open Highway with just a couple of ST buses n trucks . The Highway tempted me to rip it apart but I prefered to cruise @ 60-70 Kmph .

After riding for another 45 mins , had to part ways wid the highway into Kamshet.For few kms its seemed like there has been no one here since years , barren lands divided by roads ,no scenery what so ever , and i hit a large pothole fearing a puncture but that dindt happen.Still riding I reached a very crowded market place(weekly market) in a village PawnaSagar . Asked locals for any significant locations and the I was told abt Pawna Dam and Tikona Fort . After reaching Pawna Dam within no time , I started clicking pictures . After a while i spotted two locals in the lake and asked them the directions of Tikona Fort. One of them pointed to the peak on the other side of lake saying "Tithe ahey " .

Unfortunately it was 11 and i was hungry and there was only one hotel which served only Dal Roti but only after 1 pm . Then Started the engine and left for Tikona Fort winthin 5 mins I realised that there are no roads to the fort . Riding uphill i met a forest guard and his 7 year old son who advised me against climbing the fort as it wud be evening by the time i return . After riding for another 20 mins i reached a Gurudwara which was carved out of the mountains .

The priest in the Gurudwara offered me a seat and he started explaining about the Bhagats(Saints) , Granths(Holy Book) and Guru Gobind Singhji . After finishing my prayers i was preparing to leave , an old sardarji who had a Guest House near by offered me Tea Biscuits n some snacks . He asked me about myself n family . when iI mentioned that i was an engineering student , the talks of global meltdown started n lasted for an hour . While leaving the place he asked me to take a different route to lonavla which was a shortcut and scenic . It was then i noticed two labrador puppies which were just 2 weeks old , the old man offered me one of them but then i was unable to bring them home . I left the place n then found a guy asking for lift . He was Satyajit ,was in his mid 20s and he started trekking the Tikona fort at 6 in the morning . He was an intresting guy , he claimed that he has climbed almost all the forts in Maharashtra ALONE .After dropping him at the base village i went on the route said by Sardarji it was indeed scenic .


Within 45 mins reached NH4 this time i was constanly above 100 Kmph and in half an hour reached Panvel and was home by 3 Pm.

A ride to remember.

For more Pics chkout
http://picasaweb.google.com/eddie.chrome/KamshetRide?feat=directlink

Regards Rahul