21st & 22nd October: Pune

Happy Diwali, the GIR way!

21 & 22nd : Pune

Cover up on sleep, wash clothes and cover up on blogging. That was the plan for today and we did adhere to it by getting up late. And I did adhere to the plan of washing clothes too. And then the last thing – cover up on blogging… well well. We are four riders and have just two laptops and so you can understand the reason behind us running behind schedule to update our sites and blogs. We are staying at the same house I used to live in when I was working with BIKE INDIA and CAR INDIA magazines. My house mates, Amit and Muntaser are off to Jaipur and Mumbai respectively and so the whole house is to us! Time to unwind then…
Sunny and Sunil wanted to buy little stuff and Ashish was down with a sore throat. And putting up in the house meant the whole atmosphere was a lazy one. Nevertheless I wanted to buy a laptop for the past many days and today I knew I would do it. Off I went searching for Sunny and Sunil on MG Road and managed to find them at Baristas. Ok, time for some good breakfast haan. Superbikes are really ‘people magnets’ and once again it was evident on the busy MG Road. Sunny is an expert at computers and it was a sight to see when he counter questioned the sales guy and left him speech-less. Whao…
The deal finally boiled down to a HCL and an Acer, both of similar configurations and similarly priced too. The HCL one was a real small compact, and weighed 1.9 kilos while the Acer had a big 15.4 inch TFT Lcd, best for viewing high resolution pics and watching videos. Went in for the Acer, and upgraded to 512MB Ram, plus a complimentary optical mouse and a card reader and for 45 grands, the deal seemed worth it. A Diwali gift for myself!
The rest of the evening was spent celebrating Diwali in the area we were staying and we made an outline of India with candles and put our helmets on the four corners, with the Fireblade staring at the north tip of India. The laptop and speakers had some good music flowing, while I distributed sweets among the small crowd that had gathered. It was lovely to get wishes from people we had never met or known before and explaining our motive of the ride made them ask questions in disbelief! Delhi to Pune on ‘scooters’ and a superbike! Did miss my family a lot but then this is one of the many sacrifices of being on the GIR. My original reliance phone was switched off as I wanted to be cut off from the world but switching it on made me realize how much I had missed. Smses didn’t stop pouring in, from Diwali wishes, to GIR wishes to being concern for my whereabouts (cell being off). Back inside the house, music was on full blast, computers and cams were working overtime. Work did take a back step but it was ok considering that fact that we hadn’t rested for days now.
22nd - Half of our bikes were still with the Kinetic guys and so today (22nd) was another day we could catch up on work. Ashish (on a Kinetic Aquilla – one of the workshop guy’s bike) and Sunil (Blaze) went sightseeing to Singhad fort and while Ashish didn’t seem to keen on exploring it, Sunil had a great time gelling-in in the natural beauty. I, in the meantime, was in the house updating and generally getting in touch with the rest of the world! Tomorrow would be a long ride to Goa via Belgaum. The bikes have been serviced and I will get to explore the limits of the Blaze, my bike from now on as the Jupiter still doesn’t have the rear brakes working plus the engine isn’t cranking up. Good in a way, I will be riding the Blaze tension free.