14th Nov : Hyderabad

14th Nov: Hyderabad

The toll of riding close to 800kms was visible. Plus the presence of those irritating little mosquitoes that made sure I didn’t get my share of sleep and rest. Buggers. While Sunny and Sunil went sightseeing, I covered up on sleep and washing of clothes. What a revelation it was to have the washing machine around and all my GIR tees went in. The press meet was scheduled for 3pm at the Castrol Bike Zone, which was five minutes ride from the house. I used the time in the day to go through the route again and I did know we were running a little late but then tensions in northeast were becoming worse too. There had been a couple of bomb blasts in Guwahti itself and the usual fights in other states.

It was good that regular press meets were happening in major cities and I am thankful to the people behind it. And having the press meet at the castrol bike zones, to me, makes more sense, than to have it in press clubs of the respective cities, or in hotels, or around tourist attractions. We had around seven reporters from various newspapers including Times of India, Hindu, Andhra Jyoti, Andhra Prabha, Munsif and Indian Express. While we sat with them, discussing about the GIR, our bikes got a well deserved wash and I must say I was thoroughly impressed with the work. The guys made sure each and every inch of the bikes was washed, cleaned and polished and in the end, our machines were like gleaming beauties. We went for a small photo-shoot for the photographers and returned back to talk to the remaining journos, after which, a tv channel guy wanted us to ride to the necklace road for the video clip. I was getting a little late as my friends had been waiting for close to an hour at Hyderabad Central and so left as soon as we reached the necklace road. The road runs next to a lake for kilometers and the whole city is visible at the other end of the lake.

After catching up with pals at Central, I came back to the necklace road, parked my bike and got lost in the peace around, adding to the fact that the view of the city on the other side, and the reflection of the lights in the lake’s water had their own little magic to spell on me. There is a food court too, facing the lake, with many varieties of dishes to feasts one’s hunger on. Of late, I have started experimenting with exposure on the Canon 350D and took some lovely shots of the Comet on the dim light necklace road.

Click on the above pic and notice the train in the background.. the engine and then the rest of the bogies...

It wasn’t hard to find the way back to Ashish’s place but Sunny and Sunil had still not come back. I went straight for my laptop and its quite late now and Sunny just gave a call saying the duo are lost somewhere near the house. Ashish has gone to pick them up and Figu, the German Shepherd dog, is giving me company. I believe Sunny wants to spend one more day here, lets see. Signing off…

Aint she looking hot...