Meeting the Shutterbugs - Bumping into the Adventurers

As i lazily woke up and stretched my arms in a wiiiddde yawn...and glanced at the clock. SHITT..nearly 9:00 A.M. I had a Photographers @ Pune photo shoot and that too early in the morninig and as usual i was late. This would have been the 4th photo shoot i would have backed out from and i wudnt have risked this for anything in the world. So i called up Harshad only to know that the troop was still on their way to Kudje and i could catch them anytime..WHATTA relief..

I finally moved out of my bed and got ready quickly and zoomed off towards the nearest fuel pump..being oh so forgetful i was practically running on Petrol Vapour. Tanking up at Shell Pirangut, i zoomed across the Mutha Ghats and came to the Mutha village. A villager offered to give me directions to Kudje and all i had to do was drop him near an intermediate village called Bahuli. So off i went, this dhoti clad 70 something gent sitting pillion wielding a lathi in one hand and a potli in the other. Enroute he gave me the recent agricultural updates in this region of the state. How the sugarcane rate fell from 1200 bucks (a quintal?)..to 500 bucks and hence everyone in the village is now dependent on their sons in Pune who are working and sending money home. He mentioned how he waits 5 hours to catch a abus to swargate every weekend to visit his relatives and practically spends the whole damn day in this travel. Somehow the BIkeNomad inside me failed to relate to his idea of travelling just about 60 - 70 odd kms over an entire day !!! Man i do Pune - Panvel in an Hour and a Half. (Not to mention.. Laxmi Road - Deccan in an Hour and a half too !!!). After dropping him off i zoomed crazily towards Kudje and finally found the group spread all over the contryside taking pictures. I turned off the road and started ridindg my bike straight towards the lake. After i reached a spot from where there was no other way but dwon i stopped got off and started walking down.

Met Srijith, Vipin, Sridhar etc at the Lake and then after some shots followed the group to the river bridge on Neelkantheshwar road. It was here that i also got introduced to some more shutterbugs..and came to know everyone had a unique name and id which kinda depicted their individuality..Hmm Time to get mine too...

We stopped there for some pics and then left in some time. It was here that i met the FAIRER GANG..(Sorry gals!!) of the Shutterbugs. Architect Pooja..Legendary Gangu..DR..etc etc..Pleasure meeting u all. Also the legendary OW. Nothing Ordinalry bout his world though.



Took directions from Captn about next stop and waited for some more snaps.



As i was moving towards Mutha i happened to give a lift to yet another Village elder. He was carrying a sugarcane and after dropping him he simply offered me the cane. I refused, citing space constraint as my reason so he gave me half of it, breaking it into 2 parts. WOW. He insisted i take it as he said - "We only get one life to repay all our favours and i would want to repay you right now, so please take it." Man !! What philospphy!!. Was it his years of toil and hardwork, was it his simplicity, those wrinkles on his forehead .....or just because he wasnt exposed to urban intelligent lifestyle... did he sound so clear about what he had to do in life.

Wish i had half his sensibility. I could have been a much better man today !!

After i dropped him at his village i again zoomed off towards Captain's suggested point and after reaching there realised..There are always TWO ends of a ghat section. So i didnt know "which" end of Mutha ghat were the P @ P guys were waiting. So i did a aquick recce of the entire Mutha ghats and didnt find them so decided to move further into Lavassa side. Luckily a few kms down the road i saw them and managed to reach the group JUST IN TIME to be there for the group photograph. HA HA HA....

As we were dispersing after the group photo, i noticed two streaking shapes in saffron zooming across the road with one lumbering black silhoutted figiurine in between. I paused for a while. Right turn - Follow the Shutterbug group..to Pune..Left Turn..follow those shapes towards Lavassa. I wasnt sure if i wud be able to catch up with them or if they would entertain my presence but then i had to take a split second decisison. I took a gamble. Left Turn it was !! I zoomed off towards Lavassa. As i neared them i noticed it was a group of 3 riders. Led by a lady on an Orange KTM 640 Adventure Dual Purpose Bike, A Dude on a Black Bullet Electra in between and trailed by another gentleman on a similar Orange KTM. I followed them closely as we took turns after turns and i noticed the awesome grace with which The KTM riders were taking curves, without any fear or concern of the high ground clearence. The bikes maintained a good pace even over the numerous speedbreakers along the route as the shock had nearly 4 - 5 inches of smooth travel without disturbing the saddle. So they weren't slowing down on the bumps, simply raising themselves on the foot pegs and moving on. As we started going up Lavassa i couldnt resist the temtation to open the throttle and zoomed up. Waited for some time for them and saw them slowly lumber to the top. It was here that i came to know they wanted to get inside Lavassa city for a alook around and the Bullet Rider, Gundeep did try to convince the Security to allow the group inside. FInally as a astroke of luck, the European gentleman managed to call someone on the inside and got us through. We rode down taking twisties in our stride and reached EKAANT the restaurent set deep inside over a cliff.

Once we parked the bikes a small introduction round followed and i came to know that the two KTM Riders were Dietmar and Regena from germany and on the Bullet was Ex Army Captn Gundeep Sandhu. after the introductions and some BIKE Talk we decided to walk up to the restaurent where we were cordially escorted to a table reserved for us, courtesy Dietmar's call.

The Full Glass walled restaurent was awsome and the height it commanded owing to its position on the mountain made the view even more exotic. I came to know here that Dietmer was working with Daimler Benz in Pune and dealt with the Commercial Vehicles, mainly the Large actros trucks. Regena and Gundeep were Investment Banking specialists form Bangalore and were there for a holiday.WHOA. And they had come there to just spend a weekend ridindg. Over the conversation we discussed how living in Pune had ade Dietmer an expert in traffic cutting and he did that with the ease of a RX 100 ider, alebeit on a KTM 640..Now Thats what i call riding...!! After a fresh lime water drink..and a toast to the Elegent fraulin, the rider gent from the land of oktoBEERfest and the now corporate commando Gundeep i decided to move back to Pune.

Bidding goodbye i walked out and took some more shots in and around the region. Finally it was time for me to get back to civilization and i started my bike and zoomed back towards Pune.

A quick hot shower refreshed me and then i just relaxed the rest of the day reflecting over the absolutely amazing time i had spent in the day...I wish i get another oppourtunity to ride with the KTM's again !!!

Until then..Keep Riding.

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