All members arrived at Chandni Chowk dot on time except me, Frozen Photon, Srijith and Sunder Iyer. We are old members.
It was great to meet these guys after a long break. I saw Srijith cross my house and stopped him. He was in a new car, same as mine, Wagon R. Frozen out of his senses, Harsh drove past me to nowhere, returned.
Studio Blossoms made lot of noise “I am coming. I am in for the shoot on my Big Bull”. He never came. He even konfused me about Shoonya. I never knew Aperture Junkie had a dual personality. Now I have SB’s money, it is for him to collect.
At Chandni Chowk: After short introduction about who I am, gave a briefing about the shoot to majorly new members, who I never met. We were in some 5 cars and 6 bikes. SX 4 was sexy.
I told bikers “Get into cars, leave your bikes here, will be safe. More bikes means more chances of breakdowns. No one cared. Eventually two bikes flamed out at Lavasa.. More of that later.
Keep Headlights On I told all of them. I did some environmental social work and told everyone to get all their garbage and plastic junk back to Pune.
The sky was overcast, the weather looked good to me for a wet and wild shoot.
MUTHA GHAT
I led the pack on Street Fighter (my Pulsar 220).
As I started climbing the twisties of Mutha Ghat I felt like WoW! The clouds, the green grass, the mountains and hills were magnificent.
LAVASA TOP
The Lavasa Ghat was even better. Next to no time, fog and mist hit all round us, enveloping us in a big hug.
I was riding a bit fast in 15 meters visibility on a nice twisty. Suddenly I saw a big truck! But Street Fighter banked right and overtook the truck safely. My heart had stopped beating momentarily.
At the Lavasa Top the weather and the scenery was like PARASIDE. Visibility was a low 5 to 50 meters.
!! Exactly what I wanted. Perfectly WET AND MISTY AND WILD !!.
It was drizzling, many did not want to risk taking out their cameras. Only POPAT cameras were out. The Nikons the Canons were safely tucked in weather proof cars and bags.
The thick fog did not permit visibility beyond a range of 50 meters. I wanted to shoot the twisties in fog, told Sahil to pull out my camera from Srijith’s water proof car.
Sahil said anxiously: “Captain, camera will get wet, damaged.”
I replied “Look Sahil, I don’t care, it is only a camera not some million dollar life threatening thing. Even if it is, to hell with it. I have not come here for some touristy past time. Besides I have a big umbrella. We will shoot the bike, the twisties, the fog, everything. Tis a Wet and Wild Shoot, remember?”
One amused new member, was listening to our conversation. I told him to hold the umbrella while we struggled with the long nose of the Nikon 80 D in rain and drizzle.
While the others were sauntering in the vicinity of Lavasa Top, enjoying the weather, I took Sahil, with the naked Nikon round his neck, astride Street Fighter. We zoomed off to the twisties.
I briefed Sahil how to shoot the running bike pics. I told him to make whatever settings on the long nose of the camera. He got confused, saying some numbers like mine is 40 and yours is 80. New gyaan for me that D 40 is different from D 80.
I told him “Sahil baby, 40/80, tis all the same really, just push the shutter hard. Something will happen. Rest we will Photoshop.” For good measure told him to set the ISO to some weird fig like 325. Don’t remember what.
That done I rode off.
It was drizzling, foggy, dark and misty. I was zapped, transformed. Ecstasy pills don’t give you the highs of Lavasa in this foggy wet weather.
I zoomed around the curves astride Street Fighter, while Sahil kept shooting.
Sahil asked me, “Captain you got hanky? Lens is wet.” I told him to use his shirt to wipe the lens dry. But keep shooting. Sahil thinks too much. He worries too much. At his age he should be Wild, Crazy. After all Pappa was a Rolling Stone.
We went further down to nicer twisties. Sahil became bold and I found him shooting me right in the Center of the Road!! Sahil is getting there. He is Crazy.
We returned to Lavasa top. By now a few cameras were out and members were finally shooting. They got amazing shots.
We assembled before departure Lavasa Top. Moderator Mahipal asked new members to introduce themselves. They all looked happy. We forgot to shoot the group pic and headed down the slopes to Temghar.
I kept Sahil with me. On the way down I met my buddies from the Rubber Smoking Angels! Some 12 bikes neatly lined up Rash the Prez of RSA, Smokey, Stoner, Priya…not all names are right but all kick ass suicidal riders. We bear hugged each other and I left.
Sahil as a pillion was a good stabilizing factor on wet roads for my bike.
Shooting done, Freedom ride over!
We headed down the slopes to Hotel Hilton Prasad for breakfast
Mahipal came panting “Captain two bikes are not starting.” My wisdom like advise to Mahipal “Go to Pirangut, hire a Tempo and retrieve the bikes to Pune.” I was done.
One broke down bike was Mahi’s, which was towed by RSA from Lavasa to Hotel Hilton Prasad , the other was Chinmay’s and he was still stuck at Lavasa Top. Some water in carburetor issues. Brokeback Lavasa Mountains broke dem bikes. I had told them at Chandni Chowk “Get into cars.”
THE RETURN HOME
Was raining continuously now from Mutha to Pune. Arrived home safe at around 1:15 pm.
Pics from Nikon D 80? They are naish naish. Camera body is soaked with water. Camshot will take care of that. I got 100% warranty.
I can see many good pics from members now. Regretfully the tag P@P20082707 is not showing all pics. Why? Mantriji Suhas explain.
Thank you all Members. I am done...The Rider Rests
