Day 4 - Jan 2, 2005
Opened eyes on Day 4 and a happy feeling took over. Early morning date with Gaurav and Nicky... yippee! Jumped out of bed, loaded bikes and hit the road for the early morning rendezvous. Riding 12 kms from the city to the highway in biting cold, I was chilled to death but the spirit was undaunted in the anticipation of meeting 60kph'ers. Disappointment was however in store - we could not spot any bullets or for that matter any human beings at the unearthly winter morning hour. Spotted a tea shop and a telephone booth, decided to have chai and buzz Gaurav. I went to order tea and Sanju to make the call. Before the tea chap was able to pour me some, an excited Sanju came running back with a message - Gaurav and Nicky had left 5 minutes before we reached according to the booth attendant! Yikes! We dumped our teas and jumped on Titli and Dhanno and sped in pursuit of our fleeing dates.

After three days of leisurely pace, I was a bit rusted. Sanju was not similarly afflicted, I missed one overtake and he took off at breakneck speed. So I gave chase, only to find him cooling his heels at a Junction. Sheepish he looked - must have realised that going super fast and then waiting for others to catch up was no fun :-) Good lesson, since from then on our dude tailed and I led at a steady fast pace. The sun wasn't up yet and the cold was getting the better of me, especially because Gaurav and Nicky were nowhere to be seen. Grr... why couldn't they have waited... grr... The chase took us about 50 Kms which is when I saw two indicators blinking and 2 people looking eagerly towards the oncoming traffic. Yes, I sped towards them, screeched to a stop with Sanju close behind. No introductions were required! For me, it wasn't too difficult to figure which one was Gaurav ;-) If you know what I mean. I wouldn't know how difficult it was for them to figure out who was Vishu - with my muscular endowments, my Shetty bloodline wouldn't be too difficult to place though.

Our dates were as excited to meet us. Kutch! You're finally happening, I felt like screaming. The sun rose to greet the occasion. We said cheers to that with a cuppa and began rolling again. Gaurav was the lead, Sanju was sweeping, I rode behind Nicky and was watching her back. It struck me watching her overtake trucks with ease and following Gaurav in perfect synch that she's a good rider. At one stretch, Nicky was leading and I was tailing Gaurav. Saw his sleeping mat unroll and dangle in the air. He stopped at my signal and stopped to fix it back. I looked for Sanju - nope. Our dude was nowhere in sight. Nicky was already ahead so rode till she stopped realising something amiss with her followers.

Just as my stomach rumbled for food, the rest of the gang started feeling the cold. Sanju and Gaurav had stopped to pad up against it and we all stopped for pet puja. The road was very strange as there were no proper Highway Inns or dhabas etc. The ones that were there served stuff which didn't interest the hardbred Southie in me. Fried Paneer bonda for breakfast. Yikes! Folks back home would go sullen at just the thought of it :-(. Just then Mum's yummy breakfast came to mind and with that came the memory of the food she'd packed for me when she was feeling a bit charitable towards her eldest son and ignoring her husband's big sulking face. hehehe. So I fished out her laddoos and snacks for all of us to feed on. Pet puja over and calls made, we started for Ahmedabad city. The ride from there was pretty smooth. At one stretch, lots of cows came charging towards us Bulls :-) The herd of them against us four :-) we gave them right of way, naturally. Sanju wanted to meet his old college friends at Anand and so he took a detour to Anand. We stopped for a cup of tea and started riding again.

At the outskirts of Ahmedabad, Gaurav, suddenly charged up literally stood on his bike. Is that how (acrobatics) he enters his city every time, I thought to myself. THAT's a joke guys. Soon I realised that his eagle eye had spotted the Ahmedabad gang waiting for us at the outskirts. HUH! I saw them too. Eventually i.e. Himalayan Monk was parked at a distance so my guess was that one of three guys waiting was Amol. Saw one cute baby face rider whom I had last seen, life size, on the RE website, yep. it was Anuj AKA Rocky. The third one was Jay. After the initial introductions and handshaking - all of us headed towards the city. I took an immediate liking to Amol but he seemed reserved and a bit of an angry young man. A tussle between him and an auto rickshaw later, we were soon riding in the city traffic. We passed IIM (A) and I almost ran into the deep sand on the roadside opposite it. Guess it must be the sudden wave of knowledge coming from inside and hitting me and bouncing off the wall in my brain. A small tussle with a Santro guy followed and finally we arrived at Gaurav's flat. This place was to be home for 30 bikers for next couple of days.

The flat had liveable potential till it was swamped in. All the luggage went into one room and soon it began resembling a set of Ram Gopal Verma's Company! The logistics team - Amol, Jay and Anuj were calling the Kutch concerned. Amol was speaking in typical Mumbaiya style bhaasha. To me it seemed like a D group planning to execute a major 2 khokha "Supari". I was the odd man out. Lunch time and the city surroundings demanded proper eating out and so it was Pizzas n sandwiches on CG road (much like Mumbai's Linking road, Bangalore's MG Road, Calcutta's Park Street and Chennai's Mount road). CG Road was a 5 minute walk from Gaurav's flat. We came back and Gaurav began to organise help to clean his pad.

For short of anything better to do, I tried an afternoon siesta but nope sleep don't wanna come, guys :-) Strolled back to CG road in search of a Citibank ATM. Got it and then hunted for Cloth hangers for all the riders to hang their jackets on arrival and also of course a bit of paparazzi shootouts of the available Ahmadabad Behenaii :-). Walked back to the flat to see it spic and span and spent some time with Gaurav chatting about his documentary film. Amol and Anuj walked back in and soon it was back to "Supari" operation environment. Dipesh arrived soon after with his French connection - Laurence and regaled all present with his day/night riding experiences in Rajasthan. I realised that it was a good time to have a bath. And that was the greatest move I made on Day 4 as there was no hope for that privilege for the next few days. Ah!! before I forget, We also met Gaurav's grandpa, Dr. Majumdar, who was very nice to converse with. But thanks to ants in the pants Gaurav, we were dragged away to do other things.

Back at Gaurav's, everyone was expecting the Mumbai gang. We got a call from Amol, who along with Anuj went to fetch them, forewarning of their arrival. Gaurav and all of us decided to play prank on him. We shifted our luggage outside the luggage room and had Gaurav call up Amol and told him to tell the Mumbai people not to unload their stuff after they reach the flat. Amol was sold on the story and we waited for the climax.

Amol and Anuj came upstairs leaving the Mumbai Gang downstairs. Everyone was poker faced. Amol and Anuj did not utter one word and just stared. Gaurav said in a distinctly depressed tone. Some problem and the Kutch trip is cancelled. I don't want do it. We need to shift all the luggage now. Amol went red in the face and there was pin drop silence! All we wanted was Amol not to convey the message to anybody else and complicate matters.

"Bakra" scene was set up singularly for him, after all, you see. Nobody moved amongst us. The Mumbai gang was waiting downstairs. It was so tense then. Just like a scene before a gun is fired.

Gaurav decided to call the joke and broke the tension with a guffaw. Amol's face was one in a life time photo opportunity - unfortunately I didn't have my camera handy :-(

He didn't like being made a bakra - he lighted up and said "Bekar main aaj kisi ki maut ho jaati". As if on cue, the Mumbai guys - Vinod, Meeta, Shreekant, Prashant and Prem bounded up the stairs. A round of laughs, more 60kph'ers joining in. Booze time and dinner followed.

The happy feeling I'd woken up from bed today came back with a vengeance. This "Company" would be there tomorrow morning too :-) Me High on that crept into my sleeping bag, closing my eyes for the first time in days, minus Sanju's background snore 'score'. The yapping of the gang served as alternate background music. And that was goood too - I switched off to the day.

Next...
For the first time in days, I woke up with no sense of urgency to hit the road. Just laid back and soaked it in... (read on)


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