Topped up petrol on Saturday night, told ‘Moin Bhai’ (he’s the guy who takes care of the cars) to clean the car and check stepney for correct pressure. Checked my mail for any final updates at 8:00 AM and saw a mail from Sumitro who needed a wakeup call. Changed and got ready, then called up Sumitro.
Number rang thru ! Tried again, and again …. And again! Same result. I thought that this guy is in deep sleep and probably dreaming of scampily clad PYT’s driving around in cars with FFE’s and CAI’s. Sent him a msg (yeah rite, what else could I have done ?) and finally got a reply that he’s awake and with a puncture(not him, his ride). Relief !!
Checked the car's
tel-paani and left home (Damn it was HOT) to reach the designated venue and reached at 9.20 AM, noticed that I was the only one present. The guys who were supposed to ride with me backed out citing some stupid reason or the other (morons). I knew it was because of the heat. Thought to myself, ah well, maybe I was early and they should be here in some time.
Tick tock tick tock, lots of looks at the rear view mirror and a couple of smokes later I take a glance at the watch and notice that it is now 9.40 ! Crazy thoughts started coming to my mind.
‘Meet to aaj hi tha na ? Kahi aisa to nahi ki next week ka date tha and I thought ki it was today ?’ Did I mention it was hot ? Now I was sweating … AND tensed.
Waited another couple of minutes and I see a Black elantra coming from behind and parking in front of me. I knew it was shuvd’s ride and I heaved a sigh of relief.
Wimwian was riding shotgun. We all got off and started chatting up. A few moments later, we see a Palio pulling up … then a Swift … then a Baleno … Octavia … and ‘finally’ our ‘planet’ bhaiyya with ETC. Oh! Forgot to mention, razor (in the Octavia) had taken a wrong turn and landed up in Elgin road in search of the starting point and a few calls and directions later he was able to find us.
We all wanted to hear how the baleno sounded with the new FFE and so Sumitro happily revved it (we could all see the ear to ear grin on your face while you were doing so).
Took a head count …. Is anyone left …. Umm .. no ! Shuvc had said that he would meet us directly at A1 plaza so we started off.
1st crossing, and on the approach to the AJC bose road flyover, the baleno blasted off and the sound from the Exhaust was …. Well …. Amazing ! Actually, make it
LOUD and amazing ! Noticed that the exhaust pipe was appearing to be lower (kind of looping below the body), later that was clarified that it was a stop gap arrangement as the original pipe had gone for nickel plating and once that would be installed it would be a perfect fit.
By the end of the flyover, almost everyone has gone ahead apart from the Palio, the 800 and myself (we caught a red light). Reached and crossed the Setu, and was on my way to Kona Expressway when I realized that everybody apart from Planet was waaaaay up ahead of me.
Decided to stretch my legs a bit. Car was running smooth till 120, once it hit 130 I could feel the steering wobble a bit. I thought the asphalt was uneven and maybe there were some bumps on the road which was causing this. Tried to accelerate thinking that the vibration would go away but the steering started shuddering more prominently so I knew that it was prolly the wheel balancing which was causing this. Dropped it down to 110 and was cruising. Reached and crossed the Toll booth and moved on to find that everybody who had gone up ahead had stopped on the side to let up catch up. So nice of all of you !
Got out, and walked around, there were people taking pictures, chatting up and collectively wondering where planet was. ‘Someone’ quipped that he was probably enjoying the drive with his girl. (umm.. that was me).
Some time later planet comes along and we all move on, as usual the Skoda & the baleno zoom up ahead and the rest of us are cruising on, sometime later we pass a lot of road side dhabas and a lot of petrol pumps IPB, IOC, BP, Reliance .. and so on. I’m happily tailing the Swift and we are moving on …. Looked to my right, saw the Sher-e Punjab dhaba, up ahead I see the Kolaghat crossing which we used to take when going to Digha. Saw the swift slowing down and parking to the side. Came to know that the A1 plaza was left far behind (remember the Reliance bunk that I mentioned that we passed 10 kms back?).
Ok, no worries … we just turn around and head back. Ok we actually took a wrong turn (again) and had to turn around once more to get on the right way(ring-a-ring-a-roses). Reached the place (finally) and got out from the air conditioned comfort only to realize it was bloody hot ! AND humid !! Started sweating from places where I didn’t know pores existed !!
A quick smoke and we all get in, place the order and keep chatting about cars, some ‘interesting’ tbhpians from Calcutta and some occasional quips about the delay in getting the food. We could all make out when the food was finally served, all of a sudden the tables which were the loudest till now, there is deafening silence.
Food was ok, not bad, but nothing to write home about either. Gather outside and pop the hoods of the Baleno and check out the install. Revved it once again and marveled at the sound.
Nice !!
Check the Skoda’s hood and check out the engine vengine. By now the sun & the heat (and our obsession with cars) is getting on the ETC’s nerves and they decide to move into the cars. A couple of quick photos later we are on the way back home.
Great meet, awesome cars, fantastic drive, amazing people …………. KILLER heat.
Lets do it again !!
Regards
Sarvagya