Post lockdown TBHP mini-meet at Azad Hind Dhaba (AHD) Uluberia near Calcutta
This plan came out of a casual conversation among some of us BHPians on what we should do now that the lockdown restrictions had been eased. Three of us were free the next morning which was a Sunday and decided that we should catch up for breakfast at AHD Uluberia, which serves excellent parathas and is an easy highway drive away from Cal. The last minute nature of the plan on a Saturday night meant that we would not get too many other BHPians to join in, but we put up the notice in the meet section anyway, and hoped for the best.
Finally the day of our meet dawned and despite having gone to bed at well after 2:30 am thanks to the Euro Cup football tournament, I woke up at 6 am all excited and raring to go.
After all, not only would I get to meet my fellow BHPians, but I would also get to stretch the legs of my car on a national highway after at least 3 months! This would be the first highway drive for many of us post easing of the second wave lockdown restrictions.
We were supposed to do a quick rendezvous just after crossing the second Hooghly Bridge toll plaza at 7:30 am, and then proceed together from there to our final destination - Azad Hind Dhaba, Uluberia, for breakfast.
Azad Hind Dhaba was about 38 kms from our meeting point, and apart from the Kona Expressway part, the rest of the route was through the erstwhile NH6 that goes from Calcutta to Mumbai. This is a six lane highway for the most part, and on Sunday mornings at 8 am, it is usually devoid of congestion.
Unfortunately, laggard that I am, I was the last to reach at about 7:45 am - blame it on starting slightly later than planned and also running into a queue at the toll plaza, which ensured that it took me almost 15 minutes to reach the meeting point despite reaching Esplanade just before 7:30 am.
Anyway, a pleasant surprise greeted me at the meeting point. While BHPians
shourya_lahiri and
turboNath had already confirmed their presence the previous night, BHPian
ABHI_1512 had also made it and BHPian
Boniver also confirmed that he was on his way and would reach AHD directly.
Here are a few pics of our cars at the rendezvous point on the Second Hooghly Bridge just before we started. Thanks a lot to
TurboNath for editing many of the pics in this post.
Starting for AHD. That is BHPian
ABHI_1512 in the frame. Pic courtesy BHPian
TurboNath
Happy people - we got a table on reaching our destination without any fuss.
The parathas were heavenly. All of us had a sumptuous breakfast.
Yours truly relishing the company, and the food (in that order). We spent almost two hours and discussed everything from Ford cars to the Fiat 90 MJD engine that powered the Punto and also powers my car, to Hyundai's popularity, to
TurboNath's earlier Safari and current XUV500.
Finally it was time to leave but before that, we wanted to take a few group photos. This one is of the Fast Five (as we called ourselves). From L-R: BHPians
Neversaygbye,
TurboNath,
Boniver,
ABHI_1512 and
shourya_lahiri
And this one is of the Fast Five with their steeds, just before leaving AHD.
The rain Gods caught up with us on the way back, and added another dimension to our drive. Pic courtesy
ABHI_1512
Finally, we were back where we started. This incredible pic of the second Hooghly Bridge through a rain soaked windshield taken by
ABHI_1512 capped off what had been a tremendous morning.
Hopefully we will have another meet soon, and more BHPians will be able to join that one!