A Bike Ride to Pune

It’s another early Saturday morning, and I get off the phone. I look at my watch and it’s about five. I take my feet off the table and collect my gear as I head off to the parking. The cold air is refreshing and I don’t really mind the strap of the bag that is cutting into my shoulder. I have bigger fish to fry. I have to ride 150 km to my house in Pune, after a full day of work and staying late in office.

I switch on the music and put in earphone in my ears. I lay all my gear on the bike, ready to dress up. Having been a veteran at these early morning Pune trips, I have a fixed procedure. First my jacket goes on my torso, and then the cell phone goes into the inner breast pocket. The earphones come out and hang over my ears. The muffler is tightened around my neck and now the earphones go back in. I zip up the front and wear my bag. This is followed by the helmet, and at last, my gloves. Now I am ready to take on the world. But before that, I need to the wake up the watchman.

The watchmen at the office are weird. They lock the main gate and go off to sleep at night. And every single night when I wake them up to open the gate, I get the stinky eye from them. Today, however, is different. The guy is sipping his tea, and gets up before I can break, in front of his cabin. Without much of a fuss, he opens the gate & I’m off. I take the quick start as a good omen, and quickly lower my visor as I speed off towards the Highway.

I’m now on the Thane-Belapur road. This road is very familiar to me, and my mind starts wandering off. I recollect the first time I had biked on this road, almost two years back; That night too we were biking from office. But we had left office two hours early, and were going to Jimmy’s Birthday party in Khargar. What a change in those two years. Not only in me, but also in this road. It was basically a glorified dirt track then. Now it’s a respectable concrete road, one can ride on without too much of trouble.

I reach Nerul, and am riding in Pitch dark. I know when the paved road patch starts, and I’m waiting for it. The undulations of the paved blocks is dangerous, if ones attention wavers, and I want to reach home in one piece. A ST bus can be seen in the distance. It is dark and dusty, with no reflectors or light, so I constantly have to struggle to dynamically place it. It’s moving in the middle lane & I plan to overtake it from the right. Just as about 100 feet separate me from the bus, something catches my eye. I can’t quite make out what it is, but the light from on coming trucks, shows me there is something directly in my path about 100 feet away. Within a few hundredth of a second, I realize that it is a plastic bottle, and I start staring at a spot exactly one foot to the left of the bottle. My eyes are now fixed on to that point, and that is all I can see.

Initially, the bike does not waver, but I have enough fate in myself. I keep staring at the spot, and soon enough, my bike first dips to the right and then instantly to the left. The bottle is coming closer every second and I’m still not sure if I’ll make it. But I have enough faith in my body. The bottle is just about 10 feet away, and just about 6 inches off my path. I continue staring at the fixed point, and as expected I pass over that very spot.

I have now reached the Asugav junction, where the Express way begins. I however have to take a right and go via Panvel to the old Mumbai Pune highway. I hate this stretch, and have to put my mind and reflexes on high alert. This road is a two lane, two way highway with no divider. The oncoming traffic is causing a glare in my eyes, and I am practically blind. Thankfully the road is flat and porthole free, so I don’t have to worry about that. I just tell myself to watch out for oncoming traffic and stay out of the way of stray vehicles. My fears are justified just a few minutes later, when a sumo coming from the other side, is travelling in my lane, and I have to travel on the shoulder of the road to avoid getting hit. I know I can’t rest till I go over the Expressway and reach Shedung village, where the NH4, becomes a four way toll road. Thankfully I have an uneventful ride till Shedung

On the old NH4, the 4 lane road becomes a two-lane road at Khalapur. As I biker I’m very afraid of getting into accidents, and am especially guarded on roads without dividers. Hence my joy on the NH4, ends at Khalapur, and I’m again on full alert till Kopoli, which about 8 Km ahead.
The Ghats start at Khopoli & that is where the fun starts as well. The road is scenic and curvy. There is no traffic on that road, and I leisurely climb the hills, swinging out on the turns. It is still dark, and I can feel it getting chilly as I climb the ghats. I have to ride on low gear because of the steep climb, and my bike has to struggle to maintain speed. The sound of my engine at low RPM is the only sound I can hear. There is no other light around except for my headlights, and I am totally at peace.

I approach the Expressway. Before I get on the Expressway, the road goes over a strangely shaped flyover. It is narrow, has a steep decline and a sharp turn. The view from the sharp turn is amazing and I’ve often stopped there before. You can see the lights of Khopoli and the valley surrounding it. The sun hasn’t risen yet, and there is not much light in the valley, so I carry on, and get to the highest gear as I touch the Expressway.

Even though I know that I have to get to the Expressway, every time I have done the Mumbai-Pune ride, I have this insecure voice in my head, asking me if I am meant to be there. I ignore that voice and carry on. There is a lot of slow moving Truck traffic. I prefer this to the high speed car traffic, since the trucks are slow moving and I can zoom in and out of their paths, without any issue.

I get off the Khandala exit, and begin one of the best parts of the journey. The road from Khandala to Lonavala, is specious, wide and curvy. It lies along the railway tracks, and a couple of times, I’ve has the good fortune to travel alongside a train. If you haven’t done that, you cannot possibly understand the joy and excitement one feels as one races a train.

I pass Lonavala, and the highway expands to a nice 4 lane toll way. I look at my watch and see that it is 6:45. I have been neither too fast, nor too slow. I know I will do the next fifty odd km in about an hour. The road is flat, and the cold air is blowing. My bike is shaking and I’m shivering. It is a good experience, and brings back the memories of the Ladhak expedition. I can see the sun shinning, and look at the big orange blob, as it is rises just a few degrees above the horizon. The day is just beginning and I’m dead tired. It will be another interesting day in Pune.