Q.Thump Kasauli

[B]Tarmac. Saddle. Thump![/B] It was 04:00 am. The alarm beeped and roughly a couple of seconds later my dreaming mind was scrambled with the absolute excitement of the impending group ride to Kasauli. I woke up shivering in the cold night temperature of around seven degrees. Early morning, cold temperatures, freezing wind blasts while riding meant gearing up with layers of clothes. I used the thermals which I had bought from Adidas as a last minute measure and on top of it, a full-sleeved shirt and then a winter jacket and finally a riding jacket! That’s what it takes for a guy from Chennai to survive the winters of Delhi! After gearing up and downing a redbull (My usual pre-ride breakfast), I hit the road. I gunned down my way to the Saket store as I was running a bit late. I reached the store in exactly 25 minutes, only to find only one fellow rider had arrived. But soon enough, all the other riders turned up as well. I got the golden opportunity (pardon the pun) to meet Sunita Hooda, the bikerni who did the Golden Triangle on a Bajaj Avenger for ‘Ride for women’s pride’! It was a humbling experience meeting her. After about 15 minutes, all the riders assembled, attendance count was taken and a small briefing was given about the rules of group riding. This was needed especially because the group had a lot of first timers. [CENTER] [ATTACH=CONFIG]n3440[/ATTACH] [/CENTER] [CENTER]Reflectors are working fine! (PC: Sushil Kumar Goel)[/CENTER] [CENTER][ATTACH=CONFIG]n3441[/ATTACH] With Sunita Hooda![/CENTER] A customary group photo was taken, but the quality was really messy because of the darkness. Nevertheless, the reflective strips in our riding gear and the chrome on our bikes became quite the posers. We all geared up and flagged of at around 06:40 am. The group being primarily of first timers witnessed a lot of shuffling and interchanging, especially at traffic lights, where most of the riders converged to the front. I made sure I stayed within the first five- six riders so that I didn’t have to deal with all the disorderliness. At around 08:30 am, we pulled over to a restaurant called Amrik Sukhdev. I had worn my riding gloves over the winter gloves to beat the cold. But I ended up feeling very uncomfortable as it was too tight and messed up my ability to handle the switchgear efficiently. There was hardly any blood-circulation in my fingertips, especially the thumb and index finger. I couldn’t take it off midway as it is a group ride. As soon as we parked, I metaphorically ripped away the gloves off my hand. What a relief! Irony was, the cold wind blasts did permeate through my double-layered gloves. Coming back to the restaurant, I thought it is just another one dotted down the highway. Little did I know that they serve ridiculously delicious parathas and is the first choice to most of the bikers. The ambience was grand and so was the food. [CENTER] [ATTACH=CONFIG]n3442[/ATTACH] Breakfast @ Amrik Sukhdev (PC: Sushil Kumar Goel)[/CENTER] After breakfast, we were back to our saddles and headed towards Ambala. One of the guys in the group, Mr. Sushil had brought his SUV. He overtook us and pulled over at regular intervals and took photos and pictures of us doing a fly-by. The video turned out to be abso-freaking-lutely awesome! The next pit stop was at an Indian Oil petrol pump. There was also a little biker store inside the compound which dealt with riding gear, helmets, keychains and other accessories. Though it was not a full-blown biker store, it did have its own aura of creative individuality. We refuelled up at the pump, had some tea (The official drink for the ride) and clicked a couple of groupfies. After the pictures, we then proceeded towards Kasauli without any further breaks. One good thing with group riding is, that no roads are too long when one has a riding companion. And we had 30 of them. We averaged about 75 kph and we entered the super-smooth Chandigarh- Shimla highway in no time. Soon, we hit the twisties and after a couple of hours (which felt like 20 minutes, courtesy: group riding) we reached Kasauli. We had lunch at a restaurant before we checked-into the hotel. The hotel, ‘Whispering winds’, was quite cosy with a neat parking space up front. We parked our steeds, checked-in and each room was allotted for three people. The rooms were quite nice. Not luxurious, but comfortable. We took off our gear, rested up for a while and then hit the roads for a short ride to the town at around 04:00 pm. I wanted to do a relaxed ride and so I went solo. I pulled over frequently and took as many photos as possible as it was slowly getting dark. Gotta say, my ride was as photogenic as the scenery. In about half hour, I reached Sunset point. A small group of riders had already reached there. With the sun glowing in a mellow orange hue overlooking the mountains, it was truly a sight to behold. We savoured the sunset and then we were back to the hotel at around 06:30 pm. [CENTER] [ATTACH=CONFIG]n3443[/ATTACH] [/CENTER] [CENTER] [ATTACH=CONFIG]n3445[/ATTACH] #nofilter [ATTACH=CONFIG]n3446[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=CONFIG]n3448[/ATTACH] Sunset Point [ATTACH=CONFIG]n3449[/ATTACH] Insert random inspirational quote here. [ATTACH=CONFIG]n3450[/ATTACH] Some amateur attempt at photography. [/CENTER] A lot of things were in store for us that evening. The glorious revelry of bikers and brotherhood started off with eclectic delicacies ranging from the humble boiled peanuts (it’s awesome with Old Monk) to full-on north Indian thalis. Along with the food and copious amount of booze, the icing on the cake was the bonfire and DJ music pumping out Punjabi hits. Despite the temperature hovering around one degree, the party was full of energy and enthusiasm. A couple of riders and I decided to go to Shimla the next day as it had snowed there. As we were making the discussion, the sound of an acoustic guitar drew our attention. It was one of the riders who had brought a guitar and had begun jamming. Everyone else joined the session, including a family who had come to enjoy their vacation. We all sung along numerous Bollywood hits and the party went on till 02:00 am! I retired early, owing to the next day’s ride. [CENTER] [ATTACH=CONFIG]n3452[/ATTACH] PARTAAYYY![/CENTER] [CENTER] [ATTACH=CONFIG]n3453[/ATTACH] (PC: Sushil Kumar Goel) [/CENTER] The next day, I geared up, got ready and knocked the doors of my fellow riders, only to find that they were badly hungover and had scrapped the plans for Shimla. The group marshal, Mr. Pawan Solanki had to leave to Delhi that day as he had to attend his daughter’s dance performance in school. He offered me to tag along with him. The idea of going with just one experienced rider tempted me as it is far better than dealing with a large group, in my opinion. After gorging on toasted bread with lots and lots of butter, we checked out from the hotel and swung our legs over the saddle and kicked off at 08:30 am sharp. I was closely pursuing him down the hill and it was indeed awesome to lean into corners and munch miles. We reached down in a jiffy and soldiered on towards Delhi. After two hours, we pulled over at Ambala to refuel and refresh at a petrol pump. We discovered something unique at the pump in the form of a café called ‘The Madras Café.’ Talk about National Integration! Over tea, I came to know that Mr. Pawan is a proper badass biker. He has done 6000 kilometres in just six days in his philanthropic ride to Vizag to aid the Hudhud cyclone victims. For someone who has done this feat, Saddlesore is simply a cakewalk and it was a no-brainer that he has done that as well. To those who don’t know, Saddlesore is an achievement awarded for covering 1000 miles in 24 hours on a motorcycle. [CENTER] [ATTACH=CONFIG]n3454[/ATTACH] Pawan's 'bird and mine[/CENTER] For the next two hours of the ride, my brain was still processing the greatness of his achievements and that somehow urged me to gun down the road, closely pacing with him. We were running out of time and were constantly doing more than 100 kph and by some miracle, my humble 350cc steed caught up with its 500cc brethren with little effort! I was paranoid but brave at the same time and I kept checking the engine and hoped nothing falls off. Fortunately, nothing bad happened. At 12:00 pm, we stopped at Neelkanth Dhaba in Sonipat. They served us some out-of-the world butter naan with paneer butter masala and curd. That was the best food I’ve ever had in a long, long time. It may partly because of the abject hunger but nevertheless, the food was lovely. [CENTER] [ATTACH=CONFIG]n3457[/ATTACH] Just look at it![/CENTER] After we were done with our lunch, we resumed our ride to Delhi. The pace was again maintained at a constant 100+ kph and by 01:30 pm, I reached the outskirts of Delhi. Pawan complimented me on my riding skills as I kept up my pace despite the varied traffic conditions. It was indeed an honour coming from him. We parted ways at Mukarba Chowk and he soldiered on home and so did I. We all paid three grand as the registration fee and it included food and boarding expenses. The bang-for-the-buck of this ride was phenomenal! The riders, the ride, the food and the booze, all made me go home with a heart full of cherished memories and happiness.