Tuesday, October 10, 2006

8th October: GIR Leg 2 Day 5 : Delhi-Jaipur (off-route and much more..)

Rippin the Blade..

Riding the Blade (extreme right) for the photoshoot...
8th October : Jaipur



Being in Delhi with Sunny to pick up the Fireblade meant missing out on the best of places and forts that Jaipur had to offer. Driving (the pick-up) and riding (the Fireblade) from Delhi took us a good five hours today due to numerous pit-stops and then crossing whole of Jaipur to reach Shyam Nagar, where Ashish and Sunil were putting up. We finally reached the place at around noon and the plan today was to have lunch, meet a couple of media guys and head to places like ‘The Rock Lounge’, forts, Choki Dhani etc and leave the next day for Chittor. But planning never works out or does it? There are always unexpected twists of events, both good and bad, and today was one of those days in my life, which I won’t be forgetting ever! Starting with the experience on the CBR 1000RR Fireblade on the NH8 in the morning on our way to Jaipur. This has been my fastest 30 odd kms till date. Managed to push the Blade past the magical 200km/h mark (there was too much traffic) and literally had a blast. Thank you Sunny!

After lunch in Jaipur, as we couldn’t figure it out where to head to at 4pm, we decided to start with a place called ‘the rock lounge’. Sunny had met a guy called Nikhil in Pune, who told Sunny about the Rock Lounge and that its owners had a Blade. So, we headed to that place, a cool hangout zone for youngsters. We were expecting to see a 1000cc bike but ended up being greeted by a red AMG Mercedes (the convertible coupe!!) Whooooaaaaa… Didn’t know Agra had one of these. Cars like these definitely don’t suck! Bhanu and his young Mama stepped out of the Merc and saw our machines and words were exchanged. In the next 10 mins, I was riding our GIR Blade, Ashish was on Bhanu’s 2005 Blade and Bhanu in the AMG Merc and we three riding on the road outside The Rock Lounge for a photoshoot. Traffic came to a stop, the whole crowd (guys and gals between 15-25) came out of the Lounge to see us, and after the shoot, me and Ashish did a friendly drag on the bike. Ofcourse I couldn’t use all the 170 odd horses of the Blade to the max, but still today was by far the fastest day in life!

Bhanu and his Mama were an incredible host (do visit the rock lounge situated on civil lines road if u happen to be in Jaipur) and the next hour was spent having friendly drags between Sunny and Bhanu, Sunny and Bhanu’s Mama and all. Oh yes, Sunny didn’t miss the opportunity to show off his wheeling skills on the Blade! Bhanu also told us that Jaipur does have four SBKs, two Haybusas, a GSXR 750 and their Blade. We all were a hit there and at 6:30, Bhanu put on the projector inside the lounge and aired NDTV Raftar’s show at 6:30, which had XBHP on it. What a day this was turning out to be for us! After a couple of drinks, we decided to leave but before that some youngsters wanted rides behind our bikes and we didn’t refuse but they didn’t stop asking either. We were all ready to leave when Nancy (one of the youngsters) asked Sunil for the last ride of the day, and that is when things went haywire. Sunil was a km or so away from the place at an intersection when a small kid on a full-grown bicycle came from nowhere and the rest is history. The next four hours were spent running between the scene of accident, numerous police stations, the hospital and the Lounge! Cops in India were at their best (I hope u get what I mean) and the girls father thinks it’s our fault but Bhanu and his friends/relatives really helped us a lot. Things may look better tomorrow, ie, Monday. Shit happens and it happened today. We just need to find the best and sensible way out to continue with the GIR. Ofcourse the comet is in a bad shape but we do have an extra machine and Sunil will be able to ride properly. Hope Nancy recovers fast and we continue our ride soon! Signing off at close to 2am, well past midnight…

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