Roadtrip No1 in the Lancer

Yipppeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee... Finally have my own set of wheels in Mumbai which I had been craving for a while for.. It's one of those cars which I always wanted to own.. Mitsubishi Lancer (It's a used one though)...

Ok.. Got my set of wheels.. First weekend.. Where do I go with it?? Anuj --- My friend for 6 years and flatmate of close to 4 years says, "Dudie, am planning to go to Pune one of these days". There goes the light in my head..

"Why don't we skip work on friday and drive down to Pune? From there, we can do a trip to Shirdi (Long thought of plan to visit the place once I had my car) and return to Mumbai..

Though not a big bhakt of Sai Baba, strangely, I feel at peace in Shirdi..

So, planning done for the trip.. It's all set for friday..

Friday 2:00 AM - Just back home from office and my roomie wakes up, "Are we going in the morning?"

"Ofcourse yes, why do you have doubts on that?". I ended up watching TV till 5 and the next realisation was my roomie waking me up at 7.45 - "What time are we leaving?". Still groggy, I said, "Another half an hour".

8:30 AM, And, off we go... Took us an hour and half to get out of the city.. Blame it on the bottleneck near IIT, Powai..

Mumbai- Pune expressway. One of the best stretches I have driven on in a long long time. The needle on the speedometer says "170". But, the car glides along without a hitch.

First stopover at the highway restaurant halfway between Mumbai-Pune. After a good breakfast, we are all set to leave again. Except that, the car sounds a little different. Whats a trip without a little aventure- Is it? The exhaust pipe picked up a leak. Probably the effect of something which I went over.

The next 70 kms, the car noisily creeps along at 80kmph (which on that highway seemed like 30-40 kmph).

Pune city - Here we come... And the first stopover is an auto garage to get the exhaust leak fixed. A full 3 hours is what it took to get it done.

3:00 PM - We walk into campus (Its been over an year since I was on campus). Head straight to the cafeteria for my cup of "chai" - Used to be my survival kit during days in college. The taste hasn't changed over the years. :):)

What do we do on campus??? I met up with both the juniors who had interned with us during their summers. One of them had got placed a day before. Feels good when people suceed. :)

An hour of chatting on campus, and waiting for my flatmate to wind up his session of "collecting campus updates" ;) (Incidentally, he is more aware of whats happening on campus than people who are still on campus)

Late lunch at Sweet Chariot in Pune. Evening spent catching up with a colleague who was in Pune as well..

9:00 PM. A small discussion on whether we stay back in Pune for the night or head to Shirdi straight away?? Shirdi it is. A brief stopover on the outskirts of Pune for dinner and off we went again. Amazing night drive, especially with the low visibility thanks to the windshield with loadsa scratches.

2:30 AM - Drive into a small lodge with the last 30 kms having been driven in my sleep ;). Check in and 7:00 AM we are up and ready again for the darshan. Surprisingly less crowded for a saturday. We are done with the darshan by 9:00 AM and out of the temple.

A heavy breakfast and an hour to relax and pack. 11:30 AM, we start off on our return journey to Mumbai. Loved the roads and the view.

4:30 PM - Totally exhausted, we drive into the apartment parking lot and the trip is done.

32 hours. Close to 700 kms. 3 cities. Not bad at all for the first trip in this car. Loving the car even more.. :):):)

looking forward to more trips in the future.

Kiran