Awadh Riders Meet @ Dream World

The rains had just started to pour in and the earth was quenching its thirst after a very dry spell. New leaves and buds had begun to sprout, and lush green began spreading throughout the campus like a wildfire of prodigious propotions. And on that fine evening of 10th July 2013, as I was compulsively skimping through my newsfeed, did I see this welcome invitation from Piyush Gupta, the manager of Royal Enfield Lucknow.

"Dear All

As a refreshment in the month of July'13 we have planned a very short ride to Dream world which is on Lucknow - Kanpur highway. The dates which we have planned is on 21st July '13 (Sunday). We will start our ride at 09:00 AM from Lucknow Brand Store. Registration Charges will be Rs 400/-. Rider has to bear the costume charges. For any clarification pls call on 09795-XXX-889. 

Thanks
ASR [Awadh Spirited Riders]"

Immediately after the announcement was made, confirmation messages started pouring in. Zrichard Judema was the first of all. The riders of ASR were waiting for an occasion to meet up, I noted. Going by the numbers in the facebook group, there were 177 ASR members, on the last count. I don't know how many of them were really active riders, but I was waiting to meet as many of them as possible, and do some networking so that you never fall short of wingmates on any ride. 10 days passed by like dust in the wind. So, on 20th night, after a mindnumbing conquest against 4 bots on hardest mode of Age of Empires saga partnering with Mayank on a Texas map, I crashed by 2 AM in the night for waking up to a bright and shiny morning on 21st July. It was only 7.00 AM and the lazy bones in me persuaded my mind to catchup on another hour of blissful sleep, just-in-time to make it for the 9.00 AM registration at Royal Enfield showroom, Nishatganj, Lucknow. But the next time I woke up, it was already 8.40 AM. Split between minds on whether to make a late entry and find the entire riding brigade gone or being hopeful of just making it in time, I chose the latter.

8.45 AM

Odo reading: 10,685 km

Left IIML. Moderately speeding, driving on a bated breath, anxious of the end result (will they have gone?), I finally reached Nishatganj by 9.05 AM. Happy to see 6 guys chatting beside their beasts, waiting for majority of the battalion, yet to come. Registration done and now it was socializing time. One by one, new faces began riding into my riding-network-list. I met Zrichard, Harsh, Prashant Tewari, Walia, Manmohan, Govind, Vivek Singhore, Sharang, Piyush, Amit, Naresh Dixit and my good old wingmates on the Ladakh ride - Austin, Som bhaiyya, Mayank and Rastogi ji at the showroom.

9.30 AM

Odo reading: 10,695 km

We left to Dream world on the Lucknow-Kanpur road. Caught up with Deevaashis enroute the water theme park. A group of 17 riders, maintaining safe distance, cruising at a constant speed and burning the asphalt was an awesome feeling.

Burning the turf

Zrichard Judema

Midway, we found a huge trailer lie horizontally smack across the highway. The jumbo vehicle, while crossing the road, had managed to dig its tyres into the sand on the pavement, grounding the  trailer midbody-container on the asphalt, making it immovable.

10.45 AM

Odo reading: 10,735 km

Reached dream world. We checked in after parking our motorcycles. And it was time to get wet and have some serious fun.

The beasts (front view)

The beasts (rear view)

After giving our veg/ non-veg preferences for our lunch, we changed into our swimming gear and plunged into the pool. The momentary adrinaline rush of all the boys - young and old, was noteworthy, like having seen so much water in an oasis after promenading through the saharas for ages. The only disappointment for me was that the water was only 3-4 feet deep. After swimming in our campus pool which is like 10 feet at its deepest point, I guess that is a valid turn off, forgive me. Neverthless, I had good fun, too, on the slides and the rides, and swimming underwater or just relaxing, staying afloat.

The craziness in the pool !

Splashing into the pool from the slide

1.00 PM

After almost 2 hours of non-stop fun, we went for a couple of drinks. Over a quarter dozen bottles of Royal Stag, a little more than half a dozen people for company, a little less than a dozen plates of finger chips and definitely more than two dozen cigarettes, umpteen conversations were set off; the most important in this context being the abysmally low number of rides organized annually by ASR and the general passiveness and indifference of majority of the members in the group. For instance, even this time only 17 riders turned up that is roughly 10% of the members in the group. Several suggestions were put up including  forming a core group with committed riders who would participate on a regular basis to associating the riding group with social causes. Although, nothing concrete was resolved, a  more or less general concept of having a tightly-knit group was arrived at.

2.30 PM

With about 5-6 pegs of whiskey down per person on an average, we had a heavy lunch of roti and chicken curry before diving again into the pool. Water inside and water outside. Ha! Meanwhile Som bhaiyya, Mayank and Co. had gone Go-Karting, while I helped myself to a much needed slumber beside the pool.

Som and Mayank Go-Karting!

4.30 PM

Odo reading: 10,735 km

Time to pack up and leave. Most of the riders had already left for other errands. Som bhaiyya, Mayank, Harsh and I revved up our motorcycles, and raced back. I cut through the short cut via Hardoi road and reached campus. It was raining and I got completely drenched. But it was all merry!

5.00 PM

Odo reading: 10,775 km

Reached IIML. Hydrated and crashed on to bed to wake up only at 9.00 PM. Overall, it was a short trip, but a good one. An occasion to meet new friends, share new ideas, and plan new trips. ASR should do such things more often. What say Piyush Gupta?