[Prodigy07]

Removing my name from the list :(

Confirm:
1) ReluctantRebel + 1- Figo/NS 200
2) Swissknife - VW GT TSI
3) Hserus - Fiesta
4) CGB - City
5) polopm - Duster
6) Captain Rex - TUV3OO
7) Karthik Chandra (ride shotgun)
8) Virgovencat - Scorpio
9) BenHarPree - S Cross
10) Queryanalyzer (Nemi) - Jazz/TB500

Tentative:
1) Maverick79 - EcoSport or TB500
2)atlantis0965- VW VENTO TSi
3) Vignesh_N/A
4) prkiran - Punto
5) deepakchan - VW GT TSi
6) Thanga_RS - City
7) autofreak - Skoda Superb 1.8 TSI MKII
8) Mr.Boss - Sunny
9) Prithvi53 - E350 Cdi
10) ard1955 - Alto
11) SwiftnFurious (ride shotgun)
12) Ajay the Don - Bullet 500
13) srvm - Zest Revotron - Joining for breakfast at ARYA BHAVAN

[prithvi53]

Sorry I won't be able to make it either. Have some work that I can't push to next week.
Have a good drive!!

Confirm:
1) ReluctantRebel + 1- Figo/NS 200
2) Swissknife - VW GT TSI
3) Hserus - Fiesta
4) CGB - City
5) polopm - Duster
6) Captain Rex - TUV3OO
7) Karthik Chandra (ride shotgun)
8) Virgovencat - Scorpio
9) BenHarPree - S Cross
10) Queryanalyzer (Nemi) - Jazz/TB500

Tentative:
1) Maverick79 - EcoSport or TB500
2)atlantis0965- VW VENTO TSi
3) Vignesh_N/A
4) prkiran - Punto
5) deepakchan - VW GT TSi
6) Thanga_RS - City
7) autofreak - Skoda Superb 1.8 TSI MKII
8) Mr.Boss - Sunny
9) ard1955 - Alto
10) SwiftnFurious (ride shotgun)
11) Ajay the Don - Bullet 500
12) srvm - Zest Revotron - Joining for breakfast at ARYA BHAVAN

[rajivr1612]

Did the meet take place? Where are the pics?

[hserus]

Originally Posted by rajivr1612

Did the meet take place? Where are the pics?

That got delegated to me. I will post some by today evening.

[Queryanalyzer]

Originally Posted by hserus

That got delegated to me. I will post some by today evening.

Looking forward to it. I hope Pulicat Lake was fun.

[hserus]

Sorry for the delay, folks. Been out almost all day and this is hurried. I know the list here is a bit partial - so please bear with me.

Date - Saturday July 15, 2017
Destination - SHAR / Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota
Distance from Chennai - short, well under 100 km
Route - https://goo.gl/maps/rzmkomnduLJ2

Attendees (finally) -

Swissknife - Polo GT TSI
Hserus - Fiesta 2014 facelift
Karthik Chandra - Shotgun with hserus
ReluctantRebel - Pulsar NS200
Maverick79 - Bullet TB500
polopm - Duster
Virgovencat - Scorpio
BenHarPree - S Cross
CaptainRex - TUV300
Kumaran Vedagiri - 2013 Fiesta
GB - shotgun with Kumaran

BHPians Swami (City), srvm (Zest Revotron) and Queryanalyzer (Jazz) joined us for the breakfast but had to leave after that. Thanks for meeting up!

Planning for this trip was as chaotically fun as some all hands meetings I've seen over a longish career in IT, let's say Several BHPians marked themselves confirmed, then dropped back to tentative and finally sent their regrets for a perfect storm of reasons - one chap fell sick, a couple had PTA meetings, yet others had family commitments. We finally ended up with 14 BHPians - plus Prasanna (polopm)'s son, who himself is an auto enthusiast and veteran of several long road trips with his dad.

Our first suggested meeting point, Balaji Bhavan in Kolathur, Chennai (just before you head onto the highway) was suddenly vetoed as a bhpian's friend who lived near the area pointed out that while the food was admittedly delicious, parking several vehicles would be a major problem there. This kind soul suggested another hotel just up the road, Arya Bhavan, which had OK food, but more importantly, was located on a service lane so that there was ample parking available.

We met for breakfast at around 7:45 (a bit of a stretch because the route to this place from several parts of Chennai is through the Koyambedu market and bus stand, always chaotically crowded and now with a good part of the road dug up).

Arya Bhavan was right next to one of the better petrol pumps in the area (an Indian Oil outlet) so a few of us fueled up there as well.

We then hit the Nellore Highway (NH16) to SHAR - a straight road, mix of two and four lane highway, substantial amounts of truck traffic till the Nallur toll. We didn't really do the convoy thing - some of us went along at a good clip while others (umm.. me) poked along at a steady 80-90 kmph. A beautiful little Porsche kept us company part of the way.

Prasanna's son was very observant, and particularly struck by just how disciplined @swissknife / Andy's driving was in his Polo GT TSI, starting from the scrupulous use of indicators for a lane change.

We assembled just before the right turnoff to Sriharikota and stopped to let everybody catch up, clicked a couple of pictures. We then moved on to the SHAR gate, crossing the vast, and I mean vast, expanse of Pulicat lake. No birds now - the bird season is winter, October onwards. The lake itself had several dry patches and sandbars showing. No birds, but there were plenty of butterflies, at least some of which flew smack into our windshields and onto the helmets of the two bikers who rode with us.

On to the SHAR gate, where a helpful sort of chap at the PRO's office just outside the gate informed us that the PRO was out, but even he could only have let us drive into the complex upto the staff quarters / hospital etc Access to the actual launchpad area requires permission from much more senior officials taken well in advance, and possibly access more than a little "pull".

What we did was to have some tea at "Chellappan Tea Stall" located near the SHAR complex gate, and then click a couple of photos at a small park outside the gate, which had a couple of model rockets on display. The closest we got to India's space program.

We then drove back - stopping by a sort of observation platform located at the side of the road, essentially a few shaded park benches right by the lakeside, set up for the convenience of bird watchers. At this time of the year with no birds, it appeared to have been set up for the convenience of drinkers - the ground near the platform was strewn with a variety of beer and liquor bottles. Anyway - more photo opps. And a lot of time taking turns to listen to the stupendous sound quality of the Rs. 1.25 lakh setup (all Pioneer, an AVH5890BT HU and speakers) in Prasanna's Duster.

We had made a lot of plans for lunch - the first being several enthusiastic souls who planned to bring various dishes from home (mostly deep fried and spicy animal, possibly a few plant products) till it dawned upon us that convincing our wives or mothers to wake up early on a weekend morning to cook enough for 15 random people was a non starter. So our first idea was to eat at Sulurpeta, the town nearest SHAR .. that idea lasted till we saw the places we'd planned to eat at. And besides some people had to head home early, so everybody resolved to head back to Chennai and take care of their own lunch.

Four of us - me, Nagendra Mouli, Karthik Chandra (who was riding shotgun with me) and ReluctantRebel (Chandrashekhar) decided to stop midway for lunch at Hotel Jeevan at Puduvoyal (~ 37 km from Chennai), probably the only decent restaurant on this route, but pure vegetarian. Oh well, the veg thali meal was quite tasty, or we were all very hungry after a light early breakfast of idlis, or both.

A leisurely meal and conversation about the differences between tamil nadu and andhra meals later (including minutiae on the paruppu podi / gunpowder and mor milagai chillies marinated in curd and dried, deep fried), we headed back to Chennai.

An early end to a routine drive that was fun because most of us were meeting each other for the first time - all of us were at home by 3 PM.

For our next adventure together (maybe 13 go adventuring again, as Enid Blyton might have said), we are planning a longer drive sometime later in the year, in the winter. Somewhere like Yelagiri Hills, with family along, a longer drive and a night's stay. Well, let us see where we end up this winter. Enough to say that once you're bitten by the driving bug it is kind of contagious, so I am sure we will end up somewhere together, again, in the not too distant future.

Until then .. back to work (and Game of Thrones episodes) I guess.

[ReluctantRebel]

Thanks Suresh. It is my first T-BHP meet and needless to say, i thoroughly enjoyed the company and the drive. Thankfully, weather didn't play spoilsport; sun was not out and didn't rain. It was fun bantering about everything sitting on those benches. Prasanna's audio set up is awesome to say the least. Only thing missing was a good DSLR and a good photographer. Let's keep this momentum going and plan for an overnight trip soon enough.

[polopm]

Superb writeup !
A nice occasion and the weather was great as well. We need to have more stuff like this. It was also very good that we talked in person and pulled legs too. Yelagiri next time ?

[srvm]

I had a nice time meeting many BHPians from Chennai though I could only make it for the breakfast at Arya Bhavan

Nice to chit-chat in person and see the face of many familiar T-bhp handles.

[swissknife]

Thanks for a wonderful time, drive, meet and pictures. Thanks for the narration Suresh. It was really nice to meet with you guys and share varied conversations : )

On the way up, I followed the leader (Virgovenkat) and had my car on cruise control (90) at a safe breaking distance from the toll plaza!

Originally Posted by hserus

*snip*
Prasanna's son was very observant, and particularly struck by just how disciplined @swissknife's driving was in his Polo GT TSI, starting from the scrupulous use of indicators for a lane change.
*snip*

I am happy to be a good example for a young, energetic pertrol head : ). Driving quick and driving safe can go together just like driving slow and driving unsafe can gotogether : )

I hope Kumaran remembers the drive from the regroup to SHAR for other reasons than for his right foot reaching out to the imaginary brakes, while he was my shotgun : )

The return drive seemed a lot quicker. People do say it is because on the way up one is a little more skeptical of the route / terrain / road surface etc. and on the way back, those don't bother since one knows what is in store. In a few of our cases, the reason may be different though ; )

[swami.n]

Nice to be part of my first Team-BHP meet. Though I could only make it to the breakfast, had a real good time. First time got together with a group of Auto enthusiasts which is a pleasure in itself. Looking forward to meet again. Its now a good exercise to match the handles to actual names

By the way, I got only Venkat's number and in the excitement, missed to get others'.

Cheers guys,
Swami

[Karthik Chandra]

Had a great time in what was my first TBHP meet but didn't feel like it was the first time. Its always a great pleasure to interact with like minded people and I thoroughly enjoyed the discussion on the banks of Pulicat Lake.

Thanks to Hserus for taking me along in his Fiesta and allowing me to drive in the return leg of the journey. Rode shot gun with Captain Rex in his race chipped TUV 300 from SHAR entrance to the view point. Myself, Hserus, ReluctantRebel and Maverick79 had lunch together while everyone else were heading home.

Thanks to everyone for making me feel comfortable. It was a Saturday well spent knowing new people. Looking forward for more such meets.

Cheers

[virgovencat]

Thank you all - who made it to the meet !! It was really nice meeting all of you. This was also my first TBHP meet and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Next time lets plan for big one ( Overnight stay - Yelagiri) I could sense that overnight stay one would be great fun keeping in mind the kind of group we are .. ;-) I suggest that we start preparations now so that we can make it within next 3-4 months

[hamster]

Restricted internet access at work and I missed this meet. Infact Tamilnadu weatherman had posted about a good day over the weekend to go out and enjoy.
My Bad

[swami69]

Sorry team, i had to drop out at the last minute.

Great to see you had a great trip. The photos and narrative are superb. It would have been even better if there was water and more birds, especially flamingos which are famous for Pulicat. Nevertheless, it looks like you all had a great time and will look for the next opportunity to join.

Swami