This could possibly be the biggest Hyderabad Team-BHP meet ever. Surprisingly, there was a huge turnout.Due to such a big group, there were two meeting places decided and some of them met at one place and a few others caught up at a different place.
930 AM- kChatt and Himanshu met up at the Walden Whisper Walley crossing from where the proceeded to the Hand signal. Himanshu and his family really enjoyed the hot hot jalebis that kchat got after having a Kheema and parota meal at Paradise at 8:00Am in the morning. Man, kudos to you for having a non-veg meal at a time i cringe to have even for a veggie meal.hehehe.
930AM, different location, I, KKRK2, Torque4U, Nosfreak, PVS, Shawn, Dev met up and waited up for a few others. Then by 10AM both the groups converged at a single place. And, in other 15 mins wait for some more people to join up we were on the way for this drive. We waded our way through some construction work and then proceeded out towards the outskirts of the city. And, Ravi@64BHP who joined us up straight at Vikarabad.
We drove on for about 15 minutes when all of a sudden all the cars pulled over to “re group” before exiting the city and hitting the highway. Once on the highway, one thought that we would have a non stop drive, but that was not to be! After about 15 kms we saw Kchatt pulling up his scorpio and every one followed. Turns out that the cladding on the front left fender, which was loose, flew off!! Luckily, he was able to retrieve it and off we went.
After driving for another 20kms and all of a sudden there were pangs for tea. Pulled up at a dhaba where we all sipped hot dhaba style chai and indulged in general banter. Meanwhile, i had a near lucky escape as just at the outskirts of the city, Rider60 noticed that a nut in my rear wheel was loose, i was totally shocked and i pulled over and just as safety precaution, i checked and tightened all nuts on the four tyres. I had gotten Wheel alignment and balacing done the previous night, i think he has a rude confrontation with me awaiting when i go meet him up next time. However, thankfully it was spotted before i jacked up the speeds.
With that incident hovering at the back of my mind, i didnt push the car much, just did upto 145kmph top speed, though the roads where inviting us to push harder. I knew that there would be some racing involved as Zenopio ( who happens to be a last year engineering student) would pedal to the metal, so there was some adrelain pumping racing between me, Zenopio ( Scorpio) and Contactme27 (NHC), we were constantly overtaking each other and it was fun to see the NHC being driven so well. A special mention about it, it was flying on the highway and it was a pleasant surprise to see the speeds it was doing. Or,maybe the driver made the difference.
And, Kchatt didnt want to be left behind and he too was hot in pursuit in his scorpio. Well, well the roads were good and it was so much fun and all without taking any unneccesary risks, I think the top speed must have been hit by Zenopio over 150kmph in his Scorpio. And, it would be criminal if i dont mention the throaty muffler of Torque4U's accent, it was pure bliss to listen to that sound on the highway. Windsurfer, in his Palio 1.6 was not to be left behind and he too was gunning his engine like there was no tomorrow.
Thereafter, it was non stop all the way to Vikarabad. The roads are worth a second special mention as its smooth, a bit up and down ( but, then which roads in the Deccan plateau..aint? ) and gets really snaky as you come closer to Vikarabad with trees lined up on both sides of the road, it was a pleasure to drive through these roads. We reached our destination which was a small off road off the main road ( which goes unnoticeable if you drive fast), we then pulled into this gravelly road and after a few hundred meters it opens up into a circular opening and the view from there is breathtaking, you can see a wide, vast expanse of greenry and ground from up there.
We all hung around that place for about an hour just chatting, checking out cars and ICE. Torque4U ICE is quite unique and sounds awesome, his silver modded accent has some amazing body kits and stage 1 mods.
Thereafter, it was time for group photos on the tableu land and then at this point Zenopio mentioned that he had to head back to the city and took off with his friend after saying quick bye-bye's to everyone. And, we drove off to another spot which is the guest house location where the view from it is even more fantastic, spent about 45 mins there. Ravi@64bhp had to deal with a flat and while he went about doing that, we hung around taking rides on the bikes and smoking, and it was a pleasant winter afternoon beating down on us. So it was general revelry in that sun.
Here, Himanshu and Imran (bblost) did some passing runs in Himanshu's safari and Kchatt's Scorpio for some great photo shoots and also got a feel of Bblost's thunderbird, with some Arnie poses! Photo shoot over. After monkeying around for some time, everybody had a grumbling stomach, we thought of heading back towards the city as enroute there is a nice dhaba for us to grab a quick and tasty lunch.
We decided that we will head out in a convoy and Kchatt was the designated leader and he kept up speeds of 100-110kmph ( Kchatt, i know it was tempting as i was breathing down your neck) but, kudos to him for keeping up that speed and we were driving one behind the other.
And, contactme27 ( Prem) in his black NHC was in tailing right behind me. Around 2:30pm, we reached the dhaba, and we immediately selected a location under a huge tree with lots of shade and we got down to ordering the food which was a mixture of chicken and veg snacks, dal, veg and chicken curries and lots of hot dhabha style tandoori rotis and some fantastic Jeera rice. To wash down this delicious food, the tasty beverage we selected was Sprite and Frooti.
Indeed the lunch was really delicious and made everybody lazy. After everyone's tummies got full, we hung around for about 30 mins and everyone was discussing how Hyderabad is fast becoming the biggest hub for foreign cars. Infact, Himanshu who spent considerable time in B'lore was mentioning that B'lore has pretty less foreign cars compared to Hyderabad to which i agree as well, I cannot drive 10 kms without seeing a bunch of A6's, Q7's, BMW 3, 5, 7, Tourages, SL's and now even a couple of Lambo's are becoming common out here. Whew, great to see Hyderabad rising!!!
Bblost was mentioning that Hyderabad is the largest consumer of diamonds in the entire country and looking at the number of imported cars that are pouring in the city, it wont be surprising if Hyderabad will also have the largest number of luxurious cars in the entire country.
Then discussion moved on to the real estate and how expensive it has become for the newly state of the art residential and commercial locations that are fast spurting around the city, well, this chat helped strike a great chord with many folks and renew a few old ones.
After another round of photo shoot outside the dhaba, everyone reluctantly said goodbyes and agreed that we should plan a same or bigger event during the Jan 26th holiday to Srisailam which is about 450km to and fro drive. I reckon looking at the increase in enthusiasm, it does not look like it is going to be a tough ordeal.
And, best part was that we had a huge variation in the age group with Rider60 and Zenopio ( both engineering students) to Kchatt's friend who was 60+. This only tells us one thing age is just numbers, we can continue having such good clean fun until we go six feet below the ground.
Listing here the attendees ( Nick/Name) and their rides:
Kchatt ( Kaushik) + Guest from Kolkatta--- (Scorpio)
Himanshugoswami + Wife + Daughter--- (Safari Dicor)
Mobike008 (Avinash)----(Viva CRDI)
bblost (Imran)---(Thunderbird)
Torque4U (Tariq) + Shawn + Dev----(Modded Accent)
Ravi@ 64bhp (Ravi) + Wife---- (Wagon R)
Satish Appasani + Wife (Palio D)
Contactme27 (Prem)---- (NHC)
Nosfreak ( Nick) + Friend------- (Kinetic Blaze)
Rider 60 ( Yash) ( Chevy Tavera LT)
Zenopio ( Viju) + Friend....(Scorpio with huge Hankook tyres)
Windsurfer ( Shiva)---- ( Palio 1.6)
Kkr2k2 (Raj) (riding with Himanshu and Rider 60)
Total of 10 cars, 2 Bikes and 22 heads
Finally, Hyderabad folks, thanks for all of you for joining this meet, it was wonderful and let us plan a similar or better even during the last week of
Jan'08. Btw, a special mention to PVS, who came all the way only to meet the folks and then rushed back. Hope you can make it next time.
Pictures to follow in the subsequent posts, hope you guys enjoy them