Team-BHP - Long Time No D R I V E! Calling Cochin/CBE/TVM

Had been waiting to get camera to post pictures, which i had kept in veelu's car and forgot to take. But since its taking time, and most of the photos have come through the other BHPians, i thought i ll share my part of review, and post other photos as and when i get the camera.

Well, this was my first ever meet on TBHP, and I was really excited about it and at the same time there was a tension inside me, on how these people will be?? can I at least stay with them and understand things and will they accept me as their friend and team mate ?? all these questions were doing rounds in my mind when I planned for this first drive of mine.

I was going to meet all these guys for the first time, so that itself got me into planning with stuffs like, what should I know?? how do I present my self and my thoughts with them? can I get along with these people as a newbie ? they have been doing so many drives and must be real close to each other, will I be lost in the crowd? (God it was a nightmare). Atlast I decided I ll pull along my cousin brother for company. So told him about the drive and got all arranged for the drive.

Then got introduced to Veelubai from Trichur, then met him and found him to be a jovial guy and had that short meet with him in Trichur to get prepared for the drive and know more about it. Meanwhile I was impressed by this guy who instantly took out his Peted Elantra out for a spin so that I could experience a PETED ELANTRA which I had never driven before. It was crazy, he let me drive it and told me to try out the sheer power (or rather TORQUE) of his Petefied ELANTRA. I was surprised, I asked him,

"you are meeting me for the first time and don’t even know how I drive and still you gave me the car to drive??"

and his reply was:

"You are a BHPian after all, so I bet you ll do it"

That’s the spirit guys, I loved it.

That was my first meeting with him and felt more comfortable, thought atleast I met one BHPian before the meet, PHEW, that was the first part.

Then came the horrible part, when my bro calls me a day before the drive and says he cant make it as he got some college projects to attend to.

God!! What do I do now? should I make it to the drive or not? Will I have company? What should I do now??

But I decided, whatever it is I am gonna attend this drive and meet these guys. Yes, I am not as knowledgeable as they may be in terms or car and bike stuff, but I sure too am a real crazy automobile enthusiast from my birth. If I cant stay matching with them, atleast I ll learn something new from them. I was just an Engineering student, while they were all grown up guys with loads of knowledge.

So contacted Veelu and told about my bro dropping out and he was more than glad to invite me with him. So we decided to meet at a common place and park my car there and leave to the meet in his car.

Mean while I went on with my pre meet preparations, like I went through threads of previous meets and photos and got familiar with most bhpians of whom I had seen pics in previous meets. And went through loads of posts by different members and got familiar with most of the BHPians who were to attend the meet. This made me comfortable and people like steer, nikki, prabu, ashvin, jkdas and so on were like i knew them already.

Next day was the D day, I woke up at 4.30 am and again checked out the meet thread for latest updates and collected phone no of rippergeo which he had PMed me, and noted the map for route to the morning meet location in COK and familiarised myself with the map and then got ready and it was already 5.10 and I had told veelu that I d be meeting him at Trichur city at 5.30 and it was almost 20 kms drive from my place. So rushed up and drove at top of my speed to reach there on time, and I was just 2 mins late when veelu called me and told he was waiting. Parked my car, went on to meet him along with his friends in his car and left to COK.

The drive along was superb as his friends gave company and one of his friend knew the route too, so the map was not required, and by the time we reached COK we were very very comfortable with each other and that made an enjoyable drive to COK, though veelu used to scare me often showing his exemplary driving skills with his PETED ELANTRA.

As we neared Kashi, we found a man with a big camera around his neck doing rounds around an Endeavour waving hands at us, it was Rippergeo (poor man, there before time and waited for all of us there). We reached at 8.05 to find nobody except ripper and his BLACK ENDEAVOR. Got introduced to him and he looked more younger than what picture I had imagined in my mind. Had some talk with him and slowly walked to Kashi to find Ashvin waiting there. Met him too, he just looked the same as I had seen his photos in previous meet threads.

Kashi had its doors still closed, when our Ashvin did the opening ceremony of the doors for the first meeting point of the drive.

We got in and found a nice corner for all of us and sat there waiting for others, just then nikki and gang joined in, and I recognised him instantly too, though he never knew me. All of us got seated and some others too joined in by then. Got introduced to all of em and had our breakfast.

Time was moving faster than expected with all our talks and fun, it was not just automobiles, there was no topic on earth that we did not discuss, and by then, I was really feeling like I was a part of family and not a stranger, this gave me back all my guts and I was into the conversation just like others as the family member. We had some real good time, and there was Dr.Pullo who was giving us theories of Battery life in car and maintenance, ripper scaring us by telling the calories we were gaining by eating the cheese omelette for breakfast, and it was real fun.

Mean while the boat guy kept calling us to confirm of our arrival there at 12pm, as it was already 11am and we were still in Kashi enjoying our Breakfast meet. Then we settled our bill and walked out to find Steer, Prabu and JayD coming in, they had been up early and hit to some KALLU SHAAP to get 35 Litres of KALLU for the gang, wooo. They had carried it in a big can in Steer’s Safari.

Then we atlast left to the destination, where the boat was waiting for us. I shifted to Steers SAFARI got introduced to him. At first he did not talk much to me, may be he thought I was a guest of Veelu, but later when I told him I am Srikant from Trichur, then he recognised me and told me that was looking forward for my presence with my SWIFT. Then we got talking and it was like, I am his obedient student and taking advise and stories from him (he being the Distinguished BHPian, I kept a distance like a small kid in front of a teacher with respect, me being a BHPian only now).

We started our talks from his Landmaster project to his latest acquisition, The FIAT. And me, I was so excited, like a lil kid sitting with his favourite teacher and listening to all his gyan. It was great, but something greater was awaiting me, as he drove his Monster SAFARI ( I named it monster, cos that’s the way it took up the roads ahead, scaring away other roadies, specially the KSRTC bus drivers who were thought a lesson on the spot for not giving way to other vehicles.) Woo, I was a bit scared when he pulled up really close to the KSRTC bus and pushed him off the road by scaring him with the monster, ha ha ha. First time I saw a bus getting off the road for a car (rather monster). He told me, the ECU has been restricted as he got the engine work done on the safari so cant speed up, when he was already doing 140 KMPH:Shockked:. Just imagine what would have happened if there was no restriction. Its then I came to know that, it was not only me on this planet who was crazy but I have a real big gang of people who are as much or much more crazier than me.

Then we stopped near a Petrol bunk for all of us to re assemble and leave together.

Then started the real drive, The 2 PETED Elantras (Prabu and Veelu) , just fled the scene and were nowhere to be seen and there was ripper doing all kinds of off roading in the highway with his Endeavour scaring the small cars on the path and rushing to the Cruise point. Cheers ripper, And me sitting in the monster SAFARI was sitting with a majestic look as if, I felt like I am the KING on the road with all other cars looking so small and low in front of Steer’s monster.

People around must be wondering if there was any untold rally going on with almost 10 cars doing great speeds and moving towards a common destination.

Then there was Sujit’s Beemer 530D that was like floating in the air, though on land, that used to disappear out of sight once an open stretch of road was seen, It was like a genie which kept appearing in a while and disappeared just after that. It was great to see the way it munched miles effortlessly.

And as we reached, to our surprise we were on the dot, 12pm and there were TVM Bhpians waiting there, who joined along and we go to the boat.

And unexpectedly, WE WERE ON TIME !!.

Got into the boat and seated ourselves and got comfortable when we were greeted with warm Kappa and meen curry, and there was no waiting, the sight itself was so delicious that all of us pounced on it and had our share of the nadan kappa with meen curry (Still cant get off that taste of Kerala off my tongue).

Also the KALLU was made ready and the KALLU GANG continued with it as the topics flowed by and talks went on and the house boat kept cruising along the beautiful backwaters into heavenly sights.

The sights around were sooooo beautiful, and all of us were soon into big time photography, every one taking out their cameras and one after the other came the best after best, From digital cameras to DSLRs, then came the king of all, Steer’s DSLR with the Bazooka lens and all were stunned. None of our cameras could do what half of that bazooka could do, but we needed our share of photos so all of us got to serious clicking here and there, it was all confusion as each and every spot looked more beautiful than earlier and all shots looked soo good. (No wonder Kerala is called GODS OWN COUNTRY).

Then we had a stop over in the middle of the cruise for lunch, and there came fresh fried Karimeen, Sambar, Papad, Chicken curry, Salad, Curd and so on, The sight of Fresh Karimeen itself attracted everybody to the table and instantly grabbing their share of plates. (This was one photo almost all the photographers missed, including me, no wonder, Karimeen was doing wonders).

Had a hearty lunch and set back on the cruise, JKdas was the man of the day as he was the one getting to the center stage and every body pulling his legs was the entertainment of the day.

There were talks of teeths (Dr. Pullo, the dentist), his car (The junk indica that gave constant city mileage of 17KMPL, and would not climb the north Bridge in COK), then there was Prabu’s theories on Ear ring on left and right ear s of guys (which again JK had on one of his ears), named it the Incoming/Outgoing theories, remember the theory guys?? I am not going to disclose tat on the forum though, it was information Prabu. Cheers.

All of us had our share of talks and not single minute we felt bored or out of gang. All my fears were completely gone and got real close to all the bhpians there. But alas, all good things come to an end, and it was 6 and we reached back to the parking lot after the long awaited cruise.

PROBABLY THIS WAS THE ONLY DRIVE MEET IN TBHP WHERE THE BHPIANS WERE DRIVEN AROUND RATHER THAN DRIVING AROUND.

But it was an unforgettable experience. With a heavy heart I got off the boat to meet a rock star kinda guy with long curly hair greeting everybody, went there to find out and, indeed it was our popular Johnda who drove all the way from Tiruvalla just to meet us guys. It was great meeting you dude. That hair style looks real COOL man.

All of us got out our cars from the parking lot one by one and were preparing to leave when the Monster got stuck in the heavy slush in that area where it was parked, so that other small cars could park on the level ground. Again all of us got into work and got it out (it was not a problem for the monster at all, which came out easily), but leaving a new design on the shirts and pants of the fellow bhpians who tried to help it out of the slush.

I got to the wheels for the first time in the drive, with MaserQ’s Esteem TUD, and left back to COK. I had thought MaserQ to be a very silent guy as he had kept his silence almost all day, but as the KALLU went in, he started flowing out, we talked a lot and had a great drive from there and got another good friend there in him. The peted guys had fled the scene already and we just kept along as fast as we could with the Esteem, but fortunately we could keep up, and the esteem was not bad at all in getting along and reached COK on par with the other cars.

As we reached COK, we stopped again and dispersed all the Bhpians who had to leave then, and some of us who would not mind a post meet session stayed back there and planned to go to MaserQ’s apartment.

Steer, Prabu, Mansidea, Veelu, JayD and me went along with MaserQ to his apartment. Reached there at around 8pm and we decided to spend some quality time there, when MaserQ brought his collection of Bacardi and Tequila for the post meet session.

While MaserQ, Steer, Mansidea and Prabu were at their discussions, JayD and Veelu got hold of Maser’s SONY PLAYSTATION and started with their game of TEST DRIVE, and as the game started it was Veelu and JayD taking turns at the wheels of infinite cars of their choice and all others giving them tips on cornering and overtaking the opponents in the game, so it was yet another crazy drive.

Then we ordered food for dinner, while we got into his kitchen to get those unwased vessels clean (Some good experience). Atlast we had our dinner and all sponsored by MaserQ. Thanks MaserQ.

After all that we were real tired and , We the Trichur guys had to leave back to Trichur, so we waved good bye and left to Trichur, this time me again on the wheels of Veelu’s elantra spend some time on calm and peaceful drive without any speeding and reminding ourselves of the great day we spend altogether. We never knew our big Sunday would come to an end soo soon.

We consoled our heavy hearts, promising that we ll have a drive shortly again and next time we ll make it a bigger one.

What to do?? However long a drive we go, it does end some time!!:Frustrati That’s when our hearts get heavy, and gets every BHPian into thinking of planning the next drive faster.

And there goes the tale of our drive after a real long time.

Well, i know it was a too long a review. But as i started, it just went on to reach all the way till here.

cheers

Srikant