[pulsar56]

Meet confirmed. We are Starting at 9 AM sharp from shell somajiguda . Please call one of the confirmed list of folks above if anyone else wants to join.

[Ravveendrra]

6 hours to go and the following have confirmed

1. Mr. & Mrs. Mobike008 (hitching a ride)
2. Mr. & Mrs. Hillram + Vijay (Cedia Sport)
3. Rajesh Rawal (Santro AT)
4. Absynthguzzler (NHC)
5. Pulsar56 (hitching a ride)
6. Downsouth + ? (hitching a ride?)
7. Ravveendrra + Mihiran (Fiat Palio GTX)
8. Vnabhi (Ford Fiesta)

Following members are requested to reconfirm

1. Rider60
2. Solly
3. Naveen K.K

Meeting places:

Shell petrol pump Raj Bhavan Rd. 9.00 a.m.
BHEL 9.30 a.m.

Programme:

Drive to Bidar, visit Gurudwara & maybe fort, lunch and return by dinner. (One car takes off towards Solapur, Pandarpur etc and returns on Sunday).

Cheers,

[kkr2k2]

Originally Posted by Ravveendrra

......
7. Lurker
8. Silent dude
9. aur - kaun?
...

Aye Aye Sir!!!!

I am in, tried calling nawab blah blah blah, avi, arun, hillram; none took my calls.

Originally Posted by pulsar56

Meet confirmed. We are Starting at 9 AM sharp from shell somajiguda . Please call one of the confirmed list of folks above if anyone else wants to join.

Solly might join.

[cooldude1988765]

Sorry guys cannot make it.
@raveendra: Just saw your pm. could not reply any earlier.

[Rajesh Rawal]

Originally Posted by kkr2k2

I am in, tried calling nawab blah blah blah, avi, arun, hillram; none took my calls.

Solly might join.

beta ramlal ,i did return your call ,you were the one who did not take it ...

[vnabhi]

Guys, what a fab drive it was! Great stress-buster indeed.

Bidar turned out to be above my expectations---especially the Gurudwara and the fort. I did not know that the Gurudwara was the 3rd most important one in the country---next only to the Golden Temple and the one at Nanded.
We're waiting for Ravvs to post his write-up, as usual in Oxfordian English. We're also waiting for Arun and Pulsar to post the photos---of course Pulsar can do that only on his return from Pandarpur.

I'm sure all 13+1 in this trip had a great time.

[huntrz]

Its Sunday evening and no trace of yesterday's reports/pics. Guys come out of the hangover(of the drive)

[pulsar56]

Originally Posted by huntrz

Its Sunday evening and no trace of yesterday's reports/pics. Guys come out of the hangover(of the drive)

We are back. But, we need some time to take rest and post the details.
Once the initial reports of Bidar flow in, there are some hilarious incidents to be followed by the team which continued to Solapur & Pandarpur!

Ravvs, please post the meet review soon.

Teaser:

Ferraris racing towards Bidar!

[Rajesh Rawal]

mitra mandali ...

back home after doing close to 750km in the last 2days( bidar included)

@ ravs: the temple is nice indeed ,am glad that i visited the place ,wanted to do that since i read about it while in 5th grade in the marathi text books.As usual you hate seeing the ill maintenance and the greedy pundits hanging around.

we had some really funny moments during our stop over at solapur yesterday night..( pulsar will do the honors for indepth gyaan on that)..

the roads are good all the way upto pandharpur ( karnataka bad patches are done up now)

time to watch india win(hopefully ) now.

[hillram]

Nazeem...Not to forget to post the pics chez Aruns on Friday night.

[Ravveendrra]

Originally Posted by huntrz

Its Sunday evening and no trace of yesterday's reports/pics. Guys come out of the hangover(of the drive)

What? And waste our Sunday when we can do it on a working day!

Originally Posted by pulsar56

We are back. But, we need some time to take rest and post the details.
........

Welcome back all of you. I await with bated breath a lowdown on your escapades.

Unusually for me, I shall start with a few pics. (Blame it on hanging out with those guys who tote along Bazookas.)

A view of what I presume is the palace complex:



There is a small museum on the left here (we of course enjoyed the lawn and the statue in it).



Courtyar in front of what seemed to be elephant stables:
(Better to be an elephant in those days than live in a poky flat)



A great view of the plains of which I am the lord & master:



"The old pile":



How many walls does a hill need to make it a fortress?:



Typical! Honda & Fiat - If one faces east the other naturally, faces west!



The young enjoy the ancient:



Cheers,

[pulsar56]

Ah ha!
I see my style of posting here!
Royalty needs to be paid for this infringement! LOL!

P.S: Requesting everyone to start saving and spend less in July!

[Ravveendrra]

After an 'early, late-night' (no, not a contradiction) - we actually wound up at a decent hour and were in bed by 2.00 a.m. after a great party to celebrate a very special occasion on Friday night. More about that in a seperate post / thread as it is totally O.T. here.

I was scheduled to wake up first as I have to drag myself & Jr. through the shower etc. naturally, the junta asked me to give em wake up calls. (Give me a good reference guys, I can do with a job as a telephone operator in a hotel).

Mihiran & I left after a shower and a quick b'fast. We loaded the ice-box, a few things to munch and a change of clothes for him into the GTX. Mihiran, the GTX and I were excited as this was the first TBHP drive for the GTX. Picked up Downsouth at Lifestyle and proceeded to pick up Vnabhi on Raj Bhavan Rd. before taking an U turn to fill in Petrol (regular unleaded) at Shell. By the time we left Shell it was 9.15 (a mere 15 minutes late).

A quick call confirmed that Pulsar56 was waiting for us at New Mars, Moosapet. We headed there and picked him up by 9.40. We call Mobike only to learn that he is yet to leave his place! So we dawdle about, chat with Prabhu and just as we were leaving, Rajesh calls to say he has been waiting since 9.30 so we shoot off there and find him patiently waiting in the hot sun. Both cars move into the shade and decide to catch up while we kill about an hour or so waiting for Mobike & Co. to arrive.

We finally set off from BHEL a mere hour and half behind schedule (we should be named the National Carriers). We make good use of the 4 lane road and are maintaining a decent pace between 100 & 120 kmph when someone signals for a break. We quickly pull into the Peddapoor C.O.C.O. (Company Owned Company Operated) bunk for a quick bite (idlis and mysore bondas) for hungry stomachs and tea/coffee all around. The tea was quite good, you will have to wait for a review of the food from those who ate (it did look quite good though).

Kkr2kr, told us that Solly was joining us so we had to wait for him, so we hung around for a bit till we missed the A/c. and decided to jump in and drive. Solly was to catch up with us. (We did find Solly at another C.O.C.O bunk further down the road).

Turn off after Zaheerabad and, Bidar is 25 Kms away on a lovely single lane road, gently meandering around and going up and down the uneven terrain. A road that the GTX enjoyed to the hilt! This car was made for roads like this.

Bidar town is in the process of a major facelift with all the roads being widened etc. We headed straight for the Gurudwara and paid our respects, partook of the Prasad and hopefully washed away our sins by touching and sipping the holy water from the natural spring. (Those old sages really knew how to find the best spots to meditate). The gurudwara is serene, clean and radiates a peaceful energy that is difficult to imagine.

Revitalised by the visit to the Gurudwara and free of all past sins courtesy the holy spring water, (I must mention that the water is cool and tastes heavenly) we set off for the fort. I was reluctant to visit any fort in the mid day heat but Avi assured me that one can drive into the fort. Aah, just my kind of a fort!

There is only one word for this fort - Awesome. It is not perched atop some inaccesible hillock like some of Shivaji's forts but it does sit atop a small plateau and is protected by a few (three if I remember correctly) moats that have been made by digging out solid rock. The rock so cut out was used to build the fortifications. There are several walls to pass through to reach the innards of the fort. The gateways through these walls are impressively designed and laid out making the use of battering rams or elephants against them impossible. Any wonder they invented plastic explosives?

Unfortunately, little survives of the buildings inside the fort. The remains of the impressive buildings suggests a grandeur of scale, design, material and embellishment now lost forever. Beyond all this, the fort has a certain air of romance, of graceful gardens, princesses and regal queens, of brave and chivalrous men who wooed the princesses and courted them while looking out over the plains that stretch as far as the eye could see. Of attacking enemies and sieges, of battles fought shoulder to shoulder with brethren and serfs. Of stately courts overflowing with richly dressed courtiers. Alas all this came to an end after Aurangzeb the last master of Bidar fort decided to move on to better things in life.

After all those bazookas that the junta carry in the name of cameras were given adequate time to capture all they can of this glorious place, we headed off into town to a Mayura hotel in a lane opposite the Central Bus Stand. The ambience is the pits but the place is overflowing with hearty eaters. We head upstairs to a small air-con place. We waited a decent interval before eating (lest someone mistake us for starving refugees just arrived from a newly desertified place) and heartily tucked into the butter chicken, anda burji, mutton biryani, etc. the starters were totally disappointing but the mains made up for it.

6.30 p.m. and we troop out of Mayura to find that the heat of the day has passed. We wish the team who are off to Solapur and Pandarpur good luck and drive through the dusk and gathering darkness toward Hyderabad. The increased traffic meant that we were moving much slower and were lucky if we could hit 100 for more than a few minutes. Being advised by residents of the area that the road after BHEL is 'crawling room' only till 11.00 p.m., we turn right at the BHEL gate and head through to Lingampally, Gachibowli, Narne Road, Film Nagar, Cancer Hospital, Naveen Nagar, Vishweshwarayya Statue, Raj Bhavan rd. Vnabi had to suffer the indignity of being dropped on the wrong side of Raj Bhavan Rd. to walk home. Sorry Venu saab, but it was late and I was in a rush to get home. I did manage to get home by 10.00 p.m.

A long day, but a day well spent.

For future drives - Nanded is not too far away. The Cathedral in Medak is supposed to be really impressive. Both are do-able in a day (provided we have no revels lined up for the day before).

Hillram, Suren, Himanshu, Ardy and each one of the others who could not make it. We missed you folks. As pointed out earlier in this thread - it is not the destination, it is not even the getting there, it is the time spent with a bunch of intelligent, decent, fun loving blokes (and ladies, and kids) that makes these TBHP drives what they are.

Cheers,

[himanshugoswami]

Great write up as usual Ravvs....and I see that you are getting there with the shutterbug skills as well.....Avi and Nazim are influencing all of us in more ways than we know.

Sad to have missed out but on this one occassion, I truly had something more important to do- attend my Daughter's 1st PTA and trust me, you do not want to be on the recieving end of the combined ire of a 4 year old and her mum.

But the good part is that I have now accumulated some brownie points to my credit, which I will encash on the trip to Nanded.

what nanded trip I hear you say? well, the Hydez regulars would know what I mean.

Ravvs has set the ball rolling with a mention of Nanded, and it is but natural that we will plan a trip very very soon. Avi, are you reading this??

Waiting for more snaps.

O.T. Nazim, I too visited shell and now have a couple of Superamericas, an F430 and an Enzo in my collection.

[ASHISHPALLOD]

@rajeshrawal-the temple is nice indeed ,am glad that i visited the place ,wanted to do that since i read about it while in 5th grade in the marathi text books.As usual you hate seeing the ill maintenance and the greedy pundits hanging around.

man, you had taken blessings of lord Viththala and here i am, barely 100 km from Baramati, yet to visit Pandharpur temple.

@ravveendrra-For future drives - Nanded is not too far away.

Nanded is just 70 km from my native place but....as usual...visited the gurudwara only once when i was in 5th std.
btw, last year, Nanded is completely face lifted due to guru-da-gaddi.