[ajay_satpute]

The venue:

It was a picture perfect place. The first activity that everyone was involved in was...the breakfast. Then, folks were moving here and there, chatting, shooting (photos) before everyone rearranged all the cars for THE official photo shoot.





Folks surrounding the breakfast van



Expressions





Kiran, the D-BHPian was the first one to climb up for the photo shoot





heman_368(Himanshu) with his Etios. My companion for the whole trip



Swanand and Guderian sir in action


Satyen dada returns...






Everyone gathering on top to shoot pics

[siddheshb]

[quote=sukiwa;2678926]Can some of you put names to faces in group photos? We can ask some moderator to edit those posts to add names.QUOTE]

+1 to that. I have been able to recognize and memorize quite a few names and faces now by going through the pictures and captions, but it would be really good to be able to do some sort of tagging.

[ajay_satpute]

THE OFFICIAL photo shoot

First, the SUVs







Now, the whole bunch











My FAV pic for the day. The fantastic 180 deg Sweep Panorama.




Anna and his new prized possession

[Guderian]

Shalom !

Adding my bits and pieces on the Pune Tapri Meet would be much,much easier now...

- I am not going to belabour the fact that after a long time it was one of the most delightful Sundays ever !

- Not going to state - Wotta meet ! Because everyone and his uncle has said so and the point is adequately made.

- I am not going to thank Throttleking (Sagar) for the scrumptious breakfast - as I did so as soon as I put a spoonful of the delectable poha with a garnish coconut shavings and bhujia not forgetting the lime wedge squeeze, into the cavernous mouth of mine. And did so profusely after completing the heaped plate, two puffs and two glasses of frozen Coke (with ice flakes in it - how the devil did he manage to keep it frozen ? Ice box it was. The man thinks of everything ! Should check with him - should I need to freeze a body or two !). But couldn't thank Abhijeet the puffman (no, not that he smokes too many cigarettes) for the fact he got for the whole squad the juicy veggie puffs...also called 'Patties/Pattices' by some folks earlier here, thankfully with there was no 'n' in it !
Thank you Abhijeet - Coriolis
Must say I enjoyed the breakfast a quite a bit more than the lunch - though the lunch was also rather nice. But you see there is a huge difference when an offering is a output of love and affection versus something which is a commercial compulsion !

- I am not going to state again that the entire meet was conducted with absolute military precision with not a moment of time wasted on any dwadling here and there or confusion. Even the re-formation of vehicles for the photoshoot was carried out without any dust being raised. Despite there being almost 17 vehicles out of which of course 5 were the big D/Badies.
Link up, drive, chowtime, photoshoot,drive, chow, drive off...get home in great time. Precisely carried out.

- Meeting up with old Pune friends ( not naming all the guys - but yes all of you !) was delightful and heart warming as ever ! Though of course we missed some blokes - Noopster, KPBhatt, Ojas, Kaustubh et al - but I guess there'll surely be another meet. Made quite a few new friends too...far too many names and handles but I do remember - WAC 7, Sri SI, good ol' battleaxe Cdr.Nandu Chitnis, Maverick76, Nawal Singh, Ajay Satpute - Shri SonyHX100vwalle, Siddhesh - Shri Endeavourwalle, Ebonho (though I didn't like it one bit when he wrote that the Endeavour was specially nice or some such sentence - he needs to be given a tour of and educated about the Fortuner.), et al. Sorry if I am not able to recollect more names (not for the lack of trying but age...).
All of you folks there - who I met for the first time- here's to you !

- But a special mention of my three new friends from Mumbai - Uday Desai and Yogesh Nagpal who put up with my driving, weird sense of thinking, taste of music and everything else during the drive and back as also Raghav Khosla who was driving alongside us in his swift Swift all through. Thanks Rohan and his father Naik (Sr) for the delightful company and drive from Mumbai and back their 4X4 Scorpio - Snow White (no dwarfs spotted throughout).
Thanks due to Mani S for having driven from Chembur to have a chotta meet at Vashi in a Tapri for Chai and Pakoras...tastes great when deep fried in spent Mobil oil gathered from wayside trucks !

- All in all a fabulous...I could ramble on till the cows and Team BHPians come home - but then let's have the pics from my weatherbeaten camera do some spluttering !
And yes these snaps are far more ordinary and mundane ones which describes the low level happenings of a meet rather than the Cannes Lions winning snaps from the others !

Snaps - Part I:

At the crack of dawn, Thane...waiting impatiently for Guderian to finish taking snaps of meaningless matters. The look on the faces says it all !
(L-R: Raghav, Yogesh and Uday)


Waiting for Godot...at Vashi...Mani - where are you ? The look on the faces...


The Mumbai gang reaches Kamshet. Staging point - Operation Pawna. And waits...and waits...


Admiral waits...


Smiling and waiting...


And waiting...


There they come !


Ajay Sats starts - camera-wise...


Warming up Naik Sr !


Getting to know...The right side of the frame - finds Cdr Chitnis explaining to dot (Abhi) the art of taking a snap without a camera...


Folks admiring a real truck:


The uphill drive...the cars wheezing. Mistaken by some as thrilling sounds ! BTW - SUVs were growling...for more.





The first sight !


Downhill relief for the cars.


The long line ensures the local traffic giving way to for a smooth passage:


Bronchitis and wheezing again, for cars !


Waterview !


'oos dat ?


Only two smilies per post ? Sorry a little more than that number here...(Mods please excuse !)


Breakfast's served ! Crush time at throttleking's table:


The thought of breakfast drives us to be cheerful !


The real men line up.


Ghostly coincidence...almost the same shirts - but exactly the same cameras Sony HX100V...dot & Ajay compare notes...Bhala uska camera mera camera se acha kaise ?


Issue finally resolved with the intervention of...


While the men wait patiently - under the hot western skies ! Yes, the sun was a little harsh yesterday.




(To be continued...)

[ebonho]

Guderian, love your wicked writing style man! Please give us more. The Fortuners were looking really macho and rugged and intimidating too sir - I would scurry out of the way every time one (over)filled my RVMs.

P.S. LOL at your first photo. The expressions are priceless!

[MX6]

Damn. Your question, Guderian makes me wonder, why we didn't have a mini photoshoot while at the tapri along with the rest of the Mumbai gang. Guess I was still in the spotted so many Harleys mood and the fact that am missing out on one of the drive (albeit tentative since beginning).
Incidentally, I forgot to bring my HX100v to the mini tapri that we had. After turing off at CBD in to palm beach road, there was a moment of madness. Do I take a U turn and hit the highway again and spring a surprise at Kamshet?
But then too much pending stuff at home pulled me back. Another 4 days left for me to empty out two cupboards and pack 4 pieces of bags before I drive out to Karnataka. No matter how much in advance one plans these trips, it always happens at the 11th hour right?

Also contemplating on the current trip. Do I stay away from the oft tried and bored to death NH4 and take the NH17 all the way down?

Anyway, thanks Uday for the small treat on your new job! Let me keep the saucy stories preserved in the back of my mind for the Bhandardara meet. Way to go guys.

And Uday seems to be hinting to you, as he held the door handle. Throw the cam away Guderian. Am gonna jump inside right now. Can't wait anylonger.

[ajay_satpute]

The last set of pics from my SONY HX100V.

At the lunch place: Sunny da dhaba. Superb food! When we reached the place, it was empty and was almost begging for customers. Around 40 of us filled 40% of the place. And, then the customers started gushing in, as if it was a human flood.

Swanand & Satyen (discussion around leg pieces, milk shakes and what not)



The non-veggies



The veggies



Amey and the gang



Whole gang





Shridhar and ? (forgot the name)







And the last photo

Himanshu in action. It was really nice of him to pick me up in the morning and dropping me all the way to my place while returning. Even better, he offered me to drive the Etios and I obliged instantly. It was a fantastic drive back home. Etios is really FTD, especially the lovely low-end torque. Thanks Himanshu.

[Guderian]

Snaps - Part Deux:

Swanand...shot while trying to shoot.


A hazy outlook of life there !


Line forms...Line Abreast Ahoy !


Men and Men.


Ordering ...A Polo Sandwich ! At Sunny's D.


Bare table for the veggies save a Fanta and Cola can:


Departure time - Monaro and the beast.


Post the Expressway on the way back. Gathering for the final goodbyes - the Mumbai folks.



Final smiles...



And now it can be said - Whatta day !

[throttleking]

Originally Posted by Swanand Inamdar

1. Sagar (Throttleking): you are hereby elected as the official co-ordinator for all such mega meets. What a lovely way to handle such a large convoy, and making sure all goes as planned. The breakfast was the icing man! Hats off to you for this kind gesture. .

2. Dotty (Abhijit): For planning this meet. This one again, has turned out to be a mega one.

Thanks Swanand, this mega meet truly deserves a utaara meet at Grand soon

Ohh, so Dotty was the fire - starter for meet? Thanks a lot Dot for initiating.

Originally Posted by Guderian

Adding my bits and pieces on the Pune Tapri Meet would be much,much easier now...

Sir really loved your writing, you seem have captured every moment of the meet very nicely. Hope to catch up with you again soon.

[siddheshb]

Originally Posted by Guderian

Siddhesh - Shri Endeavourwalle, Ebonho (though I didn't like it one bit when he wrote that the Endeavour was specially nice or some such sentence - he needs to be given a tour of and educated about the Fortuner.)

Sir, we were hoping to needle you into giving us a test drive in the hills around the dam...

Frankly, I love the look of the Fortuner... although, loyalty to the Blue Oval demands I rarely admit it in public

[nawalsingal]

Originally Posted by ajay_satpute

Shridhar and ? (forgot the name)

Attachment 887291

That's me, Though my Polo was used for Guederian sir's Fortune(R) sandwich, I managed to escape, only to join him on veggies table, to corrupt his "Dharma"

[nanduchitnis]

@Mikon: Super photography !!

Originally Posted by siddheshb

Dad must have posted a lot of Team BHP posts featuring Samara and our other cars. Anyways a brief definition of Team BHP is it is a forum where people who love their cars and want to share it's day to day experience and drives.
And we were terribly tired so nothing could have been better than sleeping on a soft cushion with a blankie and the fan and the AC on...

Oh she is so sweet ! Hugs to her !

[siddheshb]

Guys, I know this might be too early - but anyone up for a bit of soft, amateur offroading? A good place around town for a 3/4th day trip is Bhuleshwar temple. Would love to do an overnight trip into Konkan too for some beach masti (not sure what the environment laws are around here, please advise - but I have had a lot of fun in Dapoli - and some of those videos are also here on TBHP)

Any other suggestions on where we can put the SUVs to work without too much heartache afterwards?

[Guderian]

Originally Posted by siddheshb

Guys, I know this might be too early - but anyone up for a bit of soft, amateur offroading? A good place around town for a 3/4th day trip is Bhuleshwar temple. Would love to do an overnight trip into Konkan too for some beach masti (not sure what the environment laws are around here, please advise - but I have had a lot of fun in Dapoli - and some of those videos are also here on TBHP)

Any other suggestions on where we can put the SUVs to work without too much heartache afterwards?

Hi Sid,
Count me in...whenever.

Loved the approach -"Put the SUVs to work without too much heartache afterwards" and sure I too believe in the very same philosophy.
Wouldn't ever want to bash up the old boy needlessly but yet do want to test out the 'off the beaten track' in everything... whenever possible !

[udaydesai]

Ya it was a great meet, met my good friend Guderian, met him at 6.20 am, parked my car at his place and joined him in he's beast. Well made few new friends, nagpal, and guy in swift sorry forget his name. Met mani for mini tapari meet, ya we miss him in the meet, yes mani if time permits , we will make it to bhandardhara. It was good drive and harish drive very well, always puts his ABS at work.
Really enjoyed the poha made by throttle king. Ya really enjoyed this meet, Pune guys rocks mam

Well guderian do post the first pic that you have taken in your car.