The ride started on Saturday morning for me, with buying chicken and preparing the marinade and all other things to go with it. Dev’s driver arrived in the morning to collect all the stuff. Once I had done the rounds with him and loaded all the stuff in the jeep, it was off to pick up my better half, Nicola and then meet the other thumpers at Dharavi. I rode down to Bandra and after getting Nicky, moved on to Dharavi and meet the guys. They all arrived at the regular Inddiethumpers Stretchable Time……… But kudos to Behzad who actually arrived before 4 pm, I guess since he had a pillion, he was keen to make an impression. We were then joined by Rasik, Anup Shetty and pillion, Ajay, Sachin and Rhea and Kunz. Dipesh Saw and Milind were waiting for us around the corner. While we were waiting at Dharavi for the others to turn up, apna Rasik was on the phone telling people that we were staying at the Golden Svan, (that’s the way he pronounced it… hee hee hee……not his fault, we all know he is like that only……) After we all had a hearty laugh at his expense, we decided to move on.

Dev and Pooja bhabhi were waiting for us at Diamond Gardens in Chembur. When we got there, we had a few mini Mangolas, and then had to wait till the thumpers finished their agarbattis, (suttas to us illiterate ones) till we left. We rode on to Vashi toll naka where we met up with the other thumpers, Rahul, Lima, Dilip, Nix, Nix’s better half, Mukund, Trinie, etc…….. We were about to leave and then realised that we had to wait for apna Circus (Saurabh). On this topic, Saurabh wasn’t going to join us for the trip because his mother didn’t give him the permission to go. He then resorted to what all the girls are famous for, and started crying in front of his mum,………just try and imagine the sight of him crying……..hee hee hee…….. Anyway, when he told us that he would be there in a few minutes, we believed him coz we all know how he rides.

We then left the toll naka, and took the Palm Beach road, man, its one amazing stretch of road, its wide and so smooth, was really fun riding that stretch. We headed out towards Panvel and then took the road that leads towards Vadhkal. As usual, we had a few brothers who shot off and then waited for us just after the toll naka. We all reached there and waited for the others to join us. While we waited, our brothers brought out the agarbatis again, and we waited for our dear Trinnie to join us. As soon as he stopped and got off his bike, he came charging at us, hurling abuses for riding so fast. Guys, you have to experience it to believe it, having Trinnie swear at you just makes you want to burst out laughing and keep laughing. On this topic, we at the club have renamed Trinnie’s bike to “Catch Up”, since he is our lone ranger who religiously rides at 60-70 kph and keeps joining us at every stop. We then headed on from there, and decided to meet up at Vadhkal, not for chai and snacks, but for stocking up our booze. We got there and all of us filled up with the quota for the night. The road from Vadhkal onwards till the Ispat factory was a real back breaker. But after we passed the factory, the road was beautiful, riding in the dark, looking up at the stars in the sky, with a cool breeze in our faces, it made all the bumps worthwhile. As we headed out towards Murud from Alibaug, there was another bad stretch and then we decided to take a break and rest our butts.

We stopped at a turnoff and then Sachin rode up with a problem with his bike. His bike kept missing and shutting off, so he had to keep starting the bike again and again. Hearing this, Trinnie and I swung into action, trying to show off that we knew something about how to start a bike, we checked and found out that the spark plug was not generating an even spark and came to the conclusion that the spark plug was gone. Luckily Trinnie had a spare one and we changed the plug and Sachin’s bike started. While we were doing all this, we were passed by Vernon, Charmaine, Subbu and his wife. They went on up ahead to catch up with the first group. While we were doing all this, tragedy struck ahead, one of the bends on the road towards Murud was a sharp hairpin turn and was also on a steep descent. Ajay realised that a bit too late and tried braking, unfortunately he was on some gravel and his bike skid and he went for a fall. All of you’ll who have read the mails know that Ajay has suffered multiple fractures and the bike has got bent forks. Wel, the other thumpers riding with him all stopped and after ensuring he was alright, arranged to have his bike taken to the resort. This is what we thumpers stand for when we say that we are brothers who ride together, no matter what other people have to say, this is the truth. There is no way that we will leave any brother or his steed behind, no matter what the problem may be.

Anyway, while we were on the way to Murud, Sachin leading as we were worried about his bike breaking down, we came upon a lovely deserted stretch of road which was fun and really tranquil. The tranquility was broken by Dev riding up at full speed honking away telling us we had taken the wrong road. We didn’t feel bad because the ride was really pleasant. Anyway, we headed back with Dev in the lead and then we got onto the right path and the ride was really beautiful. We reached the toll naka at Murud where we were told by the locals that one of the bullets had met with an accident, we all thought it might have been apna Circus, especially after the “Now you see me, now you don’t” stunt on the ghats of Mahab……….hee hee hee…that was fun… We got to the resort and then realised that Ajay had an accident, and we inquired about his health and his bull. After that, we broke out the booze and the barbeque, and the fun started. As usual, all of you know how we party, and it was a blast. Everybody broke out their booze and we had a blast……and it wasn’t soon before the wickets started falling………

The first to go was Kunz, after just two bottles of beer, he was stoned, he was talking all gibberish, thanking me for feeding him paneer, and wanted to ride his bike in the night, which we all gave him a good sounding off too and hid his keys. The second wicket was that of apna Circus, he claimed he drank a lot, but we knew he didn’t, and he was walking around like khopdi of Nukkad fame, and then like in Gorai, he was off to bed soon. The entertainment for the night was provided by the system in Subbu’s car, which he turned off later, because he was worried his car wouldn’t start in the morning. The food was the barbequed chicken and sausages. At this point, I would like to thank Pooja bhabhi, who worked all the way through dinner, and all the girls who helped in cutting the onions, and also Nix for helping skewer the sausages. Somehow, I got the feeling he enjoyed fiddling with the sausages……hee hee hee….. Also want to thank Dilip Bhau for taking over the chef’s cap and letting me have a blast too. While all this was happening, I had taken a head count and realised that 2 heads were missing, and then I was informed that Behzad and his pillion were busy……… For further details, contact Circus, who acted his usual naughty self and tried to take a peek……… Behzad emerged at around 1 am, and ate up every piece of chicken in sight, I wonder why he was so famished… Bawa, care to shed some light on this????????

The party went on and at around 2.30 am, we heard the thumper honk, and who should it be but our very own Bittu and Jaya. This gave us another reason to start drinking, like we needed one………… Jaya had brought along some cheese dip which was amazing and we hogged on it and some lays wafers. While we were sitting and boozing, I told the guys that in college all my friends used to tease Nicola by telling her that she would have to change her name to Nicolinder Kaur after we got together. So everyone including Bittu, jaya, Rahul, Lima, etc started pulling her leg. At around 4 am, Dev, Rahul, Lima, Jaya, Bittu, Nicolinder and myself went for a walk on the beach. It was amazing, there were so many stars and the moon was in a lovely crescent shape. It was a clear night and we had a blast looking at the constellations. While we were there, we started talking about aliens and other life forms and we discussed the fact that there had to be life beyond earth. Rahul went on to cite some research facts and we started talking about Area 57 in Utah desert, and so on…… While we were talking about aliens, we brought back memories of the alien encounter of the third kind between Bittu and a little cockroach in Rasik’s house, we all know that the cockroach won that round hee heee hee…… don’t bash me up bittu paaji………… We got back to find out that there was a heated discussion on RM05 and we don’t know what happened after that, but I’m sure they must have reached some decision.

At 5am, Circus decides to come out, and goes banging into the walls while walking like khopdi again, and went to take a leak, while he reached halfway down the path, his pants were halfway down his butt and he was leaning on the post while emptying his tank. He came back and after banging into a couple of walls again, he say Rasik and gave him a hug, then gave me a hug. We then whacked him and told him to go back to bed. At 6am, Dilip decided to leave as he had some commitments at home and Rajesh rode back with him. We then went to bed and woke up at 9.30. Then the fun started again. We guys went to the beach, Pooja bhabhi and Simran were in the sea the whole day. Trinie, Behzad, Shaheen, Nicolinder, Me, and a few others went to the beach and into the sea. Dipesh, Rasik and a few others had to leave in the morning, and soon after they left Ranjeet turned up with his better half. When he got there, we were ready to go and then we went to Janjeera beach to see the fort. After we came back, we loaded Ajay’s bike in a tempo and we all pushed off. We had an amazing lunch at Alibaug, where we spent an hour stuffing ourselves. We then left for home and reached home without any more incidents. Only Sachin ran out of fuel in Panvel and that was sorted out anyway. On the way back, Sachin, Rhea, Kunz, Nicola and myself went to Carters and met up with out other brothers before we all went our separate ways.

We all had a blast on the Murud ride and are all looking forward to have the next ride. I would just like to thank everyone who came for the ride and made it a real fun ride. A special thanks to Dev and Pooja Bhabhi for helping with everything. Look forward to having another ride with you guys soon with even more fun.