Wow! What a wonderful & memorable cycling I had in
Pune from 10th Feb to 12th Feb 2017. Thanks to Amit
Agashe who had made the ride itinerary and also took care of my every issues in
Pune including food and accommodation in his heavenly abode.
Amit Agashe
Amit is a practising advocate from Pune and an avid
cyclist. Both of us had met for the first time in Goa in Dec 2013 when we had
participated in Youth Hostel Association of India (YHAI) Goa cycling
expedition. Since then we are close friends and have participated together in
YHAI Thar Desert cycling expedition in 2014 & YHAI Ooty-Madhumalai cycling
expedition in 2015.
I left for Pune on 8th Feb from Bangalore
by train no.16340 (Nagarcoil-Mumbai express) and reached Pune on 9th Feb
around 6.30 p.m. From Pune railway station I took an Ola cab and reached house of
Amit at Kothrud around 7.15 p.m. At the house I was well greeted by Amit, his
wife Pooja & mother. Amit’s little sweet daughter Anandita had a staring look at
me as I was completely a new face for her.
Amit & his family
I had tied up with
ShiftGear a bicycle rental company at Kothrud, Pune for renting a bicycle for
me from 10th Feb to 12th Feb. I am happy to say here that
Mr.Vikrant who owns ShiftGear offered a good Hybrid bicycle to me at a
reasonable rent. Around 8 p.m. as promised to me he delivered bicycle at Amit’s
residence. Both I and Amit had a trial round of cycling for an hour around
Kothrud area so that I am familiar with the rented bicycle.
On the morning of
10th Feb Amit & I left Kothrud around 6.30 and started pedalling towards
Lavasa which is around 55 kms. It was a tough ride as Lavasa is on a height of
630 metres above sea level. En route we had tasty Maharastrian
breakfast viz., Usal Pav & Misal Pav at Amrale Misal hotel.
At Lavasa we had our lunch in a small restaurant
and around 2 p.m. started pedalling again towards Panshet, MTDC Resort which
was about 45 kms from Lavasa.
Initially I thought 45 kms we would cover easily in
just 3 hrs. I was completely wrong. Amit did tell me that the road to Panshet
from Lavasa was extremely bad. He was absolutely right. The road was totally
damaged and there were lots of stones, pebbles restricting our pedalling. At
times we even had to lift our bicycles and cover the distance else it would
have led to puncturing our bicycles which was not desirable as ShiftGear had
not given a spare tube to me for the bicycle that I had hired. The road was so
bad that we could cover just average 8 kms per hour. At about 7 p.m. it became
dark. As Amit had to take a call, I moved ahead. Later, as a result of poor
connectivity Amit could not connect to me and neither could I contact him on
his mobile. As it was dark Amit was worried for me as I am a fatherly figure for him. But equally I too was worried for Amit as he was more like my son although I am blessed with two daughters. Panshet was not far from the location where I was. After a while I saw
Amit coming and both of us had a sigh of relief. We then moved together and
reached MTDC Resort at Panshet at around 7.30 p.m.
On reaching MTDC
Resort at Panshet we were extremely tired and were looking for quick freshening
up. Luckily we were given a room on the ground floor itself and did not have to
walk around in sprawling resort. Both of us got freshened up quickly when
Amit’s friend Ninad Deshmukh who is also an avid cyclist joined us as he came
alone on his bicycle separately from Kothrud by the shortest route.
We had great
satisfaction of day's ride. Although it was tough riding since morning, once we
reached the destination viz., Panshet we had great feeling. All three of us had
dinner in the room itself. As we were extremely exhausted we had sound
sleep.
On the morning of
11th Feb we had breakfast at MTDC Resort and started back pedalling
to Kothrud, Pune which was about 40 kms. After pedalling about 15 kms 2 more
cyclist friends viz., Ms.Tejasvita Bawkar and Ankit Wankhade (fierce cyclist) joined
us. After having chilled sugar cane juice we all started pedalling together. On
our way we had lunch together which was memorable as we had quite relaxed time
together. We all reached Kothrud around 4 p.m.
With Amit & Ninad Deshmukh
With Amit, Ninad, Ankit & Tejasvita
On day 3 (12th Feb) Amit, Ankit and I pedalled to ARAI Tekdi
/ Vetal Tekdi which is just about 8 kms from Amit’s house. The term Tekdi in
Marathi means a small hillock or mountain. Although it was not a big mountain,
the road to top of Vetal Tekdi was good. There were lots of cars, bikes and
morning walkers going to top of mountain. As we were pedalling up on bicycle it
was giving us nice feeling when people used to acknowledge our efforts by
waving at us. It was great moment for us.
On top of ARAI / Vetal Tekdi
With Amit
Ankit
With Ankit
With Amit
With Ankit
Once you reach top of mountain, there
are few spots which are flat. The view of surrounding area from the top of Tekdi
is beautiful. We had individual as well as group photographs along with our
bicycles.
Three Musketeers
Me with my bicycle
Amit with his bicycle
Ankit with his bicycle
By 9 a.m. we pedalled back to
Amit’s house where Amit’s family greeted us with sumptuous breakfast. After
breakfast Ankit said good bye to us and left. My return train to Bangalore was by
Coimbatore express train no. 16613 leaving Pune at 22.30. In the afternoon I
and Amit’s family together went to an Italian cuisine restaurant and we had our lunch
there. We then had Ice cream & Kulfi at famous Ice cream parlour Sujatha
Mastani.
At Italian Restaurant
At Sujatha Mastani Ice cream parlour
In the evening Amit
took me to a nearby famous Chitale Bandhu shop where I could buy some dry snacks for
my family. It was then time to bid bye to Amit & his family. I have no
words to express my sincere thanks for the unforgettable hospitality that the
trio viz., Amit, his mother & his wife Pooja gave me at Pune for 4 days. Today
we see everywhere nuclear family with dwindling sociological contacts where own
relatives are seen as unwanted guests. In this scenario I am really overwhelmed
to see Amit’s family extending hospitality
to me with great love & care.
With little lovely Anandita
On the whole I had wonderful time in Pune and I would
cherish the time I spent with Amit & his family at all the time.
