BREAK KE BAAD

The monsoons are the best and the not so best times to go gallivanting around on a cycle. Best because the weather is just lovely, the cool breeze wicking away the sweat, and the occasional shower cooling you down. Apart from this is the stares that you get when you are the only two wheeler on road - which gives me a kick to my ego -though others must be thinking me as nuts! :) The downside is the bouts of cough and cold that the monsoons carries in tow!

       The bug got me down for well over 2 weeks( so much for the saying that a cold lasts for a week/ seven days!) After trying yoga(pranayam), herbal medicines from my wifes kitchen it came down to the good old Cetzin prescribed by my cousin ( God bless all the docs in the family - they save the pain of waiting in queue at a clinic.) to knock the cold out. Two weeks of no cycling! I was having withdrawal symptoms! So straightaway I decided to take a long ride. The route planned was Home-FC Road-Wakdewadi-old pune Mumbai highway to dapodi - Parihar chowk - University - Pashan and back to base, which should have been over 30km. And I decided to go alone.

         I took of at first light which these days happens to be at 0600hrs in Pune. There was no sign of rain or traffic as it was Independence day. I was thoroughly enjoying the ride and reached dapodi in 30 min, crossed over to Dapodi and then decided to go towards Sanghvi, an area which I had not been to. There were hordes of school kids out, waiting to go to school and so got a lot of Ooohs and Aaahs when they saw the cycle! Reached Rakshak Society road and turned to University. University chowk  and I was making good time of less than 3min to a km. Next was on to Pashan road. I reached Chandani Chowk and crossed a few cyclists going the other way enroute. The odometer showed 30 km. I then decided to go to NDA gate so I clock 40km. Another pleasant ride amongst the morning walkers and i was back in Ruturang exactly at 0800hrs with the odometer showing exactly 40km!

         Felt so good that I decided to visit the Gym also and stretch out. Followed it with Cycle seva - the mud was very persistent and took a lot of effort to remove. Decided to get a pipe for the purpose. The end result was a pleasing shiny white cycle! Now have to decide for the next weekends route. . . .