Chronical of a weekend

There is never a dull moment in life when a bull is let loose! As it happens my Thunderbird is back with me and to celebrate the occasion LeChat and I decided to hit the roads. My knowledge of places around Pune is sketchy at best so the intrepid hiker LeChat is the navigator. Soon we find ourselves some small hamlet near Nilkantheshwar.
There is this nice little river murmuring by with rocks and all strategically placed for sitting with feet in water and hot day needed no better breaks.
after half an hour of nice talks and generally hunting for fishes in water we come back and the fun started. Apparently some kids (just a guess) thought that its fun to deflate both tires of a bullet in a God forsaken place with no hint of civilization nearby and promptly acted on the thought.
I know those Industrial age barons had the right idea in corralling those blighters in schools. It beats me why are they let out during day at all? So here we are no road on one side, a hill to climb on other and both tires flat.
Well I did hear a bike coming and the gentleman tells us, nope no repair shop nearby, best you can do is to get to Panshet which is the wrong side of the hill. LeChat true to form is clapping her hands in childlike glee - "Yippyy! We have an adventure ahead. Drag this beast on the hill my boy and we shall have the walk of our life!" I tell you sometimes I wish I had listened to what mom used to say about riding in woods with adventurous hikers for company!
So here we are, a shiny big bike next to us, walking up a hill for a couple of km and dragging the beast along. But we made it, only to realize that the shop which never closes is in fact closed today. Luckily someplace downhill has another shop. Wise to truant seeking shop keepers we decide to walk down first leaving the beast behind and check out on the repair shop's status. Ah luck has not completely deserted us, it is in fact open. Walk back, drag the bike along and finally we are there.
With all the dragging on dirt roads, the front tube valve body broke, the rear tyre did escape injury. I did tell you the kids couldn't really take all the air out there was just a hint of it left, otherwise dragging the bike would have been impossible. Well there is just one shop and too many pesky kids around, clearing the queue takes long. Sometime around 6, the gentleman does start working on the tyre. Took 1/2 hour to mend, shifting the valve and then adventure part duex starts. The gentleman has never worked on tyres with disc brakes before and reassembling ain't that straight forward. somewhere around 7:30 the tyre gets back, break is working and tyre seems to be doing its job. The intrepid explorers are back on track this time taking the road more explored back to Pune.
its a good hard drive for a long time and its nearly 8 when we hit Warje bang in the middle of a traffic jam and the gears start acting funny. But its a short drive and finally huffing and puffing we reach LeChat's abode. after the usual tootsie and cheerios with the family, the two of us decide to wrap up with some dinner nearby to celebrate our return on same day, hop back on bike. kick, start and the clutch wire breaks! So here we are, nearly at 10, all shops closed and no clutch. Well an old bike was commandeered and I am dropped off the nearest auto, packing food for self on the way. So an auto from Warje to Aundh.
Reach home uneventfully, just that the food could have done a lead role in Asian paints ad for sheer exuberance of colors. after picking up whatever looked edible I hit the sack.
Next morning I have to reach Hadapser to meet someone. So an auto ride from Aundh to Hadapsar. Okie met the gentleman and took an auto back to Warje from Hadapsar. Reached the bike and called the mechanic.
The overalls clad takes his sweet time and gets in around 7pm and starts dissembling the parts to replace the wire. A screw starts slipping. Okie dude now if you want my bike in your workshop - You drag it there. The dude does that and I hop into Lechat's limo and drive there. another 1/2 hr and now the dude tells me he needs to weld the screw and then take it out, no driver shall accomplish it on its own. The hitch? Guess? the welder has gone home! No option so I leave the bike and take an auto.
So an auto ride from Warje to Aundh. I get near Bremen Circle and the phone buzzes. LeChat giggling wildly! hello, I know I've been having an interesting weekend still some words would help. Ah it turns out once the shop closes, the mechanic decides to try again and the screw comes out clean! Still I am happy at least its gonna make morning commute better. So I return to Warje on the same auto, take the bike and finally home at 11 Pm.
So in total the weekend gist
1. 2Km drag of Bull mostly uphill
2. Auto from Warje to Aundh
3. Auto from Aundh to Hadapsar
4. Auto from Hadapsar to Warje
5. Auto from Warje to Aundh
6. Auto from Aundh to Warje.

And they all complaint that I do nothing on weekends!

ahem

Return of the Monk

It feels good to be back where I belong. After a hectic trip, it is fun to eat Indian food, sleep a weekend away, meet old friends.
It always happen like this. Abroad I miss India, inland it often exasperate me!

Hong Kong Travails

My apologies for suddenly vanishing from the scene. As it happens, I somehow found myself landing on Hong Kong a fine Sunday morning. Some client of us needed some urgent attention on one of their systems and so here I am finally experiencing the joys of our neighbour's hospitality.
Hong Kong is a fun place. Small, very efficient public transport, lots of people, high rise and generally bustling energy. Yesterday I managed to check out on of those shopping districts too. As such I am staying and working in the heart of their financial district, so evening it gets somewhat quiet. But Tsim Shats Tsui, where I went yesterday was throbbing with people at 11. And to confess, I love civilization, the glitzy eating places, people hanging out having fun.
Life has been busy this week, primarily in meeting people, so I have not been able to explore the city much. My first impression being that people here are polite and infrastructure very well managed. Somehow I did not find too many Indians here, a rarity these days. But TST had quite a few and well yes that the part where many expats live and work.
11 pm I rushed back to catch the ferry to Central HKG, being in a mood for a boat ride and then along with a couple of friends, got into the Lang Kwai Fong or some such sounding place. This is the pub and eating area in Central, a steeply rising network of a few streets on a hill, that has pubs all over and people swinging beers on roads, on roofs, on stairs. Life is spiced when some theme party gets over and folks come out to drink more :).
For a place where I did not see too many non Chinese, the street packs an amazing number of foriegners. I guess this is where they end up all night. While not quite the Vegas, still its places like these that makes travellers feel at home :).