ही श्रींची(च) इच्छा !!

Please don't take the title of the post seriously, its coming from an atheist.

The title is obviously inspired by similar-sounding statements believers make. The objective of using it here is our jinxed (again, inspired by stereotypes) ride to Titwala.

My colleague Nikhil and me have the ride planned for over two weeks now, but had not been able to venture out for two consecutive Sundays as I wasn't feeling well. On the third Sunday, I woke up at 0550 hours (sharp) and started the preparations. Task(s) at hand : picking up water, some food items, increasing the saddle height and filling air in the tyres.

I completed all the tasks but for the saddle height. I just could not trace a plier required to loosen the seat nut and (like a nut) searched the entire house frantically for over two hours, unsuccessfully.

I was always hesitant for the ride because of the destination (Titwala houses a Ganpati Temple) but gave a (full-hearted) "yes" so that Nikhil gets addicted to long distance cycling. Nikhil cycles 15-km each morning but hasnt yet taken the plunge by doing longer rides. A Dombivili-Titwala-Dombivili ride would be around 50 km and enough to get him started, but courtesy the antics of Abhinav it could not happen.

My nephew Abhinav was home for a week before the Sunday and has probably misplaced the pair of pliers. He has the habit of picking up odd things and dumping it in any corner of the house (my sister-in-law says sometimes things are thrown out of the window as well).

8 AM : At the end of two hours of frantic searching, I decided to call off the planned ride. Nikhil may have been certainly annoyed but had his thinking hats on. "Get started on the low saddle and stop at the nearest puncturewalla," he advised. Why couldn't such a simple thing occur to me? Anyways, I had lost all the enthusiasm by now and persisted with my decision.

Not in a mood to let the early wake up on a Sunday go a waste, I walked out of home to ride, anywhere. A quick hop and I started to think - where should I go.

The recently acquired infatuation for ascents took me to Yeoor, the best option nearby.