Matheran!

They say combining work with pleasure is the best thing to do. True, on weekdays it is absolutely true. But on weekends, all the factors in the equation change. Hence, I get a "weekend version" of the adage : its best when you can mix your hobby with social commitments.

That is precisely what I attempted during a weekend in October 2009. Cycle to Dombivali (around 35 km) to meet college friends on Saturday evening, spend the night with them and cycle to Matheran the next day. And I pulled it off well !

I had never cycled so fast as I did on Saturday evening. I had started late and my only concern was to exit the Mumbai-Agra national highway before sunset. The road surface is very good and all I had to do was cycle fast and hard (on higher gears). There had been some showers in the afternoon which helped my cause as the atmosphere was cool and perfect for riding. Adding to the pleasure was the greenery on both sides of the road - the paddy fields had crop ready for harvesting. But honestly beyond this, I wasn't observing around much courtesy the time limit set by nature.

The only thing to be looked out for was traffic and being evening it was bad. At a small village on the highway a Maruti Esteem came to a screeching halt right in front of me forcing me to commit the most awful act - braking hard and overtaking the chap. For a cyclist, it is bad because it isn't only about the physical efforts you will take to regain the speed but about your tempo, breathing pace as well. Frustrated, I showed my middle finger to the carbonivore after overtaking his (stationery) car, something I could have ended up paying a big price for. (and almost did)

Within the next couple of kms, the car caught up with me and the person sitting next to the driver (cant call him as the navigator) hurled the choicest of abuses at me for my brazen act. It dawned on me that this chap is a local and that too from the agri community, infamous for being short tempered. Thankfully, I had cooled off enough to just neglect the abuses and continued riding. I had not given-in to the intimidation and learnt crucial lesson in cycling : the carbonivore can always get back to you!

After exiting, I took the Kalyan-Shil Phata toll road and had to negotiate evening traffic in downtown Kalyan and later Dombivali. Reached Dombivali within two hours which I still feel was quite an achievement.

Used the social gathering part - of meeting friends - basically as resting break for the long day ahead.

SUNDAY

Woke up as planned at 6 AM after managing three hours of sleep and left my friend Mitesh's place in the next 30 minutes, without disturbing any of our sleeping friends. Within ten minutes it started raining heavily (a first for me while riding) and I just loved it. Greenery all around, no room for sweating, early morning mist in the air and good road surface. Waah!

From Dombivali, I cycled tw0-three km on the Shil road after which I exited to take the road to Badlapur constructed by MIDC. The traffic was sparse and the conditions just perfect for cycling. Helping me more was the industrial body's service of yore : building the best roads (infrastructure) to pull investments and doing nothing even as the industry shuns the planned cluster. The wide, well-surfaced, low traffic road passes through barren landscape for almost the entire stretch of the road but being just done with monsoon, it is green. A cyclist just cannot complain. Thank you, Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation. May you build more such roads before becoming defunct yourself.

Anyways, I took my first break at Badlapur for chai and then took the Badlapur-Karjat road which runs parallel to railway track. Again, the ingredients were the same but road had become narrow (no MIDC here) and there were a lot more villages in between. I reached Neral at around 1015 hours which delighted me like anything. My plans of having breakfast at Neral was on track!

The b'fast break was very long and I left Neral only at 11 AM, under the blissful thought of not knowing what lies ahead!

After cycling out of the village, I took the right turn to head towards my destination : Matheran. Initially cycling on the high gradient was fun and I scaled up till Jummapatti very comfortably not going below the 1-2 gear combination. But the sheer gradient (at times higher than 45 degrees I think) makes you realise the ineffectiveness of your machine. I needed more teeth to negotiate.

It was hot, very humid and I was sweating a lot, making hydration the biggest concern. The lemon-flavoured Mentos and water (very hot because of the heat) came in handy and I somehow managed to continue cycling. Physically, you give up at such gradients and it is sheer will power that makes you move on, really. During breaks, of which there were many, I was indifferent to the looks given by co-habitants on the road like the taxiwallahs and private 2/4 wheel drivers. They were looking at me as though I was some alien with the only difference being that I was on a cycle and not the saucers. A few worthy exceptions also encouraged me to go on.

During the breaks, I probably clicked the most lazy frames ever. The shots are tilted, sometimes shaky and clicked from an angle which represents my then posture : squatting on the tar road, doing a shavasan (!), sitting on the narrow gauge railway track or simply reclining by a board, sitting on the saddle. The photo is secondary, the current posture should not be be changed!

After much efforts I succeeded in making it to Dastoori Naka, the end of the road. I had taken a little less than two hours to do the ten km journey through probably one of the worst roads (gradient-wise, i hadn't encountered such roads in Ladakh as well) but never did I get down and push the cycle. I was firmly on the saddle all through.

At the Naka, the taxi wallas arranged an impromptu felicitation in my honour. I was served with cool water (read : at room temperature) procured from a tap and also offered biscuits which I politely declined (not because I feared them being spiked, but because I felt a loss of energy to chew them)

After spending a few minutes at Naka, I started the downhill ride, burning a lot of rubber (of my break shoe) and within 10-15 minutes was down. A two hour uphill was covered in 10-15 minutes flat! I was, and still am, puzzled as to what made me attempt the mad ride/climb all alone?