Chapter 02..The heritage Night Ride(s)

So…Taking the earlier Introduction forward….this describes the first event hosted by Speaking Wheels (well ,actually the first two technically!!!) more in detail!!!

As mentioned, we started out with our first event which was a Night cycling event to visit the Heritage places in Pune which are Iconic as well as culturally popular.  In all fairness, this was not an unique idea. It had so happened that Rahul and I had attended a similar event a couple of days back as participants. The event turned out to be a damp squib. It was such a badly organized event that we understood how not to host an event!!! It set the idea rolling, even stronger in our minds, to host a similar event and give an experience to the participants that we had missed!

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The first and foremost of the action item was a Reece ride to identify the places where we wanted to halt,  toilet facilities on the way, meeting points etc and also decide on the final distance of the actual ride. We set out at night on our cycles along with our efficient crew car following us. We asked our kids also to accompany us since we were to include kids as participants along with their parents. So this was a complete dress rehearsal in the true sense. Of course we were skeptical and wary about the whole thing since it was the first ever attempt at being ‘on the other side of the table’,as Rahul puts it.

Google maps really helps at such times. We just entered all the probable places that we would want to include in the event and it obliged us with a suggested route. Following the route to the T, we made our way on our cycles stopping at all the places, spending some time, discussing a few things and planning the final route. The kids were happy and overjoyed  to be a part of this night ride.

Once the route was finalized, we got down to announcing the event, brainstorming about the finer details, and planning meticulously. We definitely wanted the first experiment to be a grand success. We soon flooded the social media channels with the detail and invites. Soon enquiries and registrations started pouring in and we started feeling hopeful and excited.

The D day finally arrived. Butterflies in the stomach, we reached the rendezvous where we were to start the ride. We had estimated that the participants would follow the ‘Indian Standard time’ but to our amazement everyone had reached on time!! That was the first hint of encouragement and along with it a sense of realization of responsibility as organizers.

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We had invited a prominent historian to flag off our ride. An introduction to the heritage and history of Pune was apt to commence on our first journey of sorts!! After this the goody bags were distributed. An important component of this was the reflective jacket. We always insist on the riders safety and shall continue to do so. An integral part of any cyclist kit should be a reflective jacket ! We had made it mandatory for everyone to have their cycles equipped with headlights or have a headlight which can be worn by the rider. Helmets were an absolute must. After checking everyone’s safety measures we officially welcomed everyone onboard. We had gone out of the way and submitted an Intimation letter to the Police department informing them about such an event taking place. The authorities were very supportive about it and appreciated us about informing them. They assured us that all the marshals shall be informed about the event and they stuck to their commitment. It was such a positive vibe from the authorities as well. Mihir, a participant for the event  and a close friend of ours, helped us in a great deal for meeting up with the police department in the first place, since he is a crime reporter with a news daily.

We had also taken along with us a local mechanic who could be of help in case of any breakdown. He was helpful in checking the cycles, the air pressures etc. He was also asked to check the seat heights of individual cycles. Here I must mention that since quite a few participants were back on their saddles after a really long time , most of them were ignorant about a few basics of the cycles, which is fair. So a crash course in how to adjust seat heights, what is a comfortable gear ratio, cadence, etc was discussed with the group and we were ready to roll.

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We assembled at Nal stop, karve road. Nal stop to Shaniwar Wada, one of the most iconic places in Pune. At  Shaniwar Wada we would be taking a quick trivia break with some snack. Since it was a hot night of summer, we had carried kulfis(ice cream candies).Unfortunately the Ice box in which we carried them did not live up to its expectations and everyone had to ‘drink’ the kulfis instead of ‘eating them!!!! Thankfully everyone took this fiasco in the right spirit and it was fun to see everyone licking the dripping kulfis off their hands while listening to the trivia by Nishant .

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Next was Kasba peth, which is the gram daivat(local deity) of Pune. It was an apt place for the first stop. The first leg of the route was where we would be covering most of iconic religious stops. The ride through Tushibaug was a memorable one because the usual hustle bustle of Tulshibaug was totally absent. During the day time, one doesn’t have place to walk in the packed crowd of regular shoppers in the heavily crowded market area of Pune. But wonder of wonders…the night offered everyone a peaceful , breezy ride through the same roads . Especially the lady participants in the group admitted that they never had seen the area in such a manner. I guess that’s the beauty of riding at odd hours. One gets to view daily scenes in an altogether different perspective.

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We regrouped at Mandai(the vegetable market), below the clock tower. Here we had a quick round of introductions among the entire group. Such informal introductions are good ice breakers is what we have experienced as participants, so we used the same formula for our ride as well. After some trivia time again, we were surprised to know that a participant in our group had a very interesting thing to share. Apparently, the clock , underneath which we all were standing, was installed by his grandfather. It was a very interesting piece of information!!

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We then headed towards Sarasbaug, another iconic Ganesh temple in Pune. We made our way here, via Bajirao road. An unscheduled stop at the Kelkar Museum on the way was taken. Information about Kelkar museum was imparted by Rahul and after a nice group photo we reached Sarasbaug. After Sarasbaug, we soon touched the famous Tilak road en route to Kesari wada Ganpati, the last but not the least of the culturally important Ganpatis. When we reached Kesari wada around 2.00 am, the place was up and running since there is the press which is still functional and still releases the daily ‘Kesari’ which was started by the great leader Lokmanya Tilak. It was a great feeling to see the Pre Independence era memories!!!!

We then headed onto the Lakdi Pool(Wooden Bridge) ,yet another iconic bridges In Pune. In the earlier days , the bridge was wooden, hence the name, but the times have changed ,and so has the material. It’s a regular RCC bridge but the name still remains the same to remind us of the bygone times. A tea break here at Deccan and everyone was refreshed to continue the remaining half of the event. We carry the tea for our breaks in a thermos. This is a little unusual form the rest of the event organizers because we A. do not want to depend on the local vendors and B. the experience that our participants get from ‘thermos’ tea is very different from regular tea!!! We have been time and again been appreciated for this gesture.

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 (An interesting event occurred during this tea break in the 2^nd edition of the same ride. It was 2.30 am when we stopped for tea. A car stopped and a couple of Marathi theatre personalities walked up to us. They were in search of a tea stall but weren’t able to find it at that time of the night. Seeing a crowd gathered they thought that some tea vendor was around. But we explained that we had carried our own tea and we offered them the same. They were overwhelmed by the gesture and not only posed for us for some pictures but gave the entire batch of participants a free access to their forth coming theatre show!!)

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The later part of the ride covered most of the Institutional stops ,another aspect for which Pune is famous. So we cycled towards Prabhat road. We soon were on Bhandarkar Road where we made a quick stop in front of a building which is still the residence of the eminent Marathi Author, Late.P.L Deshpande.  A lot of participants , inspite of passing over this area time and again were unaware that such a famous personality used to reside here. After that we headed towards Shivaji Nagar, passing the famous Agriculture college .We encountered heavy traffic only in this patch of the entire ride. As a result we were a little tensed about people maneuvering their rides , but thankfully there was no untoward incidents. Once back on J.M road we took a small refreshment break again. Everyone was a bit sleepy and tired by this time since it was almost 3.30 am in the middle of the night. Another tea break , a lot of conversations and we moved ahead for the last leg of the event. The end point was back to Nal stop which was the start point to complete a full loop of approximately 20 kms of inhibited, pleasant, non traffic night ride!!!

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We had organized a round of hot Pohe from Amruteshwar, the famous joint on Nal stop which is at its prime best from night 03.00 to morning 8.00 am!!! To have a plate of hot poha and chay was well appreciated by all after the ride ended. All those who had never seen the chaos at Amruteshwar at that time of the day or night , whatever you may call it were really amused. Young people back from a night out of pub hopping had crowded this place to grab a bite!! In that there were 20 of us trying to get something to eat after a cycle ride!!! The amusement was mutual I guess!!

It was a mixed feeling of Elation, relief, achievement and pride once everyone started waving goodbyes and thanking us for a different but enjoyable experience.

As mentioned earlier, when we had announced the Event for the first time, we were unsure of the response. But we must have done something right, because the response was so overwhelming that we had to split the event into 2 editions! It so happened that we had decided on a group size of 20 people. This is keeping in mind better management of the group, traffic and a good interaction among the participants.  We received a lot of enquiries so we had to turn down the joining requests. But we made sure that we took down contact details of members who has expressed an interest in joining for  the event but could not because of the close of registrations. After the edition 02, we made sure that we got into touch with most of them and hosted another edition of the same event. The job was a little easier this time because the reccee and an actual event had been done!!!

The gesture was appreciated by the new participants and the second edition was as successful as the first.

This event is ideal in the summers since the nights are much pleasant to ride than the day time. The response for this event has been encouraging with a couple of corporates and colleges asking us to host a similar event for their organization. We definitely are inclined to carry out more editions of this event and would encourage most of the people in and around Pune to attend this. It gives a wonderful insight to the lovely city that Pune is as you make new acquaintances  along the ride.