After months of squabbling with my dad that we have not been on any long road trip . We decided to take Herby out to Pune and Mahableshwar meeting relatives in Pune.
Dad and Son taking inspiration of being dressed holiday style , went to the nearby clothes store and bought ourselves nice baggy half pants , kind of a trekking half shorts.
Cometh the day and I was all mad, doing rain checks and helping out dad with herby .Soon we were off in Herby, clad in our shorts with mum doing the eateries duty in the backseat and occasional back street driving too. She would go often noticing the speedometer ‘Shankar – reduce speed.
First time on the Mumbai Pune expressway and one hell of a road it is . Perhaps one of the best roads in India when we travelled, 6 lane on both sides and long and long. And that was the first time I realised what Herby could do. Little into the Pune highway post lunch, when my mum dozed off, I was chatting away noticing the Volvo buses go past us and the scenes around. I took some time off to notice the speedometer after a brief stop at a toll gate .My dad shifted gears swiftly and I was glaring at the speedometer , For some god damn reason I had the movie Speed running in my head, especially the dialogue go below 50 the bus blows ! And there was a scene where the bus jumps of a bridge at 50 miles roughly I guess around 90kms. I wondered if Herby can be in such situation and go fast. My eyes from a little peck was suddenly locked onto the Speedo , 70 , the needle gradually moving beyond the half way Speedo to 80kmph and then inching towards 90kmph . I noticed that 2 more pegs and we will be in the three figure mark. Can herby do it?
High end cars , all zipping past and suddenly we were zipping too , 91 , 92 , 93 , 95 and in front of us are the cars much more faster , comfortable . and then the next moment the glee on my face , an old car on the right lane overtaking a brand new car and boy 100KMPH , My face light up and like a young kid way , went with a sense of achievement , haa I raced you ! The old car is still stuff and boy what a feeling!!!!
The sun was beating down on us and in front me and dad had no protection thanks to the half pants, we eventually put towels on our laps to prevent getting roasted. 3 hours later we were up on the winding roads on the hill station. While going up there was a road which said , Suicide point , I coaxed my dad into driving there and soon we were off on this narrow road twisty and turning . Reaching there was a piece of cake but on the way back , there was something in store and my dad apparently has vertigo , some kind off fear of heights of head spinning thing . The reason , well while going there he was facing the mountain side and hence did not have an idea of depth , however while going back the drivers side faces the valley below and in good depth too , he freaked out , I could sense his palms sweating. And horrible me , to me all this is adventure , here my dad is struggling to be in senses and drive and I am shouting , yayy wat a deep valley and depth , super scene .
My mum screamed , Shyam – will you shut up . I promptly did and after few minutes we were back on the main road. My dad stopped and was panting away drinking water. Of course that was the last of Herby on off beaten tracks.
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