It was around 10 am when I reached the guest house. Rudra and Vipluv were already there and we waited outside in parking for every N.O.W. riders to come. By the time Sunil and Ashish came outside, all prepared and we asked about their experience so far and if they had good sleep. We shot some videos too with them. After an hour Sundeep came out with his CBR and gave a pre-ride inspection to the bike and I guess he had some idling issue with the bike in the beginning. I didn’t interfere and let Sunny and Ashish sort out the problem. Eventually bike was ready to ride. The plan for the day was to go to IIM (Indian Institute of Management), Lucknow situated around 15 kms from the hotel in outskirts of Lucknow, where Sunny was suppose to meet on of his relative and also to give a presentation to IIM students about GIR and the story so far. Later for the day, we decided to have a sightseeing of famous tourist spots of the city like Imambara and Bhulbhulaiya. After having the breakfast at Aryans, every body was ready to ride. The Lucknow chapter of the xBhp was just about to begin. We started from Kapoorthala’s congested roads towards IIM, through Aliganj and Jankipuram, which finally leads to the highway with considerable less traffic. It was really exciting to escort the team of GIR and being their host for a day. We were around 12-14 bikers all together, finding our way through gazing animals, slow commuters and unpredictable pedestrians on city road until we could hear the sound of the CBR fire blade, clearer and louder on highway. It wasn’t unusual at 40-50kmph until sunny accelerates the bike for few seconds in between; in empty stretches and the ultimate hummm… sound of the superbike just gets into everybody. Though, after every such “blast” it took us ages to make up with him again on our small bikes, and it wasn’t clear who was escorting who. Nevertheless, that was our first encounter with nice machines including 250 cc Kinetic Hyusong Comet and Kinetic Blaze and we were happy to be around them.
We reached IIM and parked our bikes outside. Had a small group photo shoot by sunny for his website content and then GIR team went inside the campus with special permission they had. We waited for them outside and were planning the least congested route possible to Imambara and Bhulbhulaiya. We were very much concerned about the way through city to various tourist sights. We didn’t wanted GIR riders getting uncomfortable on the way because of hooligan riders which were in ample numbers in Lucknow roads, and could take any one down with their stupidity and show-off. Not to mention, a superbike on local roads to them would seem like a super model in bikini in open, on which they won’t’ miss hitting. Still very less we could do to avoid such situation. After a while, Sunil, Sunny and Ashish came out of the campus and luckily, GIR riders managed to get the guest rooms in IIM through references but sunny said that he has to prepare the presentation for the IIM students so he won’t be able to come to sightseeing and will remain in the campus for next few hours but everybody will go together in the evening when the press meeting would take place in SaharaGanj Mall, Hazratganj.
All the N.O.W. riders with Sunil, Ashish and Gurjant started towards old Lucknow. I sat as a pillion on the pilot bike in the 2x2 group formation to capture the best feasible videos and images. Initially, the ride was well organized but everybody soon lost the line as we enter the busy city territory. Any how, at around 3 pm we all reached the Imambara and I, Nilesh, Sunil and Gurjant went inside the Bhulbhulaiya while Ashish and other N.O.W. member waited for us outside on the pavement. It appeared history was not Ashish favourite subject in school. We four of us inside, shot pictures of the historic buildings and Sunil and Gurjant shared their experience of encountering bunch of ragging villagers who stopped them for money and wouldn’t let them pass by.After visiting the hotspots of the Nawabi city, it was time to head back IIM campus so that the GIR riders could relax and brace themselves for the press meet, later that evening. In the mean time, few of us decided to have our late lunch and be right back at the campus gate.
It was around 5:30 pm when every thing was set and we were about to go to SaharaGanj Mall for the press meeting organized by Castrol for xBhp. Around 6 pm we were outside the mall and GIR team was totally responsible for putting a stop to the road traffic with their presence. Journalists and photographer from TOI had a photo shoot of GIR riders then and there. Later, team and their bikes were called inside the Mall by the security, and everybody had a fun time posing for photographers. Sunny and Sunil gave interviews to journalist during their press meet and we all posed with the GIR bikes for our bunch of photos and videos. It was the night that was so special for us. We all had a nice time being with Sunny and the team through out and just wanted to have a blast together, as this was our last evening with them… or it wasn’t?
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