Last weekend I was on a trip to Kolhapur where I was to see the race track. I went there with my friend and business partner, Yatin, so that we won’t be bored on the trip. We boarded the bus from Sion at 10:30 pm and were on the most awesome trip. We already had our dinner so as soon as we boarded the bus, went to sleep. The conductor woke us up at around 6:30 am as we were approaching Kolhapur. We got off from the bus and I thought I was in the middle of nowhere. Kolhapur is a well known place but the deserted town in the early hours made me unhappy about my visit.
I called one of my friends who was staying in some hotel in Kolhapur. He gave us the address and we boarded the auto-rickshaw. I knew the morning was cursed when the auto-rickshaw driver over-charged us for the trip. But I gathered my conscience and went to meet my friend. He greeted us with open arms. We freshened up and were out for our breakfast. We stopped at McDonalds and had our fill. We went to the race track from there straight. We were in a Maruti Omni which is almost a scrap material. The other guys were in a Verna who was driven by a driver of a friend. To make the morning interesting my friend and the driver got into a street race for fun. The Verna driver was boasting as his engine was more powerful than ours but little he was aware that my friend who was driving our car is a national kart racing champion. The rage of the race was so enthralling that all of us were gushed with a rush of adrenaline. All of us were hoping that our respective car should win. It was a very narrow race between the two cars. Finally as we approached the race track, the race had reached a point where no one of us were able to guess which car would win, when my friend took a very narrow shortcut and overpowered the other driver. The driver was transfixed at my friend’s move but he accepted his defeat with a smile on his face.
When our little race thingy was over we got to our work. All I saw in the pit area was 3-4 mechanics who were assembling some karts dedicatedly for the testing session. My friend who is a race driver started the testing session with the drivers. After about three hours of rigorous practice session, we took a lunch break. As we were done with our lunch, the rain started pouring on the Kolhapur land. All the drivers were nervous that they have to cancel their remaining training session due to the rains as there were puddles on the track. So, we volunteered to clean the mess on the track. We all got rental karts and started driving them on the track. We were having fun as we splashed water on one another with our speeding karts. Some tried to topple each other on a curve and some tried to push the other off the track. We were having a fun time when at the last lap, Yatin lost his control over the kart and went off the tracks and into the untrimmed grass. This was the only accident on that day. After the “recreational race”, we all started our journey back home. The drivers left early and we started to pack things up on the track. When everything was sorted on the track, the mechanics were paid their daily wages. After all the mechanics were gone, we left the track for our hotel. When we got back to our room, we freshened up and packed our luggage. We were content with the total experience and were very glad to be a part of the testing session. We boarded the bus for home at 9:30 pm before which we ate a light meal. We reached Thane at 5:15 am.
I reached home by 6:30 am and went to sleep as the 3-4 hours of sleep wasn’t enough for me. I dozed off and got up again at 11:00 am when I saw a series of missed calls on my phone. It was my friend, Jerald. When I called up he told me that some friend of his, who worked in a petrol company wanted to sponsor our team. This trip was so beneficial that it actually grossed us some sponsors. The trip was truly awesome and all of us were content with the returns.
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Toodles.
Chetan Vengurlekar