Simply an irresistible offer for an adventure-loving, adrenaline junky! No question of saying, ‘No’. After reiterating the above sentence to Aspi with some additional voice modulation, I managed to convince him to hand me the key to the Honda Jazz. Not only did I have a perfect destination, located as it was at Lonavala, for a day’s trip, there was the additional lure of a perfect ride – in the cerulean blue Jazz. Our fun-loving lensman colleague, Sanjay, opted to join me on this trip to the promised adventure land.
After referring assiduously to the lunar calendar, appointment diaries and the almanac, we zeroed in on an auspicious day, but the rain gods had other plans. It started to pour cats and dogs in Pune and, when we rang up the guys at Della, they told us that at Lonavala the rain was more like elephants and 
hippos. What a dampener! Alas, my karma was catching up on me. I shouldn’t have bombarded the innocent girls of my neighbourhood with water-balloons during Holi and the other 364 days of the year.
Thankfully, the next day was a little better, though there still was a drizzle, and we started on our journey early in the morning. I picked up Sanjay from near the NIBM and began driving the large hatch towards NH 4. As I got busy squeezing between cars, manoeuvring around bikes and zipping ahead of the city traffic, Sanjay made himself comfortable by adjusting his seat, stretching his legs and setting the air-con temp to his liking, the air vents trained at himself. Thankfully, the Jazz is a joy to drive and I was having fun with it even in the chaotic Pune traffic. All I needed was some good music and good old rock would fit the bill well to deal with the chaos on the road. The car’s music system pepped things up and set the mood for a nice drive.
With potholes, ditches and loose gravel, the city roads are at their worst during the rainy season and the commuters, ever in a hurry, make sure you don’t miss a single one of these. This is where the Honda Jazz excels. Its suspension and ride are among the best in its class as it absorbs most of the shocks. As I struggled, Sanjay was nicely ensconced in the Jazz interior, listening to fine music and fiddling with his new touch-screen mobile phone.
As we reached Chandani Chowk, it started to rain heavily, but there was no turning back now. We wanted our share of adventure and we wanted it today! The wide windscreen offered us a broad view of the road and the front and rear wipers were a blessing in the downpour that we were braving. The road now was decent and very soon the Jazz brought us to the autobahn of this region – the Pune-Mumbai (aka Yashwantrao Chavan) Expressway.
What followed can be best described in the most popular three words of automobile journalismPedal-to-metal! I whizzed past several people’s carriers and the Jazz remained composed and assuring. But it’s human nature to ask for more and I wished it had a bigger mill, so that the RPM needle would remain in the mid-2,000s rather than in 4,000s. However, the small Honda didn’t disappoint us even in the ghats and the credit should go to its neat handling, ride quality and smooth power delivery.
