Saturday, February 26, 2005

Back from heaven...

Next morning….

We beat Kumbhkaran again for the umpteenth time and woke up at 8:30 only while we were supposed to leave for Panchgani at 9:00! The yawns and the reluctance to get out of bed were followed by hot tea. This is something that charges me to no extent even in the most odd hours of the day! So, after the long sleep and the tea, we were pretty refreshed..I mean our asses gave us permission to travel next 280 kms.

As I have already written, we decided to follow a different route for the return journey to see different locations. So this time it was via Panchgani, Pune, & Lonavala. We left Mahabaleshwar at 10:00. Panchgani is just 18 kms drive from there and the road is again ‘glass like’ with picturesque hills all around. Enroute Panchgani, we stopped at a factory outlet to buy jam, jellies, shakes & gulkand. Now, I was interested in Rajapuri caves, the board of which I saw somewhere in Panchgani while Anurag was hell bent on taking me to tabletop mountain. Every now and then he was coming up with this dialogue “Abbe..Ghode daudte hain wahan”. As if that is the only place on earth where u can see horses running!! Finally, we decided to visit both. We reached the tabletop mountain after some steep climbing (done by our 350 CC elephant!). The view from the top was awesome, hills all around with little houses (at least they were looking little from that height) built on them and a lake!! So it was the perfect time to click snaps. But you know, the severity of the itch will be maximum at the part where it is difficult for your hand to reach. Similarly, your camera roll will finish when you are at the most obscure of places. We were standing at the top of the mountain after scaling all the height and our roll surrendered. We took it as a challenge and came all the way down to buy a new roll then climbed again and took some snaps. The table top mountain was as flat as a football ground and it can have at least 10 such grounds! We skipped the horse ride. After all we were riding on our elephant!

Now it was the time to see Rajapuri caves. We started to ask for the direction after every two kms and every guy was asking us to travel 2 kms more!! In the process we crossed two villages and stumbled at at least two wrong routes. Finally we reached Rajapuri village and there we get to know why those caves are called Rajapuri caves! They were 5000 yrs old caves and as there was a little temple of ‘Karthikeyan’, ladies were not allowed! Also, camera was barred there.

After that..it was the time to take the return route. But before that it was the time to fuel our tanks. Anurag spotted a “too good” hotel in Panchgani itself and we decided to have breakfast there (at 12:30). Now why that hotel and not a road side dhaba? Because Anurag wanted to freshen up royally as we skipped our bath in the morning! While ordering, the breakfast converted to heavy dinner and the only signs of breakfast on our table was the sole omlette that we ordered. Hotel was one of the best u can get with tennis court, basketball court and Gym. The best part was..the waiter allowed us to take pictures there and we started to clicked snaps from garden to Gymnasium as if we stayed at that place only! With stomach full (more than full!), we were on road for the return journey. Pune is 100 odd kms from Panchgani. But the road permitted us to reach there well before we expected. On an average we traveled at 80kmph with Mr. Schumacher touching the barrier of 100 kms twice. Our rears were aching again and even the sun was not offering any respite, we halt at Juice World, Pune. After refreshing ourselves with apple milk shakes and orange juice we headed straight to Lonavala where one of our friend was waiting. Had one of the best espresso coffees there…a welcome respite from Cappuccinos while Anurag had the colder version. After spending an hour there, we were on track again. Bombay welcomed us with a traffic jam even before we entered the city! After encountering that we headed straight to photo shop to develop rolls and a quick bite at McD followed.

As far as the high points of the trip are concerned, I will remember it for the carpet roads, boating in lake Vienna, site seeing from tabletop mountain and the breathtaking ghats. The distance meter was showing a journey of over 560 kms when we reached our house putting curtains on a fabulous trip with memories captured in camera.

And as far as I remember, we were pretty excited when we closed our eyes as we were making plans for the next!!

Thursday, February 24, 2005

And the adventure continued...

How can my journey be complete without sacrificing a thing or two? It was the time for my specs to go. They were barely 2 months old and as always I didn’t realize when and where I lost them.

We were still 2 kms away from entering mahabaleshwar when a guy caught us near a checkpoint. He was a hotel owner (Actually, owner of 4 cottages). Although it was a little outside from the main town, we still decided to give it a chance as he was promising everything on earth for a paltry sum of 200 bucks!! The cottage was not bad at all. Everything except a TV was there and we were not bothered by its absence. After all who the hell was there to watch Kyonki saas bhi..!! By this time our asses were crying for mercy. We planned a short nap of 1 hr and fell on the bed in more or less same condition in which we entered the room.

The ‘short nap’ stretched to 1:30 hrs and we came to our senses again by the knock on the door. Mr. X was there (the guy who served us there after) asking whether we want dal-chawal. He came back in 15 min. with what u can call our lunch. Still wondering why he put all the chilly in the world in our dal although we paid him well in advance.

We left the cottage with a big question mark. Where to go? There were hundreds of boards glorifying “12 peaks or points” in Mahabaleshwar but none of them was showing direction. After 2 teas, 1 kurkure and 15 minutes of agony, we managed to find the way. The road was endless but it was truly beautiful. A not-so-wide-road with dense trees all around. Even the rays were finding it difficult to pierce the leaves!

Finally we reached at the first point “The Arthur Seat”. The view from that point was pretty amazing with a tall mountain on the left hand side and greenery all around. We departed from that point, as there were 11 more. Most of the points after this one were sheer disappointment. They were showing the same mountain from different angles! I mean appreciating beauty is OK but how can somebody found the location awesome when we were staring at the solitary mountain from 7 different angles that too differing in just 4 degrees each! Utterly disappointed, we took the back route. Another sign board “Rock View”. Our eyes twinkled! Something interesting, we thought. What was there? The same mountain with a 7 degree twist this time. We had it enough. We decided to come back from that chakravyuh of mountain. While coming back , we moved to “Kate’s point” and this time the road as well as the peak was satisfying. Clicked a few snaps and then headed straight to Vienna lake giving a miss to “Sunset Point”. Spent a quality one hour at the lake, seeing the beauty of setting sun while paddling in the boat. That was the high point of our trip.

It was around 8:00 when we started from the lake and stopped at a restaurant. A light dinner followed the tea. Then it was the time to go back to the den. We were pretty tired by now after the traveling and site seeing. Suddenly two things propped in our mind. One. A hot water bath will freshen us and Two. A little bonfire will make this trip memorable. Asked the hotel owner about the availability of these two and he nodded again charging a measly some for both. Then I took a royal bath (Can’t say the same about Anurag as I was outside bathroom! After the bath we were as fresh as the face of Gayatri Joshi! Mr. X then put up bonfire for us providing us welcome warmth in the cold. The talk session there continued for full one hour talking about everything under the sun and we even started to plan our next trip!

It was 11:30 PM when we decided to ‘die’ for the day. Fell on the bed again and probably went into sleep mode immediately. Next in schedule was departure to Panchgani at 9:00 AM and then the return trip.

Click here to see selected pics!

Tuesday, February 22, 2005

The Road Well Travelled...

Hmmm…So I am back. Back from a memorable trip, Back from a fabulous ride, back from an awesome place..Back from Mahabaleshwar & panchgani!! As soon as we finished our last visit to Murud-Janzira, we were craving for another and a little longer trip. The only problem was to get the leave. Its OK with Anurag as he is having 5 days a week but I m regularly being tortured for six days. (From Monday onwards I start to wait for the solitary Sunday and only I know how badly I pray to god to give either a republic day or an independence day each month!)After much deliberation and pondering, I decided to abstain from office on Saturday and after discussing some other places like Guhagar & Matheran, we decided on Mahabaleshwar.

Our adventure was to start on an arduous note. We decided leave from Bombay as early as possible to ditch the traffic and to enjoy the beauty of rising sun, something that I have not seen for years!! Anurag came to my place on friday night itself. Now waking up in the morning and leaving early is OK but how can u expect someone to wake up at mid-night?? At 5:00AM?? When it comes to sleeping even ‘kumbhakarn’ would come 3rd after anurag & me!

Alarm rang at 5:00AM, which was duly changed to 5:30 by me! But these 30 minutes evaporated in 2 minutes! Finally we were out of bed. Had tea (prepared by me because he does not even know how to light the burner! At least he pretends so.) and then anurag was warming up the “highway star” at 6:15AM which was just 15 minutes shy of the original schedule…a highly commendable effort. Helmets were adjusted, distance meter was re-setted and after exchanging high fives..we hit the road. Drove straight to petrol pump to feed the bike. It was still dark when we started and the stage was perfect to see the dawn. It was pretty cold and I kept adjusting my jacket & trying to hide behind anurag. After a little while , the darkness started to give way to redness and the adrenaline started to flow. The trip suddenly started to look all the more exciting. Anurag was already in his zone and I was into mine. After 15 minutes of complete silence, the budding photographer inside me shook me hard. I yelled at Anurag to capture the nature in my camera but this man was feeling as if he is Michael Schumacher in his Ferarri. He didn’t budge and we continued to ‘flow’ on the road. Finally, we decided to fuel our tanks. We stopped at a road side dhaba and ordered for Bhurji , Pav & Tea because these were the only three edibles he had! After sometime, that dhaba became the melting pot of India. Met a truck driver from Bihar, another one from Nainital. The dhaba owner & two of us took the count to 5. They cautioned us to restrain from driving in the night and we nodded. Time to leave again and the adventure continued…

Just 3 kms before Mahad, we spotted some caves on top of the mountain alongside the highway! Anurag was a bit reluctant to climb all the way to those caves. But this time historian and archaeologist ‘Gaurav’ dragged him. Inside the caves there were statues of Bhuddha and the caves were exactly in the format of a room with a platform and scope for ventilation. I silently admired the beauty and the efforts of their creator and clicked a few snaps there. After gulping a cold bislery ( It was getting hot and the time was around 11:00AM) we started again. From there onwards, the road was as smooth as silk. We were feeling as if we were floating on water. Surely, one of the very best roads I have traveled. Anurag continued to take inspiration from Mr. Schumacher and touched the magical figure of 100kmph twice. Although I am not very fond of speed and loves slow rides , he was elated as if Saurav Ganguly had just broke the barrier of 100miles per hour with his military medium bowling!

Now one thing I must admit. Royal Enfield is really royal in all senses, I mean whether its pick up, comfort, speed or show. Everything is there. Among a herd of bikes, it stands as distinct as Sunil Shetty in a group of good actors!

We continued to sail through the scenic ghats and enjoying the beauty. Next was Pratapgarh Fort. We were nearing Mahabaleshwar now and there was no sight of Pratapgarh. We thought we missed the turn somewhere. Then we spotted a turn around 20 kms before Mahabaleshwar which took us to the fort. It was pretty crowded and as always, Anurag was reluctant to climb up as if he was some pregnant woman who was adviced against climbing stairs! Also, it was our combined view that most of the Shivaji’s forts are pretty lifeless..i mean there is nothing but the walls!! Its amazing that they used fight battles for these stony walls! We decided against scaling the fort because by now , our asses were crying for cushion...Had a round of hopeless idli and an okiesh dosa and then we headed towards the destination. Again the ghats, again the mountains, again the scenery all around and we were there at the entrance of Mahabaleshwar…

Next was search for the room and the all important “Mahabaleshwar darshan”..This and more in next post..

PS: Will be posting the link of pics with the next post…

Cheers…

Friday, February 18, 2005

Plan unveiled...

So it’s the time to raise the curtains from another trip, another adventure and another place. After traveling to the ‘white sand’ kashid beach, ‘breathtaking’ Murud and ‘unconquered’ Janzira Fort, It’s the time to go through the hills, scale the mountains and feel the altitude. Time to feel the winter breeze. (In the meantime we had a short visit to Lonavala also). And to enjoy all this, what better place than Mahabaleshwar!Yes..The destination is Mahabaleshwar this time.

The hill station is situated at an altitude of 1372 mtrs above sea level. The terraced hills and fertile valleys of Mahabaleshwar are a welcome escape from the noise and fumes of Mumbai.In Sanskrit, Mahabaleshwar means “The God of Power”. It used to be the summer capital of the Governor of old Bombay Presidency.

It will be a two day visit for us. And yes, anurag has named his ‘bird’ as Highway star. To and fro it will be a journey of around 650 Kms. We will be taking different routes for the to and fro journeys to see different places and location. On our way, we also have plans to visit Panchgani and Pratapgarh Fort. And the off-road site seeing will obviously be there. Infact that will be the high point of this visit also!

All the pre-journey preparations are done and we will hit the road with the first light of the sun on Saturday.

Am pretty excited to embark on this trip and I am hoping to have a grand time and I just hope that our bike has similar ideas. We are in no mood to search for tyre puncturewallas!!

Travelogue will be up soon…

Route
Mumbai to Mahabaleshwar:
Bombay / Mumbai - Panvel (50 kms.) - Karnala (13 kms.) - Kolad (63 kms.) - Mahad (50 kms.) - Poladpur (20 kms.) -Pratapgad Fort Junction (22 kms.) - Mahabaleshwar (22 kms.)

Mahabaleshwar to Mumbai:
Mahabaleshwar - Panchgani (18 kms.) - Wai (14 kms.) - Surul (12 kms.) - Khambatki ghat (11 kms.) - Shirwal (15 kms.) -Nasrapur (16 kms.) - Pune (32 kms.) - Dehu Road (21 kms.) - Lonavala (39 kms.) - Khandala (5 kms.) - Panvel (48 kms.)- Bombay / Mumbai (50 kms.)

Cheers…

Thursday, February 17, 2005

Palace Changed...

Day before yesterday it was the end of our flat’s 11-month contract. Initially we were in a mood to extend it but few days back we decided it’s the time to change! After all how long one can tolerate the neighboring aunty who keep making needless issues regarding our dustbin and shoe-rack, which were lying lifeless just outside our door! So yesterday, we shifted all the belongings to the new one and we did it in two hours flat! I must confess that although it was not a Herculean task still yesterday I realized how much baggage and garbage we have! I was always under the impression that as we are 3 bachelors, we will ‘stuff’ our ‘stuff’ in 2 bags each and will shoo away to the new palace! But the baggage was suggesting as if we all are married with two children each!

Although one tend to attach emotionally to the place where he resides, I must say that its pretty difficult to indulge in such a feeling, even deliberately, if you are residing in a flat. I mean, you can never have a homely kind of feel in something as ‘flat' as a ‘flat’ (!!). The word ‘flat’ itself is so life less!

Probably the only entities that I m going to miss are the two newly wed ladies who were residing in the neighboring building! This is the best part of Bombay! You always have the chance of making a “Choti Si Love Story”! Their kitchens were facing our hall (A hall in Bombay is far less in area than a small room at any other place) and what I concluded after watching them that the idol for both of them is Sanjeev Kapoor ‘The Cook’. Otherwise how can one spend the time from 7:00 pm to 11:00 pm cooking one thing after the other! Or the other reason that I can think of is probably they were trying to take a glimpse of yours truly! (U see…I am an optimist!)

Don’t know how long will be my stay in this new flat. I just hope there will be lovely ladies all around my apartment!

And yes..after getting beating on my last post from most of u…it’s the time to cool my heels! Another plan is on the anvil. This time again there will be three of us. Me , My buddy Anurag and the Thunder Bird. We will be off this weekend. I will try to unveil the program about the trip tomorrow as the few things yet to be sorted out.

Enjoy..

Saturday, February 12, 2005

Meet my boss!

He is a gentleman. No No. not a gentleman in actual sense..i just tried to define his gender and thought that using the word gentleman will be better than using Male! (Some might say that even “He” was sufficed to declare his gender!) He is in his early 30s..So age wise he is a decade older than me. Experience wise he is 12 years senior to me. But in this organization, he is one year junior to me! (If you compare our joining dates! And this gives me immense satisfaction!).

Now some of his characteristics. He always seems to be in hurry as if he is the only one who is working for the organization and the company will collapse even if he ‘waste’ his time sneezing twice a day. There is always a great amount of “packet loss” whenever he communicates with us. Most of the times we get attenuated signals from him and almost all the time the attenuated part contains the crux of the matter. So we always get to know everything crap regarding an issue and not the actual matter. Whenever he talks (and most of the time he is doing this only), you can hear 5 “actuallys” in a sentence of 10 words. So this just makes my task all the more difficult to decode his unique language. He is having all the energy in this world or should I reframe it as needless energy. He remains excited most of the times for no reason at all! (Remember, the most natural state in this universe is the lowest energy state!)

He has got special affinity with me as far as assigning work is concerned. But almost every time he manages to come up with a format which is altogether different from what I have prepared. Yesterday we had a fight for the umpteenth time on some trivial issue. Yeah, It was a fight actually as the communication was not “simplex”. It was “full duplex” as I was also bombarding him with my logic and reasons. This is exactly what he hates. THE LOGIC. He is the father of P V Narsimha Rao when it comes to take a decision. He just loves to keep the mails in different folders instead of resolving the issues. I guess that is his hobby. And he doesn’t forget to show me these folders every now and then to console him about the amount of burden he is tackling. I just feel like saying “You are getting an astronomical sum for doing this damn it. It’s a part of your job!”

I know all these “full duplex” fights are not helping my cause and these will have a direct affect on my appraisal also. But I just can’t take his illogical demands. I am not the one who looses his cool easily but somehow he manages to bring out the angry young man out of me.

Am trying hard to cope with him. But it seems is raat ki subah nahi!

Can you help, suggest or share similar pains?

Wednesday, February 09, 2005

Customer Satisfaction??

This is a true story. And how do I know? Because this poor tormented soul was a part of that story.

There is a small hotel kind of thing near the place where I m residing. We are regular at that place for the last 4 months or so. The hotel owner is having a small arrangement like one burner for chapattis and two for cooking other dishes. He was catering to some 7-8 tables and that was enough for chapatti wala burner to run in its full capacity.

For the last few days, he started putting tables just outside his premises increasing his customer count by at least 50%. It was ok as far as generating business is concerned but because of this he was loosing on two counts. First, it was hampering his services, as he was now serving as in installments..2 chapatis then a 15 min. break followed by 2 more chapattis!! Second, he was creating dissatisfied customers. Remember, dissatisfied customers are worse than no-customers!!

I was hungry like anything yesterday and because of that we (2 of my friends were there along with me) ordered 3 thalis, which in favouable circumstances should not take more than 10 minutes to serve. We ordered at 10:00pm and 10:20 we were still waiting for our dinner to come over our table!! I was dead tired and hungry and this game of hotel wala was like too much of ‘foreplay’ for me! At 10:30, I had it enough. First I blasted the waiters, then thought it would be a good idea to convey my feelings to the owner. He is a well mannered, educated and English speaking 50 year old man. I went to him and started like “ Uncle..its becoming difficult for u to cater to so many guys as ur capacity is less..There is no point in increasing the demand when there is limited supply..and blah blah blah..” Before I could complete, pat came the reply “ I know how to run my business. If you are happy with my services than have it here otherwise...Thanx for your suggestion”

I closed my account there, took the refund and finally had the dinner on my table at another hotel just before I was about to die!!

And they say it’s the era of consumerismand customer satisfaction!!

Saturday, February 05, 2005

FEEL the BLACK...

Do you want to learn acting skills? And for that do u want to go to acting school? No need to do that. Go and see BLACK. Err..Go and FEEL BLACK. Yes, it’s all about the feel. If you are not engrossed in the movie totally, you are lost. If you are not sensitive enough to feel the pain, you are out.

I had very high expectations while going for this movie. High expectations from SLB, from AB and from Rani. And after watching the movie, I must say they just superceded all my expectations. I am not good at writing reviews of the movies and mostly avoid doing so. But this movie forced me to write. But mind you, its not a review. It’s just my attempt to appreciate the performances. Even a bit of story will not be disclosed, so you can continue to read.

This is the most challenging role in Rani’s career till date and at a phase shift of 180 degrees from Johar’s cinema and she has passed the test with flying colors. There was nothing to support her in the movie. There were no Switzerland locations, no lavish songs, no colorful costumes and not even the support of her eyes (which are one of the most expressive eyes in industry) Still she has come out with a stellar performance. I mean its difficult to digest that someone can come out with such a performance even without a single dialogue!!

AB is in “never seen before” role. This one is among his very best performances and in my book this is his BEST. Yes, even better than Abhiman and Agnipath. Just go and see his body language, which shows you the amount of hardwork and homework he has done. You will get to see one of the most intense expressions ever in this movie by him. And yes, eyes did the trick again. Even for Mr. Bachchan! Hats off to this man. After watching this movie, you will realize or I should say wonder, that even after spending 35 years doing movies and giving brilliant performances one after the other, he still has so much left to show on screen!!

Sanjay Leela Bhansali. What about him? He is a director in his own league. I don’t find any comparison for him as far as visualization is concerned. We all know what he can do with the setting as huge as HDDCS and Devdas. But here, he was deprived of all that extravaganza! Still, it is his visualization that u see on the screen. In this era where only SRK and SEX are the only hotcakes at the box office, he had the courage to do a film as difficult and as experimental as BLACK. I am still in the awe of his direction and you will feel the greatness of his vision when you see the intricate details to perfection in the scenes.

I am running out of superlatives to conclude this article.

So, just go and FEEL BLACK…

Friday, February 04, 2005

PAGE-3!!

Finally managed to watch night show of PAGE-3 yesterday. Day before yesterday, it was Swades (Mind you it was for the third time!!) and out ticket are already booked for the show of Black tonight!! So it will be three in a row for me!

Talking about PAGE-3, Yeah , i liked the movie. Although the first half was not that gripping and infact i was like..'oh god! give me a break from this party stuff' but in the secong half Madhur has done a commendable job.One of the plus point of the movie is its pace. There are small little incidents which binds you and also keep the momentum of the movie going.

And if not for all this, watch it for Sandhya Mridul & Konkana Sen. Now one might say Why Sandhya? She barely managed to get 3 scenes in the whole movie. But man just see what she has provided in those 3 scenes! Her outburst in hospital scene is just too good. Atul Kulkarni, the actor in Cop's role, all are just amazing but this is what you expect from these theatre personalities.

What should i say about Konkana? I haven't seen AMU yet...But i watched her in Mr. & Mrs. Iyer and at that time i thought that the praise that was showered on her during that period was little exaggeration. But her performance in Page-3 has forced me to eat my own words. She is the central character of this 'commercial' movie and mind you, she will not even qualify for an average girl as far as looks are concerned! But in this film , she showed that acting is far beyond looking beautiful, shaking hips & locking lips. Now she deserves all the accolades. Her USP? Her big eyes which she uses to perfection!

All in all, a movie not to miss...All geared up for Black now...

Thursday, February 03, 2005

MEN Vs WOMEN

Nothing to post these days..
got this old forward again this morning..its a good one..
so take this one just for the sake of posting..!!

Women:

 A wife was not at home for a whole night. So she tells her husband,
the very next morning, that she stayed at her girlfriend's apartment
over night. So the husband calls 10 of her best girlfriends and none
of them confirm that.

 
Men:

A husband was not at home for a whole night. So he tells his wife the
very next morning, that he stayed at his friend's apartment over
night. So the wife calls 10 of his best friends and 5 of them confirm
that he stayed at their apartments that night and another 5 are
claiming that he is still with them.


Cheers!!