Bombay Blues: Part I

This week and the weekend has been particularly too hectic for me.
The one sport that I can really say m good at is, badminton n I resumed playing badminton after a gap of around 6 months. This vacation I had particularly gained too much weight so wanted to get back into shape.
And since I was playing after long I knew my body will be stiff so I had decided I will play only a game or two, but once m in the game, I loose track of everything, n ended up playing 8 games. So obviously till I reached home I was ok, but once the body cooled down, every inch of my muscles were aching n crying. But still I went the next day n the body pain is slowly going away. Feels good to test the limits of your body.

Then on Saturday it was A’s birthday, so we had to plan something good.
I had bought her a Card, a box of chocolates and a formal bag. Then we had planned to go to Kobe’s sizzlers for a mega lunch. I loved the pepper chicken although it was too much for a single person to finish. She had ordered an ice tea which tasted delicious. After the lunch we had planned to go to the Gateway of India n go to a nice ferry ride, n since it was a good 30 Kms from Bandra we went by car so that we could have a long drive also.

The first month of the year is celebrated as the Mumbai Festival over here and there are events taking place all over India. At gateway of India Two warships were anchored, INS GODAVARI and INS BEAS. We thought of going over there but there was already a huge queue for that. So we chucked that idea and decided to go to Elephanta Caves. It is a pretty famous tourist spot n although of living my entire life in Bombay I had never been there so neither of us had any idea what we were expecting. When we asked the ticket vendor as in how much time will the total journey take, he said 40 mins. We thought ok not bad, n bought the tickets.

The ride on the ferry was superb, cool breeze blowing in ur hair n face, the calm n soothing sea, the seagulls that were following our boat. I wish I had a camera, the seagulls were literally gliding in the air drift of our boat. And of course the paranomic impressive view of the entire surroundings, it was really breathtaking. The ride went on n on for about 30 mins , n v both were wondering that when we would reach n after reaching would they just take a entire turn around the caves or are we supposed to get down.

After about 45 mins, we were nearing a huge island and there were some settlements on that island. I still wonder how these people live in oblivion like this. When we reached near the island the boat docked and everyone started getting out. We too followed and then we reached the steps and not knowing of what to except we kept climbing until neither of us could take another step. It was a steep climb with road dwellers on both sides of steps and there was a considerable crowd of mainly foreigners and monks from Tibet I guess.

When we reached the top we bought the tickets and we had a look around. The caves mainly consisted of statues in semi nude

positions and some stunning figurines. All this while A was worried lets hurry along cuz what if the boat goes and we are stranded over here, lol. So anyways we hurried and we got back on the cruiser and this time we took the upper birth. More than the caves the most amazing part was the ride, simply awesome. While coming back we saw a couple of ships decorated with lights and when it became dark only the silhouette of the ship was visible cuz of the lights, u can only imagine how beautiful that would look in the night sky.

While coming back, one of my friend called me to inform me that we would be going to Karnala Fort. Although we had already bought the night show tickets for 15 PARK AVENUE of the same day, I agreed. The movie was good but I guess I was not in the mood for it so I couldn’t follow it properly. All the time my mind was what time would I reach home and how many hours will I get to sleep before leaving the next day. Aparna sen’s acting n all was good but I thought the ending was simply stupid and i was like wot a waste of a good script. I reached home by around 2 and I couldn’t get sleep till 3 I guess cuz of the excitement of leaving early before the sunrise and that too on bikes.

To be continued….

Travel Blog

Me just back from Hyderabad, after a week long vacation. Feel so good and rejuvenated after such a long break. Not that I was too busy over here but it always feels good to get out of the grind.

I needed a change of location from a long time and when I got the opportunity to go to Hyderabad to my grandparent’s house I took it. It happened so quick that I didn’t get a chance to post it on my blog also. The main purpose of the visit was to deliver a package received from my aunt from states and install it over there so booked the bus tickets immediately and took off that evening itself. And I specially booked the tickets of a VOLVO cuz I never been in one before, And yeah they were mighty comfortable with all the leather cushioned seats and all.

I remember when I was small, we used to go my native place every summer. And I used to get so bored up that I hated it cuz there used to be no TV, no electricity, and no friends so I stopped going with my mom every year after my 10th.

My grandparents used to just pamper me like anything and even this time they were so happy to see their eldest grandson after about four years. And you know there is distinct smell and feel to every house. That feeling suddenly came back to me as soon as I entered the house. The sweet old smell of the lemon tree, the pickles, the sand dust and even the water has a distinct taste over there. Over there we mostly get bore water(natural water reservoir used by digging deep in the ground). And of course, the Hyderabadi Biryani.

So much has changed in this past few years, (here I go comparing it to Bombay again), the Public transportation has improved than before, but its pathetic compared to Bombay. At peak hours you should see people hanging on the busses, similar to how people hang on the local trains. And there is boom of Malls everywhere u can see. The one thing that starkly stands out is that there is a aggregation of everything, meaning, all the things of one type are neatly arranged through out the city. For an eg. If u want to go to a barber, there is a gully where there are only saloons and nothing else, and for electronic items there is Gujrati gully, for sanitary there is another lane, for vegetables and all there is yet another market. I found this really cool as well as strange.

The first two days I didn’t go anywhere out, just lazed around in the house. The third day was a Sunday and when I told my grandpa that m getting bored n I wanna read some books now, he said,”ur lucky today is Sunday, all the shops are closed and the entire Koti streets becomes one huge library”. So we went out in the morning n I was amazed at the rows n rows of book dwellers, much similar like Flora Fountain in Bombay. I bought two books, The Broker by John grisham and Angels and Demons by Dan Brown for 60 bucks each. Yeah that’s right 60 Rs, not second hand or anything. Now I feel I should have bought two or three more, lol.

The Next two days my grandpa took me out for a tour of the city, all the markets and all. There is one market in Hyderabad which looks like a fort or a Royal Palace, in which all the rooms have been converted into shops. There are around 200 shops in there, where u get everything, much like a pre historic shopping mall. Then my aunt took me to this mega exhibition that happens once in a year and there are dealers from all over the country. It was humongous, I cant describe in words the length and breadth of it. It is so huge that a mini train is there which circles around the whole ground, picking and dropping of passengers. There were a minimum of 100 shops of ladies cloths alone, then there were other apparels, electronics and the food court was so huge that it could give the new age malls a run for their money.

Man the entire trip was a walk down the memory lane, simple love south India, there is a different feel and taste to it. Uncles doing there chores in lungi’s folded up, the coffee, the women dressed completely with gajra’s, kajal n big bindi’s, the idli n dosa n coconut chatni, the hyderabadi hindi, the crazy yellow rickshaw drivers and the “deccan chronicle” a local daily which I fell in love with the unique style of the paper.

The most emotional point of my journey was when I was leaving, and we were going to book the return ticket and we just stepped down from the building and a black cat cut our path. My grandpa was petrified and he really got scared thinking something may happen to me in the journey and he said you can’t go tomorrow at any cost and he gave me a hug. My eyes were moist and I was fighting back the tears and I assured him that I will go the day after, only that calmed him down and we went for yet another tour of the city :).

A happy ending!

First things first,
Happy new year all ya beautiful people out there n i apologize for not personally visiting n leaving a comment.

Today’s day was the redemption day. Pick up the bits n pieces n try to start all over again (lol ya m making it sound like i was just hit by a tsunami or something). But true, i had to really go out n test is it really gonna be a unlucky year for us. So after the eventful yesterday, I had my work cut out for me, to convince n coax A that I will somehow make it up to her today.

I told my parents about everything that happened n they were happy that I sorted everything on my own, n Forget about money, the main thing was u reached home safely (yeah I love my parents). I was totally against repairing the car but since dad had to go out in the afternoon n I had to drop him till the station. So he made me call the mechanic.
Well the mechanic came, did some testing, changed one single fucking wire n wallah back to normal. I was like “this is it? Why couldn’t the other mechanic do this yesterday?” But thankfully there was nothing major.

I decided that after dropping dad at the station I will take the car n meet A cuz its on the way only. Although everything was fixed up, but still there was this feeling on the back of my mind, that suppose if I switch off my car, it wont start again n this will only go to prove tat we r jinxed. Although I wanted to be positive, but after going through wot I did the day before I couldn’t help but think negative. Even I could make out that A was a bit scared when I told her that I will be coming by car.

The other day we didn’t get a chance to click many pics so we decided to do it today. The weather was good, the feel was good, the company was great, and the ambience was cool too. Somehow today there was a feeling that nothing could go wrong. And I really liked wot A said, it can happen only once in a lifetime, don worry nothing will happen today.

So I asked A wot would u like to do today, she said lets go for a drive. I hate driving at peak hour rush, it becomes really maddening n I was still a bit apprehensive about my car. So I offered a even better option, lets go for a hindi movie of her choice. She wanted to watch “Bluff master” from quite some time, n although I had seen it with my friends n I never watch the same movie again on TV, let alone in the theatre but I agreed just to keep her happy. So went to book the tickets for the night show in advance, cuz all the other shows were house full n people were still selling it in black outside. But I got the last two tickets available at the counter at the best possible rate.

So we decided to celebrate this by having a good dinner n spending some quality time with each other ;). Everything went as planned and it was the best organized date after a long time. We both had really good time, which has made us erase some of those scars which were left behind. God is great n just goes to prove, we are mere mortals n we can merely walk the path chosen for us by destiny.

We both are fanatics when it comes to going about things which are planned in advance. So this was a welcome change n we clicked a lot of pics n if the pics turn out to be good I promise I will be posting some soon.