Wandering souls, I wish.

I have been going to Pune for more than a year now, office visits. It all started after there was no place in the Mumbai facilities for the new team that was to be setup and i was asked to help in the transition. After a harrowing 3 months of working 16hours everyday, travelling back to home for weekends only to go back to again on Sunday evening. Tough times. But it helped a lot to get through some difficult times in personal life. Going ostrich does help at times.
And in March 2010 our first team trip happened. Murud-Janjira and Kashid. In a day. Later to be followed for many such insane trips. I love my teammates for being these crazy people who love to hang out not at malls or go out to eat but rather take out their bikes and go to beaches and trekking. That is another thing that while we trek, i make the tail end. Getting old and all that jazz *tehehe*.

2010 saw about 6-7 trips . [Kashid beach, Murud-Janjira fort, Sihagard fort, Konkan sightseeing with Anjarle beach visit,

Tapola lake, Raigad fort which i missed, Lonavla which i missed again, Malshej Ghat the giver of the missing seven key...]

2011 hasn't been so fulfilling yet, just 2 trips and its 6 months into the year (falling sick and asked not to travel being the deterrents. pfft).

Latest trip was 650kms to and fro to Guhagarh beach. And whattay fun it turned out to be. The trip happened after being canceled about 2-3 times due to non-availability of people. Finally it was only 5 out of 8 that made that trip. 3 bikes, 3 guys, us 2 gals balancing the bikes of 2 of the thin guys. Through the rains. Halting at places while it wasn't raining and as we packed to be back on road, it would rain. We started 2 hours behind schedule and returned back 2 hours behind schedule. Normal keeping in mind we are usually half a day behind schedule.
Oh and did you know punctured tyres are not bad omen. Just that thing which helps you to stay true to your nature and run behind time. Just that.

We drove through places that i can't recall, but driving through the ghats is fun. When it is raining, foggy, and the road ahead is not visible. The helmets did help a lot to keep away water from the eyes. Sandy's bike trip to Luru to meet his girlfriend has made him an expert on bike safety.

Dinner consisted of maggi and boiled eggs. Mahi's sis did a good job of scarying us when he reached her closed house. It had rained and there are chances of snakes and scorpions lurking in the house she said. Nothing showed up when the guys looked through the house, jumping when they came to face each other like doing a thorough search. Too tired to do anything other than sleep, we called it a day only to wake up at 3am to find Sandy sleeping at the foot of Mahi and Sush. Oh how we love to
tease them about each other.

Sunday's plan was to go to the beach at 6-6:30am, hang out there for 2-3 hours, come back, get ready and leave for Pune. Only problem, who wakes up that early. We did manage to leave by 8:30. And it rained all the way to the beach too. We saw a dead snake in the middle of the road, about 4 feet long. Whoa! Misal, bhel, sevpuri hogged at the beach. The beach was awesomely beautiful. And no crowd. Maybe 10-15 people on the entire beach. Hopped in the waves, went underwater, drank the salty water, threw sand on each other, ran races, etc. You have to turn into a kid to enjoy the incoming waves. There is no other way to do it.

Back to the house, again behind schedule, packed, misal for lunch. The drive back was half through Karad-Satara ghat and then a national highway. Vroom vroom all the way. Went to Mahi's grandparents place where aajji (grandmother) make yummiest kanda poha.
Tired to the marrow, i tried not to doze off sitting behind.

It was a memorable weekend :)


The biryani we (read: I) cooked at Sush's village home


Anjarley beach. Another secluded beach


Yummiest fresh catch


Guhagarh beach. Serene and turbulent


You have to turn into a kid


Janjira Fort


Famous kanda bhajji and curd at Sinhgard Fort


Trip to Malshej ghat


The Tapola lake. Also called Mini-Kashmir



Kashid, Alibaug


Kashid beach revisited.

The wait

This shadow of you,
teasing the senses from far away
Come closer to give me a glimpse
of what i can never have.
Let me run fingers on its outlines
Wondering if there can be anything more than this
that i could ever get.

You are more than a want for me
A need i crave for, it is you.
Will you not come closer
Overwhelm me with your look.

The hoards surrounding
increasing the chasm in between
Hope's candle flickering
twisting the shadow.
With each blink
You only get farther away.
Leaving me bereft of even a glimpse.

I will await the day of your return.

Kabeela-kabeela

Once there was a corporator or MLA or Municipal head of two regions.
One was more like a village and the other quite developed.
And once an argument broke out in between them.
The village-men said "We have open space. What do you have?"
The city folk said "Oh hello, we have BUILDINGS!"
Then the first one said "We have sea facing bungalows." (They actually lived on a small island kind of place.)
The other folks laughed and said "muahahaha what bungalow! You people, that is just a khaadi (quicksand-ish water body or something)." "We have apartments that look where you can look at the sky. (they forgot this was a lame argument since the first one also could look at the sky. Silly)." "Oh and we also have dish tv antennas, and mobile towers, and BIG BIG skyscraper!"
"The bridge, we built to connect you to our world! LET ME DESTROY IT!" And they flew over their helicopters and dropped bombs. The first groups houses crumbled down *since voice travels slower than light KABOOM*
The first group did try to collect and bring their gola-baarood and old fashioned angrezon ke zamaane ke taup, but they had not oiled the wheels and were too late like the bollywood police.
The second grouped muahahaha-ed some more.

Then we all left the tables before we would be thrown out of McD for all the noise we were generating.