Yeah, yeah. I know I haven’t blogged in a while and I should’ve but then I couldn’t and so well, I didn’t. But I would check this space every once in a while, I swear! Anyhow, what’s done is done or rather what’s not done is not done.
Not so long ago, a planned (not chance, mind you) conversation with friends over coffee in Bangalore had me saying that my ultimate dream would be to be a newspaper columnist, a travel writer and a visiting prof. Romantic all right and I myself didn’t know till then that these were my goals. Well, at pagalguy.com I wouldn’t say that I’m a newspaper columnist but I sure got my name going with my articles. And one of the reasons for me getting back to this space is because I might be traveling a touch as part of the job. Oh and I'd be blogging too.
After I read ‘The seven day weekend’, I really wanted to work for exactly that sort of a company. One thing’s for sure, PG is as close as I can get to that kind of a setup. And after starting this space, I so wanted to get paid to blog. Ooops :-)
I had just reached office on Saturday morning when Apurv (my Editor) turned around and asked whether anyone in the office would be interested in a trip over the weekend. I was immediately interested and said,”I’m in!” We left office early and I rushed to the hostel because I had to change rooms (oh, that often happens here at Seva Niketan. I know that Bombay’s a ‘fast’ place but judging at the pace at which I’ve changed rooms in this hostel, I would be forgiven if I thought that I was staying in a vacuum of sorts!) and pack my stuff for the trip to Lonavla. Pack my stuff for a one day trip?! Err, yes. I tend to overpack on trips. Don’t look at me, I’ve got that from my mom.
So anyhow, the room changing happened peacefully enough and I was off to catch a ‘fast’ train to Kurla station. Reached Byculla station and as usual found some helpful souls to tell me from where I could catch the train. That’s one thing that I’ve got used to now – The nice and helpful people in this big, bad city. Well, how nice could it be? I had a thousand rupee note returned to me in the hostel. Not because it was a fake but because I had paid extra. Don’t roll off your chair yet. It was returned to me a full day after I had overpaid. And apart from that, the people around here are so bloody helpful that it’s not funny. Ask one person on the road and a couple more who’ll overhear will come to your aid. And all this at the manic pace at which people walk in Bombay, mind you.
This was supposed to be a nice, simple piece of writing about me going to Lonavla with some nice office folks, clicking some nice pictures, breathing some nice air and basically feeling nice. And here I’ve rambled more and travel written less. Forgive me, it’s been a while. And my subconscious self really does seem to have a mind of it’s own, what’s there. (I really should watch less of ‘Heroes’. Getting influenced by it, I say.)
Well, I caught the fast train to Kurla. Even though it was the fourth Saturday of the month which is an off day for offices, the train was as jam packed as it could possibly be. I found myself like all others, occupying the minimum amount of space in which a human being could possibly stand. I also noticed that one gutsy (or maybe deluded is the correct word) co-passenger had got along the day’s paper to read in the train. No harm in dreaming, is there.
I met Apurv at a Barista in Chembur. He was with Kunal, a guy who had earlier worked at PG HQ and who’d be coming along with us to Lonavla. The techies also arrived soon and six of us were off to Lonavla in a gypsy that we shared with three others and a driver. The road to Lonavla was good and there wasn’t much traffic too. We passed the new DY Patil cricket stadium, saw Vashi station from far and began to doze off, one by one.
We reached Lonavla in around an hour and three quarters and made our way to a dhaba to tuck into some dinner and sip some drinks but of course. You know, there’re all these eateries in the city which call themselves dhabas but a dhaba ain’t a dhaba till it’s nice and open, not too well lit and next to a road but no honks coming from there. This one fit the bill on those counts plus it wasn’t too crowded and had some nice music playing. Quite the ambience for a late night dinner with some drinks, I must say.
‘Coffees and conversations’. ‘Coffee and cigarettes’. Mocha’s slogan and a movie. Would ‘cigarettes and conversations’ follow by logic? And where does alcohol fit in? Maybe it’s not out there in print but there sure as hell is some link between the three I just mentioned. As the night rolled on, we talked of stories we’d heard or experienced and random things related to books, movies, whatever. Dinner over, the search for the hotel began. We must’ve roamed around for about half an hour when we came across it. Not that we were complaining, the air was fresh and the sky was clear. The original booking didn’t seem to make sense any longer and we trotted off to look for some other place. Found another easily enough, fixed the arrangement and grabbed some shuteye for a couple of hours.
It was 4:30 AM when we all were woken up. Did the usual morning rituals, changed our nightwear and set out to explore the day. I had just put on a thin t-shirt and as the auto raced up the hill, the chilly morning wind snapped at my body. We reached a place called Lion’s point in about twenty minutes. It wasn’t light yet and yet the place wasn’t empty as such. There were some tea stalls set up there and a couple of groups of tourists. We called for some tea and waited patiently for the day to wake up. The tea was hot and just a touch too sweet – exactly the way it should be. 
As the time approached for the sun to rise, the sky lightened and the place become more active. Kunal and Apurv had come armed with their pro cameras and set about clicking. I had a camera too but it was more of a casual observer rather than a professional shutterbug. As they clicked, I waited patiently for some more light.
Light was here and we could see the world we had come to. Lion’s point looked out onto a vast expanse of mountains delicately shrouded by a veil of morning mist. There was also a hill with grassy slopes which we walked up for some time trying to find a trail of sorts but unsuccessful. And the air; oh so fresh and clean! We split up into groups. 
Kunal and Apurv went off in search of photography. 
The techies just roamed around absorbing the surroundings. And me? I was here and there, clicking sometimes the camera duo, sometimes the techies and other folks that seemed interesting to me. Oh and there was also this group which was playing some mindless music not too far away from us, jumping up and down mindlessly and doing some mindless drugs. I clicked. One of them even came up to me and asked gruffly, “You sure that you’re not taking a video”. Mindless, I tell you.
It was a great morning. We roamed around together and enjoyed it in our own ways. We stopped to chat at another point. Apurv regaled us with stories about the trekking experiences that he’s had. We also enjoyed the silence, sitting there. The sun was out by now. We moved back to Lion’s point where we had left the autos waiting for us. There we had some more tea and a couple of plates of delicious corn pakodas.
Rather than wasting our time by sleeping in the hostel, we decided to keep moving and went to the dam that was there. It was a bit of a walk from our hotel but we didn’t really mind it. There wasn’t much traffic or lots of people on the road. I also got chatting with Deepu, one of the techies. It was quite interesting chatting with him. He told me about his engineering college – Dhirubhai Ambani Insti of I & C T, Ahmedabad. Quite an interesting setup they have there. Students can avail of various kinds of courses in Socio, Psycho, the works! Hope this deals spreads across the country. We reached the dam and it was totally worth it. A great view, cool breeze from the water and lots of nuggets regarding animals and wild life courtesy our camera toting friends, self excluded.
We spent an hour or so there and then decided to head back to the hotel. As always, the walk back seemed to pass in a jiffy. We reached, took a shower and then headed out for lunch. Lunch was at another dhaba, this time on the highway. We had some choice non-vegetarian cuisine.
And soon we were on our way back, this time in a public bus. The bus was hot, rickety and choc-a-bloc with people. We settled accounts in the bus after which I simply dozed off. When I came to, we were in Bombay proper. I didn’t need to be told that, what with the heat and stickiness in the air. I got off at the last stop – near Dadar station and had something at the station to quench my thirst.
It was a long wait for a fast train to Byculla but then I had a friendly stranger to keep me company.
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