A long weekend...and back to back trips

April 10th to 12th...a long weekend..

April 10th 2009 : Amit's engagement

Trip was planned...at the last minute...(this fact is but implicit)....

Vehicle was to reach my place by 5:30. From my experience the last time, I assumed the driver won't make it before 6..so was a little relaxed but was surprised when he reached even before 5:30. Hurried up...left for the next pickup. Well, Mr. Lalit....the extra hardworking dude...didnt show up..till 6...! He woke up at 6 and till he made it...I had awesome cake with coffee and took a nap too at Charuta's place. Next stop Aundh..some confusions there too...but finally started off for Mumbai at 7am.

Journey was filled with lots of tp chit chat, songs..discussions...arguments...usual kheecha tani...

We reached the venue well before time...and thanks to Lalit, we reached only 45 minutes early..:)

Infact we reached the place before Amit too...:)

The engagement went off pretty well. The photographer was a little weird..and the poses he insisted the couple take pics in were weirder. Wonder how they subjects of photography managed to keep their cool.

Food was awesome..and happiest part was that I got my fair share of cake..:D...there were plenty of sweets to keep me occupied.

After the engagement decided to spend some time malling and catching a movie. City center in Vashi is a wonderful mall. Globus...I love the clothes...luckily I didnt have my card, else would have spent it all..:D 

Watched fast and furious in cinemax. The only thing I remember is the comfortable seats. The movie is an absolute disaster. But my achievement is that I didnt sleep through it (even though the seats were too comfortable and people around weren't talking!)

Left mumbai for Pune, as I had to leave for another fun trip immediately. Hadn't slept my sleep quita the previous day, so decided to sleep through the long night drive to diveagar. But couldn't do so. This second trip was with my sister and her friends. I though I knew one of them, but I was mistaken. On being introduced to 8 strangers all at once, took me some time to remember names and mapping between faces and names too...:)

Anyway, throughout the journey people really didnt let me take a wink too. Driving at night through tahmini was a worry enough and people took advantage of this to scare me enough. The fear coupled with anxiety and nonsense talk didnt let me sleep. Reached diveagar and the place we had booked (supposedly) at 5am, and were all tired and sleepy, but due to some miscommunication the place had been already occupied by some other group for another 3 days. God, the spirits went down right there. Made do with another place, which gave us the feel of living in a village. Compromise at every step to stay in there. But it didnt matter as most of the time we spent at the beach or at the khanawals....:)

Though everyone was sleepy, early morning was the best time to be at the beach, so I dragged everyone to the beach. Enjoyed the wave effect and the atmosphere and the scenery...

Back home, everyone slept off 'ghode bech ke'

Had nice lunch and back to the beach. This time I decided to take snaps, instead of getting into the water. 

After dinner, we decided to get to the beach. As our place was quite far from the beach, these enthusiastic and lazy guys found out a shortcut, which went through a rainforest like region filled with anacondas and where coconuts kept falling from the trees. We went through this path at 12 at night! Mukesh, the mischievous of them all tried his best to scare me...but he didnt really know even the worst genre of horror fails to scare me..:D

Spent an hour or so at the beach at night. The waves looked deadly as well as divine. The voice of the waves felt peaceful. Back to pavillion by 1:30 and all plans of visiting the beach at 6am the next day were implicitly cancelled. Next day at around 10am went to the ganpati mandir...had breakfast...spent some time..with all the strangers and their PJs. They actually said they are sorry I have to make do with their PJs and I happily tried to put them at ease by saying 'Don't worry I am used to worser PJs'...and immediately was put through another round of worst ever PJs. Left for pune at around 2pm and didnt feel like lunch till 5pm. At 5 gorged on some yummy prawns somewhere in mangaon...and moved on towards Pune.

This trip was different in many ways. It wasnt an all in all fun trip. Since I didnt know anyone, and didn't get many of their office time jokes, the only part I could play was of an observer. 

All the people were very warm, friendly very decent...but there were few things that really irked me..

1. everyone used a 'gunda' type accent. I wasnt sure if it was a hyderabadi accent. But they did it on purpose. Maybe they thought it portrays one as a cool dude...or maybe it was part of some of their joke. But I couldnt stand it.

2. People younger than me...smoking every 2 hours...and one cigarette after another. What the hell does a cigarette really give you! Man it was shocking...I never saw anyone ever so controlled by the cig!!! I pity them...

Anyway, spending time with a bunch of strangers and emerging through it as atleast acquaintances if not friends is an accomplishment I think, when your lifestyles and interests dont intersect anywhere...

This weekend was an experience worth having. Im looking forward to more long weekends...:)