The Weekend That Was

The weekend started early on Friday night. Me , Rachit n Raj Tilak went to see Mr & Mrs Smith. Romi, Amlan n Shandilya joined us at the multiplex. Expectations were high after seeing the trailors. But the movie was as bad as it can with Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie firing off latest model guns like apna Sunny Deol. In fact, I liked his action in Gadar much more than this. Already having lost 80 bucks over the movie, we went home and found the auto driver asking for 1.5 times the meter fare. I had heard that this was a rule late in the night and didnt argue much.
Saturday was no better on account of wasting away on money. I paid 65 rupees for a journey in auto when i could have travelled the same distance in about 15. Aneways, this time it paid off and I got what I wanted.
I met Abhinav aka Rancho and Amit aka Mota and we came back to my place. Along with RTR we went out to take a stroll and for them a sutta break. There is a thater nearby . Its compound has a circular grass lawn and we decided to spend some time there. There was some show going on and we were made to believe that it was a Helen show. A gatekeeper offered to take us inside and get us front row seats for 150 rupees. Instead of availing of the offer, lawabiding that we are, we bought 4 tickets for 200(50 each)and went in. It turned out that it was a performance by some Manmouji orchestra headed by lead singer Medha Paranjpe. At first, it seemed these 200 rupees were also lost. But the orchestra was good as were the sound n lights. We really enjoyed it. Even Mota who was sulking at the beginning ended up watching the whole show.
On Sunday, we went to Singadh Fort. Not much of the original fort remains. But there were new buildings up there and quite a few communication towers. There was a bungalow owned by Bal Gangadhar Tilak in the past.
The whole place was quite large in area and I was a little surprised to find such a large, relatively flat, place on top of mountains. On the back side, there was even a small winding river, the view was just fabulous. The wind was cool and of course quite a few good looking girls were also there. The sunset view over the cliffs and the river in the valley....its a must visit if ever u r in Pune.
We had gone up in a jeep but while returning we decided to come back on foot on a different path. Its like a trek; and rtr and rancho were a little apprehensive with the sun already set. But me and mota managed to convince them and we started down. For sometime we were the only four people on the trek. The rural people used the path frequently to go up and there were a few huts on the way. When we were half way down, we met a couple who were also going down. They had already taken that path while going up(as they told us).
Then an interesting thing happened. We were a little ahead of them and went on to a different path. But they didnt try to correct us or call us to say that we were going in the wrong direction. Only when we saw them going a differnt way that we called them and they told us to follow them.
I could figure out only three possible explanations: either the path we had taken also lead to the village below or they were afraid of four boys in the deserted place or they were goons trying to trap us. But we believed and continued behind them. However, we were still thinking why had they behaved in such a manner.
But before long, we lost them and reached upon a pebbled path, which must have been a regular road in the past. We were relieved that we were in the right direction. But the worst was still to come.
Around 200 metres ahead we reached a flat space and felt that the road was going in the opposite direction. With almost no light and only a feeble torch in my Nokia 1100, we looked for another path. And then we made our worst mistake.
Instead of trying to find a path to the village, we started trying to find a path to a building which was nearer and had lights on. We backtracked, we went in all possible directions but couldnt find any way. Thankfully, during all this we had not lost sight of the village and the pebbled road. It seemed we would have to spend the night there. But we still continued to search for a way to the building. After many attempts and 45 minutes we realised, the building was on a different cliff and we decided to come back to where we had left the pebbled path. We thought of following it a little more.
And only 10 meters ahead from where we had left it , the road turned back to the village and we could see the lights. I cant tell how relieved we were. 5 minutes later we were in the village and on our way back to Pune.
Its a different thing that once we were safely in the village, rancho and rtr started crying and swearing over our decision to come down on foot. But who cares, we had enjoyed ourselves and had an adventure and we made it.

Later in the night mota and rancho left for Ahmad Nagar. I may be visiting Ahmad nagar this weekend for rancho's treat if his brother clears jee. Lets hope and pray.