The title - a try to come up with something witty - seems a lost cause; so let's get on with it.
Yesterday, went to go watch the new movie - the movie's name is A Wednesday, in case you haven't guessed it already - with teammates A and P. Initial plan was to take an auto to the theater - the Cinemax in Andheri (E). However, at the last moment we decided to take P's car.
We didn't know where exactly the theater was; and it was raining bigtime outside.
Murphy's law dictated that we took the wrong turn from the main road; furthermore, we took a wrong turn in a desparate attempt to find a parking space. Finally, we managed to park the car in P's old office; thankful that she still had the old office sticker on the windscreen.
Next started the search for the theater. After walking for a couple of minutes, then taking a bus and heading out the next second, then taking an auto for 5 minutes and finally walking for another 5 minutes we reached the theater. Adding insult to injury, the theater staff and my ignorance made me join the wrong queue for getting the tickets that we had booked online. However, we made it finally made to the cinema hall, though after having made another wrong turn and opening the entrance to the cinema offices instead of the hall.
The movie was good; a fast paced drama/thriller - overall a great and recommended watch.
Halfway through the pre-interval part, I got a call from roommates requesting me to have dinner outside as those two had successfully managed to devour the food that the maid had cooked for them and me. The solace was that we had some maggi lying around, which I later confirmed with them.
More misadventure was waiting for us when the movie got over. It was raining even more mightily when we came out. Plan was that A would take an auto to his place; me and P would take another to her car and then I will head home. A small discussion for dinner plans died prematurely cause of all the rain. Seeing no autos outside the theater, we decided to brave the rains and venture on to the main road to get one.
That's when disaster hit us first. I stepped into a puddle, assuming it was just an inch deep and instead found a manhole waiting for me. Thankfully, the hole was not very wide, and my other leg hit the front edge and I managed to climb out without much injury. I assumed that A and P had seen me falling, as they were behind me. So not wanting to continue with embarrassment of having fallen into a manhole, and in the race to catch an auto, I shrugged the episode and went ahead with the auto search.
Success in the search came in the third try; and I went back a few meters to indicate to P that I had gotten an auto. At that point I saw A crossing the same spot; I yelled at him - "be careful". Now I know he didn't hear me; and he knows that he missed just by a few inches. I had pointed the spot to P before and now, seeing A getting through safely, I was very much sure that they knew the danger.
So, worried that the auto would take another passenger, I walked back to it and then turned towards A and P. And that's when disaster struck the second time. I saw P falling into the same hole. That was perhaps the biggest WTF and frightening moment of my life. I ran back, but by the time I reached, she had gotten out of the ditch safely.
But were we shocked!! When it happened to me I was just shocked, because it happened so fast. I fell in the hole and climbed outside within two seconds, max three. Seeing it happen to a friend was so damn frightening, apart from the immense shock factor. The only other moment I could remember when I was so shocked and frightened was years ago when I realized that I had taken a step and had landed not even an inch far away from a snake's mouth.
Thankfully neither of us were hurt seriously and we reached our places without any further misadventures.
When I finally regained complete control of my senses on the way back; I realised I had made two mistakes. I had forgotten my bag in P's car and I should have put a bamboo or something in that hole to warn others; but forgot both due to the shock. However, overall, the episode was nothing huge, in fact we high-fived the next day on an adventurous evening.
Lesson learnt - do not let such small things shock you so much for so long.
Bigger lesson learnt - watch before you step!!
By the way, the snake was dead!
Showing posts with label trips. Show all posts
Showing posts with label trips. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Friday, September 05, 2008
lalbaugcha raja
That's the name of the Ganesh idol in Lalbaug area of Parel in Mumbai. That's the idol which is getting a Z-category security cover from the Mumbai police, or to be more precise, the whole festive organization centering around the idol, celebrating its platinum jubilee this year.
The question that comes is - what exactly is the fuss all about? So the inquisitive me got a very good opportunity of finding out when a friend, who is more religious than me, proposed that we go and visit it for a darshan .
The decision was made on the spur of the moment and we decided to go day before yesterday evening. Those who know Mumbai, would know that Saki Naka to Parel is a fare bit of distance, and trying to accomplish this commute by road in the evening traffic is one form of slow death. However, day before yesterday being Ganesh Chaturthi, there wasn't much traffic and we reached there in an hour.
I was joking that there seems to be no traffic and perhaps not that big a crowd would be there for the darshan. My friend said," tu dekh, puri mumbai ki bheed udhar hi hogi". And man, how correct was she. When we first reached the place, after having a very timely dinner - we would indeed have perished before the night was over hadn't we eaten then - we realised that there was a long queue. Long but not THAT long I said, from my past experiences of visiting religious places on such auspicious days.
So we did a small jugaad and entered the queue somewhat ahead saving us one hour. But still I expected a 3-4 hour queue. But then we were hit by a real life example of the "tip of the iceberg". The queue that we had seen on the road was just 1/5th of what was inside. First there was one room 25 by 25 meter square with 15 parallel rows and then another room 4 times that with similar serpentine queues. All the calculations said it would be a 7 hour queue in total.
Then my friend had a brilliant idea and we just skipped one half of the bigger room - bang - a save of atleast 2 hours. Another few minutes and we were in front of Ganesh ji; asking for all the things we had ample time to think about while standing in the queue. Though I didn't get any extraordinary bhakti-bhav near the idol - no offenses, afterall my friend was deep in prayers, so i guess the idol does have some effect - I guess the whole point was to go through such a tough routine and get to an objective. For me, that high would be as good as the high other people get after having a darshan. Once out from the pandaal, we shook hands on a mission successfully accomplished.
Isliye jor se bolo ganpat bappa morryaaa...lagbaucha rajacha jai jai kaar
The question that comes is - what exactly is the fuss all about? So the inquisitive me got a very good opportunity of finding out when a friend, who is more religious than me, proposed that we go and visit it for a darshan .
The decision was made on the spur of the moment and we decided to go day before yesterday evening. Those who know Mumbai, would know that Saki Naka to Parel is a fare bit of distance, and trying to accomplish this commute by road in the evening traffic is one form of slow death. However, day before yesterday being Ganesh Chaturthi, there wasn't much traffic and we reached there in an hour.
I was joking that there seems to be no traffic and perhaps not that big a crowd would be there for the darshan. My friend said," tu dekh, puri mumbai ki bheed udhar hi hogi". And man, how correct was she. When we first reached the place, after having a very timely dinner - we would indeed have perished before the night was over hadn't we eaten then - we realised that there was a long queue. Long but not THAT long I said, from my past experiences of visiting religious places on such auspicious days.
So we did a small jugaad and entered the queue somewhat ahead saving us one hour. But still I expected a 3-4 hour queue. But then we were hit by a real life example of the "tip of the iceberg". The queue that we had seen on the road was just 1/5th of what was inside. First there was one room 25 by 25 meter square with 15 parallel rows and then another room 4 times that with similar serpentine queues. All the calculations said it would be a 7 hour queue in total.
Then my friend had a brilliant idea and we just skipped one half of the bigger room - bang - a save of atleast 2 hours. Another few minutes and we were in front of Ganesh ji; asking for all the things we had ample time to think about while standing in the queue. Though I didn't get any extraordinary bhakti-bhav near the idol - no offenses, afterall my friend was deep in prayers, so i guess the idol does have some effect - I guess the whole point was to go through such a tough routine and get to an objective. For me, that high would be as good as the high other people get after having a darshan. Once out from the pandaal, we shook hands on a mission successfully accomplished.
Isliye jor se bolo ganpat bappa morryaaa...lagbaucha rajacha jai jai kaar
Monday, June 13, 2005
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.
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.
Tuesday, May 24, 2005
last weekend
the weekend started on friday evening . met shanku n neeraj who had come down from bombay. we went to see Naina(which was released that day only), the latest Ram Gopal Verma movie. The first half was quite captivating and it raised our expectations . However, post interval the movie lost it completely. But it was not a complete waste of 70 bucks. After coming out of the multioplex we decided or rather confirmed our decision of going to shrdi on saturday night.
in the meanwhile , frustated with bsnl service, i decided to buy a new sim card and took idea's. And now i am left with two sim cards with none working.
Aneways, we reached Shirdi on Sunday morning. Rancho and Mota were already there waiting for us. After washing up, the next stop was Sai Mandir. As soon as we reached the temple , a couple of people started to request us to keep our footwear with them. After tryin our best to brush them off, we decide it was of no use and finally agreed to their 'requests'.After buying some prasad from them(i hope u didnt expect they were keeping our shoes for charity) we entered he temple. It took us quite sometime to figure out where to go for darshan and all. An elderly uncle helped us and we began on our expedition of two darshans. First was soon over. Then the search for the start of the second queue took us around five minutes. It was sooooooooo long that it took us more than an hour to finally come to the worshipping place.But the hard work was worth it.
Next stop was Shani Singnapur where we heard there were no thefts, which was disproved by an experience one of my friends , who was there on the same day, had. But leave alone theft , there was daylight robbery. The shopkeepers robbed us of 100 bucks for pooja material which would not have cost them more than 25-30 rupees. And then we had to go to the temple with only a towel on---no comments----. and the road was so hot , it burnt our feet. I had to make a choice between running to a cooler place or holding my towel in place and walk with my feet burning. I took the second choice, of course.
Finally, after all this we returned back to Shirdi and after lunch started discussing whether we should go to Trayambakeshwar or not and it yes hen how. This discussion took us around two hours and it was now 5 o'clock wheh we learnt that the temple is closed at 5.30.
Finally, exhausted with the day, we started our way back, me to Pune, Shanku and Neeraj to Mumbai and Mota n Rancho to Ahmed Nagar.
in the meanwhile , frustated with bsnl service, i decided to buy a new sim card and took idea's. And now i am left with two sim cards with none working.
Aneways, we reached Shirdi on Sunday morning. Rancho and Mota were already there waiting for us. After washing up, the next stop was Sai Mandir. As soon as we reached the temple , a couple of people started to request us to keep our footwear with them. After tryin our best to brush them off, we decide it was of no use and finally agreed to their 'requests'.After buying some prasad from them(i hope u didnt expect they were keeping our shoes for charity) we entered he temple. It took us quite sometime to figure out where to go for darshan and all. An elderly uncle helped us and we began on our expedition of two darshans. First was soon over. Then the search for the start of the second queue took us around five minutes. It was sooooooooo long that it took us more than an hour to finally come to the worshipping place.But the hard work was worth it.
Next stop was Shani Singnapur where we heard there were no thefts, which was disproved by an experience one of my friends , who was there on the same day, had. But leave alone theft , there was daylight robbery. The shopkeepers robbed us of 100 bucks for pooja material which would not have cost them more than 25-30 rupees. And then we had to go to the temple with only a towel on---no comments----. and the road was so hot , it burnt our feet. I had to make a choice between running to a cooler place or holding my towel in place and walk with my feet burning. I took the second choice, of course.
Finally, after all this we returned back to Shirdi and after lunch started discussing whether we should go to Trayambakeshwar or not and it yes hen how. This discussion took us around two hours and it was now 5 o'clock wheh we learnt that the temple is closed at 5.30.
Finally, exhausted with the day, we started our way back, me to Pune, Shanku and Neeraj to Mumbai and Mota n Rancho to Ahmed Nagar.
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