Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Its GA - 01 again!

Its was that time of the last year and before we (remember I got married in the last post ;)) could even discuss our destination for welcoming 2011, it was a unanimous "GOA" from the 5 of us! I have not only lost count of the number of visits I have made to Goa, but have decided to give up even counting. No point when I know its just going to be increasing!

Though once in Goa, those 3 nights 4 days were a routine of food-beach-food-sleep-food-food...., the only difference this time around was our journey to & fro. No it was'nt like last time when we reached 30 minutes prior to the new year. But this time we took 15 hours to reach Goa! Of which we were subjected to 4 hours of night safari of Mumbai - courtesy Neeta Travels. Yes you got it, the difference this time was that we never drove down. It was bus journey for the 5 of us. 2 couples from Mumbai and a nomad from Bangalore.

Its strange how all the trips that we do are filled with some or more events which either are hilarious, frustrating, boring, fight-filled or a combination of one/all of the above.

It all started with having unreasonable expectations - it is unreasonable to expect punctuality in India - it is unreasonable to expect "being fair" in India - and it is unreasonable on my part to commit the same mistake again (though the gap between the first and this one was a good 10 years!). How on earth could I book tickets with that bloody godforsaken Neeta Travels! Again!

Imagine reaching before time & waiting at the scheduled bus stop at night, in a deserted place full of urine stink and nasty mosquitoes, only to realize that the bus is running 1.5 hours late! We get in to the bus only to realize that it is not a sleeper that we had booked but a semi sleeper!

Anyways, we later are surprised to know that the bus then goes to Mulund and then to Thane and it comes back to Airoli and then it goes to Vashi and then it comes back to the highway and then it goes to Panvel and then...it finally leaves. Phew! By now its 12 midnight, and our expectation to reach Goa at 7 am seems to be in the distant horizon.

After 15 enduring hours, we reach Goa to be greeted by the nomad's folks. They are simply lovely people - well I am hearty in praise especially when some one has hosted us so well and fed us with marvellous food!

Goa was as usual - fun filled. We must have had atleast 4-5 meals every day and in those 4 days we had forgotten the word "vegetarian"! It somehow just didnt exist! This being the first trip to Goa for the 2 couples after marriage in a group, added to the excitement especially when there is only 1 room for the natural nocturnal instincts to play!

And then we had that "hungama" type fight with the local driver in Goa, who apparently had banged someone else's car but was blocking our way. Both the parties i.e. us and them were simply inviting each other to make the first move. And then my friend shouts at them saying we are from the Navy...dont mess with us!!! Hahaha...actually our fathers are...and we bask in the glory of their uniforms!

Amidst the usual hullabaloo those 4 days, we ushered in to 2011 with good food, good music, new dance steps that look good only when my friend dances and a game of pictionary!

By the time we could get tanned on the Goa beaches, it was time to sleep with Neeta (pun intended) which unfortunately lasted another 12 hours!

Chicken, eggs, mutton, beef, fish, prawns are showing up now, while I sit here in my office - trying to work!

Until the next trip...

Jaydeep Deshpande

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Conspiracy theories: Mumbai oil spill - spill the beans

Conspiracy theories: Mumbai oil spill - spill the beans: "View - It has been the talk for a while now and thankfully not overshadowed by that of the commonwealth games fiasco that has gained media f..."

Sunday, August 29, 2010

2 couples. Brand new Honda. Mahabaleshwar!

"Dude wake up...its 5 o'clock"! was the first thing I said when I called my friend at 5 in the morning. It was the day when the 4 of us were to leave for Mahabaleshwar. And if I had woken up at 5...the other 3 just can't keep sleeping!

Yeah man...am up...he said.

Has saras woken up too?

Yeah

Cool...Rev and I will see you at 6:30 under your building...be ready!

We reach Jal Vayu vihar at 6:45 and are waiting for the other couple. Saras comes down first with a HUUUGE bag. I emphasize that we are going for "only 2 days", and she passed a typical pass-on-the blame comment, "well its your friend who occupies the maximum space in the bag". Dums was carrying sweaters, mufflers, monkeycap, windcheaters, shawl...! Guess he wanted to cheat himself by believing he was on a mission to Everest. Or may be since it was my new car...he wanted to make full use of its boot space. Not sure why his tendencies to optimize stuff comes, when the means happen to belong to me. This is very typical of the Dhamdheres. I noticed this mean streak yet again...when he was flying the Honda at 150 kmph! In his Suzuki (want to make it sound more Japanese...) he doesnt let me go past 100kmph...says he wants to enjoy the drive and not be under duress. Not sure what happenned to his "tension" when he over shot the speed that I touch in his Suzuki by more than 50 kmph in my Honda!

Honestly ,the car was smooth so even I didnt realize the speed at which it was traversing ... till I glanced at the speedometer. And when I asked him, the typical Dhamdhere is "Oh really? Kya baat kar raha hai"...I didnt realize!"

Anyways, we depart at sharp 7 am from Powai...and I feel a sense of security when at one of the ATMs in Powai, my friend gets down to withdraw cash...phew!

I drive till the start of express highway and though I would have loved to continue driving, suddenly a sense of kinship...camaraderie struck me. I thought...well I drive this car daily, let my friend enjoy the drive. Till date I am wondering how on earth did I let that happen? What happenned to our motto "your loss is my gain"!

And I thought that Mrs Dhamdhere would continue sitting at the rear...but to my surprise before I could shift seats, she got out and sat in front....and made the transition look so smooth...really! This gave me the opportunity to kiss n cuddle up with Mrs Deshpande in the rear (I mean the rear - seat)!

First stop happenned at CCD on the expressway. Had breakfast there. And when the time to pay the bill came, our fat friend comes up with the most strategic idea! Jay...you pay all the bills and then we will do the "hisab" later! In front of my wife and his wife I couldnt even protest, let alone abuse. Well played mate!

Kitna khaya saalon ne.

Its 11 am and we reach Pune. Had to take a small detour to meet respective grandparents. You know...it all changes when people get married. I mean it all changes for the Men! Earlier, we never used to even think of our relatives even if they happenned to stay in the same location of our roadtrip. But with wives around.....(am exasperating) you end up meeting relatives you didnt even knew existed.

At 2 pm after some amount of searching, we reach Mayfair hotel at Mahabaleshwar. Dump our luggage in the adjacent (separated by a wall) rooms given to the newly married couples. We head straight to the dining area.

WHAT FOOD...absolutely brilliant, scintillating...really! None of us have had such brilliant Parsi food ever! The staff was superb and they pampered us with the varied Parsi cuisines (non veg and veg) daily. In fact we just couldnt think of having any of our meals outside. Such was the food. From mutton kheema cutlets, mutton curry, dhansak and brown rice, chicken biriyani, salli boti, mutton beri cutlets, egg-potato cutlets
To some of the best lychee icecreams, banana fritters and caramel custard. BURP...this is presented with thanks to the new member in the familty - Saras Dhamdhere. We relished the food because she knew the owners! Here you go again Saras ... BURP!

The rooms were not that great though...since it was raining and misty, the linens were damp, laced with fungus, bathroom water was so clean that you couldnt see the bottom of the bucket! This made both Dums and Saras a little under the weather.

On both the evenings, sitting together at night in the balcony, when it was pitch dark outside and raining heavily was fun. And the fun multiplied when we started playing uno. But the icing on the cake was playing pictionary with Rev and Saras in one team and Dums and I in the other. As usual the boys team won and of course, we didnt cheat.

Nights used to be fun...a pin drop sound in one room could be heard in the other room with amazing clarity. Yes there was a wall in between but it worked perfectly well for an imaginary one. Imagine the other noises, sounds et al that would be heard by the 2 parties!

The day came when we had to leave for Mumbai and we departed after a sumptuous breakfast including poha, egg bhurji and omlette.

At an average speed of 120 kmph, we reached Mumbai within 5 hours...which unfortunately was a bit too early!

Jaydeep Deshpande

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Pre trip post - 2 becomes 4

This is the first time I will be writing a blogpost on a road trip that is yet to commence. By the way, this is my second post on road trips! But I must admit, I just couldnt stop myself from writing this pre trip post. And there is very strong reason for doing so. Besides doing a debut on what I mentioned above, this trip is going to be a debut for another reason. The 2 pals who were absolutely crazy about doing road trips often are now no longer tripping it together! Our adventures of goa on new years eve of 2010 was the last trip we did as bachelors. This time around the roadies have doubled...2 has become 4. I am talking about our respective spouses.

As much as we want to show our respective wives how happy we are to have them as a part of our gang, let me be honest. I AM SCEPTICAL! Sceptical about a few things that we certainly may not be able to partake in. Certain natural instincts that we may have to let go. Certain tendencies that are specific to the male kind.

Now before your minds wonder on paths I didnt even mean, let me clarify what I was trying to convey, at the cost of not being subtle enough. I meant that the 2 roadies will no longer be able to ogle women as much as they could do so as bachelors (read it again...i never said we will not!); no more of smelling-out-those-spots off the road or in someone's backyard or some villagers paddy fields, to leave our "mark-of-honour". As much "awwww" or hawwww" it may sound to some, believe us, it was our way of corporate social responsibility...it was our way of giving back to the environment. And yeah no more of those wannabe types drinking "cheap desi beers" and then not knowing which side of the road are we supposed to drive.

So where are the 4 of us going this time, for the first time as couples? I ask does it really matter? Actually no. The fact that all of us are getting back to starting our roadtrips again is exciting enough for me. And the trip is going to be fun. A set of brand new wheels, comfortable seating to park our asses on, supposedly smooth road n' drive, rain gods happy, cool breeze, soft nos., roadside pakoras, parsi food, playing uno n pictionary...just dont feel like stopping.

Am sure together the 4 of us will have lots of fun and laughter. But there is something that will always play at the back of our minds...something that we will surely miss. And that something actually happens to be someone. Someone whose name is no more than 2 alphabets - AD......or sometimes GM!

May be the next trip when its 5 of us or possibly 6?! Till then...

Jaydeep Deshpande

Saturday, January 9, 2010

Goa - New Years 2010

This may be the n'th road trip to goa but then ... its GOA and who cares how many times I may have been there! But then, this time I made a resolution of not going to goa by road ...or may be!

The idea was to spend the new years in goa with a few friends and my best pal and I being absolute roadies decided to drive down...while the others took the option of the wings. Our folks dont allow us to drive at night...though little do they know that we generally do that only (dont ask me how...else this will be the last time we would be doing that) , so we decided to leave the morning of 31st at 6 am to be in goa by 6 pm latest. My pal reached my place at 6 am sharp but I being a typical libran .... aah 6 am looked a tad early. What the hell...why cant we reach goa by 8 pm instead of 6 :)

So here we depart at 8 am after my friend started giving me dirty...exasperated looks. Being 31st we thought the roads would be darn empty cuz people would have already reached goa ... and we were right ... an express drive to pune...a smooth sail to kolhapur (we were actually covering ground pretty fast). By the time we crossed kolhapur it was well past 1 pm. Though we had had a good breakfast, the sheer kick of going on a road trip keeps making you hungry and wanting to try local food. So here we were driving down under heavy sun and a cool wind blowing past, we reached a small hamlet called gandhej (well it may not be a hamlet per se but you know how we mumbaiites are!). There we saw a decent restaurant to satiate the beast within. While browsing through the menu card, I suddenly spotted something that I had heard is famous in this part of maharashtra - Kaju Masala (a spicy curry made solely of cashews). One word would describe its taste - Outstanding! Though it is not for those who get a heart ache even looking at chillies - cuz at the end of the meal nothing can help you ... neither litres of water...nor gallons of coke! But I can assure you one thing...the taste is something that will stay with you for a long time. I crave for another plate even today. Oh yeah and by the way, dont even think of having any north indian daal...we maharashtrians are pathetic at preparing it...period!

So, with the hunger taking a nap, we move on towards our destination with a keen eye on the sankeshwar turning that takes you to goa. Yes, we have been to goa a lot many times but this is one elusive turn...somehow we just miss it only to realize a few miles later that we are on our way to bangalore instead!

After turning at that pivotal junction, we are yet again sailing through towards goa. The roads aint as good as NH 4, but they aint that bad either. We keep cruising not realising even in our faintest of imaginations of what lies ahead. After some hours of driving, we change hands on the wheel and I start driving again. My friend played well saying that I have a knack for driving really well on bad roads and ghats. Yeah right!

At about 4 pm, we were just touching Amboli Ghat and were some 50 miles short of goa...with the expected time of arrival in goa to be 7 pm (considering we had to go all the way to south goa). So we had done pretty well - no rash driving.

Trouble started when at the beginning of Amboli ghat we saw cars in numbers returning back. We started joking what the heck...people are going off goa for new years?! All the incoming traffic was indicating something with their hands to us. Then at entry point a cop stopped us and said we would need to wait for 2 hours. Puzzled, we asked what for? We were told a dumper had gone down...down the ghats. We were like ok...but that would not affect traffic...right? So 2 adventurous souls laughing at the returning public went on only to be stopped by public saying there is a massive rescue operation happenning in front with 2 large cranes on the road. The traffic had been at standstill for the last 4 hours. Ahem...now the graveness of the situation struck us. We had one thought..are we going to reach goa in time? At first we thought we should wait for some time for the road ahead to get clear. Then the thought of how much time is some time started haunting us. What if it takes a lot of time for the road ahead to get clear...what if the road ahead doesnt get clear at all...WHAT IF WE DONT REACH GOA FOR NEW YEARS!

And then we decided what a good passer by suggested. We decided to take a different route to goa...obviously not knowing what or how that route looked like. So a family in toyota innova offered to help us as they too were going to goa and their driver knew this particular route. Well we didnt have any other option...so we decided to follow. We were told its just a small bypass through Karnataka not more than 30 miles extra. So we were ok...we atleast could have reached by 8 pm latest. Yes, it was just additional 30 miles but only to realize that it was through some forest area and the road did not belong to the government but was a private one. The condition of the road made my resolve to buy either an SUV or still better - a tank, stronger. It was getting dark...umm it already was dark and through the arduous twists & turns of this route, all we could see were the brake lights of the car we were following, there was not a soul in front of the lead car and not a soul behind us. Thoughts ran wild...what if our car breaks down, what if we miss the lead car. But then these thoughts didnt last long. They were taken over by the thirst to gulp down some kingfishers with our waiting friends who were getting worried. I dont blame them for not only they, but our respective folks, other peers all were worried. Well...we realized later that the entire patch of the forest DIDNT EVEN HAVE MOBILE FREQUENCY!
...................................................................................
......BLAH .......................BLAH.......................BLAH
.....................blah.............blah....................................

Its 11:45 pm on 31st and we reach the place we were supposed to reach greeted by our good friends. We head straight to a disc on the beach and enter 2010 with the most amazing memories, lots of laughter and kingfishers! Well I was on brandy!!!

Jaydeep Deshpande