heaven is just a few hours away from mumbai..!!

hey common friends, m not kidding. its true. if you dont beleive me then start early morning at 7 on a weekend and go towards south mumbai via BKC-Ghatkopar highway-Western expressway. as we all know that you can stop on an expressway (atleast the rule says that), you just go on and on and on. on the way, you would come across many a pleasant sites. but before embarking on this heavenly experience, just see to it that you are going in monsoon season. anyways, coming back to our journey, you would pass a couple of dark tunnels cut into the belly of mountains and rains-sun-rains would be the climate. as i know that humans eat a lot, there would be huge food court coming on the way and so you can satiate the unending hunger with items sold at almost astronomical prices. also, as its a weekend you would find that place to be too much crowded and most of the junta would be gujju uncles-aunties and their families as we-the gujjus, are famous for their travellings.

anyways, as you have satiated your humger, albeit temporarily, move on your journey for an hour further. now as you start again, you would find glimpses of the heaven at a distance. so as you move on, you would find a diversion for lonavala. this is a very famous place for folks in and around mumbai and pune. its also famous for its chikki (a bar made of peanuts-jaggery-ghee) and tasty fudges (but i was not able to have my hands on any of the two.. :-(...!!). its also the same place that was immortalized by aamir khan in his famous movie Ghulam, along with khandala. yeah i know i have a very bad habit of moving away from the topic i was describing...anyways...but both these places have also experienced the negative effects of commercialisation and climate changes. but as i had said theres heaven out there, so its also understood that God lives somewhere over there.

there are a couple of sites around lonavala. one of the famous site is the Bhushi Dam. as its famous, so its understood there would be a huge amount of crowd over there. but leaving all odds aside, we stepped down from our bus on the damp land and in mild rains. as MBAs are famous for thinking out of the box (!!!), we chose to go in the opposite direction from the actual one. but friends, lemme tell you this. that was one wise decision we made. as there is a saying in hindi, "sabr ka fal mitha hota hai" (patience always pays off..!!), initially we were just wandering in the wild with some water bodies and small streams. but somehow against all hue and cry, we went on and on. ahh...this is also an important learing of life, come what may.....you need to move on (i know its more easier said than done..!!). anyways, after going on for a few more moments, we reached to the first step of heaven. yeah its true, the place was awesome with a huge waterfall in the center and scenice beauty around. the sight gave us new energy and we just rushed towards it. we got changed in the shorts and went under the fall. man...man...i must tell you all this, it was one hell of an experience. but we didnt knew that its was just the starting. we stayed there for a while and again our stomach glands tinkered and gave us a message that they needed food..!! and what could be a better option than a garma-garam vada pav with a lot of spices. ahhh...i still remember that experience. it was really divine, having a bath and also vada pav....!!!

as a few of gals and guys were not able to get under the deluge, they got bored and started exploring around. we too followed suite after being satisfied with what we thought to be the best experience but we didnt knew that best was yet to come. so we reached to the next level. i was better than the first one and so were the third and the fourth levels. as we moved up the levels, the scenic beauty too got better and better. suddenly, the clouds came down and slowly rains started. umm....i really dont have words to describe it. it was heaven and till date we dont have any perfect description of it. so is the case with me, i am sorry for the same yaar.....but i really cant describe it. i am attaching a couple of pics that we took and hope that might be helpful. we also had a brush with history while climbing to the fourth level. there was an old city wall surrounding the place. all in all, we thought that it cant get any better.

but again we were wrong. after some amount of hiking and getting fresh and replenished with food and hot drinks, we moved to our next destination called tiger point. this was the place where He resided. there was totally zero visibility and vehicles crawled through the narrow roads to the tip. that point was named tiger point, but we wondered why. the reason being there was fog all around and it was just from the scene of a bollywood movie wherein there is smoke in the air and you cant see. i was jsut waiting for Him to appear from somewhere but at the end jsut felt His presence for sure. apart from all these, you also need to have good company. we were a bunch of friends who had gone for the trip and each and everyone of us enjoyed it. i was awarded "star of the day"( yeah i knw its surprising..), for my application of gujju accents in songs and conversations. i was glad that i was able to give people laughs till they got tears in their eyes. after all spreading laughter is also a good deed no matter you become a joker of the class...!! again i deferred...nywys...so friends if possible, try to go to this place. its really heaven on earth and that too nearby to the heaven of indian economy...Mumbai.

bandh made everyone's day...!!!!

WoW...!!! i woke up today morning and saw my roomies getting ready for their 9 o'clock lecs. i am lucky enough to not to get abnormal timings from coll student's standards..!! so i switched on the TV set and saw that the country was sleeping. no one was going office, the basic transport of autos and taxis was on a halt. buses and trains were being stopped. there was also incidents of hooliganism in several cities. then my roomie confirmed that there were no lecs for the day and i said cmmonnnn!!!! the weekend went really boring and we were desperate to go out of the house. anyways as the news spread, we again went to the normal lazy mode and passed the morning.

But this bandh had somehow made the day of the office goers and their kids. in the evening as i was getting bored, i went to the terrace to try and read something. there i saw some kids playing cricket with their parents. this bandh thing had really brought smile on the faces of these kids. i dont know what the opposition parties acheived by destroying public properties or would they would compel the govt to take back the price hike. for the first time in my area there wasnt traffic jam and the surrounding seemed so serene and beautiful. there was one flaw though and that was the climate. it was sunny while there were rains in most of the nation. we wanted rains to come heavily so that we could go out of our houses and enjoy mumbai to its fullest, but that wasnt the case.

As everything was so boring, we finally decided to go out to beach and get some fresh air. as were leaving our flat, the unexpected weather of mumbai prove itself again. it started raining. but as it wasnt that heavy so i finally convinced my not so out going roomies to move out. you guy wont beleive that despite of such a beautiful weather, they took their umbrellas with them. my goodness, how can people get so much boring...!!! anyways, as we reached the main road, the rain intensified and two of my boring roomies convinced the third one that the rains were too heavy to go out and so the three of them returned. but boy boy i had made my mind that i would get out in the rains and enjoy them to the fullest. so i moved on and went out in the rains and what an experience it was. it was as if i was living again my good old childhood days. i wanted something like that to rejunivate myself and get out the buried sense of inspiration inside...!! so i went across the road to some distance and then returned but the rains didnt stopped and was really awesome. there were hoards of people and vehicles coming out from quite societies and going towards the beach and children on the roads singing and dancing. anyways i had a great time today and so did all the kids and parents around. hope we have such bandhs regularly once every couple of months...>!!!!

watchout guys...!!!

Man....!!! It seems that during my two year stay in Mumbai, I would be very much hooked up in here. The reason being there are so many vivid experiences this city has to give us. And for a small town guy like me, these are quite different and to some extent exciting too. Some time ago, I had arrived in here for my gd-pi sessions. I was based in the heart of Mumbai, yeah Central. So here I was just preparing and getting ready for the D-day. As is the case with me, I was unshaved and totally shabby. So i decided to go to a nearby saloon and get myself ready. I am used to exploring the place am living around. So I had figured out a few places which can be useful and the saloon was a part of it. Due to this, I didnt asked my cousin or my uncle for that matter about where to go for a shave.

Anyways, as I reached to the saloon, there were two guys sitting out there. So as soon as they saw me, they asked what I was looking for. At first I was surprised by their question and also partly by the outer looks of the saloon. It was having sided glass, meaning the one inside can see out but no one from the outside can peep in. Anyways, as I stepped in, I was aghast to see 4-5 ladies in there sitting on a couch and all with full makeup and well dressed. Initially, I just thought, 'beta aaj to tu gaya.' But as I tried to move away from the place, the guys sitting outside came in and they just afraid me. Chills went down my spine, I know its nothing big but for me, it was a first time...!!! So as I thought that I didnt had many options, I said that I wanted a trim. He directed me to the seat and I tried to settle down in there and stay calm. As I was sitting, i saw in the huge mirrors that one of the four ladies was staring heavily at me. She also started giving different expressions and somehow I just tried to keep my eyes off her and got done with my trim. I wasnt sure what was going through, so I let it go. But while I was paying the bill, the lady who was staring at me, asked 'aur kuch service lenge saab.??? head massage, body massage kuck kar do kya?' and boy I was not afraid this time with her guts. Actually I felt shy and just left the place smiling.

After reaching home, I discussed the whole incident with my uncle and he said that never in the future go to that saloon as there are several activities going on out there. You may also get caught so take care. I didnt agreed more with him!!! Anyways, but now you folks would be thinking why am I sharing that particular incident after so many days...?? yes.....I think you have guessed right. I had visited a saloon again today..!!! I dont know whether thats the case with me only or what cause I just left my apartment and asked the security guy about a nearby saloon and so he gave me directions to a few nearby. So I followed those and tried to find out one. I reached the main road as per the directions, and started looking out for one. I came across a couple of unisex parlours but due to my previous experiences, didnt dared to go in!!! Then as i didnt found any men's saloon, I thought of giving it a try to the unisex ones. So I entered the first one and boy......I saw a lady all dressed up and full of makeup sitting in an inviting pose and talking on a phone. My reaction to that was too instant and without saying anything, I just closed the door and left the place. After that, I didnt thought of going to the second one. But the problem was that I didnt found any other anywhere and I needed a trim urgently else people would have thought me of the psychic killer the police is looking for..!! So I went inside the other other one, here too I found a similar situation but there was also a man with the lady and from how they were oriented, I concluded that I was disturbing them. So i left that place again and finally got across the road to the men's parlour.

But now my problem is that how to identify a place from outside and conclude whats waiting in there for us??? I mean for people new to this city, they might come across several such experiences. Is there any identifiers for such places. I would like to ask help from my fellow mumbaikar friends. guys please lemme know how to find a saloon in Mumbai which is just a saloon....!!!!???!!!

I do hate "luv stories"....!!

Ahhh...!! i know its being long that i had visited in here. Actually had got much to write but didnt had the level of motivation one needs to type so much. But man, Karan Johar did it for me. His latest flick 'I hate luv stories' pushed me to come in here as soon as the movie got over. I really dont understand why the PR guys arent seeing the movie before promoting them.....oh cmmon if they would have done that, atleast they would have realised not to promote it on asstronomical levels.....!!!!

Anyways, all said and done, this movie has done one thing that I havent found in many movies. It has scientifically proved that Love is something which happens in some amount of time and its not "just like that...in a flash!!!" We youngsters are so much overwhelmed with the thought of 'Love at first sight', that we forget that it comes with time and there is nothing like that existing. As shown in this movie, Simran is all set to live her life with Raj, her childhood sweetheart, but there comes this easy going, idiotic Jay. They work together and blah blah blah....all sums upto the basic understanding that they spend time with each other. During the course of time, Simran comes to know that she has started liking Jay over Raj-an ideal groom. Same is the case with Jay too, but he realises it after some time. Anyways, we wont be reviewing the story out here. But the thing is that, I think there is nothing like 'Love at first sight'. You meet someone, spend time with each other and then you feel comfortable and used to that person, that you acgtually start missing and then loving him/her when he/she is not around.

As guru SRK has rightly said 'Ek ladka aur ek ladki kabhi dost nahi ban sakte', I dont understand why the girls havent got this. Everytime we try to tell them about our feelings, they say we are "just friends" and I havent seen you from that sense.....!!! Oh cmmon....what the f***.!!! spending 16 hours out of 24 together then too saying we are "just friends" really sucks. And what about the poor guys. Most of them are so down to earth that after going through all these, they would still remain their friends and be a counter attendent in his girlfriend's (oops..!! just friend's) wedding recception. But after all, what else they could do. Let me tell you this is the the story of most of the guys out here. One really cant understand what the opposite sex is looking for. If you dont tell them anything about your feelings, they would say you took so long and if you say then they would consider you "just friend"...!! Anyways, coming back to the topic, then I think people should spend some quality time with each other and then come to some conclusion whether they have a future or not.

Apart from that, the guys too should not be hasty enough in expressing their feelings only to be treated as "just friends" in the end. They too need to have patience and try to give good time to the relationship they are in. Beleive me folks, there is no love at first sight. I have come across many couples whom knew each other since long but only became one after they had spend some time together. Time is the bieegest factor. Its the best healer and the best peeler as it would peel away all the past experiences and let the fresh buds of love to blossom....!!!

I understand that I am not that creative in writing, but again, time has taken its toll over me. Its almost 5 in the morning and am feeling really out. I would try to make this interesting next time i come over here but for now please bear with me.....wish you all a very good sunday morning....!!!