I step down the stairs of Baphana MII classes and find Nikhil and Tejas waiting for Ketaki and me down by the roadside. It brightens up my mood just to see them there waiting for us…. And I wonder about the first time we had met. Did I ever think we would end up being such good friends? Well, frankly speaking, No!
Ketaki and I have been together since IInd standard. So when we got into the same college after X it was very much to the relief of our parents and a great joy to both of us. We being good friends, is anyone’s guess. But something worthwhile is knowing how we happened to know Nikhil, Tejas and Rohan.
It was the first week of college. Ketaki and I had just got some new friends in NMV. We wanted to sit on the bench just behind theirs. But there was a guy already sitting there. Too shy to ask somebody to get up and change the seat, I was ready to take some other place. Ketaki, being bolder (bless her), went up to this person and asked him to shift a bench behind. He reluctantly gave in. That day while returning home Kets and I decided to reach college early the next day so that we could get that bench before this guy! Well, this guy was Rohan! And for the next whole year Rohan and Tejas sat on the
bench behind ours. One can hardly keep form being friends when you spend the whole day of college sitting next to each other being able to hear each others conversations clearly even during the lectures. Soon slam books and phone numbers were exchanged.
I still remember the first time Rohan had called me up. It was a day before English exams (I unit test, XI std). He wanted to know the syllabus.
I happened to be in the same practical batch with TJ. Kets was in a different batch with Rohan.
Right on the first day of the year 2003, our Math teacher had declared a tutorial! ( I guess it was Permutations and Combinations.) She had alternate set of questions for all rows. So even though Kets and I were on the same bench we had different question papers.(TJ and Rohan took the same Q paper even though they were on the same bench, but that is not my point.) We were obviously not prepared. How do you expect one to study on the New Year’s Eve!!! So there we were depending on our luck and on whatever help we could get from people around us. The row next to Kets had the paper same as mine. So the guy sitting next to Kets had the same set of question as me. We verified answers via Kets. That day a new member joined our friends list, Nikhil.
During XII, I hardly met Rohan. But Nikhil, TJ, Kets and I being Computers Science students were always together in the Comp classes. We used to chat, sitting on the first two benches right under the teachers nose!
Some moment those were! Moments I’ll always treasure. Those walks to bus stop with Kets everyday and with TJ when she wasn’t there. My birthday which everybody else had forgotten… each moment special….each one cherished….
Friendships do come into our lives unexpectedly. Some are to last even if the path differs. I pray may these friendships be one of those to last long. No matter where life takes us may we always remain friends just as we are now.
I wave to TJ and Niks as I see them. Kets is walking next to me, busy talking about the fun they had at the Engg Mech lab….. And I smile …God! I love my life!!
Monday, December 21, 2009
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Friends
It has been a horrid day today
And I drag my feet back home
I m unsure as to what to do
And then there you all come
With some drinks and talk
The evenings happily gone
And I don’t remember my troubles at all
I m glad you came along
Had my worst break-up last night
My weekends all a wreck
I can’t even get some movie tickets
Oh God! Give me a break.
And then you come late Saturday night
And force me to cook you some food.
You giggle and laugh, as i grumble and yell
But deep down I do feel good.
Your parents just gave you a dressing down
The same things about scoring good marks.
You find all those studies boring
And i agree they all do suck
But then there is no other way out
Yet you don’t have to feel this blue
You aren’t going through this alone
When you have got me with you.
We‘ve got my project to complete
And you want to paint the town red.
And I wonder how we get along so well
When nothing between us is the same
And then you let me complete my work
And you sit quietly and wait
And then we have a small game of cards
Cause it’s rather got too late.
You’ve been with me when am happy
And am grateful you were with me in my pains
We have walked together in the hot sun
We’ve danced together in rains
And when I try to explain to you
You do not bother to hear
Hope you can read my mind
Hope you know to me you are dear.
So many times I feel lucky to have you.
And I am never able to say
But I trust no matter what life hurls at us.
Together we’ll happily face the day!!!!
And I drag my feet back home
I m unsure as to what to do
And then there you all come
With some drinks and talk
The evenings happily gone
And I don’t remember my troubles at all
I m glad you came along
Had my worst break-up last night
My weekends all a wreck
I can’t even get some movie tickets
Oh God! Give me a break.
And then you come late Saturday night
And force me to cook you some food.
You giggle and laugh, as i grumble and yell
But deep down I do feel good.
Your parents just gave you a dressing down
The same things about scoring good marks.
You find all those studies boring
And i agree they all do suck
But then there is no other way out
Yet you don’t have to feel this blue
You aren’t going through this alone
When you have got me with you.
We‘ve got my project to complete
And you want to paint the town red.
And I wonder how we get along so well
When nothing between us is the same
And then you let me complete my work
And you sit quietly and wait
And then we have a small game of cards
Cause it’s rather got too late.
You’ve been with me when am happy
And am grateful you were with me in my pains
We have walked together in the hot sun
We’ve danced together in rains
And when I try to explain to you
You do not bother to hear
Hope you can read my mind
Hope you know to me you are dear.
So many times I feel lucky to have you.
And I am never able to say
But I trust no matter what life hurls at us.
Together we’ll happily face the day!!!!
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Guhaghar Trip - Cyclone, Earthquake, Mafia.... Friends.
It is exactly 1.30 in the morning of 16th Nov4 2009. After a long trip and having had 2 sandwiches, all I really want to do is lie down on the bed and sleep. But before I lose my will to write and/or forget details which I remember now, am penning down about our Guhaghar trip.
I guess the plan was made on Mihir’s birthday when Suhas said that Guhaghar is an awesome place. Then Gari and Akshay started aggressively planning for the trip. The power down being this weekend most of us were free from any turnovers. So here we were 12 of us Anchal, Lalli, Gari, Maddy , Anuj, Nemo, Akshay, Nikhil, VD , Dhawal and me all set to go to Guhaghar. Mihir and Suhas would also have come but m too bored to write about that now and plus it seems needless detail.
Dhawal cancelled out on Friday, he had some work in the office. Friday began with ‘See you at Dadar” mail from VD. I was to leave early at 6 from the office. Was so exicted could hardly work. Then VD,AK Gari pinged and called for an urgent meeting. The person we had booked accommodation with had called up to cancelling the bookings. IT was due to the cyclone. There was no electricity in the village. They said we would get other accommodation, but for higher price. Well no problems there. With these few hiccups we were again ready to go.
While Maddy and Nemo boarded the train from Borrivalli , the other were at Goregoan station. Reached well before the train at Dadar. Nemo and Maddy were out for some credit card bill payment work. And they would have one more episode to add to this story. We were to go to Chiplun by Konkan Kanya. I fancy the name. Clicked photos at Dadar, ate apples. The train was on time. And we were on the right platform too. So no troubles there.
I am feeling sleepy right now. I guess i’ll continue tomorrow. And as I say that i just remember that Maddy did not tell us the scary story he was going to. Anyways will remind him later.
Ok I m back. 11.16 in the morning 17th Nov. I took a leave from office. Back is aching. Ok back to the train journey . We had two compartments to ourselves. There is so much to write , I don’t to what extent I should be going into details. Well Maddy and Akshay and Gari and also Anuj were adjusting the seats so that all of us could sit together. Finally we sat on seats around each other. Started with jokes and listening to songs . I got Tum Mile from VD. Then we started playing Dumb Charades. I was sleepy so went on the upper berth to sleep. The game continued for long after I slept I guess, I could hear noise. When I woke up Maddy, AK Gari, VD and Kanwal were listening to old songs. Around 3.30 in the morning every one woke up. We could see stars from the windows. They looked awesome. People in the city really miss a lot of beautiful things, lovely mornings, starry nights.... the train was 1.5 hours late but the journey was awesome. We got down at Chiplun railway station at 5.30 in the morning. (Am not too good with the stats, will have to confirm) Then we took rickshaws to the bus station. It was very cold and dark, but beautiful never the less. I heard later that the ricksaw wala had dropped VD’s precious bag.
On reaching the bus station, some people wanted to brush their teeth before having breakfast. Well am not too concerned about that so weren’t Anchal , AK and Maddy, which was good because the person selling tasty pohe outside the station had enough left for only two plates. Gari and Nikhil got a bite from our plates. The other had to do with the vad pav from the station canteen. Which was not bad but not as good as pohe.
The bus to Guhaghar was at 6.30 but by the time Nik and I could reach it, it was full. So we waited for the 7 o’clock one... I guess that wait was the longest... there were mosquitoes and classical music on the station.... plus people were sleepy... at least I had slept for 3-4 hours... the others had hardly slept.
Finally the bus arrived and we ran to get seats, which was useless, as we were the only ones boarding it at that time. (hehe) I was mostly asleep in the journey. See that is the reason why it should be Maddy, AK Gari or VD writing this. I fall asleep as soon as the vehicle starts moving. But as I am writing it you have to bear with me. By the time I woke up the bus was full of school students. Completely packed. And Maddy was dozing. Poor guy was awake the entire night.
The roads clearly showed signs of cyclone now. The trees were uprooted at places. Some sign post were fallen. There is news of nearly hundred electricity pole being uprooted. So Guhaghar had no electricity since last 3 days. Not even then as we travelled to the place. On reaching Guhaghar I found my cell had no network. Damn, that’s bad for my parents. They have to do with two days of not calling me. The place where we were staying was close to the bus stop, so we walked.
Guhaghar is a pretty big village, not as big as Manvat but not as small as Salgoan.
We had three cottages booked amongst us. They were beautiful. Nice cosy rooms, surrounded by coconut trees and close to the beach. They guys room was adjacent to ours. Pretty cool!! Dream like, how nice to have all friends stay next door...
By 10 we girls were ready. There were two cars waiting for us outside. Well these people had really planned well. There was an Omni and a lovely Xylo. Did not want to sit in Omni first. But am not fussy about that. So Anchal , me , Maddy and Anuj and Kanwal in the front sat in the Omni. With the exception of the driver being too talkative the ride was awesome. Small huts and farms are not new to me, but it was fun to watch Maddy and Anuj watch outside with child like admiration. Whenever the driver, Naval, kept quite we had an awesome discussion of what we’d like to do in the future. Well people really think. Me, am happy at the moment. Never thought what I want, except good friends, which (touch wood) I always got. Oh that’s carrying me away, back to the journey. The driver kept talking and Maddy actually had a question for him. Triggered him even more. Poor Kanwal couldn’t even avoid the man sitting right next to him. But Naval looked a good guy. Just too boring.
We reached our first destination. A Shiv temple. Painted in nice bright colours. The temple had a well . We sat next to the well and talked. Gari , AK and Maddy set out to make arrangements for lunch. There was a beach behind the temple. Beautiful beach. There were little crabs that the waves got with them. Ak and Maddy were trying hard to get photos of the creature. We wrote our name on the sand. Chased the crabs. I think they managed to take a few snaps of the little thing. Anchal and I ran across the beach. The water splashing all around. Been days since I did crazy things like that.(But now with a aching back I guess I overdid it this time) We had coconut water at a hut near the beach. There were little chicks and a hen there. All the chicks followed the mother as she taught them to peck.
The place where we were to have lunch was close by. It had a swing, just like in Manwat. The food was awesome. The aunty there was very sweet. Ate a lot. Was feeling drowsy as we walked back.
We went to a Ganpati temple next. We sat outside the temple chatting. There was that thing where you make a wish and try to stick a coin on the wall and if it sticks your wish will be ful filled. Personally m scared of this. What if I ask for something I really want and the coin does not stick. I know this is illogical , but in the back of my head i’ll still have the fear. I don’t really want to take chances.
Next we went to Hedwi , there is a Shiv temple and behind it is rocky beach with a deep crevice in the rocks. The road was blocked by trees uprooted by the cyclone. We had to go through the fallen trees to get across. Was fun. Though feel sorry for the trees. The view was good from the rocks. The crevice was quite deep. The beach had lots of cranes waiting for crabs to be thrown out by the sea. In the water in the rocks we found ugly tadpoles. Niks even saw a snake. Though m not sure it was a snake. On our way back there were a lot of monkeys on the surrounding hills. But there were terrified of us more than we were of them. While coming back Anchal , VD, Lalli Nemo and I came in the Xylo. Well I slept the entire way back home. Though the ppl in other car had a nice time with Naval. ;)
We reached the house just around sunset. Called n for cold drinks and tea, and then went to freshen up. My plan was to sleep now and have a night out on the beach. But life would become boring if things went as planned....
Ok don’t remember the exact sequence...am writing exactly after a week... and was a crazy week that followed. But here goes... there was going to be no power till 7 so we were in little light after sun set. And the mosquitoes were huge.... I don’t remember exactly but Ak and Maddy went out to enquire about dinner and VD, Gari , Anuj, Kanwal,Nemo and Nikhil went out to check way to beach... I went to our cottage to sleep. Later Ak, Anuj and Maddy must have been back. And Maddy and Anchal were in our cottage when I woke up... Those damn mosquitoes did not let me sleep... I hate the buzzing sound they make... So we were chatting in the dark... and Lalli was outside on the cell... and Ak was in the other cottage. The cottage started shaking... There was an earthquake!!! We ran out of the cottage, which was a stupid thing to do... There were coconut trees outside. Ak ran out of his cottage. In a while it stopped. God we had witnessed an earthquake!! And were alive... and together..... Now if this gets in the news my parent are going to freak out.... Plus there is no network here... God let this be earthquake away from here and a little one (which it turned out to be but I did not know it then).
The others were back and had not felt a thing... They had got Odomos... thankfully... These mosquitoes were eating me up. We sat in our cottage talking. We could not go to the beach.... Uncle said there were dead bodies being found...So no bon fire... sigh... I m definitely having one this New Year... But no worries... It is not bon fire that is imp.. It is more of us being together... And the night that followed was one of the most awesome nights I’ve lived... Well except the one after last Ghandhar when the ten of us sat talking and went to Parvati in the morn... sigh I miss college friends too... But these are lovely friends too... I don’t know how I have lived without knowing them... Anchal , Suhas Mihir Ak, Sujit.... then came Laksh, Aadhar, Rahul, Abhi, Maddy , Gari, Anuj... Sweta, Giri, .... VD, Nikhil , Kanwal, Nemo, Dhawal,......Anil, Venky, Neha... Love g08m... So proud to be one.... I’ll write testimonials for them next...
Ok forget I said it.... Back to Guhaghar.... We went out for dinner ... It was pitch dark outside.... Thankfully we had torches... We came out of the cottage on the road.. and realised Ak and Maddy were still in... I did go back to get them... but it was creepy... The trees cast weird shadows in the dark... plus they sway... the food was good... but the solekadi was horrible... ok... I’ll take a trip to Diveagar and have it at the Bapat’s next... We had nice a nice dinner laughing and chatting.
Later we decided to go the bus stop to check the timing of the bus we would be taking back to Chiplun the next day. It was dark.. I know i’ve said it... but am emphasizing it. Maddy got us coffee bites. We fought over it like kids. The bus stand looked so diff than what I had seen in the morning. Not that I could see it much right then. Anchal scared the hell out of me as she stood behind me while we walked back home when I wasn’t expecting anyone to be there.
This is when the fun began, we played Mafia at night. With always kicking Nemo out, to then kicking Nikhil out it was fun. More fun cause I never play to win. I could never win anyways; I completely suck at the game. (Yet another) But that does not stop me from playing. Man! people can trick so well and even judge other pretty well. There was this one game where Maddy was the mafia, he fooled us completely. But turned out to be bad for him later because you play good Mafia in a game you are bound to be kicked out by the mafia or the villagers. Though he did not suffer as much as Nemo. Or even Nikhil, but my reason for throwing Nikhil out is he talks a lot :P. Anuj got first very heavy dose of Mafia. In fact even after the last game, people couldn’t help discussing the game.
As anchal and Lalli slept in our cottage we moved to guy’s one. Maddy Gari aK must have been really sleepy. But yet refused to sleep. I wasn’t feeling sleepy at all. I had had my share of sleep while travelling. The talks moved to crushes. People have stories yaar. Makes me a big Loser. Don’t have even one to narrate.
It had started raining outside. Awesome I love rains. AK dropped off to sleep. Then Gari and I moved back to our cottage. Gari did not let me stay out in the rains. So went back to sleep.
I really wanted to watch the sun rise by the beach, but the alarm I set did not wake me up. So we got up around 10/ 10.30. We walked to the beach. It was beautiful but we were warned not to go into the water. I spent most of the time collecting shells. If I could get bare photo frames and stick the shells around it. It would make an awesome show piece. But these people have not let me collect enough for 10 frames. VD and Lalli made an awesome fort. While others made a nice sand structure. We had lunch at a restaurant and came back to get ready to leave.
Worth mentioning, we played Mafia again as we had spare time. This was when Nemo showed his Mafia skills , there was a moment in the game with only one mafia left, and three people claiming to be Healers. Lalli who was the healer, Anchal who was the mafia thus faking and Nemo for reasons he knows the best. :D
The journey back to Chiplun was awesome. It was bit cloudy. And except for these guys singing in extremely bad voices, it was quite enjoyable. Teased VD and Lalli a bit. Back at Chiplun bus station, the cells had network. Called mum and Dad and mama - The most anxious people on earth. Took ricks back to railway station. The station is beautiful. Hadn’t realised it when we came the day before. It was a beautiful evening. Orange sky. And little clouds. It rained a bit. And we walked in the drizzle - One of the happy peaceful moments.
We returned back to play Nemo’s game “one calling one”. Was fun. I was almost ROTFL. The train was late by an hour. Even better!!! I did not want this trip to end. If only time could stand still there at Chiplun station, with all my friends besides me.... (missing Suhas and Mihir here).
We sat in the Jan Shatabdi express. There was a Chinese woman sitting on the other seat, She had a Chinese book with Chinese words. Could be Japanese for all I care. But I had never seen a person read vertical. We sang for sometime in extremely loud and pathetic voices. Should be mentioning (on VD’s demand) that Maddy and VD are pathetic singers. So thankfully for the others we stopped in some time. Finally back in our seat, Maddy, Anchal and I talked about anything we could think of.
Back at Dadar it was close to midnight. And we still had to stand in the locals. This city never sleeps. Always in a hurry to do something. They should learn to be happy from Pune. Anyways we were back to Mumbai. And then Goregoan. And Bangurnagar and home. Hunted in the fridge and found bread, made sure that everyone reached home right while eating sandwiches. And wrote the first 4 lines in this document.....
Have missed out on things, mentioning them as they are worth remembering,
- Gari’s snacks filled bag.
- Cranes on the beach
- Lalli swearing on VD.
- Nemo’s weird style of Mafia.
- Shells
- The old grandpa predicting rains and earthquake... that had me freaked out.
- Nikhil and the lip gloss joke.
- Stars from the train.
- The classic sand structure by Nemo.
- Tum mile song
Feel free to add more!!!!
I guess the plan was made on Mihir’s birthday when Suhas said that Guhaghar is an awesome place. Then Gari and Akshay started aggressively planning for the trip. The power down being this weekend most of us were free from any turnovers. So here we were 12 of us Anchal, Lalli, Gari, Maddy , Anuj, Nemo, Akshay, Nikhil, VD , Dhawal and me all set to go to Guhaghar. Mihir and Suhas would also have come but m too bored to write about that now and plus it seems needless detail.
Dhawal cancelled out on Friday, he had some work in the office. Friday began with ‘See you at Dadar” mail from VD. I was to leave early at 6 from the office. Was so exicted could hardly work. Then VD,AK Gari pinged and called for an urgent meeting. The person we had booked accommodation with had called up to cancelling the bookings. IT was due to the cyclone. There was no electricity in the village. They said we would get other accommodation, but for higher price. Well no problems there. With these few hiccups we were again ready to go.
While Maddy and Nemo boarded the train from Borrivalli , the other were at Goregoan station. Reached well before the train at Dadar. Nemo and Maddy were out for some credit card bill payment work. And they would have one more episode to add to this story. We were to go to Chiplun by Konkan Kanya. I fancy the name. Clicked photos at Dadar, ate apples. The train was on time. And we were on the right platform too. So no troubles there.
I am feeling sleepy right now. I guess i’ll continue tomorrow. And as I say that i just remember that Maddy did not tell us the scary story he was going to. Anyways will remind him later.
Ok I m back. 11.16 in the morning 17th Nov. I took a leave from office. Back is aching. Ok back to the train journey . We had two compartments to ourselves. There is so much to write , I don’t to what extent I should be going into details. Well Maddy and Akshay and Gari and also Anuj were adjusting the seats so that all of us could sit together. Finally we sat on seats around each other. Started with jokes and listening to songs . I got Tum Mile from VD. Then we started playing Dumb Charades. I was sleepy so went on the upper berth to sleep. The game continued for long after I slept I guess, I could hear noise. When I woke up Maddy, AK Gari, VD and Kanwal were listening to old songs. Around 3.30 in the morning every one woke up. We could see stars from the windows. They looked awesome. People in the city really miss a lot of beautiful things, lovely mornings, starry nights.... the train was 1.5 hours late but the journey was awesome. We got down at Chiplun railway station at 5.30 in the morning. (Am not too good with the stats, will have to confirm) Then we took rickshaws to the bus station. It was very cold and dark, but beautiful never the less. I heard later that the ricksaw wala had dropped VD’s precious bag.
On reaching the bus station, some people wanted to brush their teeth before having breakfast. Well am not too concerned about that so weren’t Anchal , AK and Maddy, which was good because the person selling tasty pohe outside the station had enough left for only two plates. Gari and Nikhil got a bite from our plates. The other had to do with the vad pav from the station canteen. Which was not bad but not as good as pohe.
The bus to Guhaghar was at 6.30 but by the time Nik and I could reach it, it was full. So we waited for the 7 o’clock one... I guess that wait was the longest... there were mosquitoes and classical music on the station.... plus people were sleepy... at least I had slept for 3-4 hours... the others had hardly slept.
Finally the bus arrived and we ran to get seats, which was useless, as we were the only ones boarding it at that time. (hehe) I was mostly asleep in the journey. See that is the reason why it should be Maddy, AK Gari or VD writing this. I fall asleep as soon as the vehicle starts moving. But as I am writing it you have to bear with me. By the time I woke up the bus was full of school students. Completely packed. And Maddy was dozing. Poor guy was awake the entire night.
The roads clearly showed signs of cyclone now. The trees were uprooted at places. Some sign post were fallen. There is news of nearly hundred electricity pole being uprooted. So Guhaghar had no electricity since last 3 days. Not even then as we travelled to the place. On reaching Guhaghar I found my cell had no network. Damn, that’s bad for my parents. They have to do with two days of not calling me. The place where we were staying was close to the bus stop, so we walked.
Guhaghar is a pretty big village, not as big as Manvat but not as small as Salgoan.
We had three cottages booked amongst us. They were beautiful. Nice cosy rooms, surrounded by coconut trees and close to the beach. They guys room was adjacent to ours. Pretty cool!! Dream like, how nice to have all friends stay next door...
By 10 we girls were ready. There were two cars waiting for us outside. Well these people had really planned well. There was an Omni and a lovely Xylo. Did not want to sit in Omni first. But am not fussy about that. So Anchal , me , Maddy and Anuj and Kanwal in the front sat in the Omni. With the exception of the driver being too talkative the ride was awesome. Small huts and farms are not new to me, but it was fun to watch Maddy and Anuj watch outside with child like admiration. Whenever the driver, Naval, kept quite we had an awesome discussion of what we’d like to do in the future. Well people really think. Me, am happy at the moment. Never thought what I want, except good friends, which (touch wood) I always got. Oh that’s carrying me away, back to the journey. The driver kept talking and Maddy actually had a question for him. Triggered him even more. Poor Kanwal couldn’t even avoid the man sitting right next to him. But Naval looked a good guy. Just too boring.
We reached our first destination. A Shiv temple. Painted in nice bright colours. The temple had a well . We sat next to the well and talked. Gari , AK and Maddy set out to make arrangements for lunch. There was a beach behind the temple. Beautiful beach. There were little crabs that the waves got with them. Ak and Maddy were trying hard to get photos of the creature. We wrote our name on the sand. Chased the crabs. I think they managed to take a few snaps of the little thing. Anchal and I ran across the beach. The water splashing all around. Been days since I did crazy things like that.(But now with a aching back I guess I overdid it this time) We had coconut water at a hut near the beach. There were little chicks and a hen there. All the chicks followed the mother as she taught them to peck.
The place where we were to have lunch was close by. It had a swing, just like in Manwat. The food was awesome. The aunty there was very sweet. Ate a lot. Was feeling drowsy as we walked back.
We went to a Ganpati temple next. We sat outside the temple chatting. There was that thing where you make a wish and try to stick a coin on the wall and if it sticks your wish will be ful filled. Personally m scared of this. What if I ask for something I really want and the coin does not stick. I know this is illogical , but in the back of my head i’ll still have the fear. I don’t really want to take chances.
Next we went to Hedwi , there is a Shiv temple and behind it is rocky beach with a deep crevice in the rocks. The road was blocked by trees uprooted by the cyclone. We had to go through the fallen trees to get across. Was fun. Though feel sorry for the trees. The view was good from the rocks. The crevice was quite deep. The beach had lots of cranes waiting for crabs to be thrown out by the sea. In the water in the rocks we found ugly tadpoles. Niks even saw a snake. Though m not sure it was a snake. On our way back there were a lot of monkeys on the surrounding hills. But there were terrified of us more than we were of them. While coming back Anchal , VD, Lalli Nemo and I came in the Xylo. Well I slept the entire way back home. Though the ppl in other car had a nice time with Naval. ;)
We reached the house just around sunset. Called n for cold drinks and tea, and then went to freshen up. My plan was to sleep now and have a night out on the beach. But life would become boring if things went as planned....
Ok don’t remember the exact sequence...am writing exactly after a week... and was a crazy week that followed. But here goes... there was going to be no power till 7 so we were in little light after sun set. And the mosquitoes were huge.... I don’t remember exactly but Ak and Maddy went out to enquire about dinner and VD, Gari , Anuj, Kanwal,Nemo and Nikhil went out to check way to beach... I went to our cottage to sleep. Later Ak, Anuj and Maddy must have been back. And Maddy and Anchal were in our cottage when I woke up... Those damn mosquitoes did not let me sleep... I hate the buzzing sound they make... So we were chatting in the dark... and Lalli was outside on the cell... and Ak was in the other cottage. The cottage started shaking... There was an earthquake!!! We ran out of the cottage, which was a stupid thing to do... There were coconut trees outside. Ak ran out of his cottage. In a while it stopped. God we had witnessed an earthquake!! And were alive... and together..... Now if this gets in the news my parent are going to freak out.... Plus there is no network here... God let this be earthquake away from here and a little one (which it turned out to be but I did not know it then).
The others were back and had not felt a thing... They had got Odomos... thankfully... These mosquitoes were eating me up. We sat in our cottage talking. We could not go to the beach.... Uncle said there were dead bodies being found...So no bon fire... sigh... I m definitely having one this New Year... But no worries... It is not bon fire that is imp.. It is more of us being together... And the night that followed was one of the most awesome nights I’ve lived... Well except the one after last Ghandhar when the ten of us sat talking and went to Parvati in the morn... sigh I miss college friends too... But these are lovely friends too... I don’t know how I have lived without knowing them... Anchal , Suhas Mihir Ak, Sujit.... then came Laksh, Aadhar, Rahul, Abhi, Maddy , Gari, Anuj... Sweta, Giri, .... VD, Nikhil , Kanwal, Nemo, Dhawal,......Anil, Venky, Neha... Love g08m... So proud to be one.... I’ll write testimonials for them next...
Ok forget I said it.... Back to Guhaghar.... We went out for dinner ... It was pitch dark outside.... Thankfully we had torches... We came out of the cottage on the road.. and realised Ak and Maddy were still in... I did go back to get them... but it was creepy... The trees cast weird shadows in the dark... plus they sway... the food was good... but the solekadi was horrible... ok... I’ll take a trip to Diveagar and have it at the Bapat’s next... We had nice a nice dinner laughing and chatting.
Later we decided to go the bus stop to check the timing of the bus we would be taking back to Chiplun the next day. It was dark.. I know i’ve said it... but am emphasizing it. Maddy got us coffee bites. We fought over it like kids. The bus stand looked so diff than what I had seen in the morning. Not that I could see it much right then. Anchal scared the hell out of me as she stood behind me while we walked back home when I wasn’t expecting anyone to be there.
This is when the fun began, we played Mafia at night. With always kicking Nemo out, to then kicking Nikhil out it was fun. More fun cause I never play to win. I could never win anyways; I completely suck at the game. (Yet another) But that does not stop me from playing. Man! people can trick so well and even judge other pretty well. There was this one game where Maddy was the mafia, he fooled us completely. But turned out to be bad for him later because you play good Mafia in a game you are bound to be kicked out by the mafia or the villagers. Though he did not suffer as much as Nemo. Or even Nikhil, but my reason for throwing Nikhil out is he talks a lot :P. Anuj got first very heavy dose of Mafia. In fact even after the last game, people couldn’t help discussing the game.
As anchal and Lalli slept in our cottage we moved to guy’s one. Maddy Gari aK must have been really sleepy. But yet refused to sleep. I wasn’t feeling sleepy at all. I had had my share of sleep while travelling. The talks moved to crushes. People have stories yaar. Makes me a big Loser. Don’t have even one to narrate.
It had started raining outside. Awesome I love rains. AK dropped off to sleep. Then Gari and I moved back to our cottage. Gari did not let me stay out in the rains. So went back to sleep.
I really wanted to watch the sun rise by the beach, but the alarm I set did not wake me up. So we got up around 10/ 10.30. We walked to the beach. It was beautiful but we were warned not to go into the water. I spent most of the time collecting shells. If I could get bare photo frames and stick the shells around it. It would make an awesome show piece. But these people have not let me collect enough for 10 frames. VD and Lalli made an awesome fort. While others made a nice sand structure. We had lunch at a restaurant and came back to get ready to leave.
Worth mentioning, we played Mafia again as we had spare time. This was when Nemo showed his Mafia skills , there was a moment in the game with only one mafia left, and three people claiming to be Healers. Lalli who was the healer, Anchal who was the mafia thus faking and Nemo for reasons he knows the best. :D
The journey back to Chiplun was awesome. It was bit cloudy. And except for these guys singing in extremely bad voices, it was quite enjoyable. Teased VD and Lalli a bit. Back at Chiplun bus station, the cells had network. Called mum and Dad and mama - The most anxious people on earth. Took ricks back to railway station. The station is beautiful. Hadn’t realised it when we came the day before. It was a beautiful evening. Orange sky. And little clouds. It rained a bit. And we walked in the drizzle - One of the happy peaceful moments.
We returned back to play Nemo’s game “one calling one”. Was fun. I was almost ROTFL. The train was late by an hour. Even better!!! I did not want this trip to end. If only time could stand still there at Chiplun station, with all my friends besides me.... (missing Suhas and Mihir here).
We sat in the Jan Shatabdi express. There was a Chinese woman sitting on the other seat, She had a Chinese book with Chinese words. Could be Japanese for all I care. But I had never seen a person read vertical. We sang for sometime in extremely loud and pathetic voices. Should be mentioning (on VD’s demand) that Maddy and VD are pathetic singers. So thankfully for the others we stopped in some time. Finally back in our seat, Maddy, Anchal and I talked about anything we could think of.
Back at Dadar it was close to midnight. And we still had to stand in the locals. This city never sleeps. Always in a hurry to do something. They should learn to be happy from Pune. Anyways we were back to Mumbai. And then Goregoan. And Bangurnagar and home. Hunted in the fridge and found bread, made sure that everyone reached home right while eating sandwiches. And wrote the first 4 lines in this document.....
Have missed out on things, mentioning them as they are worth remembering,
- Gari’s snacks filled bag.
- Cranes on the beach
- Lalli swearing on VD.
- Nemo’s weird style of Mafia.
- Shells
- The old grandpa predicting rains and earthquake... that had me freaked out.
- Nikhil and the lip gloss joke.
- Stars from the train.
- The classic sand structure by Nemo.
- Tum mile song
Feel free to add more!!!!
Thursday, December 10, 2009
First Blog!!!!!!
First Blog!!! and i really don't know what I should be writing. But I never know anyways.... So here goes..
Thought of blogging began with Guhaghar trip. I always knew reading what you have written months back is a real pleasure, found out now that sharing it with others is fun too. Though I still cant think of anything to write here.
It is 1 o clock at night, and am in Pune, and believe it or not, missing Mumbai. Speciallly office , my team, my g08m.Also met so many people online today to list down all grads Tanmay, Kiran, Amitesh and Sweta from TC, VD, Abhi, Gari, Rahul, Lipika, Dhawal , Ashish, Akshay, Nemo from the grad batch. And it makes me miss Mumbai more. :(
I wonder how I lived before knowing these people. There must have been a huge unknown incomplete space Morgan Stanley filled up in my life. Life feels so complete now that am almost scared that am being too proud.
It began with Morgan Stanley coming as a dream company in our campus somewhere around in jan 08. To think i was going to ditch the interview because there was a cricket match going on!! Thank God I have friends a bit more sensible than me, who submitted my resume and made me come for the interview. And there I was placed at Morgan Stanley Advantage Services, Mumbai. I had got a call from the TPO while I was working on BE project at Poni's place. Still seems like a dream.
Met Suhas , Ak, Mihir and Sujit for the first time while we went for TechExpo. Well actually am lying; Suhas was the guy who asked us where the pre placement talk was going on on the day of the written test, I had spoken to AK after i had finished my pro-fit interview and Mihir and I were in the same group for team activity in the interviews. Anchal was in the same colege as I. So the first line goes true only for Sujit.
Looks like i got what i could use as my first blog... I can write the first impressions of the ppl from MSAS, not that i can remember all,but worth giving a try....
To begin with , Mihir; had no impression on the day of the interview. He was the one who called up a day before we left for TechExpo giving us the details of timings and pick up point. With the complete professional tone in which he spoke he could have easily passed for a well trained HR. Well just proves that first impressions aren't the last ones. Mihir hardly know what he is speaking and to whom, and that what makes it enjoyable when Mihir talks.
Sujit was quite as ever, even the first time we met even now. He spoke only when required. The only word he has spoken in the videos of the TechExpo is "Hi" when Suhas asked him to say something.
Akshay; well he talked a lot. But the thing I remember distinctly about him was he called up a day after TechExpo. Just a wasssups call. Found it weird then , I mean, cmon, we hardly knew each other. Thinking about it now guess its in his nature; you can always expect a message from AK on a weekends saying wassups or m watching so and so movie.
Suhas, I knew this guy was a geek right from the beginning. Who else starts explaining Six Sigma at Marz-O-Rin, when it is just the second time in your entire lifetime that you are meeting someone. Well that opinion hasn't changed much. Though now I know he can also discuss normal things like movies and food.
Anchal; my friends at college had asked me to stay away from her. She had this image of being a selfish topper in our class. Guess it had all to do with her being quite. When one is too silent people tend to think of the person as arrogant. I still haven't been able to convince my friends that what we thought about Anchal was so not true. Anchal turned out to be extremely loving friend.
The first day at training , we met Aadhar and Laksh, cant remember much but there was always laughter with Laksh at the table. He always had a joke ready. And what I would really like about his jokes were they made you laugh and would never hurt the person they were directed at.
Nikhil; I remember he said he followed Bloomberg for some finance news right in the first week of training, I did not even know what Bloomberg was then. He had ditched our team and joined another one for finance project, which turned out to be bad for him, they lost more money than us :P. He has always been and still is the local IT help desk.
Rahul; I'd always try and avoid this guy in the beginning. He was just too friendly. Dont rememeber how we turned out to be good friends.Maybe it was because he liked FRIENDS and used to like the same songs I loved. I remember him playing songs on weekends when we would be around preparing for the tests. Guess that was what got us talking.
Gari; I still remember I used to be wary of talking to her. For one I never had any answer to her wise cracks. Then we got to sit next to each other in training and I got to know her. She wasn't that bad. Thank God, I'd hate to miss the chikku shake she had made for me.
Anuj; Guess first time I knew him was while we went to Elephanta caves. He acted the good host telling us about the places as we travelled in the same taxi. I remember thinking here is one responsible guy. His talks were quite mature, made me consider how silly I seemed compared to him.
Maddy; I dont know why the only memory that come to my mind about Maddy is while we were getting out of the train while coming back from Elephanta. He had told me not to worry about the crowd, just jump out. Guess i looked nervous and that was comforting. Later he being in the same Grad project group as Suhas and Mihir we'd generally talk. I never knew until recently that he's got a flair for PJs.
Anil; Anil and me sat at Anchal's side while training in 6D. He'd always be reading notes , u know, the studious types. I had no problems with this guy until he asked me whether Pune had an airport. And after that Anchal sufferred in our battle.
yet to come:-
VD;
Sweta;
Giri;
Abhi;
Dhawal;
Nemo;
Thought of blogging began with Guhaghar trip. I always knew reading what you have written months back is a real pleasure, found out now that sharing it with others is fun too. Though I still cant think of anything to write here.
It is 1 o clock at night, and am in Pune, and believe it or not, missing Mumbai. Speciallly office , my team, my g08m.Also met so many people online today to list down all grads Tanmay, Kiran, Amitesh and Sweta from TC, VD, Abhi, Gari, Rahul, Lipika, Dhawal , Ashish, Akshay, Nemo from the grad batch. And it makes me miss Mumbai more. :(
I wonder how I lived before knowing these people. There must have been a huge unknown incomplete space Morgan Stanley filled up in my life. Life feels so complete now that am almost scared that am being too proud.
It began with Morgan Stanley coming as a dream company in our campus somewhere around in jan 08. To think i was going to ditch the interview because there was a cricket match going on!! Thank God I have friends a bit more sensible than me, who submitted my resume and made me come for the interview. And there I was placed at Morgan Stanley Advantage Services, Mumbai. I had got a call from the TPO while I was working on BE project at Poni's place. Still seems like a dream.
Met Suhas , Ak, Mihir and Sujit for the first time while we went for TechExpo. Well actually am lying; Suhas was the guy who asked us where the pre placement talk was going on on the day of the written test, I had spoken to AK after i had finished my pro-fit interview and Mihir and I were in the same group for team activity in the interviews. Anchal was in the same colege as I. So the first line goes true only for Sujit.
Looks like i got what i could use as my first blog... I can write the first impressions of the ppl from MSAS, not that i can remember all,but worth giving a try....
To begin with , Mihir; had no impression on the day of the interview. He was the one who called up a day before we left for TechExpo giving us the details of timings and pick up point. With the complete professional tone in which he spoke he could have easily passed for a well trained HR. Well just proves that first impressions aren't the last ones. Mihir hardly know what he is speaking and to whom, and that what makes it enjoyable when Mihir talks.
Sujit was quite as ever, even the first time we met even now. He spoke only when required. The only word he has spoken in the videos of the TechExpo is "Hi" when Suhas asked him to say something.
Akshay; well he talked a lot. But the thing I remember distinctly about him was he called up a day after TechExpo. Just a wasssups call. Found it weird then , I mean, cmon, we hardly knew each other. Thinking about it now guess its in his nature; you can always expect a message from AK on a weekends saying wassups or m watching so and so movie.
Suhas, I knew this guy was a geek right from the beginning. Who else starts explaining Six Sigma at Marz-O-Rin, when it is just the second time in your entire lifetime that you are meeting someone. Well that opinion hasn't changed much. Though now I know he can also discuss normal things like movies and food.
Anchal; my friends at college had asked me to stay away from her. She had this image of being a selfish topper in our class. Guess it had all to do with her being quite. When one is too silent people tend to think of the person as arrogant. I still haven't been able to convince my friends that what we thought about Anchal was so not true. Anchal turned out to be extremely loving friend.
The first day at training , we met Aadhar and Laksh, cant remember much but there was always laughter with Laksh at the table. He always had a joke ready. And what I would really like about his jokes were they made you laugh and would never hurt the person they were directed at.
Nikhil; I remember he said he followed Bloomberg for some finance news right in the first week of training, I did not even know what Bloomberg was then. He had ditched our team and joined another one for finance project, which turned out to be bad for him, they lost more money than us :P. He has always been and still is the local IT help desk.
Rahul; I'd always try and avoid this guy in the beginning. He was just too friendly. Dont rememeber how we turned out to be good friends.Maybe it was because he liked FRIENDS and used to like the same songs I loved. I remember him playing songs on weekends when we would be around preparing for the tests. Guess that was what got us talking.
Gari; I still remember I used to be wary of talking to her. For one I never had any answer to her wise cracks. Then we got to sit next to each other in training and I got to know her. She wasn't that bad. Thank God, I'd hate to miss the chikku shake she had made for me.
Anuj; Guess first time I knew him was while we went to Elephanta caves. He acted the good host telling us about the places as we travelled in the same taxi. I remember thinking here is one responsible guy. His talks were quite mature, made me consider how silly I seemed compared to him.
Maddy; I dont know why the only memory that come to my mind about Maddy is while we were getting out of the train while coming back from Elephanta. He had told me not to worry about the crowd, just jump out. Guess i looked nervous and that was comforting. Later he being in the same Grad project group as Suhas and Mihir we'd generally talk. I never knew until recently that he's got a flair for PJs.
Anil; Anil and me sat at Anchal's side while training in 6D. He'd always be reading notes , u know, the studious types. I had no problems with this guy until he asked me whether Pune had an airport. And after that Anchal sufferred in our battle.
yet to come:-
VD;
Sweta;
Giri;
Abhi;
Dhawal;
Nemo;
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)