Road Trip

Target: Khandala, Lonavla & Pune
Team: Chussi, Parmar, Bagla, Misra and Me!
Day: Sunday

Result: Pune missed!

Pics available at http://www.flickr.com/photos/midnightsaint/

River

Weekend log

(based on true fiction)

Location: Kolad
Time: Timeless
Characters:

Apoorv – The most photographed person of the year!

Amandeep – Arsenal’s no.4

Ankur – smiling Buddha. The smile continues even when he has just lost a cellphone!

Ashwin – the drunkard

Deependra – dancer!

Faraz – The lost brother of Pogu, the deer.

Murtuza – weird

Jimmy – dummy cat

Nagpal – the man who knows everything. But, ofcourse!

Harshvardhan – The foot-bomber

Rebecca – The newsreader

Meenal – Girl with the candy

Sandeep – The kid on the new block!

Shantanu – dumsy boy

Shomik – tiger in the den

Suresh - dreamer

Subrata – the guy who lost everything in the stock market

Prince – the prince

Milind – sensitive girl

Harsh – businezman and a scuba diver from dubai. He has a knee problem.

Dhwani – the princess

Sneha – two tea spoons of sugar

Samir – watchman at a chemical plant who needs to shout just to feel he is alive

Amit – guest appearance

Vinit – guest appearance. Avid reader of books and magazines. Also likes to talk about this habit.

It all started in the beginning!

Around 30 people at my workplace decided to break away from the corporate dirt over the weekend! Well, only about 20 odd people finally made it. Life is tough on rest of them.

Saturday, 21 July, 9 AM, Vikhroli

The official start time! Well, almost everybody was there. Except a few lazy asses like harsh. I had to bribe him just to wake him up and finally reached the start spot at around 11.

We only took a single look at the bus before harsh got a heart attack. I asked the admin desk to book the best possible bus and what I saw in front of me looked like the one used to deport prisoners. Harsh, the billionaire, who never walked barefoot or lived without AC, started crying. He started missing his mom and his favorite bullock cart back at Calcutta.

Saturday, 21 July, 11 AM, Vikhroli

The bus finally started moving. We had all that we needed! A cricket bat, a foot ball, some food, a music deck and lots of enthusiastic young men and women.

Saturday, 21 July, 12 Noon, Vashi

The first stopover. We picked up a few guys and more importantly, some important liquids. The music started getting louder and so was the laughter! The journey had officially begun.

Talking about music, I have a sub-story. The title is “Ashwin- the drunkard”.
Below is the conversation between us a day before.

@ 10 PM

Ashwin: dude, whatsup? I just started drinkin. But wil meet u guys tomorrow morning!

Me: Ok!

@ 12 midnight

Ashwin: dude, am really drunk. There is a lot left! I don’t think I will make it tomorrow morning.

Me: dude, I need you tomorrow morning. Just drink slowly whatever is left. I will wake u up in the morning

Ashwin: Ok!

@ 2 AM

Ashwin: dude, am drunk. In a very bad shape. Am driving to pune with friends

Me: WTF!!! Dude, just go back home.

Ashwin: my friend is crying. I can’t go back. I will start at 4 in the morning and reach u guys.

Me: Ok!

@ 6 AM

Ashwin: dude, my car broke down. Am stuck in lonavla.

Me: Asshole!


Ashwin could never make it and we had to live with whatever music harsh brought along. Imagine listening to “yeh tara who tara” on a hot afternoon in a hotter bus in heavy traffic! We missed ashwin’s ipod very badly.

Saturday, 21 July, 1 PM, Panvel

The traffic got worse. Everybody was sweating pretty badly. Milind started with his theories on how we could have avoided the traffic if we had started early. All I could do was listen and hope!

Traffic soon cleared.
Hope works!!
The bus started moving at its maximum speed which was around 40 kmph. The urban world soon started fading away and rural India started smiling with boundless affection! Freedom. From noise, dirt and mindless motion.

Prince started burning his chimneys. Samir started shouting. Sorry, talking. Shomik was silent except when he had to make some fun of harsh. The group of freshers in the back seats were trying to cool down from their boiling points. Slowly but surely, things were a changing!

Saturday, 21 July, 4 PM, Sai Farm, Kolad

We passed a bird sanctuary at karnal and I felt very bad at not having a chance to get down. We finally reached the resort after an awesome hour of wonderful road trip.

Talking about sai farm, I need to mention a guy called Gaby. He is the farm owner, around 50 years old and a fantastic goan! After I talked to him about lots of things, I realized why people love goa and everything about it. I wonder if there is any better species of people than goans.

Saturday, 21 July, 6 PM, Sai Farm, Kolad

Everybody settled in. It was too late to visit the waterfalls. Guys chose to play cricket instead. It was a lot of fun! Especially the part where people go to fetch the ball for long periods of time.

The light got poorer by the minute and flood lights came out. It started raining.

It was time for football, ofcourse. The real fun didn’t even begun.

People soon got dispersed. Some played cards, some tried hands at darting. Food was being served tirelessly.

Saturday, 21 July, 10 PM, Sai Farm, Kolad

Jimmy drove down with his car along with a fat guy. They call him Ashwin back in the jungle. Imagine a guy, heavily drunk from 2 non-stop days, walking with swagger. He started hurling abuses at everyone and anyone from the moment go. He almost bet Subrata in darting at 10-5 but subbo came back strongly to beat him 20-13!

This small game changed the atmosphere. Laidback audience suddenly got stiff and nobody attempted darting for some time after this hot game!

Sunday, 22 July, 1 AM, Sai Farm, Kolad

Bottles were drawn out. Tables laid out. The resort had an amazing river view gallery which made for a fantastic late night spot. The only problem, if it can be counted, were the small mosquitoes! No, am not talking about nagpals.

Sunday, 22 July, 5 AM, Sai Farm, Kolad

Most of the tired peeps were fast asleep. Me and ashwin decided to discuss stuff about life and beyond. I probably told him a few things which I never even told myself. Pinkfloyd was playing at the back and pretty soon, we stopped talking. Started doing something better, something like sleeping!

Sunday, 22 July, 6 AM

We had to reach the white water river rafting spot at 7, or so we were told! As usual, I got late due to Harsh. The fat ass was complaining all night about lack of AC and fell asleep till very late. We ran a small marathon to reach the bus. Something suddenly hit me. I didn’t know the route to the spot. There was no connectivity and I cudnt call anybody. I asked the driver to keep going until the road splits into two. I was hoping the cell comes alive before that. It almost did. We took a wrong direction and then reverted back to the correct road. It was so much more fun than to have done it the right way!

Sunday, 22 July, 8.30 AM, Kundalika River

We finally start rafting after a series of training instructions. The trainer from north-east had an accent akin to a german. You could hear but you cudn’t understand. Harsh came up with a request for a hindi trainer. There are some moments in life when you feel the deepest of pity for a fellow human being. This was one of those. Now that he didn’t understand any of the instructions, I was sure this was the last time I will suffer him. So, I made my final handshake and took some last snaps.

The instructions looked tricky at the beginning. “Front on right and Back on left” sounded like solving the Schrödinger equation all over again. My team of rafters incuded subbo, prince, milind, ashwin, faraz, muthu and myself, ofcourse! The lead rafters were, ashwin and milind. The key to good rafting is to synchronize and paddle harder in a rapid. A rapid is a sudden flux of water and it will make your raft do strange things. It is a period of uncertainty and you never know how you are going to land back on to the water. It’s also when mishaps can happen, if at all. The key to survival is to paddle faster and harder!

The guide kept on shouting instructions from the back and in the moments of thrill and laughter, they were often missed! It landed us in precarious situations. Ashwin and Milind managed to miss so many of the instructions that after a while, the guide stopped shouting at them!

The hands started tiring. Our team luckily had 7 rafters which meant that only 6 could raft at a time. That gave us room to take some quality rest!

Pretty soon, the rapids fizzled out. The river started looking calmer and smoother. It was time to throw away the paddles and jump into the river. The life jackets meant that anybody could jump. I tried to learn swimming from ashwin but he almost killed me by pushing me down into the water for a very long minute. My desire to learn swimming almost had a death knell. Floating on river water was definitely an awesome experience. It was time for photographs and some quick fun.

We soon reached the shore. We had to lift the raft onto a small hill and walk further upwards to reach our bus. Luck, as it usually happens, turned a blind eye on us! The bus wasn’t there and we soon found out that the driver was sleeping somewhere away unreachable. We fortunately found Amit’s driver nearby, who btw reached the rafting spot separately in his car, early morning on Sunday. According to him, he got very lucky as he got to raft separately with this beautiful bunch of ladies from Gujarat. I hope his wife doesn’t read this post!

We started waiting for the bus. Tired and hungry souls soon started drifting apart. I and Ankur tried walking into a village nearby. We were hoping to get some hot tea and may be a smoke! But, the village ended even before it began. Aman joined us on our way back. While on the way, something hit me. I started wondering about this small kid on the road who had a half smile. I felt a deep pain in my heart when I attempted to imagine how this kid will go about making a life. A few hours later, during the journey back, I realized that perhaps that kid will lead a far peaceful life than mine. I was back to being happy!

The bus soon arrived. We hopped onto it and had a tasty meal on the way back. The legs were tired and so was the mind. Everybody just went back to their rooms and got relaxed.

The river in front of the gallery had a soothing effect! Amit and Vineet joined us after their happy adventure with the band of girls. They soon started drinking some fluids and I chose not to disturb the event.

It was again some time for cricket and food. The hosts, Gaby and his wife, are a wonderful old couple. They were very kind and so thoughtful that i felt a deep connect and was sad when I finally left them.

Sunday, 22 July, 5 PM, Kolad Waterfalls

It was time to leave the resort. The bus was around 2-3 kms away as it couldn’t drive on the very small path to Sai Farm. Gaby carried our luggage and us to the bus. Amit, Vineet and Ashwin left early in the car. Jimmy joined us in his own.

It was time again for some water. This time, the water was vertical. I mean the waterfalls!

They were not huge waterfalls but were big enough to cool your eyes and mind. Shantanu soon found a hidden spot and I joined him to research it further. He taught me a few things about science and award winning photography and I started admiring his presence of mind!

The cameras started rolling and the flashes all around make it look like a movie shoot!

Sunday, 22 July, 7 PM

The light was fading away. It was time to leave Kolad. The bus started its way back and we soon realized the hunger again! Man, we ate so much!!!!

After almost an hour and a half of a small tea& samosa session, we got back onto the ride of maharaja air travel. Rebekah left jimmy’s car and joined us! Some people miss the bumpy ride or jimmy is really an ass.

Sunday, 22 July 11 PM

Bombay arrived. I didn’t know how as I was fast asleep. I could hear people singing and dancing at the back all the way during the journey. But, all I could do was nod in agreement. It was a struggle just to open the eyes!

We reached the very famous and our very own petrol station at gate no.4, godrej. Shomik got down far before this and it sink in to me then that I will miss him and Monday was his last day at office.

People just said bye to each other and started leaving. Memories were heavy and the mood was happy.

Some stories don’t have an ending and I hope to continue this post sometime again in future!

Walk on water

and please don't sleep when you do that!
especially, if you don't know how to swim.
And if you do, make sure it's not a holiday for the rescue team.

enough of instructions.
now, please go jump!

the one who must not be named

lord voldemort is back and so is harry!
Not the dealthy hallows (its scheduled to be released on july 21), this is about the movie, order of the phoenix! the movie does rock and roll and more.

are there any people who don't like harrypotter and the story? well, i do know that the count is greater than zero. and this is for all those who still are not bitten by the bug.

at the end of movie, harry has this to say,
"we do have something that voldemort doesn't. something to fight for!"

For all those who are rock-hearted to not like harry, here is what i have to say, "we atleast have something to wait for!"

It's not about the book

Well, actually, it is.
But it is more about the man who wrote it and also about his bike.

There are two kinds of super humans.
The one kind, the extraordinary, do fantastic deeds.
But, at the bottom of your heart, you get the feeling that you might have done it too given the time and space.
There is the other set of humans usually referred to with words akin to 'genius'.
Lance Armstrong fits into this set.

And, they do write autobiographies to help other mortals realize that greatness can be achieved.
I read the book. 90% of it in the first sitting.

To be Cont....

Board of Secondary education!

Just chill!

PoliTricks

Hey, we gonna get a new president! Wow!! Really?

Indian democracy never really gave any powers to president who is just a brand name for the government rubber stamp. So, what's all this hue and cry about the fresh election?

Some theory states that all the global problems emerge from Italy. I kind of started believing in this. Remember the head butt?

Yeah....see?

Abdul Kalam, the man who uses rockets to travel even to the local bank, is a superhero who deserves an other term. The italians for some reason think its better off to send him back to research, or worse, academia!!

The only impressive fact is that some patil bai will be the first female rubber stamp we ever had! Three Cheers and No Vodka to that.

It's raining!

The rains are back. And so am I!
Those of you who live in a dream called Mumbai, might not prefer the former. I am not sure of the latter.

There is not a real difference to the rains this time. They are as regularly irregular, seriously comic, painfully joyous, a change which is not!

Someone recently commented on my blog that my writings are getting closer by the day! Thanks for pointing that out to me. It's not that i didn't know it was happening. It's just that it felt a lot better when it came from a stranger.

People, i believe write for a myriad of reasons. Some write for themselves. Like Ayn Rand. They don't have a preferred audience. Some write for an audience. Like Salman Rushdie. Craving for attention. I lie somewhere in between. No, not between the authors. But, between the styles.

And, normal people don't write forever. There comes a time when all that you want to say is said. Then comes the golden silence. A pause which speaks more powerfully than the most eloquent speaker. That's when the writer has arrived. Am not even hinting at the prospect that i might have reached there. Well, i haven't even begun.

I do want to write. Each additional moment am spending on this planet convinces me that writing is all that is there to living. Attaining nirvana is not for me. All i want to do is to communicate. Talk, speak, write and listen. That's all i want to do. Get a life, did i hear?

:)

Well, am at the least, trying!

What do you want to be when you grow up?

"Adults are always asking kids what they want to be when they grow up because they are looking for ideas."

-Paula Pondstone

Give me a reason

just another trick in the wall!

:)

If you have friends in columbo, bangkok or khatmandu, please ping me at sureshg3(gmail)!
Please reply back only if you have read this before Friday (25/05)!!

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24 hours

What is the most important thing in your life?
What is the next most important thing in your life?
What is the next to next most important thing in your life?
What is the next to next to next most important thing in your life?
What is the next to next to next to next most important thing in your life?




No, Think Again!

I have been thinking about the answers to these questions since last midnight.....Its close to 24 hours now and i don't think i have the answers yet. But, there is no time left now!

I think the most important questions one can ever ask are the questions to oneself. The man inside is definitely much more complex than the man outside. Whoever said life is simple must have had a sponsor who made him do it.

Time runs faster than anything else i know and it's running faster than ever now.

I look back. Fond memories. Fonder memories. Playgrounds. Faces. Smiles. Laughter. It's louder than ever. Lost heavens. It pains me to see the photographs. Was there anything important there? Or should i ask if there was anything less than important there? The man who sold me chai at 4 in the morning was important too. He taught me how to smile when you have to work inspite of feeling damn sleepy!

I look ahead. Colorful. New faces. New Smiles. The laughter is silent (they don't laugh loudly anymore). Ahh. How will the photograhs look like? Will it pain me to see them if i get to see them now? Will it pain u?

The answers, however, elude me. Past and Future don't hold answers to my questions.


I probably should have looked at now? The answers, if any can exist only in the now. Past is a dream. Future is an other dream. Present is when you are living in the dream!


24 hours.
That's all you will ever get.


per day.
:)

On a high!

Life is a complex maze full of surprises, delights, opportunities, failures, heartbreaks, and blah blah blah!

Nah, am not goin to write all that crap. Who cares what it is! We are here just to have fun while it lasts and its not gonna last forever!!

Now, just shut up and dance!

Coffee break in a Tea Company!

The world is full of hypocrisy!
You will find examples of people/processes/institutions who are hypocrite in any sphere of activity in any place in the world at any given point of time.

The question am thinking of at this odd hour in the midnight is "why are people hypocrite?"
What i have come to conclude is that most people live others lives. In the sense, most of one's ideas/impressions/attitudes are stamped on one by obvious forces like schools/parents/friends and disguised sources like media.

Lack of originality should be the root cause of it all. I realize i really admire those people who chose to be original but failed rather than the copy cats who got successful just because they could bullshit their way to the top! So, what drives originality and what stops it? I think, it comes down to what a man is built of. Courage and Wisdom are things which can't be taught and are things one has or doesn't. To be original and creative needs a lot of courage. If you have been trying to be an original, you know failure is always an inch closer than you think! But, when success happens, which does happen, its really worth cherishing.

No wonder men have been called prisoners of their minds!

Ideal Sunday

a dream
7.00 AM hit the gym and workout hard
9.00 AM eat food like a devil
10.00 AM watch da latest flick on lappy
1.00 PM eat da favourite dish in da chic restaurent down da street
3.00 PM hit the bed and sleep like a baby
6.00 PM call the tennis buddy, and play like mad
9.00 PM watch da second latest flick on lappy
11.00 PM meet friends and chat/smoke/eat like hell
2.00 AM read that kewl book
3.00 AM sleep like a baby

a nightmare
9.00 PM and am still in office :(

Broken promises and Far away lands!

I promised myself sometime back that i will never be poetic.
Much of the reason was that poems hurt more than they sooth.


But, i break my promise today. yet again!

.........................

Walking into the meadows
I listened to the grass whispering
Silence.
Nothing to hear but everything to understand.

All the significant details: the crucial meetings,
deadlines to meet, oh please!
Vanished into a far away land
They call it Utopia

This vehicle – my body,
engine and headlights on,
ready and humming.

Flying bird
Stop here and listen to the music
There is nothing ahead!

Yes.

Just another letter in the box!

When i was a kid, like when i was very very kid, like around 5-6 years old, i dreamt of being a postman! It was a feverish dream and i used to get all excited whenever i saw a postman. Some insane logic of my newly built mind told me that since postman got all the important letters, he must be a very influential man. I was also led to believe by my friends back then that the postman's bag typically has lots of chocolates and other similar treasures. I took their word for it and just kept on building on my dream for about a year or so.....





Soon, i began to grow older and wiser or so i believe. The idiot box and other shapes of idiots taught me the real value chain of the workings of the postman (for 5 yr olds who are reading this..........it works like this: letter->postbox->postoffice->headoffice->postoffice->postman. a typical postman is very very poor and doesn't have any hidden choclates in his bag)

For many years later, whenever i felt a little intelligent like when i cracked an exam or something, the dream used to come back to haunt me and i felt this strange guilt for being such a dumb thing.

Average men typically learn from half of their mistakes. Really gifted men learn from only one of them and they never touch the hot stove again! I belong to such a category and so do many people i know.

Years have changed, things have changed, people have changed (nah...only their shapes have changed), and the postman is even poorer now all thanks to the e-mail. But, somethings like nerolac paint and stupidity never change, or so they say. But, I have changed. Being a Postman don't excite me anymore.

The world has changed rapidly owing to all the globalization, aids and other diseases. The idea of postmen has been replaced in my mind by the idea of investment bankers/fundmanagers/entrepreneurs. Friends tell me they have lots of choclates(money) in their bags and i still believe some of them. The idiot box has given way to the idiot web and all kinds of media feeds tell me that these guys are the real rich postmen.

I might still end up chasing the dream. We all end-up chasing dreams. But, you know the result, right? And if you are still a 5 year old, you might have still got a little chance to save your precious little freedom. Switch off that damn TV, tear off the newspapers, ditch that friend who bugs you about all the great things you can buy if you had a little more money. Just go blind to all such nonsense. And may be then, you still have a little chance of being the real rich postman. And that ain't got anything to do with money or chocolates.

Note: I wish there were blogs when i was 5!
Note1: If you want to read further on why smart people do dumb things, read this guy's blog at http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2006/09/why_smart_peopl.html

Just like that!

This happens with me. Does it with you?

Chaos

Since you are here, do this:

curl up your legs, put more wood into the fire
and just watch.

Fire.

It slowly consumes everything.
Chaotic, but beautiful.

isn't it?