Saturday, October 17, 2009

Mumbai 'N Goa Experience...

I was think originally thinking of compiling the stuff the notes i took, but rather feel like copy pasting the notes itself...

Here it goes:

1. Bus truck kiss at Gurgaon. Last ppl to board the plane. Mumbai autos stalking us. Mumbai food pav bhaji, paneer bhurji. Leg outside auto and a pole. Rush to bus. Again the last ones.

2. Goa. Chinki at first site(short clothes). Free hsptl. Abr ch (Abhishek and chhavi) at Panaji. Joy gh (guest house) calangute. Cafe n pool n Xacutti. Key locked inside ch (chhavi) at 1 am. Dope.

3. Beach n beer. Mota story (firang kiss experience). Brkfst at 4pm. Activa's. Baga beach. Hukka n Port wine. Karaoke (wonderwall n other fav's + bonus Ipaddi something something). Airport Mota 4am. Costliest loo (45rs per head at airport).

4. Looser cruise panaji (leave the beer and dancing). Abr ch bye bye. New bikes (FZ and Avenger). Brittos Cafe at Baga(Good food + cakes).

5. New Rooms(cheaper). Anjuna cozy place - shore bar (with a kittie, dogs and a cute kid). Vagatore beach, chapora fort (people staring at 4 Greenies). Arambhol (movie shows - sex and the city etc in the cafe).

6. Panjim church. Old Goa church (nice stretch along the sea for riding). Calangute - Fisherman's cove (baby king fish and pomfret). Cutting day. Anna's plan drenched in rain.

7. More rain. Plans screwed. Pete's eggs. 13 total. Greenies Meanies 4. Condolim beach. Wrecked ship. Aguada fort looser place (or it was the rain.. don't knw). Rain getting on our nerves. Pete's xacutti + sorpotel (yummy). Anna's Sutta lit from a Dhooop. No tito's mambo's (too expensive). Lots of beer. No lights (they closed down the bar but we refused to go 'N cleared up tables and those guys slept). Drunken night thuss (NOTE: I am still making notes :) ).
"Mohabatt to bahut hai"..
".... decision to ab tumhara hai"
"Samundar mein doob kar..."
3.3am v left bar. Staff slept on tables. Hukka. 6am call to . Slept in trinity (these are the notes from the last night. Trinity means 4 of us slept on the same bed in a triangular kinda formation).

8. Left room. Pete's. More eggs. Infantaria - lobster, dream may cum true (it did!) ; cheap extensive but slow service. Port wine in bus (Goa->Mumbai) wid salted cashews. Good nap. Chilli (had no blankets + A/C bus + Wet clothes... :P).

9. Mumbai. Luggage at cousin's. Local (train) travel (only Sid stayed up). Nariman pt n Marine drive. Gateway of India. Colaba. Leopold Cafe (Shantaram's fans - Me Negi n Sid). Area resembles CP. Bagdadi - cheap nonveg no nonsense (Irani resto). Coffee /2 at Taj; super nonsense.

And thats all :)

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Eyewitness from an Eye... P-)

Subu's b'day party... 26th Night...
This was supposed to be the biggest bonanza of the year and indeed it was something! People with their crazy ideas of Fasting... (means no drinking)... finally broke the vows on the day. Okay then... lets start:

Don't knw why but i decided to fit everything into the tight schedule. Watched Terminator 4: salvation with office colleagues and rushed back home to pick my transportation: The Royal Bullet. Kicking life into it, i rushed to pick up Shruti just in time to get a beating... (for being late of course!)... But it was a wish come true actually!! ;) On the way she was telling how Veronica told her that she'd kill her if she doesn't show up; which is when i told her that i used the same thing on Veronica herself... :P

We reached Gurgaon with a lot of time to spare. Wasn't 12 already at least! Then the whole Mel Milaap thingie went on... We then waited to Sabana, richa, ksingh and negi to show up. Apparently, these guys went to a Mall to start their own party! Couldn't blame them. There wasn't any electricity there and the heat was just taking its toll. Finally these guys showed up and then again the whole Mel Milaap thing went on. Couldn't understand the girl shouting and wooing thing during the whole process. Anyway, after like 10-15mins we realized that Ksingh was missing in action. Everyone looked at Negi and ...!! :0... She wondered if she had left her locked in the car... lolz.. The search party found her standing by Negi's car in the posture of retching (ready to Puke). When asked to join the party, she showed a Fingure... (not THE FINGURE...) saying 1 min lagega.. :) People eventually loose sense of time in their inebriated state. By that time Reddy, veronica and Joneja also joined the party... and ksingh too came up after her first session of .. u knw what...

Subu finally got to cut his b'day cake (all thanx to casing) at around 1/2 an hr past 12. Pandey Papa and company enjoying their Euro trip rang up for the wishes... and its was Papa's b'day as well... :)
Non-drinkers didn't have a place here... but Shruti somehow manages to be at par with her latent abilities... (reminds me of Fassi and his juice pack)... The more subtle people took to their sweet spots and settled down...
We had some of the finest whisky, vodka and tequila available at the counter... :) The first bottle of whisky went into thin air in matter of minutes!! And thats when i knew the party has already taken its turn for the best... Crazy dancing, with shubham and me as the only representatives of our gender... and rest all items from the other... :P I even made them do the sit-ups bhangra steps!! And as always... there was no stopping our favourite Veronica... kept falling on reddy (already asleep)... like a bomb!! Sabbu (read Sabana) copied exact steps for the dance number "Marjaani - billu".

The jamming went on for a while and then around 3am we settled down to eat some fun and some of those good old wedding talks for ksingh... always an interesting topic :) That it point till which i remember... just don't knw when i went to sleep...

People left one by one and the lesser mortal souls, troubled by the power cuts, decided to take the party to Mocha... While people had Green Apple Hukka, i had the smoke... :| and subu had a NAP!! :)


Mademoiselle Chhavi: you are probably the only person who hasn't change a bit in this 1 yr after college. Good for us!
Mademoiselle Richa: Wow!!! how much slimmer you intend to get haan???
Sabbu: Nice glasses man... wonder what it reminds us of?
Ani sir: You are the ideal child courtesy Manishita...
The 3 musketeers: You guys are my favourite...
Anna: Dude!! Hope u had some sleep on the following days... This guys didn't sleep at all that night!

The organisers: Sorry for the appartment guys on behalf of everyone... but man you guys rock!!

And those of you who might be wondering whats with the Heading "...An Eye"... well actually i had injured one of eyes when i reached and had to keep a patch (hanky with ice) on it for like the rest of the time... thats why the smilie.... P-) innovative naa...??

Thursday, June 18, 2009

The Aroma of Seventh Heaven

Sitting in the cab today i recalled... where all it began; the mystical power that this smell holds over me.


The Beginning:
Setup: Boy's hostel - 1, NSIT, Dwarka.
Year : 2006-7

After a full day of hard work in the college... mix of masti and study... I used to come back to the hostel just in time for the Evening snacks. The snacks varied between bread pakoda, sandwiches, samosa... and other unexciting stuffs. They may have been unexciting yet I used to keep an alarm for each meal. Couldn't afford to skip many meals with my physique :P. So... Like any ordinary day, i stuffed my stomach with dinner as much as i could without puking. One could stuff their stomach but the hunger was there to stay. And we went to bed with this hunger of heart...

Some time in the night the sleep broke, whether due to this unbearable hunger or some crazy maniac playing idiotic songs at full volume or some shouting (b'day celebrations often) or just another call from nature. You open the door... not expecting anything... literally blank... when a fine aroma takes ur attention!! In an instance u forget why u are awake... why u are alive... and the hunger speaks and u follow that magical thing, bound by its spell. Subconsciously, u end up at the doorstep of room no. B 304...

Something animated is in there!! What is this guy doing at 3 in the morning??!! But without any further question u knock on the door... and.... tadaaa.....!!! u now know... its

Maggi!!!!
But not just any maggie...
a maggie cake being cooked on an ordinary room heater with almost perfected skills of the Kumar... Sumit Kumar (maado)...
And one bit of the hot steamy maggi, directly out of the utensil used to cook it... and u are on a direct bus to the Cloud Nine... :D

Nothing better to pacify the hunger in your heart...



Even now... i wake up middle of the night... with an expectation in heart... and wish... i could teleport to that exact setup just once more... and cherish the same...
Aroma of the Seventh Heaven...

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Chansal Road Trip

Day 1:

Destination: Chakrata <2275m>

Distance: 364kms!!

Riders:

Indigo – PT, Swetaab, Keshav and Jeetu

RE Std – RD and Chander

RE Electra – CB and AJ

Pulsar 180 - AB

The first day of the trip started with a pending sleep for everybody from the last night, all thanx to Fassi. The car was behind the schedule in reaching the meeting point so we decided to start with the bikes at around 7 a.m. With tanks full, we hit the road; destination Chakrata ( around 350 kms ). Skipping through the traffic jams at Mujafarnagar and Rorkee on our bulls, we knew it would be hard for the car to catch up; that too with our frequent breaks (sutta, water and stuff…).

We decided to have our breakfast at a Dhaba on the outskirt of Rorkee. Interesting fact: we got CB’s bike’s permanent number here in Rorkee. Okay… so… with our breakfast done, still the car couldn’t catch up so we decided to move on. But fate has some play left. The pulsar got punctured and we had to stop a little longer; long enough to meet our new friends: Swetaab and Keshav (who were in the car). We gathered again at Dehradun. Bike has its own limitations. It gets heated up pretty fast and that makes breaks a mandate. The Indigo gained easy on us from here couz we didn’t have traffic to our advantage. That was actually a good thing J. PT and others were waiting near a hairpin turn for us. When we arrived he told us that he couldn't see us coming but hear the thunder approaching!

Well that’s why we are Bulleteers… nai? Out of the 150 kms approx from Dehradun – Chakrata, only 48kms is hill riding. But the elevation and less traffic made up for it. We barely managed to reach Chakrata before dusk. Having eaten only one meal since morning, we were really hungry and Bun-Omlette did the trick for us. So much so that we did our breakfast the next day the same way! We couldn't find any accommodation there so we had to do a little more riding to YudhVeer’s. It was a Moonlight drive along the hill where one could see where he’ll end up if he goes off the road, all thanx to the No-Tree hills. Mithun Dada’s movie Roti ki Keemat kept us going through the rest of the night. Probably another post is required to explain that! That along with the l**** wildlife story.And L**** se yaad aya... Swetaab bhaiya kaise ho?? ;)

 

Day 2:

Destination: Rohru <1600m>

Distance: 80kms to Tuini, +45kms to Rohru

Riders: PT shifted to Bike while Chander went in Car

 View from Chakrata Hotel in the morning.

This is what the view from our hotel in Chakrata looked like in the morning. One major concern was that there aren’t any Patrol pumps there and we were well… “out of gas”. Buying it from the locals cost us 50% extra but he had little option. The road to Rohru is a pretty decent one and we didn’t face much of a problem hereafter. Took our time doing pits shots here and there.

 Goats are Real!

Who'd make a Hut there???

Finally, we made it to Rohru. Inquiring the locals there about Chansal’s approachability, we were a little disheartened. They told us that we are way over our heads and we won’t be able to make it to Chansal at this time of the year. Had lot of discussions over this and finally decided to GO FOR IT!!! Dinner time movie was one of Keshav's favourites.. .Laadla... Yes!!! thats the movie. He even recited Tilak Bhandari's (Shakti Kapoor) original "Tunna Tunnafor us. When we were about to shut the TV, he suggested we should wait as Sri Devi's gang rape attempt is about to be screened!!

 

 

Day 3:

Destination: Chansal Pass <4250m>

Distance: 40kms only…

We had our breakfast at Chirgaon, about 17kms from Rohru. When we entered the market there, every eye turned to us… or rather our Royal Rides to be fair. The Thunder was probably just irresistible for the crowd. This is when you could say “Feels like God!”… not some crappy 180cc effort at a geaser… a 350cc beast. We decided to replace our Indigo with a 4x4 couz of the terrain ahead. With our stomachs full, we decided to take a dip

just to cool off a bit.

The stretch along the river from Chrigoan was just amazing. However, the start of the rough trek was a bit scary. One would think if this is the beginning what was awaiting? There was steep inclination throughout and the pulsar could not bear 2 people. Even the locals at Chirgaon advised to leave the pulsar behind. Anyhow, way ahead of the car and not aware of the route, we just kept on riding. Then came the Super Bummer…

We had to cross thisriver to continue on the trek. CB went ahead first, and then came PT with the pulsar. While I was watching all this, I realized I’d better get my shoes off couz one wouldn’t want them wet. I asked Chander to kick the Bullet to life (I won't be reciting the "bike rakkhi hui thi wali" story here!) The dude, after doing that, decided to put the bike in gear and went ahead in the stream. The bike came to a halt in the middle and I had to run bare feet to push it. So eventually, everyone (except AJ) had to have their feet wet. You don’t want to know why Chander did this when I was trying to use my brains!!! :P On the TOP of all this, we were finally confirmed that we were on the WRONG TREK! :O And NO we didn’t cross the stream again. Instead we used the wooden bridge balanced on tree trunks across.


On the first signs of snow I started shouting. It had been a while actually since I have seen snow.

 First signs of SNOW!!

And CB had to bear with me all the way! Well the time finally came when we could no longer take the bike through Mud and Ice layers.

 

We chained them up in the side and joined the 4x4 gang.

The ride was scarier than I expected. The car would just start slipping with low traction and a layer of mud on the wheel. Ice on the road added to the concern. Time finally came when we ditched the car as and took off on foot. We encountered a bunch of locals going across Chansal for a Cricket Tournament. Their driver just didn’t know when to give up!

 

Now I ain’t qualified enuf to do justice to Chansal’s Virgin beauty. I’ll let the pictures talk then. Like the resplendent crown for a noble face, the snow clad Chanshal range rises above the Pabbar Valley” Pabbarvalley.com

And return trip isn’t much worth my time and effort :P

But I'd refer to one of the wonderful one liners of Keshav bhaiya...

"Kutte to hum bhi hai... Magar Paaaltu zyada..."

And of course!

Royal Enfield: Made like a gun, runs like a bullet

 

 

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Read before you Forward

On a normal day this post would have been about :
1. How people support Forwarding Chains of mails
2. Mails with no relevance to mail
3. Jokes with no sense

But because it ain't no normal day, its not about that at all. Its not about the content of the mail but the Subject line itself.

Today Mr.P asked me to forward him a Joke or some interesting message. I tried my best to convince him that I am not a supporter of such mails and having realised this people don't forward junk to me anymore. Now frustrated with his persuasion, I do forward him a joke. Turns out this guy needed to forward this mail to a girl (haven't met her since 8th and chatting for a while now).

Now "frustrated" me took out all my frustration on the Subject line.  Mr.P reading the content and not paying any attention to the subject line forwards the message to the "chic". He's screwed alrite. Lets see how that turns out. :)

Moral : Don't push it too far with Raman.