Friday, July 31, 2009

Fallback option ... !!

There are times when the mundane stuff gets so overly done that you always start thinking what brings you joy in such a situation. All those moments that you have had fun in the past keep juggling in your mind and then you filter those to come to one such option that will get you out of such an ignominy.

Today, Sabhtarsha and I were caught in such a scenario. Sabhtarsha had just mopped up his work for the weekly Build and I had almost finished the tasks assigned to me. Post lunch ... we were in a quandary as to what we should do. TT was a good option. Coffee/Tea was another. A walk down the Bungalow scheme at Pinnac society was another. We ended up walking to a place, not very far away from office. Its around 10 minutes from office and we like the coffee they serve. After sipping through a 15 minute talkathon, heading back to office was the last thing we were looking forward to. Walked back to office. Tried doing some work. Got harried. Though we sit a mere peek away from each other, we mostly communicate over GTalk. Both wanted to go out again. And off we went again. This time Sabhtarsha took his bike along and we decided to check out some USB hard disk drives. Checked them out at Sujata and Sai which brought us quite close to College ... our beloved Fergusson College. Yeah ... Fallback option numero uno ...

Right ... so we were at the right place at the wrong time ... :P

We moved to Savera. After a long time, I had the pleasure of sitting at an outside table. Tea and Toast Butter was the near perfect foil. Another round of talks ... some more frustration vented ... some more philosophy vomitted out ... and it was turning out to be a jolly evening on a working day. Weekend was alive and kicking.

We entered college. What a feeling. Those trees, that parking lot that greets you and then the crowd. Times have changed. Every student looks like a kid but that doesnt mean we dont ogle at them. What a serene campus ... year after year ... it fails to disappoint you ... we didnt turn left from the Circle ... coz that would have taken us to our department and we were not very keen to interact with students or teachers ... so off we went to the ground ...

There were lots of cricket matches on display and we had the liberty to pick and choose any game we liked. Some years back, we were one of them. Shirts tucked into the trousers ... sleeves rolled up and a free swing of the bat ... stumps in disarray ... an easy catch dropped ... a stupid runout ... arguments over the Umpire's decisions ... such an everyday scene on a College ground. We ripped apart every possible classmate of ours in conjunction with the way they played cricket and ended up laughing our lungs out.

There was a special moment too. Vande Mataram was being played somewhere and at that instant itself, the entire ground stood still ... mind numbing ... one of the better sights of my Fergusson life ... kudos ...

It was 5 pm ... we had been out of office since 2 pm ... at the back of our minds we knew that we may get a mouthful from the folks back in office but it was one of those days when the atmosphere at office itself was asking us to take a break ...

We came back to office only to spend some more time with colleagues in the parking lot. And then ... instead of climbing the stairs to our 2nd floor desks ... we went straight into the lift and onto the 4th floor to play some TT. The next hour was spent sweating over smashes and slices and some fantastic rallies.

Its 7:45 pm now ... and we knew our Fallback option would never fail us ...

A long weekend like this is always welcome ... :D

Cheers ... !!

Thursday, July 09, 2009

Comparing stalwarts ... !!

Of late ... I have been visiting Good Luck and Vohuman a lot.

Vohuman holds a special place since I spent a lot of time there during my time in Wadias. That cramped ambience, round tables and the scent similar to that of a bakery lured me so many times to this helluva place.

I started frequenting Good Luck only when I moved to Fergys. No doubt, it is another stalwart in the Irani cafe shed.

So I thought I would compare the two ...

Good Luck is much more spacious ... there are 3 separate alleys of rooms ... Vohuman is comparatively much smaller ...

You dont get to see too many funnier people than Bava from Vohuman. His shayaris and non-veg jokes are a rave among Vohumanians (if I can call them that) ... Good Luck hardly have any funny or even decent speaking people at the "Galla" ... mostly your queries are answered in a very straight forward way ... this might be good for some people ... but I feel Bava steals the show here ...

I have said this before and I say it again. No one serves better Cheese Omlettes than Vohuman ... when you eat it ... you feel more of cheese and less of egg ... its the other way round in Good Luck ...

Similarly, Scrambled eggs on Toast is an absolute delight at Good Luck ... I dont think Vohuman has something like that ... and even if they do ... I am sure Good Luck wins hands down ...

The trademark Bun Maska ... I think its better in Vohuman ... they have more Tooti-Fruity in it :P

I find the Masala Omlette better at Good Luck ... while the tea is better at Vohuman ...

Service is more or less the same ... nothing to choose over there ...

Vohuman serves everything on the menu throughout the day ... Good Luck has certain reservations ... they serve breakfast stuff only in one of the rooms after a certain time ... the other 2 rooms are reserved for meals ...

The meals are out of the top draw at Good Luck ... the Biryanis and Chicken dishes are a major hit ... Vohuman pales in comparison ...

Parking is a huge issue at both places ... for Vohuman ... you can either park at Jehangir or some other place ... this involves some walking ... for Good Luck, it depends when you go there ... if its post 9 am ... you may have a harrowing time finding a place to park ...

Overall sentiment? ... Breakfast at Vohuman ... Meals at Good Luck ...

Go have a bite ... Cheers ... !!

Monday, July 06, 2009

Crackerjack weekend ... !!

And even that is an understatement.

It was an enthralling weekend ... er ... extended enthralling weekend. We didnt even know it would turn out to be such a showpiece.

When Biwi and I came back from swimming on Thursday morning, we were at Meghdoot having an Uttapam and discussing what we would do tomorrow (it was Biwi's birthday). We both had applied for leave but we were unsure as to what we would end up doing. Dinesh had said that he will also be on leave if there is some plan. Prakash had said that he will not get a leave come what may. Somehow, MUMBAI came up ... :)

No more discussion was needed. We were going into flashback mode. Back in 2004, I had just learned how to drive a car and Biwi was working in Mumbai at that time. I had borrowed money from numerous friends (I was not working then) and managed to go to Mumbai to surprise Biwi on her Birthday. We had gone to Marine Drive to cut the Birthday cake. Yes ... we were going to do that again.

The plan was to leave Pune by 9 pm and reach Marine Drive by midnight. Spend time at Marine Drive. Move on to Taj and Cafe Leopold and round it off with a drive on the Worli-Bandra sea link (it was toll free for another 4 days :P). With this discussed, we left for office on Thursday.

Biwi and I reached home at 8 pm and were ready to leave in another 30 minutes. Prakash came home. We left at 8:45 pm and moved to Chandni Chowk. We met Dinesh over there and left for Mumbai. We all were very hungry and had to stop near Indira Institute to have some food. By the time we left, it was 10:30 pm. The drive till Lonavala was hassle free but fog engulfed the road at Khandala. Visibility was sketchy and driving was extremely slow. To make matters worse, the land slides had caused 2 lanes to be shut. When we started descending the Ghat, fog disappeared but only to be replaced by rain. It was breezy rain till Panvel but when we entered New Mumbai, it started pouring down. Fortunately, the time was such that there were hardly any vehicles on the road. It was scary to watch cars parked on the road itself. All the images of News channels came storming back about the dreadful Mumbai rains. By the time we cleared Chembur and Sion, the rain was getting even more heavier. We reached Marine Drive at 1 am. It was just drizzling now and we thought it was quite apt coz we had to cut the Birthday cake. We all got down and Biwi did the needful.












We enjoyed for around an hour. There was a police van just behind our car which prompted us to get moving. We moved on to the Taj and it was a mixed feeling. We were driving through the lanes of Colaba asking for directions. The next thing we knew was that we were in the Taj driveway. An ensemble of security personnel greeted us. We had no intention of going inside the Taj. We asked them for directions for Cafe Leopold. Since there was a divider in place, we had to go towards the end of the Taj and take a U-turn. It was both fascinating and gruelling to watch to Taj from so close. There were still some dark spots around. Sigh. Towards the corner of our eyes, we could see the Gateway of India in all its splendor. It looks even better on a rainy overcast night without a crowd.



We reached Cafe Leopold but I guess it was too late. The shutters were semi closed and we thought we can give it a miss.



Right then. Onto the Worli-Bandra sea link. We kept asking for directions to reach Kemp's Corner in Worli. We even thought of getting down and visiting Haji Ali but the rain was so heavy that walking down the sea for 15 minutes didnt sound very exciting. We finally reached the sea link and wasnt it awesome? Hats off. It looks like a showpiece. In hindsight, it could be said that it should be looked at during the daytime but nevertheless it was a spectacle at night. Clicking pics was difficult due to the rain. The police didnt allow us to get down from the car and stand on the bridge. After spending around 30 minutes, we moved on.








We got down at Bandra and moved towards Pune via Sion, Chembur and Vashi. The rain was incessant and showed no respite at all. We needed some snacks and tea since I was feeling sleepy while driving. We halted at a hotel just before Lonavala. Biwi took over from me in the car and I dozed off a bit. Then we experienced 10 minutes of mayhem.

Towards Khandala, we were driving from the centre lane and the car stopped all of a sudden. There was a truck around 20 meters behind us and we had to make sure the car didnt retrace. The hand break was not pulled up completely so I pulled it hard. I took the driver's seat but the hand break was not ready to come down. Wet hands made it all the more difficult. There was a mini traffic jam coz of us and the truck behind evaded us by a whisker. Finally, we were able to get the hand break off and moved on. Phew ... !!

We reached Pune at 7 am and went to Good Luck. Had some Naashta and dropped Dinesh at Chandni Chowk. Prakash also went home while Biwi and I hit the sack as soon as we reached home.

The Birthday was spent at my in-laws place. My Saala had bought a new Pulsar 180. We all went to Dagdushet Ganpati to perform pooja. Some shopping ensued and at 8 pm, DAPP were back together at Inox. We saw Ice Age 3. Delightful movie. A must watch. I would advise everyone to catch a night show during some weekend coz families get their kids and its a fun atmosphere in the movie hall listening to giggles and crackles of kids. We came to our place after the movie and Dinesh and Prakash had got some crackers.

We were not sure if 11 pm was the right time for crackers but still we went ahead. After some shots, 2 guys came storming out of a society and started yelling at us. We knew it was our fault and apologized immediately but there guys were not ready to cool down. Finally, we asked them to take any action they desire against us before moving on.

I met Pranay and Devyani at Good Luck on Saturday morning (Biwi was working). It was funny. I had gone to Mumbai the same day that they had come down to Pune. :). We walked till IMDR (for old time's sake :P)and chatted for an hour or so. Then I went to Gaurav's place. Initially, only Gaurav and I were supposed to meet. But we were joined by Charan, Amol and Pushkar. We had a great time chatting away till evening. Amol was the show stealer as always. Kudos sire :P.

Dinesh and Prakash had got an aquarium for Biwi as her Birthday gift. The 2 fish are very cute. We have named them Nemo and Peaches. :P
It was a typical DAPP Saturday night.

Sunday was consumed mostly by sleep and rounded off with the marathon Wimbledon final. IT WAS ALL IN THE EYES ... ANDY BLINKED FIRST ... !!

Cheers to a wonderful weekend ... !!