“The mother of all Road Trips.!!” Would be how inee would address this voyage as. The trip which made the word “Chalaaa!!” an anthem. The trip which saw the extent to which a gang of veterans could goto.. to revive the gud ol spirit. The trip which sought immediate action, spontaneity, reaction & BOOM!! we were on our way to the land of beaches, as I’d call it, Alibagh ( too many memories attached to this place… A life Changer..!! ).
It all started out as a B’day Bash…more of a fun cake party which did extend into a couple of shots to wash down the barley consumed earlier in the day. Then strikes the usual hunger, driving a car to the one beautiful place known to serve the ‘Papa’ of all delicacies… ‘Egg Bhurji’. This kinda lead on to plans being made at exactly sumthing past midnite tuning the strings we follow to yet another one of the due spontaneity trips that we were dwelling on earlier.
Since that day I have been inching to write this down someplace … call it laziness or lack of papyrus… or just me…. It happened to be today…. D Day!! Yet another time me staring at a blue screen reminiscing the times & glowing with that ‘Eid Ka Chaand’ as inee would call it, thinking of what actually did inspire the whole trip.!
I suppose it was just the mood, the ambience & most importantly the fact that inee came from the USofA, Bhau had the time & I had ‘Chalaa’ to attribute my tongue..lol ( Can’t forget the spirits that led to it tho..!).
A Bday, 10 glasses & Bhau cha Peg were the ingredients. Inee, Bhau, Ijee & me the ice cubes & A City (Beige) the vessel… To keep it short & crisp these were the factors that led to the dream which wasn’t conceived for a looong time ( an understatement) coz the last spontaneous trip culminated at the same location. There was an addition of of hammocks too last time coz we were dead tired by the time we got ourselves to the dreamy sands & the bluish skies.
A range hunt, Beer, Fires Surmai, Fired Pomfret, Cucumbers, Tomatoes, Chappathis & Bhurji was what we’d call in human terms ‘ A La Carte’!! The ocean was just too dreamy to be true & this time I did spot the horizon…. Absolutely beautiful. I did see it with my own buttons, the sea & the ocean do cross paths …. I still wonder if its an illusion tho.
We made the approach early into the morning savouring Pav Bhurji & chai at a random tapri with a really hospitable & warm kaka who did all that for us at that hr in the morning. Making a stop at a hand pump was the highlight of the trip upstream with residents of the place making sure we weren’t upto sumthing stupid…. Clicked pics… seemed to lose the cameras ’Lajja Vastr!!’… regaining it back on an extensive reverse, blair witch hunt & moving on through roads laden with trees on both sides of the road ( Didn’t check their colour…would’ve been green I suppose tho.), hunt for a place to crash, found it… No…..the place is shut… Chaal aage chalte… Mil gay Mil gaya…. Smiles all over… Crashed a while..
At least I thought we crashed. Bhau & inee are full of energy… they start off with our clans ever satisfactory time-killer….. ‘ chewing Gum’… and I truly felt like gods were talkin from heaven and stuff. The sudden bursts of laughter & then silence……the four of us laugh like mad F***s.
Mornin contd….Me and Bhau go to find the first rays of sunlight at the place we were dreaming of to be for so long…. ‘ Kashid’… and finally we are here on those very silky white sands right next to the shiny blue lustrous ocean… looking out & exclaiming ….’ Damn!! This feels good’(Censored version for public viewing). And thus we start out on our hunt for some barley to begin the morning…. Just to keep the spirit of the beach up & kicking (The hangover of GOA still lying deep within).
We remember to make our final calls (The hunt for range) to everybody telling them we are safe & we shall be back before the next sun rises. And thus we did. Travelled a long way across the mountains to finally stall at an erection which resembled a radio tower. The funny part was that there was just one spot on the entire face of the earth at that point where you are connected to the rest of the world. A lil north, south, east or west from that point…. And you are out of this galaxy. Wrapped up the calls & went ahead with our gala time.
Went totally the other way in search of the spirits, found it…picked it….We’r back in the hotel & yearning for more. Thus me & Bhau start off the morning again with a hot cup of ‘ Chai’… Go bac into the room….. I Sip on some spirit & watch the beauty of mother nature from the balcony which was about 300m or so from the beach.
Beautiful fields with banana leaves & a couple of Kingfishers caught my attention. You look at them & you feel they are just a couple of normal birds coloured black but perched elegantly. When they do fly away, you realize how beautiful the colour blue is despite witnessing the majestic ocean & the brilliant morning skies!! There was another instance when I witnessed a breeze moving green shrubs in a pattern that was just unbelievable to the naked eyes.
Me & ijee go to the beach with our first load of spirits. Talked about everything under the sun including mythology, spirits, life & general stuff…. Very enlightening though…Like I keep saying… the potential of the human mind is beyond the imagination of mankind. The way people think, interpret, perceive & React are so damn diverse that makes YOU think how many emotions or variations of the same emotion exist in the world…… Just Fabulous the creation called humans.
We back into our lil terrace…sitting around doing more of eating this time around…. The spirit still within… this is the place where the fried delicacies were delivered. The last dialogue I remember here is ‘ Let’s Crash for a while’….and Voila!!... we did..!!
Stubborn arse that I am, inee had to take all his efforts & emotional atyachar to get me off the bed in the evening. And I was dragged down literally from my bed & I did wake up. We were off to watch the sunset glowing in subtle purple set in the background of a brilliant orange curtain. I still marvel at the fact as to how the ocean looks a brilliant violet during this phase.
We braved the sea knee down…..lol. Inee was up & ready for the brunt of the ocean screaming ‘Bring it on’, the further into the body of water that he fathomed. A man-made sand ball was thrown around from end to end while capturing the brilliant picturesque through Bhau’s lens was indeed pleasurable. A couple of canines had the time of their life as inee’s vest & Bhau’s shoes lured them into abducting the items as playthings or toys to be precise & boy!….they had a ball.
Inee & Bhau chased these dogs down & retrieved both the vest and the shoes. The vest did have a bit of freestyle art after the battle but the shoes were jus a lil soggy.. Baaki sab Khayriyat hai…!! Lol… Spotted the artist ‘Mann’ who had captured both ‘ Manjuri’ & himself within a heart shaped sand-castle adorning the beach which left us to wonder… they did leave their destiny to the ocean too.!
We traced our way back to the hotel, had a brief discussion bout the economic crisis in Ireland with a poised lady ( who knew more than we did about our motherland ). She’d travelled a lot & had an amazing amount of detail & experiences on every soil since the creation of the earth. An amazing, enlightened lady I must say. She knew her way around the world.!!
Famished & Drained, we were looking for our favy place to dine…’ Samman’…unfortunately they were open for just the first half of the day. We then were out hunting again & were faced with the grossest of Bangda( Fish) fries ever to have seen the face of the earth. The next place we ended up at(rather discovered) served us delicious prawns with a mouthwatering Fish thali… By far the best I’ve tasted so far. Now with the heaviest of stomachs there was just on thing left for me to do….’ Sleep unto the end of the world’… but then I hear the downstream anthem… inee saying ‘So jaa!! Wine shop aa gaya..!!’.
And thus ‘ The U!! Turn at shivajinagar that changed it all!!’
Cheers Inee Bhau & Ijee
Ajay Padattil
18/01/2011
