Hmmm... At last a reunion, made possible by the one and only Sushma - after a million calls/emails, voting, registration, et al. The day had finally arrived.
It was a good morning and as I woke up on a lazy Sunday, I was excited about meeting my college pals after a long time. As I was getting ready, it started raining cats and dogs. I couldn't believe it! "Damn!" I said, "Poora mood utar gaya."
Called up Harish quickly to check out if it was raining heavily in Mumbai (I felt like slipping into the blanket and getting some more sleep!)
But he persuaded me "Kya bachche jaisa bol raha hai, you just come to Borivli, baaki baadme dekhte hain!"
I then rang up Abhijit and decided that we'll let the rain subside a little before starting our long journey. Then called up Hemant who was going to wait for us at Thane stn. But it was too late, he was already on his way to Thane station.
Somehow reached Thane and managed to get the bus to Borivli a few minutes before 9.00 (the Asiad, I suppose). Hemant was waiting for us (I'm sure he was annoyed because we were late but then he didn't say anything!)
Just as the bus was on its way, we heard from Hemant that he had somehow managed to get an off on Sunday by swapping his shift with his colleague. (Poor guy - has to work 3 shifts in a row the next day.) As we talked about our usual job profiles and stuff (guyz don't have anything else to talk about anyway!), my phone started screaming. I knew who it was, coz it was time - 9.00 am - the time we were supposed to reach Borivli station.
Harish asked us our whereabouts and we told him we would reach National Park in 45 min. (Didn't mention that Hemant was wid us,he was not going to be a part of this picnic.)
We were just chatting - most of the time about the kgcecomp group and about friends in general, when we reached Sanjay Gandhi National Park at 9.45 am (that was 45 min flat - not bad after all!)
So we were kinda happy that we finally reached the oh-not-so-happening 'spot'. We were looking for familiar faces when we saw someone waving his hand - our own Harry! And with him were Sushma and Vidya.
As we walked towards them, we realised we had to buy tickets/entry-passes worth Rs.20/person - well, not bad for a sanctuary.
That's a paltry amount, I thought considering the amount ASI earns on its protected monuments. (Only 53 crore from ticket sales from 2000 protected monuments!)
We were happy to see someone waiting for us, people had indeed turned up. But then, we realised there were only 6 of us. Registered members 20, aur present sirf 6??? Bahut naainsaafi!
Sushma told us some more were expected - the rain had probably dampened everybody's spirits.
Also learnt that Vidya had reached Borivli at 8.45 am in true phirang style. But as you know, the trouble with being punctual is that therez nobody to appreciate you!
The rest of us go by IST;)
We started thinking about the possible spots we could visit but could not narrow down on something specific - Kanheri caves was the first option suggested. As we were waiting we saw a visibly toned down Rishi coming towards us. Pratik was the next to show up.
Since we were expecting more people, we thought about having something to eat (most of us didn't have breakfast; after all it was a Sunday morning!)
Harish and Sushma looked like they had had their fill for the day, so Hemant, Abhijit, Pratik and I went to the other side of the road to have our grub. I must say, people were really hungry - masala dosa and medu wadas were literally gulped within minutes.
When we came back, we found that Mitesh and Neena had joined us.
Sushma, aka Jhansi Ki Rani, thought that it was high time we started some sight seeing; late-latiffs could join in later. Rishi was officially pronounced our guide and we marched into the park, hoping to see some animals (whichever species were left!)
We missed the 'Vanrani', the mini train which takes you for a ride through the jungle overseeing some bridges and deer parks.(I think Neena missed Vanrani the most!) Thought about some boating in the lake, but then we kept walking as per our guide's instruction.
It was around 11 am when we reached the 'railway' staion (I guess it was Krishnagiri). We just followed the tracks and kept walking.
We were fortunate enough to see some spotted deer and a White Bellied Sea Eaglebird (we all argued about this one - for some it was a vulture, for others it was an eagle) , several GOATs. Rishi told us there were crocodiles in the lake but we
couldn't see any. We also were fortunate enough not to encounter a hungry leopard.
As we were trying to find some animals, we had the usual photography session - thanks to camera phones and a Nikon digicam, courtesy Sushma.
All of a sudden, it started raining, and it rained pretty heavily for this weather. We kept walking on our way to "Gandhi Topi" in Rishi's words, or Gandhi Smarak as it is officially called.
Neena constantly kept asking us "Ab aur kitna chalna hai?"
We had no choice, we kept walking our way through the rains. Most of us were exhausted and were happy to reach Gandhi Smarak. Finally, we found a nice place to sit.
Subbu, Daya, Lovely and Anushree came over in a Tavera( damn good car man!).
The three amigos joined us later - Rayan, Shashikant and Satish.
We were going to have some mysterious visitor according to Sushma, she didn't let anyone know about it until Subbu finally picked him up.
It was our own Sardar - Vaibhav, back from the US. It was great to see him there coz this guy hadn't even gone home to Ambernath.
We finally decided to go to Kanheri caves as most of the other options were ruled out considering the no of people (18 now).
How could we fit in so many people in one car?
It was a roller coaster ride to Kanheri with a kuchcha-pucca road combination all the way. Subbu was a bit worried about his car... but then it was a test for his SUV. And I must say that the Chevrolet Tavera passed with flying colors.
Poor Hemant had a bumpy ride with Satish and Shashikant on a bike. I couldn't make out who amongst the three was having more fun ;)
Sardar had brought some pics of KGCE probably shot during the 2nd/3rd year of college. Brought back some good old memories.
Then there was 93.5 RED FM playing some cool music. All of a sudden, everybody burst into laughter when the RJ mentioned that Vidya (Balan) has an affinity for older men. You should have seen the priceless expression on Vidya's face. It was a Mastercard moment. After enjoying our ride, we finally reached the caves.
The Kanheri Caves located well within the park area is a major point of interest, presenting an accessible and interesting glimpse of the history and the culture of Buddhist India.
Now that explains why we saw a tourist bus full of Lamas there.
It is said that there are 109 Buddhist caves here (why didn't I count them?).
These caves, chiseled out of the volcanic rock are simple small chambers, known as Viharas (cells for monks).
These caves date back from the 1st century BC to the 9th century AD, indicating a rather well organized Buddhist establishment of monks who dwelled on the ancient trade route connecting a number of trade centers and Indian ports. The whole cave area is the site of nearly 100 or more inscriptions - three of these are in Pallavis, two in Sanskrit, one in Devnagri and the rest in Brahmi script.
The most unique or rare motifs, which appear at Kanheri caves are
The eleven headed Avalokiteshwara.
Makara which appears on the Buddha's throne at about shoulder level.
I wish somebody could enlighten us about those aspects but I guess nobody among us was historically inclined.
We were there just to have a good time wid friends.
We had some garma garam samosas and Frooti - everyone needed some fuel at this point!
Some videshi chocolates too, courtesy Vaibhav. We made it a point that we didn't litter in that place and collected all waste in a polythene bag and carried it along with us to dispose it off somewhere. Not sure whose idea it was, but I truly appreciate it - we still have some conscience left in us.
We could spot a few monkeys and saw tourists feeding them. There were some foreigners with high-tech cameras too. Thereafter, we went sight seeing and had a few photo sessions.
Then it was time to go back. Few guys had to leave early, they bid farewell.
The rest were back to Subbu's car and we again managed to literally stuff ourselves into the car.
On our way back, we saw a security guard. Little did we know that he was going to double up as a ticket checker!
Everyone was kinda annoyed when we were asked to show our tickets. Shashikant was shocked when asked to produce a ticket for his bike - I guess he didn't have one.
But we managed to get away with it - the guard probably couldn't handle the pressure others put on him; aur seedha-saada aadmi tha bechara!
Once we came out of the park, there were plans for a movie. Not everyone was keen to go for the movie since all had their commitments.
Many exchanged cell numbers. I wonder how many of them actually called up each other after that.
All in all, it was gr8 fun and kudos to Sush for arranging such a get-together. Hope to have more...
