Kalaghoda Fest

12th,13th,14th Feb 10 was a long weekend and I din had many plans for the same. So i decided to check out the Kalaghoda fest in South Mumbai. I had heard a lot bout it in the papers and so was very inquisitive about the same. and it turned out to be the perfect stress buster for me. Thousands of people had gathered on each day to visit the stalls, plays, movies etc. You could find people from all genre, nationalities, religions, occupations that Mumbai inhibits on the same small stretch of land. Add to it the colors, lights, patterns on display at the various stalls, photo exhibition and at the open air auditorium and i thought where else would one witness so much intermingling of humanity. There was a separate section for various NGOs that had come from as far as Jamshedpur to display and sell their work which drew large number of people. I shopped, ate, caught a play, a dance, invited friends and spent 2 wonderful evenings at the fest.

Kalaghoda festival of arts, culture, films and of humanity was a wonderful event and it made me realize Y i love this city. Will surely make as many visits as possible the next time it happens :)

Mahabaleshwar - City of Strawberries and ..'Points' :)

6th and 7th Feb 10 weekend I was off to Mahabaleshwar with my family which is some 5-6 hrs drive from Mumbai. We left early morning and the prospects of driving on the Mumbai-Pune expressway yet again excited me. The drive was smooth with wonderful views of the ghats once we reached near the destination. I drove on the winding roads uphill which was an experience in itself.

The city welcomes you with tonnes of strawberries lined up on the road side. I havnt seen this scarcely available fruit in North India in such quantities ever before. Needless to say, we gorged and ate nothing but berries till a long time when we finally settled down in a comfortable resort.

The city was cool and cleaner than most other cities but it did not had much to offer in terms of tourist spots apart from a lake and wonderful views of the western ghats. As with most hill stations in India the city lacked maintenance of whatever infrastructure the British build with Indians sticking to the task of inventing 'points' to attract tourists. and so I had in my hands a list of some 20 points within the vicinity of the city, names of which could not suggest what is the beauty of that point. So we began to check them out - some 12 of them lay 12 kms from the main city. My guess was right when i wondered how could 12 points lie so close to each other (and they were closer than i thought - spaced some 20 meters apart!! offering views from diff angles of the ghats). In fact, at some places the points could only be seen thru the telescopes ppl had planted (and the corresponding story that went with it as to Y is that point important). Most of the 'points', we thus realized, were pointless to visit.

The lake ride was better with all of us trying our hand at rowing and enjoying it. The evening walk at the market was also nice including the strawberry shake and shopping. The next morning also included visit to the remaining 'Points' which turned out to be better than expected (esp the Kate Point). The table top point had 8 more points within itself and offered fables which you would have heard as a child (and could appreciate only if u were one).

We started on our way back after lunch and it was my turn to scorch the expressway :) If you love driving than u cant afford to miss doing it on this driveway. All in all it was a wonderful wy to spend a weekend and i really enjoyed it. :)

Cruise

It was a long time desire to go on a cruise. Being in Mumbai with a gang of chilling enthu people gave me an opportunity to fulfill that desire. 30th Jan 2010 we started our journey for an overnight cruise off to High Seas and what a journey it was!!

From the very start it was filled with Bollywood type suspense. Me and my gang of 9 ppl had to reach the ferry terminal at 7 pm to board the cruise at 8 pm but alas 6 of us were waiting for the churchgate local at Borivali station at 7.00 PM!!! I had almost given up the hope of making it to the cruise but not my gang (and specially SSN who by now has a habit of dealing with such crises, being in such situations every now and then). So we called our remaining 3 friends to reach on time and somehow stop the cruise, called the authorities stating that we got stuck in an office meeting and on our way so please delay the thing by 15-20 mins etc etc.

Luck also favored us as we got a super fast train which took flat 40 min to reach Mumbai Central, TT ignored to check our tickets at the Andheri station (we had 2nd class tickets and were travelling in 1st class) while checking it for rest 60% of the passengers etc.

Ultimately it look a lil bit of luck, some pleading, a lot of running and praying that we could catch the last ferry to the cruise at around 8 pm!! and yes it was a wonderful feeling.

Once on the cruise the long night was ahead of us. We got involved in eating, dancing, exploring, watching some shows etc. The cruise as such was below my expectations but i din mind it much. Me and AN shared a beer and gazed at sea gulls in the night till around 3 am in the morning when SSN suggested we get to playing poker.

Reluctantly 7 of us agreed to give it a shot. and it turned out to be an addiction that kept us at the table till 7 in the morning!! It was an awesome experience and even the card shy of us (Like ND) begged for a last game with the rising sun :)

The cruise was a fun filled experience with lots of chilling and we got back with smiling faces thinking of it. It was a night of true non-stop-chilling that I so desire of every now and then :)