June- a rocking month!

June is my favourite month. Any guesses why? Coz it’s my ‘birth-month’ :). But this month I had more than one reason to celebrate. I have listed them in four parts, as follows:

Reason to celebrate no. 1: House warming

I found myself a chic pseudo- 2BHK flat (coz 1 room is locked by the owner) on the Hill Road, Bandra. (I can see those envious eyes ;). Courtesy my friend’s distant relative, we got the flat at quite a reasonable rent, after a lot of house hunting (see blog titled ‘House hunting Blues’ to know more). The place has it all- fridge, TV, washing machine, microwave, etc etc… and is damn close to Banstand and Hill Road shopping market. (Don’t be shocked if I add that we have shopped only once on Hill Road and never been to Bandstand since we started staying there!).

Reason to celebrate no. 2: Launch of the hotel ‘Imperial Palace’ in Goregaon

Being a journalist, sometimes these perks help brightening your spirits. Me and my friend-cum-colleague had gone to this hotel launch in Goregaon (we had to pay toll to enter this particular area). The hotel is located in the outskirts of the Goregaon suburb and I could never imagine that there could be so much greenery in this city until I saw the view from this hotel’s 9^th floor. The Imperial Palace was inaugurated by the CM Ashok Chavan and IT minister Gurudas Kamath and other few politicians. The speeches got over in 30mins flat which was very surprising. We then strolled around the hotel seeing the imperial and common suites with great views and even greater prices!

The place was slightly overdone with lot of gold and chandeliers. Getting through the food was a problem as there was a 100-yard long line for it! The best part was the celebs. We spotted Minissha Lamba when we were touring the place and immediately went to her and clicked a pic with her saying, “One photo pls ma’am. We’re your fans!” That was our ‘wannabe moment’. After that we spotted other tinny weeny stars from the silver as well as TV screens. All in all, it was a fun day.

Reason to celebrate no. 3: My birthday!

Its been a week since my birthday now, but I cant just get over it. Thanks to my boss, I got a chance to go home and celebrate my buddey. Lot of surprises were in store for me: first one being my parents and bro cutting a cake for me- they have done it before when I was small, but I hadn’t expected it at this grown up stage. Second, my dad actually gave me a gift- a card and a personal diary. This doesn’t mean that he hasn’t ever gifted me, but not such senti stuff. Third, my friend Joanna gifted me a Shin Chan diary (my fave cartoon) with wishes from all my good friends. Lot of efforts went in compiling it. Fourth, my boyfriend Amey gifted me nice and sleek Fastrack watch. I wanted to buy one for a long time and had decided to buy on my birthday. But he bought it for me and completely surprised me. Love him :). Fifth, I met all my friends and we had a blast while having dinner. Not to mention, another cake too :). Sixth, wishes poured in the form of calls and SMS and some from really unexpected people.

Thanks all for making my birthday, a day to remember.

Reason to celebrate no. 4: Durg-Nagpur trip

My roommate, Samali got married in Kolkata and we had originally planned to attend the wedding and explore the city where my darling Sourav Ganguly stays. But unfortunately, due to lack of holidays we had to settle for the reception in Nagpur. But the smart kudis we are (we means the other roommate and myself), we thought why not visit another friend- Shruti who stays in Durg, just 4 hours from Nagpur.

The train journey was very disappointing and as I am not used to travelling far distances by train, it was a little hectic for me. We boarded the Jnaneshwari Express on 26^th night and had a seat fiasco. Three people claimed our seat and then the TC came and solved all the problems, finally! We reached Durg the next day at 2pm. Shruti took us to Bhilai in her car and we drove through the ‘empty’ streets as the Mumbaikars would call them, coz there was hardly any traffic. We met her fiancé Aditya in his newly opened restaurant Dwarika and had awesome food there. I drove a bike- Activa :) after so many days!

From the steel city we reached the orange city in 4 hours flat. We were welcomed by the rains in Nagpur. The city is pleasant and very ‘non- crowded’ with great British buildings all over. There are many government offices and even a Legislative Assembly in this second capital of Maharashtra.

In sometime, Samali’s make up artist arrived and started applying layers of make up on her flawless face. Then she got dressed up in a maroon sari with lot of gold jewellery to accompany the embellishments on the sari. She looked good but her husband, Biswajyoty, whom we fondly call Basu couldn’t help laughing. We went to the 3-star Tuli Hotel with the bride and groom. As the guests hadn’t arrived yet, we took some photographs in funny poses all over the hotel (this proves that we are born crazy!). The reception was well attended and we couldn’t help smiling when Samali and Basu had to force a smile when unknown uncles and aunties came to congratulate them. One of the unknown aunty actually kissed Sam on her forehead- funny! We were given the job of ‘gift girls’- to collect gifts which the couple received.

The returning journey was rather hectic. People kept on blabbering and switching the lights on and off.

But all in all, it was a fun trip. The three days just flew away giving me fond memories for life.