The star shines on DNA

My moment of fame with the tennis star Leander Paes. He had come to our office as a guest sports editor. We shook hands with him. It was great fun....he is really handsome! :) :) :)

Trek to Malavli…

I love the rains…but not in the cities where the rainwater gets mixed with garbage and muck! That’s why I wanted to venture out in the nature to celebrate monsoons. My idea of a day in the rains is going to a picturesque place- may be a hill or a forest and enjoying the cool breeze with a group of crazy friends and chatting over a hot cup of tea :) .

That’s why I decided to visit Malavli, Lohgad for that matter. Malavli is a place near Lonavla. The two forts- Lohgad and Visapur are situated here. Lohgad is a comparatively easy fort to climb but is really far from Malavli station. After two weeks of persuasion, 8 of my friends agreed to join me. Two of us came from Mumbai and the others from Pune. The walk to the fort is always the most interesting part of the trip.

With beautiful waterfalls on the way, what else can you ask for? But it is a pity to see people ruining the nature’s beauty by throwing garbage around and drinking alcohol in the waterfall and misbehaving. Anyways, we ignored all these facts, and walked past the waterfalls in the rain, teasing and pulling each others’ leg. All my friends- Rohit, Rohan, Sanket, Parag, Supriya, Rujuta, Amey and Joanna are crazy souls.

After a long and tiring walk, we decided to have lunch at a small tapri which had a hilarious name- Nature’s Miracle or something! It took those guys 2 hours to prepare anda curry for us! And we had to wait there calculating the time left with us for climbing the fort and reaching the station on time to catch the local train. We discussed history of the forts and assigned one of us as the raja and others as the mavlas and senapatis. The raja assigned constituencies to his sena. I got the Mumbai constituency (Bandra to be specific ;). After the stupid discussion, the food came and we hogged on it.



The climb to the fort was easy and we reached in half an hour. The view from the top was breathtaking. There was a lot of fog and nothing could be seen from the top. There was wind flowing in great speed plus the rains and the visibility was very less. We couldn’t see anything ahead of us and were actually freezing. We couldn’t wait there for more than 20 minutes and had to leave.

We climbed down and had a cup of tea- our saviour from the cold. The walk to the station was very unwelcome as we wanted to remain there and continue enjoying the beautiful sceneries.

We reached the station and with a heavy heart bid au revoir to our friends. That was a day to remember.

Back to school…

‘Those were the best days of my life…’ goes a Bryan Adams song. And this exactly what I felt when we had our school reunion on 5^th of July. It was like reinventing the good old school days.

All this happened thanks to my good friend Rajeev, who with the help of other good friends organised the whole plan. I could only help in the brainstorming sessions, contacting people and making charts, as I was here in Mumbai.

We got the school hall after my friends persuaded the principal for it. They had to convince her for more than an hour! And on the D-Day another sister came to ‘supervise’ ‘what we are doing’ and gave us instructions like don’t paste the charts on the walls etc etc. we somehow managed to get rid of her ;)

We all were looking forward to this day and were nervous that very few people may turn up. But on the D-day 60 people attended the function, making all the organisers happy. All were in for a surprise as the gang had collected school photographs from all possible school friends and made a movie out of it called ‘Flashback’. It was indeed very nostalgic watching the movie and the moments we all had shared together.

The coolest part of the reunion was meeting friends after years and being surprised when some friends turned up with their wives and when we came to know some girl-friends have become proud mothers! Some friends had gained weight (including me) and some were ‘jaise the’. The first words from any friend I met… “Kitni moti ho gayi hai!”

Even though we all met after many years, the rapport we shared was still the same. Everybody remembered each others’ school pet names and were called by the same name! Chats about trips and picnics we had, whom we would tease with whom were- were the highlights of the day.

We played games like musical chairs, bombing the city and dumb charades to revive the annual days and Christmas celebrations in the school. People were even cheating, as they would in school. Then there was this embarrassing ramp walk for the must wanted (?) crown of Miss Stella Maris and Mr Stella Maris. The girls had to judge the guys and vice versa. The guys obviously had loads of fun judging the ‘new-found’ beauties and showed their appreciation in form of claps, cheers and whistles!

The photo sessions were never ending as all wanted to capture these memories in a frame. It seemed that posing with all possible friends was everyone’s only aim! The day ended too soon for all of us. Everyone enjoyed every bit of the day and went home happily with the memories of the day.

Now, we are planning for a 2012 reunion and wondering whether 100% people will come with their spouses! ;) Three cheers to our school days…hip hip hurray!

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.

Fun @ Esselworld :)

I went to Esselworld many days back, on Sunday, May 31 to be precise. After many days I had a fun outing with friends. And then I got stuck up with work, that's why this late blog.

The Esselwrold trip was courtesy the free passes I received from a PR company (being a journalist has its own unique advantages), a total of 6. I didn't know that convincing people to come to Esselworld would be tough! After an unimaginably long convincing, the final 6 (including me)were shortlisted- Joanna, Shivani, Rohit, Ajay, Ram and me :)

We took a ferry from Gorai Khaadi (creek), which was called 'Wetlantic' and which played FM songs! The one which we loved the most was 'Julie....' as we echoed the chorus together.

The day could be summed up in one word- 'inline'. We waited for over 30minutes in a line for each ride. The ride lasted only for 2-3 minutes but we had to stand in the lone for over an hour in some cases.

The rides were incredible- my favourites being Rock-n-Roll and Rollercoaster. We also had a great time in the 'Rain Dance' from which I caught a cold and still have it! All of us guys were crazy and did mad stuff like taking pictures outside the Ice Skating house- which had cool graphiti pics on it and also in the 'not so'Horror Hotel and on rides too!

I tried my hand singing at the karaoke and sang the hit song from the movie Hare Krishna Hare Ram called 'Dum maro dum'.

The day was really lovely. While returning home, we again had to wait in a line for over one and a half hours and the ferry that took us back was dead slow. But we loved it! :)

Why do we have to grow up?

Last night, I was going through my old college albums- and flashes of memories came to my mind. The college katta, picnics, the so-called study tours, the sleepovers… and unknowingly, tears rolled down my eyes. I so miss those days! Sometimes, I wonder why do we have to grow up? Can’t we remain school kids or teenagers? The only fear in our mind at that age was about exams and project. We didn’t have to face the ‘real big bad world’.

When travelling by trains, I see these small kids going to their native places with their uncles, aunties or grandmas, grandpas and I relive the moments when my granddad would pick up my brother and me from Pune and we would travel in an ASIAD bus to Mumbai. We would irritate people near us by making funny noises, arguing with each other. The bicycle rides, eating kulfi, ice creams and golas, and going sightseeing with grandparents…I miss it all.

From those memories I suddenly moved on to my college days- the three golden years of bachelors’ college. I did my BSc from Modern College in Pune and just loved the three years I spent there. I would go ala Bryan Adams and say, ‘Those were the best days of my life!’ The boring and interesting college lectures….in the boring ones we would usually doze off or play tic tac toe type games. We at Modern College would pass our time in the breaks by eating the dabbas we would get from home. Sitting near the college corridors, checking out some cute guys (there were hardly any in my college), completing journals…I miss it all.

College trips, actually study tours was one of the annual events we would look forward to. Wearing the best attire in our wardrobes we all would reach before time at college only on these special occasions. Our favourite activities while travelling- playing antakshari or even dancing on the tunes of ‘Kajra re’! Going to study tours with no intention of studying was a common feature of us Modernites.

Another annual event that we would look forward to was our annual gathering. The practice routine for dance performances and plays would start a month in advance but the ‘actual’ practice would start only a week in advance. Couples would make the most of this leisure time to spend time together. Ours was the only college in which we had individual gatherings for each class! And the best class performance would be awarded. The whole classroom would come decked up in traditional attire as we would have one of the ‘days’ on this special occasion.

I so miss my college and my friends….the sleepovers, the treks we took together….all the fun seems to be ruined in this worthless ‘job’ era. I wish I had a time machine which would take me half a dozen years back to relive those moments again….

House-hunting blues

‘Koni ghar denar ka ghar….?' so go the lines of a famous Marathi play, ‘Natasamrat’. In the play the protagonist is left homeless…. Mera bhi haal kuch aisa hi hone wala hai.

Mumbai is always known for its huge population, space crunch and so on. But I didn’t have a clue of all this till I arrived to this city of dreams in May 2008. I can never forget the day when me and my two college friends- Samali and Joanna came to Mumbai accompanied by our mothers. We were supposed to stay with an acquaintance in Mulund and had bag loads of luggage with us. When we finished shifting the luggage to the 3rd floor on our own… this woman says, “You people can’t stay with me!” We were shocked, exhausted, angry, sad and confused all at the same time. Such was our ‘welcome to Mumbai’.

Subsequently, we found a flat in Mahim, given to us for 2 months. The house was no less than a hostel. We were observed 24*7 by the society members and commented upon. We even weren’t allowed to have visitors and none of our friends ever saw our place, believe it or not! The next change came when we shifted to Jogeshwari. Thanks to my friend Sanket, we found this place. A decent 1 BHK flat with furniture that included a bed, TV, mattresses, mixer and some utensils. The landlady whom we call ‘kaku’ was also good. She had never given her place on rent but as we needed a place urgently, she agreed.

Now that my friend Samali is getting married, I am looking for another place to stay. The other day, I sat on the ‘free’ internet (courtesy: my office) and searched for ‘PG accommodations in Mumbai’. I got hundreds of results and called some of them, but these brokers feel that they are the most important people in the town (to be honest they are important to ‘needy’ people like me, who wants to admit it though!) and show attitude.

The first destination: was a place in Marine Lines. After 20 minutes of waiting the guy took us to the 3rd floor of an old 1857, dilapidated building. The stairs were never ending. He had promised a kitchen and all five star amenities. The place was a cramped one with 4-5 girls in an 8*10 room. The kitchen, common for the 30-35 inmates was in a balcony with an antique refrigerator. I laughed at my fate and ran away from there.

The second destination: Through an acquaintance I came to know about this place in Worli. I went there with my friend to check it out. We were welcomed by the woman and her daughter in a compact two room flat. She mentioned that there are 3 girls staying with her and she is looking out for a fourth girl. I observed her place- a living room which was neat and clean and a kitchen, a balcony cum study room. The house may be around 400 sq ft, I asked the lady, “Where is the PG?” in anticipation and the reply shocked me. She said, “This room is the PG. my daughter, I and the 3 girls stay in this room (and she wanted me to join in!).” she recommended another place nearby. The condition was better as the place had 3 rooms, but the women kept 6 girls!

The third destination was a hostel in Prabhadevi. To my surprise, the hostel was neat and clean, spacious and the matron was very polite and ever-smiling, kind lady. Unfortunately, the only vacancy was taken away the same morning. But the matron recommended a couple of contacts, out of which a place was in Antop Hill. That place too was a compact place crowded by 6 girls! (Fourth destination)

Being a person who has been staying in a bungalow since bachpan… can’t take this space crunch anymore. I am keeping my fingers crossed that I find a decent place to stay very soon. Wish me luck guys.

PS: If you know a good PG or a hostel around Lower Parel or on western suburbs till Andheri, central suburbs till Ghatkopar, please tell me :)

Picture courtesy: Shutterstock and DNA.