Pune Trip 2008

 

Aug 9-10, 2008

At least my bulky centi emails and loud announcements on "The First Ever Homecoming and foreign return" worked well for the pune trip. lol... I had visitors coming from as far as Banglore and rest of them in pune within a radius of 25 km. I reached pune in not so very "Prasanna travels" state of mind where the bus driver took 2 hrs crawling between signals through a narrow road accommodating vehicles of all sizes. Unlike my other visits to places in Maharashtra where women wear jasmine gajra in hair dressed in lugda and ethinic marathi sadi and vesh-busha, pune was full of young and smart people flaunting summer wears and Diesel backpacks. No wonder they had A-Z shopping malls in this IT city of Maharashtra.

I handed few chocos to the bus driver's son who was sincerely performing his duties as a part of his legacy. I left biwildered and confused trying तो find way तो Shivaji Bus Stand asking महाराष्ट्र पोलिस nearby।

Met shriti soon। No doubt this girl is the fastest moped driver in the country... Her small kinetic is a deception...rocket thrust engines and this girl has incomparable skills to drive you smoothly through most devious of routes escaping bumps. The impact of roller coaster was so great that I was shocked to see my frizzy hair in the mirror, a soft target for passing by birds to nestle. Anyways...I got back to presentable mode before her roomies. My eyes were still searching for anshul and ateen who we coming all the way from Banglore to see me. Was watching my every step along nooks as possible hideouts.

After chatting with Jeetu, Shriti and Shanil for some time we realized it was high time to lunch than to wait for Bangloorians. While we were walking along side the narrow road, Shriti shouted on a passing Rikshawala "Arrey ruko!!". Instantly saw Ateen and Anshul stepping out. Relieved!



"Arey Tummy tu to wapis Tommy ho gaya!! Aur yeh kya hai Gajni cut Ateen! Nidhi to tu dubli ho gayi, capri pehnne lag gayi!....Maaa" were all we were shouting over in the middle of the road with Rickshawala staring at us. No wonder Anshul-Ateen were travelling continuosly for more than 20 hrs with last 3 hrs spent moving in city of pune.

We hit a nearby restaurant which was about to close in 15 mins. This time we ordered malai kofta and something with orange gravy which we silently(realizing we were in maharashtra) mocked over as "Shivsena kadi". With a lighter shade this curry resembled saffron painted on idols in temples. We somehow finished the food and headed for Shriti's place. We had so many things to talk and eat chocos I got for "ma friends". Then one by one me and Shriti shared pictures on our laptops. Good old days!

Around 5 pm everyone was dozing off and her home started looking like Dharamashala with people sleeping in order in a room with just mattresses. Evening was the time we planned to meet some new people including about to be CEO Mr Anish Bapna of Amdocs. Identifying Anish has never been tough. Always searching for something/someone this tall of a gentle guy is always found with a bag hung on one shoulder. This time around he was distraught over his lost bike parked in "No Parking". While we went to a nearby shopping mall picking some books from Crosswords and food items for dinner, Anish headed to the police station to free his bike. Once again our Maa Annapurna was committed to cook for us some good food at home, an old practice we followed from our college times.

"Lao me purio ka aata goond deta hu!" declared Tommy as everyone started to unpack. Seeing the puri buisness going in the wrong department I assured everyone in the kitchen to help him out. Ateen-Shrit were on a different level of talks over kurkuri bhidi that never materialized. Others like Anish-Shanil cut vegetables. The mutual consorted effort was a great fun! Not just it was time to proove team builder skills but also show ones cullinary skills learned over a period of one year where guys as usual succumbed.

After a long bakar bakar, make and break, try try and never never give up, spill and spoil...we could come up with a decent menu - Aloo-capsicum, bhindi1(kurkuri oily), bhindi2(mulayam), semi dal(half of it already spilled on gas burner), aloo sabji and 100 puris!!! All of a sudden Shriti's two roomies turned up to eat as well. Not willing to share food, we offered them a clean kitchen to start over themselves. After a long tussle of "mera kitchen, mera ghar, mere bhartan..." we decided to include them and made one of them photographer for the event.



The fun filled dinner was getting louder and louder and shriti's neighbors started screaming. But who cares! We closed the windows and started all over again until it was time for us to leave for cadburry shake which Shriti had been telling us since morning. Within few minutes we were enroute to the shop on our bikes and once again me on Shriti's megacoster.