The Last Week of 2011
It was a great last week to sign off 2011. It could not have been better . The whole week went as per plan and was a delight and some sort of sadness as the week went off quickly .
The holiday plan was to get to Rajasthan but due to late planning , it did not work both in terms of the time available to make the trip and the costs . Rajasthan has to wait …Hopefully , costs come down !!
The next best alternative pointed us out to Lonavala -- a tiny hill station closer to Pune and motorable from Mumbai. Why Lonavala ?
I promised my wife seventeen years ago that we will go for a holiday to Lonavala as would anyone who works in Mumbai would do . Lonavala is a quick getaway from Mumbai and people do week end trips to relax and recharge batteries and the place is cool and life is easy paced unlike Mumbai. Lonvala gets busy as the monsoon sets in -- it creates many streams and waterfalls . It is fact that I did not honour the promise made till now . So , I told my wife , this time for sure we will go. I strongly believed that I kept my promise and expected some positives out of this ( brownie points ).. The response was terrific -- It took you seventeen years to keep your promise. I realised ( again ) that you can never win !!
One more place that we visited seventeen years back and not happy with the overall visit was Shiridi-- the home of Saibaba. We wanted to visit again.
So it was a pilgrimage ( thanks for all the good things in 2011 and pray for 2012 to be better only ) , then a vacation and I thought the best way to round it up was a visit to Mumbai , catch up with relatives and eat Vada Pav and go around …
Two other family friends joined in with us at Lonavala .. One of the friends helped with the hotel and other arrangements to and fro to Lonavala. So it was all set very nicely.
We went to Pune , drove to Shridi , had great darshan, visited Shani Shingnapur and drove in to Lonavala to the resort and caught up with the other families who had come in already. Weather was just right at Lonavala . Chilly in the early mornings , then little warm and then becoming nicer towards the evening .The resort was great as well. Lots of open space , nice rooms with balconies with a good view of the terrain. We did lot of walking , ate Vada Pav's , BhajjiyasChikki, Ice Creams , Kulifis , did trekking , played all the games that were available at the resort , chatted noisily , laughed and slept well.
One thing that helped us a great deal was the Mobile phone service provider going out of connectivity for all the three of us on the three days at the resort and for a considerable time on while at Mumbai . So , time was spent without even looking at our Blackberry's . That was unique and all of us understand how we found time to spend with family and friends.
Towards the end of the week , drove to Mumbai , did some pavement shopping , took the boat ride to Elephanta Caves over the Arabian sea, travelled in the train and enjoyed the push and pull as we got in and out the train , visited all relatives in Mumbai ( five of them + one friend ) . In all this , we missed the Storm Thane and the rains in Chennai !!
It was hectic but who cared as long as we enjoyed the trip and had a great time recharging batteries to look up to 2012.
The icing on the cake was when I landed back in Chennai . As most of you are aware , I am a vivid caller in to the Live Sports Quiz every Saturday on the DD Podhigai Channel starting at 10:10 PM. My flight landed at 10:10 and I was in the bus moving from the aircraft to the arrival hall , I tried dialling in and lo !! Got the line through and I was the first caller on the show ( I was told about this fact later ) and answered a question as well. Damn lucky but on my part I did try hard to get the lines through.
So , it was a great week ….A satisfying pilgrimage , a lovely vacation and a catch up with friends and relatives ( Short but sweet )
Happy New Year
The holiday plan was to get to Rajasthan but due to late planning , it did not work both in terms of the time available to make the trip and the costs . Rajasthan has to wait …Hopefully , costs come down !!
The next best alternative pointed us out to Lonavala -- a tiny hill station closer to Pune and motorable from Mumbai. Why Lonavala ?
I promised my wife seventeen years ago that we will go for a holiday to Lonavala as would anyone who works in Mumbai would do . Lonavala is a quick getaway from Mumbai and people do week end trips to relax and recharge batteries and the place is cool and life is easy paced unlike Mumbai. Lonvala gets busy as the monsoon sets in -- it creates many streams and waterfalls . It is fact that I did not honour the promise made till now . So , I told my wife , this time for sure we will go. I strongly believed that I kept my promise and expected some positives out of this ( brownie points ).. The response was terrific -- It took you seventeen years to keep your promise. I realised ( again ) that you can never win !!
One more place that we visited seventeen years back and not happy with the overall visit was Shiridi-- the home of Saibaba. We wanted to visit again.
So it was a pilgrimage ( thanks for all the good things in 2011 and pray for 2012 to be better only ) , then a vacation and I thought the best way to round it up was a visit to Mumbai , catch up with relatives and eat Vada Pav and go around …
Two other family friends joined in with us at Lonavala .. One of the friends helped with the hotel and other arrangements to and fro to Lonavala. So it was all set very nicely.
We went to Pune , drove to Shridi , had great darshan, visited Shani Shingnapur and drove in to Lonavala to the resort and caught up with the other families who had come in already. Weather was just right at Lonavala . Chilly in the early mornings , then little warm and then becoming nicer towards the evening .The resort was great as well. Lots of open space , nice rooms with balconies with a good view of the terrain. We did lot of walking , ate Vada Pav's , BhajjiyasChikki, Ice Creams , Kulifis , did trekking , played all the games that were available at the resort , chatted noisily , laughed and slept well.
One thing that helped us a great deal was the Mobile phone service provider going out of connectivity for all the three of us on the three days at the resort and for a considerable time on while at Mumbai . So , time was spent without even looking at our Blackberry's . That was unique and all of us understand how we found time to spend with family and friends.
Towards the end of the week , drove to Mumbai , did some pavement shopping , took the boat ride to Elephanta Caves over the Arabian sea, travelled in the train and enjoyed the push and pull as we got in and out the train , visited all relatives in Mumbai ( five of them + one friend ) . In all this , we missed the Storm Thane and the rains in Chennai !!
It was hectic but who cared as long as we enjoyed the trip and had a great time recharging batteries to look up to 2012.
The icing on the cake was when I landed back in Chennai . As most of you are aware , I am a vivid caller in to the Live Sports Quiz every Saturday on the DD Podhigai Channel starting at 10:10 PM. My flight landed at 10:10 and I was in the bus moving from the aircraft to the arrival hall , I tried dialling in and lo !! Got the line through and I was the first caller on the show ( I was told about this fact later ) and answered a question as well. Damn lucky but on my part I did try hard to get the lines through.
So , it was a great week ….A satisfying pilgrimage , a lovely vacation and a catch up with friends and relatives ( Short but sweet )
Happy New Year
Comments
Nice well deserved break Srikanth!!
apart from the hols, Shridhi and the vada pav's, the best part was the "No signal" part
best part was ur podhigai quiz..jackpot at the end of the year.
Lonavala i should also thinover..not been at all even though i stay in mumbai for so long