Techno Savvy Trip

Monday morning my brother pinged me, he wanted a break. Even I was drained out with the way we worked the last weekend. Monday morning blues subdued my adrenaline to its end. This Monday was the second last Monday with Triple Point Technology as I was to join UniGraphics Systems from 3rd of April’ 06. So we started short listing different places that we could visit on a three day weekend.

Bhandardara is a nice hill station near Nashik, which is about four hours drive from Mumbai or Pune. When google searches returned futile results, most of the three day weekend places were already covered by us; we zeroed in our destination as Bhandardara. We launched a full fledged hunt for resorts, places of interest and road maps for Bhandardara. After collating the information we were all set for kickoff for Friday morning. I was to head out to Mumbai on Thursday night where I would meet my brothers Nil and Adi and we all were scheduled to leave at seven in the morning.

Graf von Moltke’s thesis on military theory can be summed up with his famous saying, “No battle plan survives contact with the enemy”. It proved true in our case too. For us, planning is merely squandering available resources (time is money, money can buy resources and internet is one of the resourcesJ). We never contemplate on the Gaussian effects contributed by circumstances, which deviate end result.

My car was due for servicing and I thought it would be a wise decision to have it serviced before the long journey. I gave the car for servicing, on Wednesday morning, at Chowgule Service Station, hoping that they would return it at least on Thursday. I had warned him not to touch the engine as I was dubious about the clutch plate and if it had to be fixed, it would require two days. Turning a deaf ear to my instructions and proving how good a service engineer he was, the guy in charge of car opened the gear box and gave me a call telling me that the clutch plate was damaged big time and should be fixed before any long drives. You generally do not test your luck by consuming an eatable when you have been diligently forewarned of the eatable being poisoned. Now fixing of the clutch plate meant that the car would be ready for pickup on Friday morning. It was time for change of plans.

Adi suddenly got enlightened on Monday morning that before taking a date for GRE, he needed a valid passport. So he registered online, for an appointment at the passport office. Now this appointment was scheduled for Friday at ten in the morning, the same day when we were to head out for our vacationL. Well time for change of plans again.

Friday morning, I called up the service station and they told me that my car was ready for pickup and the whole clutch repairing had cost some thousands of rupees. So I left my place at eleven in the morning to pick my call up and a pandemonium of phone calls started. The first from Nil saying Adi had not taken his cell phone along and it was impossible to trace his whereabouts. The next was from my dad explaining me how to reschedule our trip so that things did not get messy. As I picked up my car I noticed that it was low on fuel and I would have to take a detour to the gas station. Just as I was about to leave for my place, Nil called me to confirm if the deck in my car was fixed and I remembered that it was long broken and hadn’t been mended. He also told me that Adi had still not returned, it was one in the afternoon then. So I searched for a car décor shop en route home. I found one but unfortunately for me his engineer had gone for lunch and it would take about an hour for his return. So I headed for the car décor from where I had put the seat covers. Even he was having his lunch and I had waited till he was done. He skillfully removed the deck and had stared at it for few minutes. Then he tried pushing in a cassette put in vain. Finally he excogitated that only an audio mechanic would be able to repair that deck. I thanked him and left for my home perturbed with thoughts of a long journey with a conked off deck. “Someone selling shirt need not always be able to mend the buttons” became a conviction for me. On my way home, Nil called up again to ask whether I had left for Panvel, that’s according to our new plan, and reiterated that Adi had still not returned and it was nearing two in the afternoon. I decided to given a last try at Sonam electronics, a noted electronics repair shop specialized in washing machines, fridges, television sets, audio systems and other home appliances. To my hard knock, as a good old Pune etiquette, the shop was closed in the afternoon. After scavenging the Aundh gaon shops, I gave the idea as it was getting late.

I left at fifteen minutes past three in the afternoon and after ten minutes drive remembered that I had forgotten to withdraw money. Again I headed back to the atm when Nil called me.

“Champ, where are you” he asked. “Haven’t you left?”
“Yeah, I am on my way, has Adi returned ?” I enquired
“I think I will go to passport office and check if he has fallen asleep in their a.c. room, he hasn’t even called back” said Nil
I replied in monotone, “Cya at Datt, Panvel, ETA 5:15pm” and hung up.

Nil called me again and sounded happy “Adi has come back, we will leave now so that we can meet you at 5:15pm. Champ, did you get that deck fixed?”
“For heavens sake, stop reminding me of that cursed deck” I said in my mind, “No dude, not a single fella amongst 40 lakh humans living on 400 sq kms area i.e Pune could successfully mend it. If I reach early, I will try to get it fixed in Panvel”
“I think you chaps are gonna make me sing again this time” Nil groaned
“Give the cell to Adi, I want to talk to him” I told Nil, who promptly handed over the cell to Adi
“AmeDa, how are you” asked Adi
“Yeah I am coolz, have you taken your iPod with you? I have taken my cd player and the Apache fluid lounge cd with me”
“Awesome. I have taken the iPod, Nil is asking if you took the DigiCam along”
“Yeah, I have, bye, cya”
“Bye”

The drive to Panvel was awful especially because the deck was not functioning and Pune FM is so gratifying that its RJ’s can beat Chinese torture. I reached Panvel and called up Nil to check his ETA and he said they would take atleast half an hour max. Before hanging up he reiterated to try and get my deck fixed.

Now whatz so much with that deck? Well, we were a bunch of gizmo freaks. I was carrying a portable CD player, Nil was carrying an mp3 player and Adi had an iPod. We also had a cassette adapter for connecting any audio device to the deck. Nil had also brought along his Acer laptop, in case the iPod runs out of battery or my Digital Camera runs out of memory. Now the only hurdle was that the deck was not playing any audio cassettes, only the radio was functioning properly.

So I drove into Panvel city on an audio mechanic hunt. Luckily I found a dilapidated shop stacked with lot of audio systems and speakers. I took a chance and asked the guy to introspect on plausible mending of the audio deck. I was amazed at the way he maneuvered to the heart of the audio system. He asked me when do I need it fixed and I said just now because I had to head a long way. He said he had seen JVC systems and he could fix the problem. He offered me a chair and I obliged him. We chatted about his business as he greased the parts of the deck for smooth functioning.

“If you have such an in-depth knowledge about these gadgets then why don’t you work with good companies, say like Philips?” I asked

He replied “Look sir, today you came to me with this conked of deck and asked me to repair it for you immediately. If I would have been in a bad mood, I would have simply refused. Had I been with Philips, irrespective of any damm thing in this world, I would have had to fix it. Main apni marzi ka maalik hoon!”

I was surprised. It was his dignity that he valued as his prized possession and I did not want to get into the thought process of what was the most valuable thing to me. After he fixed the deck back in the car and it worked, I asked him how much did it cost? He said his labor charges are Rs.150 and Rs.10 for the drive bands that he changed. I gave him Rs.200, I was more than happy to have that deck fixed and thought Rs.160 to be a bit less, as, for the work he did, which no one in whole Pune could do.

Drove back to Datt where Nil and Adi were waiting impatiently for me sharing a Marlboro lights.

“Champ, why was your cell out of coverage?” asked Nil
“My cell was having a bath” I replied as I was in no mood to discuss why and how.
“AmeDa, the deck is working” Adi shouted
“Yeah, I got it fixed just now, dammit Pune Airtel does not have coverage in that area, okay guys lets move, we gotta lotsa driving ahead” I urged.

It was 6:00pm by the time we put a new plan in place. We decided to head out to Guhaghar and Hedvi as Bhandadara was out of question, no one even knew the road from Panvel to Nashik. After purchasing batteries, mineral water and couple of cigs we headed out for NH17. Adi was the CJ and he was in a fix what to play first. Chiplun was our first destination and the boards revealed that it was 212km from where we were. So we dropped the idea and decided to seek a lodge at Mahad which was about 130km.

Nil was seating in the navigators seat doing everything else possible other that navigation. We have this uncanny habit of taking wrong road at T-junctions or crossroads. We missed a turn at Ispat factory and in couple of minutes found ourselves heading towards Alibaug. Enroute Mahad we were supposed to cross Pen, Roha, Mangaon. Nil went on a rampage asking people the correct route and everytime he took a name of different place

“Which is the way to Roha?”
“Boss, how to go to Mangaon?”
“Bro, is there a road to Pen?”

Finally a bozo directed us to a road towards Nagothane. It was dark outside and M800’s Kenwood and Sony speakers echoed A.R.Rahman’s Rubaru from Rang de Basanti to soothe our grumpy mood for losing directions. Adi was trying to figure out where we would join NH17. He was using a bio-friendly torch, a torch without batteries and bulb but worked on some contemporary gas ionization technology, to search for Nagothane in Maharashtra map, which I had taken along.

“So Mr Back Seat Driver, where are we heading to?” I asked Adi.
“Basically we are heading nowhere” Adi replied, “Did we pass Rampur?”
“Boss, if it was Ramgad, we could have atleast seen the place where they shot Sholay!” came Nil’s contribution to our road hunt.
“Hey dude, why don’t you keep a watch on the road for Basanti Tangewalli, mebbe Ramgad is nearby and she might be ferrying people, we will pay her to dance for us, without any broken glass bottles, and have a blast!” I hinted Nil.
“Champ, lets stay in Alibaug and head out for Goa tomorrow, early in the morning, just before sunrise” suggested Nil.
“Nil, see that Auto over there, ask him the road to NH17 or highway, cut those myriad place list from your mind please” I told Nil.
“How do we get to NH17?” Nil asked the driver
“Where?”, the driver stared back at us bewildered
“Where is the highway?” I shouted
“Keep following this road” the driver said pointing to the road ahead of us

After driving for about half and hour we finally touch NH17 and M800 accelerated to cover some of the lost time. It was 8:00pm and the boards showed Mahad about 100kms, Chiplun 183 kms and Panaji 425kms. Nil does not know how to drive a car, but he has tremendous confidence in mine and Adi’s driving. Banking on this confidence Nil put forward a hopeless suggestion of heading out for Goa, which we dismissed immediately. Adi was in mood for rock, and M800 filled with head banging songs from System of a Down – Toxicity, 3 Doors Down – Kryptonite, LimpBizkit – Take A Look Around and we sped towards Mahad.

Visava is a nice lodge strategically located on NH17. It has affordable room rents, delicious food and you can have drinks in your room or in the garden adjoining the highway. We ordered for a few beers, prawns and mutton and while the food came, I had a nice bath to freshen up as our vacation had just begun. Nil put a gazhal’s playlist, to entertain us for couple of hours, on his laptop. We clinked our glasses and had a big gulp and I could literally feel the beer exploring different places inside my bodyJ. We talked about the funny incidences I had while seeing my prospective brides, the traditional way in which this program is conducted and some hilarious moments. Late nite we surfed the television for sleazy stuff and found one channel playing Veerana, a supposedly horror movie by Ramsay brothers. Off all the movies directed, produced, written and what not by Ramsay family, Veerana was the best they could ever make. We slept pretty late that night.

We woke up late on Saturday. I had hell of a time waking Nil and Adi. It was as if a rector waking up his hostel boys. I ordered for tea, surprisingly priced at Rs.11, and we had a quick breakfast before leaving for Chiplun. Adi took the wheel and M800 zoomed towards out next destination. We had planned first to search for a lodge in Guhaghar and after dumping our luggage, go out for sight seeing. Nil called up Adi’s dad to get the numbers of some good resorts in Guhaghar. One of the resorts, Karmayog, was located about 14kms away from the beach and we did not see any point staying so far away. We were looking for a beach side resort where we could chill out in the evening, watch the sun go down while gulping down a Kingfisher, smoking during the twilight and eating fish in the cool sea air. We scavenged whole of Guhaghar for a nice beach resort and well, this ain’t Hawaii, and our search did not yield anything good. So we decided to have a nice sea food lunch and then head to Hedavi, where we thought we could find something worth Mr Fockland’s taste. Ooh, yeah, Mr Fockland is one more name for Nil, he dreams of resort with a pool table, a lodge with a Jacuzzi and where they also serve vodka on the rocks with lots of ice, three day trip to Goa with a belly dancer and so on.

We found a nice hotel serving authentic Malwani style lunch. He hurried us in as it was the last call and the hotel was about to close. We ordered for three rice plates with fish fry, prawns and chicken. I gulped down an entire bottle of Bisleri soda + salt + lime, just to ease the Gulf war that had started in my stomach the night before. Solkadi is an awesome drink that goes well before, during and after the Malwani lunch and we drank about nine glasses that’s three per head. The hotel owner was a nice guy and showed us some maps of places of interest in Guhaghar, Hedvi etc. The bill surprisingly came to a very nominal amount. That’s one good thing about these places, how much ever you eat, the bill is way way less than what we pay here in the metros.

With Nil checking out the details in the map, the three of us left for Hedavi. We first visited the Ganapati temple and after the darshan, we left for the beach. Our plan was to spend the evening in Hedavi and return to Chiplun for the night stay. In this way we would be near the national highway and could leave a bit late the next morning.

Hedavi has two beaches, one with black sand and the other is rocky. One of nature’s creations found at Hedavi are water fountains. There is a crevice formed in the rocks along the coast. During high tide, water from the waves gushes in the crevice and splashes upwards to give a fountain effect. We trekked our way through the rocks. Reached the last visible rock and sat there watching the sunset.

On our way back, it was time to rock with some beer. So I took the wheel and Adi and Nil opened the KF cans on our drive back. Nil was the CJ playing different numbers from the Apache Fluid Lounge cd, which I had got along, and the mood changed from soft rock to hard rock to heavy metal. We reached Chiplun at 9:00pm and checked-in at a hotel named Vanashri. Ordered for couple of beers and prawns, had a nice dinner and slept as we were exhausted. We had a quick breakfast the next morning and sped home. En-route we had lunch at a motel, whose service was so pathetic that we spent about 2 hours sipping 7-UP and Pepsi, smoking 5 cigs, clicking 20 odd pictures and on the verge of dying ‘coz of starvation till he served us our dal tadka and roti. But the taste was amazing, I guess even cow dung would have tasted like apple pie and gomutra like beer, had it been served to us.

After lunch, there wasn’t much left to enjoy as everyone was thinking and sulking on the fact that from tomorrow we all had to head for the same routine, same mundane work. We dropped Adi at Panvel and Nil and I drove back to Pune. Nil was continuously blabbering to keep me awake. We reached Pune in time without any traffic jams, I dropped Nil at CC and headed back home after enjoying an amazing vacation!