contd....
Explorers planning:Just by Cecile point, was Charlotte lake, where we had our lunch of pav bhaji and charted out our way to somehow reach louise point.
The mystery of the lake: But explorers do not always take the path they charted. The mystery of the lake had to be solved. We found the artificial catchment to store the water which gets pumped into the lake continously (which must have also killed a beautiful brook).. But the mystery made us lose our path. We could see Louise point in the distance, but no path, and decided that we will walk along the cliff.

The Final destination: The woods to Louise path were neverending. Somewhat dejected (of neverending walking), but hopeful that the woods would end someplace and we could see sunlight again, we walked on. Conversation was at its best during this time. We talked sports, politics, future, past, T.V., movies, songs etc etc. The final straw was when we started singing hindi songs in english:-
"You came closer-you smiled-you don't know what dreams you showed-now my heart does not sleep nor stays awake-what to do..-something something happening"

Finally, the woods ended and what a view it was!.....Louisie point


Jangia and Vada Pav: Our legs could take no more. Louise point to main gate was on horses!.....had a wonderful talk with the people who control the horses. It was here that we learnt that each of the horses have a special name that gives them the cue to start walking faster. My horse responded to "Vada Pav" while murli's horse's secret word was "Jangia".

Thats all folks!!The journey back is best left undescribed. Back in IIT, murli and I gulped down a litre of beer each, felt light and floated to sleep. Haddi went to the computer room and started working on his seminar and assignments!!

Murli and I decided that we will go for a trek in the lovely hillstation of Matheran on sunday. We roped in Karthik a.k.a Haddi also for the trip.
After a rather eventful train journey to Kalyan, we met Haddi at the meeting point. Had a couple of vada-pavs and a cup of tea for breakfast and waited for the 9:42 local to Neral, the base village to matheran.

We were all pretty excited about the toy train ride up to matheran from neral, but unfortunately, the train was out of service. However we got to see this toy-goods train !!!!
Pristine Matheran Matheran is the only hill station in india on which no motor vehicles are allowed. The only way of going about there are either on horses or on your own two legs. As we paid the Rs 25, enterance fee to matheran, we were given a map showing around 38 locations of interest. We got totally confused as to which to visit, where exactly is it and most importantly how far. The horse's then came to our rescue. The ghoda-walla offered to take us to the 5 most important points for Rs250. Fortunately for us, we felt 250 was too much to give, and thus took the best 'decision' of the day-to WALK. However we gleamed all the information about the five best points to visit from them.

The path less taken:Initially we started following the horses, but then slowly got invited by the path in the woods, going alongside the main road.
. This was the second great find of the day: "It is more fun to wal in the woods rather than on the main road". We tried our level best to get lost in the woods. HOwever our first shock was that eafter 30-40 minutes of loitering around, we were no where closer to any of the points. This prompted us to take a reality check and we decided to walk along the railway tracks.
Bhoot Census When the woods call you, how long can you stick to the railway line. Once again we took the path on which no one was going, but this time, we seemed to walk into some residential area. We walked through horses in its stables, ladies washing clothes, children playing catch etc etc. The same path, sometime later took us to the Bhoot Bungalows of Matheran. We came across a series of bungalows, apparently empty but well kept. And one of thers had this weird marbled circle on thefloor to whhich none of us could attribure any reason.




Where there is a will....Still lost, our only hope was to break the law, or to turn back and walk the long path to cecile point. Obviously, we broke the law.

...and at cecile point, the view...

...........................................to be concluded

Another ofshoot of the simply timepass saturday was that murli and I decided to make the sunday a super sunday by trekking in Matheran. So, we were on this local to kurla early in the morning.
Being a sunday, the train was not all that crowded. Infact, in the coach that we were in, there were some empty seats also.

But, for reasons that he only could give, one dude decided that the best way to travel was by keeping just 5 cms of your body inside the coach, and by hanging yourself outside the travelling train, without any solid grip inside the train.
Unfortunately though, it happend to be the last time that this dude could do such a thing. He fell of the train in between mankhurd and govandi and died on the spot.

Well, is such a risk of life and death reccommended to travel in a Local train. Initially, when i came to bombay, i thought people hang like this because well, they have no other choice, but to do it in the crowded trains. But later, I realized that, the window seats inside the train was not the coveted place inside the train, but what was is that 5 cm of foot space inside the train, by the door.....

I have hung out from the train just once, when there was no more space than 5 cms left in the compartment....but this sunday, after seeing death just a few meters from me, i have decided that it will be better to wait for the next train or the one after but to travel hanging from one of them!

a sudden idea transformed a sleepy saturday to a great one!!
i called murli up asking him if he is coming home to dinner at 830 in the evening. and just like that, asked him if we could go for ANY movie after that.
Murli, desperately seeking some sort of entertainment on an otherwise hectic day in the office readily agreed....
and the both of us landed at the meghdoot multiplex in vashi. Rang de basanti was house full, aksar was new and dharti putra was never in our field of vision, so we deifted into BLuffmaster......

a totally time pass story and total paisa vasool. No stupid irrelevant romantic numbers and physics defying fight scenes, no mother/beta/lover etc etc sentiment, no suspense, only pure comedy........

After the movie, when we reached nerul, hunger sturck us. So we got into a hotel which was just closing, pleaded the maalik to make something for bhooka-souls. Got ourselves chicken curry and rotis and ate it all, right in front of the Nerul station !!

why do i feel that i am wasting my time.

I do not just mean the academic pressure that i am piling up. Assignments left to the last second, my project work which i have not yet begun and on which i am bullshitting my guide, studying the courses that i have taken etc etc etc.

but, i have a feeling that i am just letting life drift...have a feeling that i am having no control of what i am doing......just lazing around whole day....i mean i wake up 10 minutes before the class as a rule, so if a class is at 11:30 on mondays, i wake up at 11:20 and if it is 8:30 on fridays, it is 8:20, watch a movie or two everyday, am always online and indulge in some absolutely bullshit chat (most of the time) with the same set of guys everyday.....

and saturday and sunday are even worse....just sleep, watch ndtv whole day and play 5 songs that i have downloaded over and over again....

i just feel i am wasting so much time.......whn i know that i have so much to do!!

"...the sun is the same in a relative way
but you are older....
shorter of breath..
one way, closer to feath"

i keep wondering about those times when innocence was bliss
when an unintentional mistake did not matter
when you forgave your friends in a matter of minutes
and now i think of today
when a single unintentional mistake separates friends like two galaxies
when forgiveness has been wiped out of my dictionary

if this is what it means to become mature with age
then i am happy immature and innocent

why am i writing this?
Every few days, i have this urge to forgive couple of my closest friends for all that they have done and to ask for forgiveness for all that I did, for all the troubles we have caused eachother because of being so selfish

but, just as i pick up the phone, log in to my mail, something inside me says that reforging the friendship is probably the worst of your ideas, because you have drifted so far away, and you have said so many bitter things to them that it will not be possible for them to forgive you.......

thanks to my friend badri, i have found an ultimate stress buster!

i just switch of the lights, computer monitor, anythin bright, and play some cool music, lay down, close my eyes and drift away!!!

Half an hour into this "other world", and it seems that I have come out of an sanyas from the world!!!

why am i writing this?
Well, for all my wishing to be a teacher, I just found out what a neck pain job "CORRECTING" papers can be. Govt of India, pays me 5000 a month, as a token for helping the profs in my department with their teaching......as a teaching assistant........
so what do i assist in? Every week, sit and correct 1 copy of an assignment and 100 photocopies of that one copy!!!!!

last few months, govt paid me for doing nothin, as i did not get any of those jobs...and today being the first day into this "CORRECTING" job, well I stressed out!!!

anyway, songs on my stree-buster list now is FLoyd: shine on u crazy diamond, money, coming back to life, wish you were here, us and them and dire straits: private inverstigations, brothers in arms, money for nothing and romeo+juliet!!!


BLiss!!!

by the way...to all those who are reading this
"HAPPY NEW MONTH"