A journey

Let me tell you one thing I am in the office right now ,so you can imagine, the extent to which I can waste the resources provided to me (Time, Electrical energy, Voltage, Power, muscles power, concentration power .Pata nahi kya kya), and still I think its very normal...Coz- we should always learn how to let go things.

We (Will explain about “We” later on) decided to go on a short trip on 19th sept.
2 days & 2 nights stay in Gir Sanctuary would not be a bad idea, but finally we decided to visit Lonavala & Khandala.

Geographical position:
Lonavala is around 60KM away from Pune & 100 km away from Mumbai. It is a small station between Mumbai - Pune expressway, in Western Ghats of Maharashtra.
Height above the Sea level: 622 meter.
Best time to go : Monsoon
The distance between Lonavala & Khandala is around 5km…

The Gang (Hemang,Vishal,Harshal,Myself):

Hemang: U can identify a gujjju guy by observing his face & stock portfolio.
I agree Hemang’s face is not so bad, but I can say he has diversified equities :-).
He has very few knowledge about the Indian stock market, but still we (Me & Hemang) discuss the up & down of several scripts (I don’t have much knowledge either).Thanks to me for listening to his bad ideas of investing. A down-to-earth kind of person, with an excellent heart and can listen to any kind of boring song millions of time in a single day (I know this utter secret, coz-we are in the same cubicle :-( ).

Note:: I Really Like the way he misses his home . :-)

Vishal: A typical software ghost with witty nature, Knows many things about what to do and what not to do (Ye alag baat hai ki usko kabhi follow nahi karta!!).
What I like the most about Vishal is that- he is very punctual in his duties..(Only punctual haan).
He is a guy with a good sense of humor and a brain which stops functioning when he comes in contact with good food & girls….he he..

Harshal: he is a person who is full of energy & his smile is just wonderful.
Very good in event management, income tax related issues & photography.
Currently he is with Eclipsys, Pune & doing the same thing what I am doing now. I mean, wasting the resources ;-)

On 19th sept, we three (Hemang, Vishal, & myself) reached Vadodara railway station at around 9:30PM.
Hemang introduced us to another guy Vishal (Friend of Harshal), & said he will be with us for the next two days.
We guys were in a happy mood .Did some photo sessions inside the train.
As usual our coach was full of male, female (age above thirty and some eighty as well) passengers.
But fortunately Vishal found one female passenger (Age: 25-27) behind his birth & asked me to observe her…… Hey I did not want to…. but she was good ;-] .

We prepared to sleep as we did not want to disturb our fellow passengers. I choose the side lower birth & listened to some good music. I was trying to be romantic by looking at the moon, rivers, trees & green fields (Though, it did not look green at night) …… But I could not.

Our Gang reached Dadar (Mumbai) station at around 4:30 in the morning (I have to thank Vishal for waking me at 3 A.M., stupid guy).

Had our useless morning tea & boarded the train to lonavala.
I must say it was one of my best journeys by train.
The sight scenes were just superb, & one can enjoy the big & small tunnels with more than 50 seasonal waterfalls.
Suddenly it started raining very heavily and the chilled morning air made us feel very excited about the place.

We reached Lonavala at around 8 O’ clock in the morning. Harshal welcomed four of us in lonavala station. It is a small station (I mean bigger than malgudi).
We searched for a good hotel near the railway station itself and finished our morning routine and caught our hired Toyota Qualis.

Karla cave was our first destination. It consists of several caves made up of a single rock.
Next we visited Ekvira mata temple & a big Buddhist hall; I think the Buddhist monks must be using this hall for their religious meeting & meditation (Just a silly Guess).
We had lots of hot Corn & then debated with arguments on why Vishal ate corn though he was not hungry.

The second point was Walwhan dam (Tata power)….can’t describe it much as it was closed on Saturday & we just had a chance to view it from outside only.
(Hats off to Jamsedji Tata, JRD Tata, and Ratan Tata)…

Than we headed for Khandala, 5 km away from Lonavala.
The best part of Khandala during monsoon is that-You can experience the dense Fog and heavy rain simultaneously. Believe me I had never ever thought there could be a possibility of existence of such a beautiful place near the polluted city of Mumbai.
Barish main hum bahut bhige and we had our lunch in Kamaj Restaurant.
We had a long discussion about a girl who is a T.V.serial actress and was sitting behind us. (But I could not recognize her).

Our last destination was Bushi dam. We had to open our shoes outside before the check- point and the sharp stones were very painful to our bare feet.
But at the same time the gorgeous, good looking, beautiful, attractive and sexy girls were helping a normal Hemang to change into a Lusty Hemang…..LOL
The best thing to be a part of lusty fellows like Hemang, Vishal & Harshal is that you start learn to praise things ;-).
I enjoyed the slippery slope with the water stream and simultaneously was missing somebody a lot..

It was 6 O’ clock in the evening, & we started for lonavala once again.
We had some pointless talks regarding “how would be our life if we had a bungalow in Khandala”.
Guys bought lots of Lonavala’s Famous chikkis.
I was inside the car & had a good talk with my sweetuuu…

Had our dinner at 10 O’clock, I saw a small coffee bar near the road side.
I liked the name of the café- it was “Ekvira Coffee house”.
And the hot espresso was just the best.

Note::I forgot to mention one thing that Harshal left for Pune with his friend Vishal in the same evening, so we were three now.

We prepared our self for our next journey to Mumbai in the morning.
Reached CST (Chatrapati Shivaji Terminus) at 2 O’clock…
Visited Marine drive, Siddhi Vinayak Temple, Hajji Ali, Juhu Chaupati.

Vishal was a sad guy on that day & we exchanged our respective philosophies with each other.
Sach mein yaar, that juhu wali girl was made for you only. :-(
I prepared my camera to capture some good snaps of her,The photos are just amazing.

Had lots of food (Pani poori,Ice cream,Coconut water,Sand witches) & returned to Mumbai central to catch our train at 11 at night.

P.S:: Hemang was calculating the whole expenditure defectively and planning for better management in the next trip.
Vishal As usual in his idiotic mood, beneath a hanging T.V.