11 Aug 2008

My weekend in Devlali


I'm back from my holiday in Devlali. I had a wonderful weekend.
I joined my family on Saturday morning. I took the train and I thoroughly enjoyed the journey. I got a warm welcome from Tiger, our care- taker's pet dog. Very eager to do everything, I started chalking out plans. Despite the rains, I insisted that we go to Deolali Gliding Club and take a ride on the micro light plane and make some enquiries about flying lessons. Upon reaching there, we realized that helicopter training was being given to the army and hence, the gliding sessions were cancelled. Sad. Next, I thought I could start putting up my tent on the terrace, before it would get dark. But Dad said that we took the tent back to Mumbai the last time we came. Flop! OK. So I decided to open the big brown box containing the 'Hornby train set' and play with the train. That too went to Mumbai, the last time. It was pointless to set up the telescope as the sky was cloudy. I was disappointed, so dad took us for a drive to the river-side and promised to take us to see 'Singh is King' at a theatre in Nashik. That too, has a story. We booked the tickets at a cyber cafe on the way and they gave us a receipt which we had to produce at the theatre. We were late anyway, because we had guests at home. The ticket said 'Fame Adlabs'. But when we reached there, we realized we were at the wrong theatre. We were at Inox. Fame was 3 km ahead. Since we were late, dad drove at full speed and we were joking on the way, when dad suddenly realized that the hand- brake was on. OMG! He was fuming all throughout the movie, wondering who left it on! (It wasn't me). Despite that, we had a good time. It was still pouring the next morning, so we had to stay indoors. I decided to dismantle the telescope and assemble it all over again. We spent the next few hours trying to bathe Tiger with dettol-water. Urmi and I played all the tricks we could. I finally hid behind the door outside the garden, while Urmi tried to bring him outside, and I quickly poured water over him. I caught him completely unaware and he disappeared for the next few hours. After lunch, we packed and set off for Mumbai. I decided to drive till the highway. I enjoyed the drive thoroughly and stopped on the way to click pictures. Soon we hit the highway and the roads were really bad. It was raining like crazy and it took us seven hours to reach Mumbai instead of four. We were so refreshed, but by the time we got home, we were completely exhausted. It was the end of a lovely weekend full of peace and quiet. Sigh! Tomorrow's Monday which means we will be back to the grind.


8 Aug 2008

Round and round in circles



One day, I suddenly challenged myself to think of all the things I can think of, that are round in shape. Here's a doodle collage of them all!

Print Ad for Crayola


I was admiring the scenic view of the mountain peaks in Auli during my skiing holiday, and suddenly, I had a brain wave- the white snow on the mountains reminded me of white marker pen tips.
This was scribbled somewhere in my diary and I thought I should put it up.

6 Aug 2008

High hopes

This weekend I'm off to Deolali (Nashik) with my family. It's been a while since I went home. While it's supposed to be 'Family time', what I'm actually looking forward to will boggle your mind! I'm going to take flying lessons!!! Yahooooooo!!! Well, I should'nt Yahoooo.....too soon. I'm just going to go and make enquiries while I'm there. Nashik has a military base and the Deolali Gliding Club offers 3- month courses, which I intend to take up. Very enthusiastically, I have downloaded sky charts of the sky map for Nashik. I shall put up my tent and my telescope and gaze into the starry sky!! Well, I'm being over-ambitious, as its the rainy season and I might end up doing neither. In that case, I shall just enjoy the weather and do nothing, for a change! As of now, I have lost my e- ticket at the last minute (I don't know how things just vanish into the thin air! It was there yesterday). I should go find it, lest I have to stay back.

3 Aug 2008

Day trip to Tungareshwar

Last weekend it was raining like cats and dogs. So my family and I went for a day trip to enjoy the monsoon. We drove down to Tungareshwar. This place is near Vasai, on the Mumbai - Ahmedabad highway. We left at 7.00 in the morning. It would take us an hour and a half to reach there. It seemed like the Gods were really angry as it began to rain more and more. We couldn't see a thing! We actually thought of abandoning the whole idea of a picnic, thinking that we may get caught up in the floods while coming back to Mumbai. But we were too excited to turn back. Jo hoga, dekha jayegaa.
So we went on. There is forest in Tungareshwar, which has been recently declared as a sanctuary. There is a 3 km light trek upto the temple through this lush green forest. It was still pouring, so we had to walk with wind-cheaters and umbrellas all the way up. Surprisingly, there were quite a lot of people picknicking on this rainy day. Unfortunately, I couldn't spot any birds because of the rain. We were chit-chatting and making merry on the way, as the trek was relatively easy. On the way, we crossed the river, which had knee- deep water. People were having fun bathing and swimming in the water. We were absolutely drenched and it didn't look like the rain was going to stop. We reached the temple in about an hour's time. There was some chanting in the name of Rama at the temple and we had to stand in the queue for a while. Soon we were famished. We stopped at a near-by stall for tea, vada- pav and sandwiches, while it was pouring outside. We were looking forward to go to the near-by waterfalls, when it started raining again. This time it was really bad. So we decided to skip the trek to the waterfalls and head back home. Going downhill was easy, and we reached down in no time. I was tempted to drive in this lovely weather, and I must say I thoroughly enjoyed it and although I am famous for my driving, this time I was complimented! Once we reached the city limits, I got into what my dad calls 'road rage' and he took the wheels. I was happy thinking we were smarter than the others since we came back in the afternoon, instead of the evening, when the whole of Mumbai would be returning from Khandala.
All in all, we had a great time and it was thoroughly refreshing!