It is a long, long, damn long and fulfilling weekend!

Friday I am in love

Hey what’s up people. I hope everyone is having a good time, one way or another. For me, it was absolutely a blast and fantastic weekend. So many great things has taken place, just like my first three months in India had happened and I was glad to be part of everything.

As I am writing this blog now, I really couldn’t believe that my days in India are number and it is really counting. Fourteen days more and I will fly away across the North region of India, all the way to the Tibetan government in-exile, Dharamshala. I guess one year living in the paradise of India had makes time travel faster than light, deeper than the ocean and higher than the mountain. And to let go all this moments and experience is truly uninvited but unavoidable. As melancholy as it may sound and as truly as I wanna hold on, but there is nothing I can do but to see life goes on. So every little hours of my remaining time does really count and I try to live life to the fullest as the final moment is ushering in. That’s why right now, I am compromising my tight budget, for more enjoyable time at the very last minute especially after few month of self-restraining on money-related events.

Anyway, back to the subject of the damn long and fulfilling weekend, which almost satisfying to the core of my heart. While others weekend started on Saturday or some even on Sunday, I started mine one day earlier, which is on Friday.

It was a lazy, chilly Friday morning and my dream was intruded by the sound of my alarm. I was almost glued to the bed, most probably still feeling stone from yesterday’ excessive smoking session with the president of smoking club, The Polish Peter. Anyway, the dream I had must have been sweet and hopeful that I was having trouble to get out of the bed. Then, the evil thought jump onto my mind, urging and tempting me to stay on to what I was doing, neglecting of my responsibility to go to work on that day. I was very tempted but the little will I had in me was moving me hard to move but only hard enough to get me out of the bed to the living room, but not out of the house. The lump of devil’s thought already eating up my head- so I decided to start my weekend on Friday. So I fabricated bedtime story to justify my deed.

I started my happy Friday morning with one thing on my head, to copy all the cool music from Polish Peter’s laptop which I always wanted to do but defeated by a lame excuse such as no time and such. It is a new genre that I am now into, which is mostly chill-out, dance, trance & psychedelic music. I spent about two hours listening to all samples of the songs which is about hundreds of them, if not thousand and ended up with 400 songs.

Following that, I continue to read Gregory’s “Shantaram”, which took my mind and wild imagination to the life of Gregory, sensitivities and his philosophical of him and his bands of friends, enemies and fellow slum dwellers alike. I followed through his life with sometime comedic laugh, his beauty of story telling, the tragic and poignant moments, melancholy love drama through his turbulence life in the Bombay underworld. As I am typing now I am at 450 pages and half more to go. The story is about to begin. If any of you are into reading, I would really like to recommend this book to you. This book contains sublime descriptive passages of life, love, philosophy, less-than-ordinary people of Bombay but yet richer in characteristic and intellectual knowledge. It is full of beauty and charm and honestly, merely words aren’t enough to justify the worthiness of the book. I hope you read it before Johnny Depp takes it to silver screen.

Then decided not to go on with the book, as I was reluctant to finish it. It was too suspense, adrenaline rushing, too dramatic to go on. So I decided to watch few episodes of “That 70’s show”.

Without realizing much, much of the afternoon gone. The darkness was ushering in and the light and sunshine of the day was faded and subsiding. One by one of my flat-mates coming home.

That evening, Jana, the German trainee had a farewell party in about to close trainee apartment, C1. We had a party and it was great. Lots of people were there, trainees and non-trainees, including some of our Indian friends. Salvador, the new Spanish cooked for the farewell. Some of the delightful meals were Pasta, macaroni, Spaghetti, fried rice, chips, beers, vodka and rum and other alcoholic drinks. Xabi, the Spanish guy, brought along his Shisha and was preparing one when the party was at its peak. First it was Strawberry favor, than other fruity favor, and lastly, we mix the tobacco with weed and begin our trip to odyssey.

After a few round of traditional speech, by the drunk Japanese Yoshi and another drunk Norwegian girl, Trude, we proceeded the party to another level. Polish Peter and I decided to leave, and not without a bag of chips, which later at night, our snack for “That 70’s show” session.

Saturday hanging on the rooftop.

I couldn’t remember much of Saturday except for more reading, that 70’s show, smoking joint all-day round, eating and all that jazz.

But in the evening, Ina came to our place and cooked us very fine dinners. Then we were invited to Julian, the new German trainee, whom opted to stay alone, to his own welcoming party in his rooftop. We were impress by the cozy and greenery style of his rooftop ambience and surrounding.

We just hung around, basically did nothing but grooving to the dance beat, of various genre, drinking, smoking, chatting until the late hours, which around 2 in the morning. From Julian rooftop, we went back to our apartment, Lucky 7- to continue to smoke Shisha, weed, and forgotten conservation until around 4-5 in the morning.

Sunday Morning and rocking hard evening!

Despite the inadequate sleep I had, I woke up around 9.30 in the morning. Prior to that morning- I was inspired by Julian rooftop- so I invited the same people to my rooftop for a morning breakfast, which is much higher, broader, windy and more spacious. Ina and I went for a morning shopping and I brought milks, juices, and dozens of eggs, cheese, cookies and all those breakfast jazz. I started to cook and rock the kitchen while everyone still deep in their sleep. I made a very tasty and crunchy butter-garlic toast breads, 5 big plates of Peter’s special omelets- with butter garlic, black pepper, salt, thin- soya sauce and onions. At the end of my cooking, most of the pigs already awaken from their one-night-dead. The last was the stoniest smoker- The Peter Polish a.k.a. Leo.

On top of our rooftop, it was very windy, cozy and the weather was gray and blue. It was again, very serene and romantic scenario that will drive anyone into deep contemplation. All of my apartment mates were there namely Julius (Germany), Polish Peter (Poland), Barbara (Austrian), Benny (Germany), Martin (Germany), and I. Others were Barbara (Germany), new non-trainee who spent a night in our apartment, Trude (Norway) and Ina (Germany).

After chewing and swallowing the tasty omelets, and wetting our throat with juices and milks- we went up to the further up. The views of the rivers across our apartment, onto other side of town, other apartment and its rooftop were nothing but serenity. We started to roll a morning present and passing around the joint. It was great and utmost satisfying.

In the evening, my housemates and I, Sabi (Spain), Ina, Martin (another German) attended a rock concert. The even was being named “Freedom Rocks” 05 and the line up was some of the finest battle of the bands of India namely “Unbound”, “Va-yu” and “Strange muse”. It was so much better than the last one which I attended in EY. The night was a blast and was a truly rock festival. Even the Europeans gave a thumb up to those bands despite the fact that they had seen many rock festival like Green Day, Pink Floyd, Rolling Stones, Foo Fighter etc.



The stage was not so big, enough for a 5-piece band. It was equipped with all the standard light, smoke machine and a simple backdrop. We came late and we missed the first band which the vocalist had a voice of Axl Rose. In facts they did sang two song from Guns n’ Roses; “Civil war” and “Don’t cry”.

The highlight of the night was the second band. The name was vayu. It was a four-piece band with one guitarist, bassist and drummer. The front man has the stage performance of Steven Tyler. With long hair and flowery loose surfing shirt, he and the guitarist and the drummer rock the stage, work the audience, drove out our love for rock music to yet another level. The band started with a song from Pink Floyd, followed by a hit song from Jimi Hendrix. The third was The Doors’ “Break on Through” which is the best song of the night. The rendition of the song was very powerful and full of angst. Then again, a song from Pink Floyd, Steve Morse, Deep Purple before the vocalist sighed in exhaustion. And he said tiredly to the crowd- “Ok, thanks for being here, so the next song I am going to sing is a love song from Bryan Adams…” and immediately being boo-ed by the crowds and thumbs down united-ly by the audiences. It was a joke and provocation. He then continued with a firm shout-“Ok, this is Pearl Jam for you!!” and the crowd again was drown and bathed in their own sweat and swing their arms in the air as they sang Pearl Jam’s “Alive”. From time to time, he raised an Indian national flag, as a sign of celebration of Indian independent day, which is day after. He went on to sing songs from Sting, Megadeath etc.

The third band was more hard core and more heavy metal. It was a 5-piece band, with keyboard. They sang songs like Maroon’s 5 “Harder to breath”, Steve Morse, Deep Purple, Pink Floyd’s “Another brick in the world” and other great band. When he reluctantly sing Linkin Park’s “In the end”, the crowd in the front low loose control and went nut and pushing and jumping on each other like a barbarian, bottles of beers were crashing everywhere on the floor. The empty space were spare for those barbarians which reminds me of my own acts in those gigs I attended some 9 or 10 years ago. Anyway, Martin and I were in the circle of barbarians, and it was quite violent, just like a riot but luckily nothing ugly happen. We were doing this in the spirit of rock, I suppose. The band ends their performance with Van Halen’s “Jump” and the encore was Iron Maiden’s hit song which I didn’t know.


After that, we went to a nice restaurant nearby, Ola. Polish Peter already had a joint ready and we were secretly passing among us under the table. After the dinner, we proceed what we were doing to our own apartment. Again, Sabi prepared for us a round of Shisha and we were playing trivial pursuit. At around, I was quite stone and sleepy so I went to bed just to awaken by a phone call from Tanya, around 9.30 am- to inform me that another trainee has arrived and she would like to send her to my house.

I was awoken again, from the same person, this time by a doorbell. Through the fish eye, I saw the new trainee and she was gorgeous, sexy and blonde despite the fact that I was still half-asleep.


Monday the Independent Day!!

I was semi-naked when I open that door and I was still half at sleep when I usher her to the house. The new sexy blonde name is Susan, and she is from Germany. As everybody was still asleep, I wash up and brought her and show her around, kind of orientation on Koregeon Park, Pune, India, people etc.

The whole field trip was about 2-3 hours. I was very happy to see a fresh eye and fresh reaction to many amazing things of India. She was fascinated, and occasionally grasped in disbelieve when she came across cows, stray dogs, slump, beggars, crazy traffic, key makers, camel and elephant on the street and so forth. We stopped by for her first Indian food and we ordered a set lunch of Thali and many round of Chai. The lunch was my treat, as a token of welcoming.



I found it pleasurable and kind of happy when doing orientation of the city, country and its people to newcomers. I was equally exciting as they were. It was satisfying and paid off when I see those first reaction, excitement, disbelieve, laugh through them. The last time I did this was to another German, Nills the big guy.

We walked from Lane E, along the busy and chaotic with amusement of itself North main road, passing through Lane 5, Lane 6, Pizza Hut, I-way and we stopped for lunch at Thali place, near the chips store and wine shop. From there, we walked pass through Lane 7, up to the bridge and we turned left to Kriyaginagar. Again, we walked through the 100 meters strong bridge of Kriyaginagar, and we turn left for another hour walk until German bakery. She almost see everything as I showed her the unknown places where one will truly see and experience the authentic life of Indian. We even came across the street show by some Indian self-trained professional circus freaks. It was entertaining and I rewarded them with a generous appreciation of ten rupees.

Along the North main road, we met Sabi and Barbara and Sabi on the scooter, Black Martin and Magda and Julius.

Later, we went on the scooter, to Inox to book tickets for Madagascar. It was a very funny movie. Sabi, Susan and I were on the same scooter while Julius, Benny and Julian on the other one. The ride was cool, fast and furious.

Prior to the movie, I brought to one of the best coffeehouse, Barista, which just located opposite Osho commune international. This time it was her treat.

Monday night completed with a very simple yet exquisite dinner invitation by Johan, Swedish guy, who live in my company guesthouse, beside my apartment. He cooked us very fine Swedish pasta, salads and toasted cheese bread, round of beers and Scotch on the rock. It was a great evening. Few more episodes of “That 70’s show” and 3 chapters of Shantaram completed my night.

All in all, it was a good time and the weekend was long. I was happy and fulfilled. 14 days more and still counting. Soon my days here will be over and I will come back knocking on employment, begging for jobs. Real life begins at the end of traineeship and I can already smells that it is stink and I don’t like it. Whatever it is, I had live it through the moments and I had seized it, for that I will feel bless forever without an ounce of regret, whatsoever.

Regards,

Peter

Hey Man...That's cool man...

Hey Man...Wussup man...

Are you all cool?? Yesterday was cool, man....Really, I am not kidding you, man...it was real smooth and cool man...Do you know about yesterday?? Listen up, man...about yesterday, it was actually, cool man...hahaha..I don't usually talk like this.That's Leo talking. Leo who?? Yeah man..Leo from That's 70s show.

Today is wednesday. Yesterday was Tuesday and my company declared a holiday because of the constant rain and the Monsoon rock, man...Monsoon rock so hard, as hard as Led Zeppelin that my company was so freakin out that they gave out a holiday like a free condom in wal-mart, man...Isn't that cool, man???

Hey-you know what else is cool?? I don't know man...Can you tell me what else is cool??

OK, it all began yesterday when I woke up in the morning. The rain was still down on us and the morning was cold and bluesy. Then, I really wish to have another dream but you know man...when you already awake, everything is not cool anymore man....especially you have to drag your heavy ass to work. But then, a magic call to my van driver makes everything back to cool, man...He told me the company is down for one day-So, I tried for another sleep but in vain, man...

Anyway, I gotto tell you this, man...it was so cool...since I couldn't sleep again, I started my marathon on the "That's 70s show", completeted season 2 and when the night come knocking- I didn't realized that I was in the middle of season 3. Wow, that was really something cool, man...Isn't Leo??

The whole of Tuesday Morning, noon, evening, night were wasted with weed, weed and weed. Peter and I started our expedition to the hitchhiker's galaxie 5 minutes after noon. And that was our first joint of the day. Together with Barbara, the new trainee from Austria, we went to German Bakery for a breakfast. After that, I went to the train station to book my ticket to Ahmedebad, my first pit stop of my upcoming 5 weeks travelling.

It was tiring as I had to wait for almost 2 hours. The first hour was completely in vain because I was waiting in the long line. I was waiting for almost an hour just to be told that the line was meant only for Indian soldier. Well, am I an Indian soldier?? Which part of me look like and Indian? Let alone Indian soldier...Now, that's not cool, man....

Cool or not cool, that's India. I dealt with that almost every now and then. So, no sweat man...It took me another hour to book my ticket on the 2nd of September-2005.

I met up again with the Polish Peter and Barbara in Pune central. We walked back to our apartment and another joint followed. It was great, smoking along the busy messy road. We ordered lots of food and I started the series of 70s show again. We rolled and rolled again, and again. We got real stone and wasted. Then we started a party. We drank some beer from the fridge. It was cool, man...whole day doing nothing but smoking, watching the 70s and drinking, not forgetting eating up...

Before we reached home, we stopped by the wild flowing river. It was great,and cool man...to see the monsoon rocking hard on the river...It was a road full, overcrowded with human being, cars, lorries, motorbikes, bicyckes, auto-rickshaw, occasionally elephant, camel, dogs, cats and Oh....a giant frog- the size of a TWO kittens.Wow, the giant frog was real cool man...because he did nothing by the padestrian walkway but just pretending dead. Maybe he was stone too man....too much Monsoon can really drive a frog goes crazy, man...

The river was flowing fast and hard. Sprinking rain becomes heavy downpour and weather becomes really moody and mellow. It is like the Monsoon God just entertained himself with a very good wines, most probably from the wine shop nearby. I stood up tall and proud on the edge of the bridge- just beside the silver lion (Indian national icon or sort of something important)...And you know what's cool??? The view from where I stood was really extremely crazily sickingly rockingly coolingly COOL, man....

Hey man...hey listen up! In the evening, we smoke, drink and ordered pizza. Did I said Pizza?? It was Martin and Ina who ordered that Pizza. And it was cool man...because they offered me a pizza when I was stone man...Why cool? Because it was a pizza man....and it was free...and the beer too was free except for the weed which suplied by me...

Then, we went to "Fire & Ice". We partied there for a while but we ledt quite early as nothing is new for me and I was quite bored at the music. It was techno and it wasn't progressing. So I couldn't tolerate anymore and I decided to leave.

I reached home at around midnight and I started to watch 70s show again,and joint and beer and coffee.

It was cool and I was wasted, stone, and full of crap yesterday. Even when I am writing now, I am still fullof crap man...and that's cool man...

Actually- It was not cool, man...I used to do this and when it got onto you it will not be cool anymore. U know what I say, Leo?? Oh Man...U only wanna getlazy and wasted and that is no cool at all. So one day is OK but parental advisary- Don't do it everyday. Do it once in a while and that will be good for health.

Hey Polish Peter man...Do you wanna me my Fatger, man??? Hah got ya- Just joking.Sorry, now I am sober and I am going back towork and be productive again after the whole wasted day of yesterday.

I went to bed and sleep like a child. I woke up today and it was not cool man...because I have to drag my ass tooffice and try to be cool again, and that'snot cool man....because I have to pretend to be cool while I am not. I guess that's all about the cool jazz man...Ciao!

Lovingly cool man...,

Peter

For Whatever- Nevermind the update!

Monday morning blues.

Hey you!
I am back, with my stomach still protesting, since Saturday. Today is Monday and the time is 10:45 and I am seating in my cubicle, updating my blog. I am not only suffering from stomachache and dehydration (from yesterday’s party) but I am also suffering from a weekly syndrome which most people call "Monday Blues"
The weather now is very mellow because it had been raining regularly since last week. Monsoon is at its height I guess.

Peter, the new trainee from Poland arrived last Friday. I met him when I got home from work. Finally, we have the other Peter in the house, after all of the Martins and Thomases- no thanks to the Germans.
Despite his sometime bizarre questions, I kind of like this guy and I think he is a cool chap. Similarities wise, he drink, he smoke and he had a complete seasons of "That 70’s show" and lots of movies in his hard drive.


Bringing down the bridge

Last week was a new experience I encountered with Monsoon season. In fact, it was also a new experience for most Punites as the situation I was about to tell you never occurred before according to one of my manager (born and bread in Pune). According to him, geographically, it was not possible for the event to happen as Pune was protected and surrounded by mountains and hills.

Our company received a note that one of the bridges would be close down by the authority because there was a prediction that the river will over flow unto the main roads. Since that bridge is quite a link to most places (Kasarwadi bridge)- most people were advice to leave the office as soon as possible and it was only 3 pm. The whole office was kind of chaotic as everyone busying escaping the office. The scene is like a last minute evacuation.

Anyway, the bridge was being closed down half an hour than expected. The river had taken over the road and some places, especially the slump area, which close to the river, had been severely hit by a major flood already. Earlier that day, I visited one of the slump areas, near to my company, which most of the kids Omar and I taught every Friday resided. Some hut houses was already half-drowned by the flood-people were moving-with their little equipment, like kitchen stuff, radio, old television and a lot more. The kids, unaware of the panic and worries faced by the adults, was having fun playing in the flood and dancing in the rain. Most of the affected families were being moved to a nearby school. Miss Beena, the head of my company’s corporate social program invited some of the families to our company and offered them a place to stay and some foods to keep their hunger away temporally.

One thing I learned from the slump and the flood is how these people deal with the problem. They were very cooperative, rendered a helping hands to each other, and very smiley despite the fact that the flood was hitting their house-taking away most of their little properties. These people made happiness out of the sadness. They faced the problem like a man. They found remedy instead a more problem and complaints. Sometime we are so blessed that we forgot that there are other people whose living condition is far from sufficient and yet, they were happier than most of us. It is amazing to see Christian complain everyday and harping on all negativity- rather than recognizing the positivity- hence seeing it from the bright side

We were on the road, bustling through the heavy traffic and accompanied by heavy rain. For 3 and the half-hours long, we were stuck and stranded on the road.

Falling in love for second time

Jana, brought a complete DVD of "Sex & the City" (All seasons) from Bombay last week. So I slower down my reading speed on Gregory’s "Shantaram" and continued where I stop- the fourth season. It only took me two episodes to fall in love again, with Carrie Bradshaw. At the time of writing- I still have last season to go.

Farewell of the Crybaby

Christian the Crybaby organized a farewell party in our apartment last Friday. I hate to say this but it was one of the good parties from the good old day. The party was with unlimited supply of beers and snacks (by Christian) and Polish Vodkas (by Peter) and weed (by me).

There was so many people known and unknown. By midnight, most of us were already high, drunk or stone. Yoshi, the crazy Japanese guy were proposing a toast and giving his drunkard impromptu farewell speech to Christian. I said my piece as well despite the facts of our recent heated argument over the differences in our deeds and principals, disagreement, war, controversial emails that make him hated me so much. Honestly for this guy, I don’t hate him even though our sometime stormy friendship had continually deteriorating, sparked and triggered by many issues. But this, he couldn’t understand. Prior to that evening, I told him I would gladly approve him to organize his farewell party in Lucky 7 (my apartment), complete with best wishes and all the flowery words and jazz.

On the contrary- I also wrote that my principal said it was wrong for you to do a party because of his irresponsible act of sudden departure and his failure to fulfil his promises to us, which leave most of us ending up paying huge sum of rent. He ignored my email and thought I was very selfish to deny his party, which was untrue. And he hated me for that.

In my farewell speech to him, which is very short, I said "Christian & I, we are friends. We had a good time together and we had a bad time together. I just want you to know that, whatever happen, we are still friend and farewell to you" . I hope this time he get it that having a disagreement in deeds and principals with you doesn’t mean that I hate him, doesn’t mean that if he fall, I won’t pick him up, if he hurt, I wouldn’t lick his wound. In fact I will do that even though I don’t have a respect for him and I despise his negative attitudes.

The party was great. Cleaning lady didn’t came in the morning. I woke up in the morning, D-tox and dehydrated and was surprised by the messy house, which look like just being hit by an atomic bomb. I cleaned the whole house even though it was Christian’s mess. He came much later and someone told him I cleaned the whole damn house. Eventually I think he get the point which prompted him to expressed his gratitude to me with a firm handshake- very formal.

Paradise for the cow

Ina, Julius, Ya ting and I woke up at 4.30 in the morning to join my colleague in his weekly trekking in Sinhagad fort. It was my idea. Kate was suppose to join us but apparently she was tied up with her moving out stuff.
We took auto rickshaw and arrived at Shaniwarwada bus station around 5.45 am. We took a public bus to the foothill of Singahad fort and arrived there at around 7am.

We had a breakfast before my friend arrived. My friend, Anup, is a trekking freak and a advanced certified mountaineer which entitle him to lead an expedition to any mountain climbing or rock climbing and any other trekking.

FYI, Sinhagad is a hill fort located near the city of Pune, India. The fort rises about 800 metres above the surrounding countryside. The fort has been a strategically important location since at least the 14th century, and has seen many epic battles.

The serenity of the place is unquestionable. At the bottom of the hill, where we had our breakfast, small and fast flowing water was busying flooding up the uneven, bumpy tiny roads, with lots of potholes. The climbing up experience was astounding. The way up was full of rocks, greenest of grass (which is why I say this is a paradise for the cow) and the path up was quite steeping, rocky and at time can be very challenging. I started with minor ache and discomfort in my stomach. I don’t know why every time I go trekking, I will surely have either diarrhea, stomach upset or ache. It must be a jinx.

The diarrhea was getting worse and I climb higher. At one point, I know I must let go- answer the damn call of the nature. So I found myself a bush on the way up and thanks to Ina for her toiler paper, I let go the toxic and the poison-out of my ass.

After that, I got better. We passed through many small huts, some were selling local sweets, some were selling fried Bhajee and hot masala chai and some was just an empty hut. The higher we went the thicker the fog. The rain was perfect, accompanied with lazy wind and morning breeze. At the halfway, which is about 500 metres from the ground below, we stopped for a brief rest. Ina and I started to smoke a joint. The feeling was great. Suddenly we saw some of the cow hanging around and we taught those cows must had been a holy cows since they were in a cow’s paradise. We continued our journey up- the rain getting herder and harder (but still soft on our skin), the fog was getting thicker and thicker, the wind blew harder as well and with all the morning breeze jazz, it makes us so cold. All views from the halfway up on the tiny villages, huts, farm fields was getting tinier, blurrer and eventually becomes invisible, hid behind the gathering fog.

Quarter to the top, we saw a tiny waterfall and we refreshed ourselves by splashing the cold water onto our face and body.

The feeling at the top was indescribable. The scenes from the top, amid the gathering fog, morning breeze, lazy wind, constant rain, few huts serving hot tea and snack/steam ground nuts make me feel so blessed, with such a beautifully endowed, gifted and God-Sent landscape of the hill. The feeling and the view were amazing, super-fantastic and almost unreal. Lots of local trekkers- we greeted each other and had a brief chat, over a hot chai…
Anup, my friend, took us around the beautiful places at the top. He was explaining the historical point of view of each place, which make the place even livelier and surreal. We came to his place, which is known the end of the world. It is one of the edges of the fort. At the edge, with the wind was still blowing and rain still harder, we stood proudly on the edge- looking down at the tiny greens through the gathering and thicker haze. The scene was like those of the scene in "Lord of the ring" where the fellowship throws the ring down the fire. The only different is, the fire here is the tiniest greens and thick haze, heavy rain, cold weather- at about 17degree.
Then, one of the old man approached us wanted to sing us a song, in Marathi. He rapped about 3 minutes, with all kind of body movement and at time he seems like cursing at us. Anup told us the song was about the heroism of the war of King Shivaji. We gave him some money and we left for more discoveries. Ina and I came across two very beautiful small lakes. The closed lake looks like a concubine’s private bathing tub. The rain drop were gathering tiny bubbles on the lake and the fog were moved lazily by the wind and this made the whole scene look like the angels in paradise were bathing-only thing is it was without angels.

The last stop was when we reach the only leftover watchtower of the fort or Shivaji’s then kingdom. It was very high, standing proud at the height of 1200 meter from sea level.

Before we decided to go down the foothill, we stopped by the small hut- to warm ourselves over the fire, having a hot tea with just-friend Bhajee and a one big joint. After 30 minutes and I was sure at that time I was completely stone, reaching the state of enlightenment of the soul, we left the top of the hill. They were some group of individual trekkers on the way up and they were chanting "Jai Shivaji". It means, "Hail Shivaji"
We left the Shihagad at around 11 am with public bus and reached our home, sweet home at around 1pm. The experience of this trip was so much better than the last trip to Logahad. Clearly it was much greener, steeper, rocky and more challenging. This is going to be one of my unforgettable trekking experiences for a long time to come.

Omar’s invitation and moving out!

Sunday evening, two of lucky 7 resident moved out. Tejas moved to somewhere nearby his college. Kate Hudson moved to her friend’s place, which is very near her company and apparently she didn’t have to pay any rent, on top of that she got her own bedroom, bathroom and only two inhabitants in the house with Feng-Shui jazz. One thing for sure, I am gonna miss her I-Pod.

That night, one of my company division- International business division, were organizing a party for one of their staff that had been promoted and Omar’s short trip back to Egypt. The foods were very delicious, cooked by Omar and some of his colleague. The party was held in Adina society, my company’s guesthouse located side by side my apartment. We also invited all of Lucky 7 people but Kate didn’t join us because she was moving away. I brought 2 cigars-which I enjoy smoking occasionally for yesterday’s party. I lighted one after dinner and offered the other one to Sunir- Omar’s division boss. Lots of alcoholic drink- whiskey and rums and lots of smoke-including Shisha. I was high and drunk. It was a good party.

So, with this I think I should sign off for now. I hope all of you fine and best wishes whatever you plan to do. Don’t be negative, whatever you do- be happy and allow me to quote Monthy Python’s Life of Brian- "Always look on the bright side of life,uh-uh.uhuhuh…."

Rgds,
Peter