Monday, May 02, 2005
Durshet: A rustic resort
The weekend of Preethi's wedding, all of Tricia's colleagues were at Vashi. Ignatius suggested that they leave the city for a break. Everybody was quite excited at the prospect.
My first thought was to take these people to Savewadi, in Gholwad, but it was full as always. I had heard of a resort/retreat near Khopoli somewhere. After some digging, I found the number for "Nature Trails, Durshet". It sounded perfect, but it was perfect for winter. I said... what the heck, lets go anyways. I called them, they had a few dorms. I reserved it for 10 people.
Nature Trails told me that they will not make a reservation unless we pay the whole thing in advance. You know how badly off we are, so I managed to scrounge a few rupees around and pay the blood suckers. heh heh... kidding.
Tricia couldn't wait for Saturday morning. I really wanted to ride, but as it turn out, I am a shadow of the man I used to be. Tricia made it very clear that, if she drives, so will I. My Monarch was left behind to collect dust.
I made my special drinks. My drinks have been popular since 1990. People have been doing it like on the discovery channel for 15 years now and counting. The drinks have been legendary in 4 continents.
We left, picked up AshuP(*) from Andheri East, headed off towards to Bandra to rendezvous with Mahipal, his wife Pareen, Happy and Joker (**). After quick introductions, we headed off. As always, Bombay's streets, were filled with the usual crazies. People driving badly, all over the road... but Tricia persevered and got us most of the way there. She stopped for a bag of chips and some water. A little later, we caught up with Happy and Joker, at the Khopoli turn. The directions were quite simple and we got there in another half hour.
We drove in, and parked. The sun was bloody beating down on us. We took quick showers and headed off to the most god aweful lunch ever. Plus it was sooooo hot. Even our dorm rooms were like blast furnaces. All of us lay in hammocks and napped for a bit.
I woke up, threw a few rocks at Tricia, who did not stir, so I looked for less vicious animals. I found Ashu who was also up. We decided to throw a brick at Happy. Unfortunately, he stirred just seconds before we heaved it on his chest. We started our motorhead talk and very soon, Pareen and Mahipal beat a very hasty retreat.
It was about 4pm then and we decided to run into the cool pool. A small pool, a reasonably clean pool, but a pool none the less. We changed into our swim gear and were like little kids for the next hour or so. We left soon after some kids came to play.
Along came our evening chai... YES SIR! We were living on the edge. In a little bit, we invented a new game called Pingminton. A fun, fast and catchy game. What you do is grab ping pong paddles (bats/racquets), a badminton shuttlecock and start playing. We had a bloody blast. We even played some carrom. I always played outdoor games as a kid, so carrom wasn't a strong point... eventually Tricia wanted to hang out with us, so we left the games room.
We chatted for a little while. Finally, after 6 hours of sleep, Pareen woke to see us. Then we realised why she had been sleeping all this time. With company like ours, we can put owls to sleep.
We pulled out my magic drinks and ordered some fries. We were getting a bit of buzz and the conversation too was pretty good. In a little while, we moved onto the lawn and watched the stars. I recognized a few of them. Rock star was one, Porn star was another one, Boeing star was another one... among a few of the heavenly bodies we could see.
Soon, the rest of the group arrived, after being lost for 2-4 hours. Immediatly, we wend and had dinner, a hearty meal of meat and rotis. As soon as we sat down, the lights went out and Althea true to her personality started screeching like a banshee. Amusing. There were similng faces, that were frozen in a rictus of revenge.
Happy and Joker took Mahipal and wife on their bikes and thundered off on an important mission. A mission to increase our blood alcohol levels. After a few vodkas , bacardis and beers, we were ready to take a bit of a walk. Brave Althea decided to take the lead, all the while, piercing the quiet night by screaming her lungs inside out. Evlareen might have screamed too, I was deaf in one ear by the end. We were walking in pitch darkness, walking down some unending steps to a geography unknownst to us.
All the while, the boys spoke of Panthers, snakes, lions, tigers, frightning the piss out of everybody. Pareen was nice and happy after a few beers and Mahipal was being overcautious, which is ok... After we got back to the lawn area, we drank a bit more and hatched an evil plan to breaking into the resort kitchen and stealing some meat...
Tricia headed to bed at about 1am but the rest of us continued on. After another couple of hours, I too was exausted and headed off to bed. We were on the second level of the bunk bed. I climbed in, but could barely sleep.
Woke up at 6:30am and another one of Tricia's colleagues Mehzabin also showed up. I was told that Ashish & Niki headed to bed soon after me. JD, took his car, with Althea, Elvareen and both Ashus. headed off to the highway, played music full volume and started dancing. A little while later, they saw an ambulance or something to that effect and all jumped back into the car and high tailed it back to the resort. Too bad the panthers didn't chase them for a while, and even worse there weren't any cops there too. It would have made for a better story.
The next morning, after Mehzabin showed up, we drank our chai and then played 2 solid hours of Pingminton. AshuP and I were a great winning combination, beating EVERYONE, so like ever good thing, people protested and we took on other partners. I had Elvareen and we started beating everyone. After another few games, Ashu and I teamed up again, but we lost two straight games to Elvareen and Althea. Sucks, but life must move beyond Pingminton.
We headed off to the pool and took a volley ball with us. We played for quite a while, keeping ourselves very cool. The management started the artificial waterfall... fun fun... Mahipal passed the ball to me and unfortunately, that was the one moment, I took my dark glasses off to wash them. The ball hit me on my injured thumb. Ouch! My shades were totalled too... heh heh. Soon, we were told that we needed to get breakfast or we'd have no food till lunch.
We headed off to the dining area... breakfast was served. They had idlis and medu vadas. I was trying to futilely convince people the previous evening that AshuP with his motor hips, punches the holes in the medu vadas. Sick, but true. ;-)
We headed back and we sat around the hammocks trying to wash away the taste of the oily medu vadas with good hot chai. Elvareen and I started playing some simple dumb charades. Eventually we pulled out the Monopoly boardgame and started playing. We played for a long time. I had the most amount of property and the least amount of cash. I spent the last 10 minutes in Jail to avoid going bankrupt. Tricia slept right through it. Ashu threw things at her, to no avail.
Then came the defining moment of our dining experience. We had lamb and chicken cooked for us. Now, please understand, I am the kinda guy who munches on green chillies with meals, without blinking an eyelid. This stuff was just pure dynamite. Killer stuff. We could barely eat. I tried really hard considering little animals had been slaughtered for us, but the chef won that round.
We were really hot again, so we jumped back into the pool. This time we had much fewer people. Just Niki, JD, Ashish, Mahipal, Tricia and I. Mahipal arranged some Vodka and lemonade, which he and I shared. We hung out and chatted for a bit... Soon it was time to leave... but we had a 110k ahead of us to drive, and my antibiotics were slowly wearing off. I could barely think straight.
We took the classic leaving pictures and headed back on the road. All the three bikers had pillions. Ashish had Pareen, Ashu had Elvareen and Happy had Althea. Mahipal was in Mehzabin's car and Niki was driving JD's car. We met up near Panvel, where the right people went to the right vehicles and we split up in different directions and speeds.
As soon as I got into the car, I was concerned about Tricia's wallet. It was nowhere to be found. We called the resort, all our friends to see if anyone knew where it was. Nothing. I wasn't sure if I'd even brought her wallet along. I drove back to Bombay, with Tricia riding shotgun since her wallet wasn't in the car. Everything was looking really wierd to me, since the medication had completely worn off and my fever was back with a vengance. I was driving on empty and on automatic. Finally, we got back. We dropped AshuP, Mahipal and Pareen at Fame Adlabs and we headed home.
We found the wallet in Tricia's office bag. I had a couple of mangos, the medication and was kinda comatose for about 10-15 minutes. I knew, I was feeling terrible since "Boys Toys" was on Discovery and I could not stay awake!!!
We went to our room, turned to Tricia's favourite technological marvel, out airconditioner, switched it on and went to sleep after a quick shower.
A fabulous weekend with some great people. What will I remember from this weekend? Well... Pingminton, banshee screeches and a slightly drunk Pareen :-D Happy days!
--
* AshuP - Tricia's Colleague
** Ashu Joker - Our heir of Juker Wadi
My first thought was to take these people to Savewadi, in Gholwad, but it was full as always. I had heard of a resort/retreat near Khopoli somewhere. After some digging, I found the number for "Nature Trails, Durshet". It sounded perfect, but it was perfect for winter. I said... what the heck, lets go anyways. I called them, they had a few dorms. I reserved it for 10 people.
Nature Trails told me that they will not make a reservation unless we pay the whole thing in advance. You know how badly off we are, so I managed to scrounge a few rupees around and pay the blood suckers. heh heh... kidding.
Tricia couldn't wait for Saturday morning. I really wanted to ride, but as it turn out, I am a shadow of the man I used to be. Tricia made it very clear that, if she drives, so will I. My Monarch was left behind to collect dust.
I made my special drinks. My drinks have been popular since 1990. People have been doing it like on the discovery channel for 15 years now and counting. The drinks have been legendary in 4 continents.
We left, picked up AshuP(*) from Andheri East, headed off towards to Bandra to rendezvous with Mahipal, his wife Pareen, Happy and Joker (**). After quick introductions, we headed off. As always, Bombay's streets, were filled with the usual crazies. People driving badly, all over the road... but Tricia persevered and got us most of the way there. She stopped for a bag of chips and some water. A little later, we caught up with Happy and Joker, at the Khopoli turn. The directions were quite simple and we got there in another half hour.
We drove in, and parked. The sun was bloody beating down on us. We took quick showers and headed off to the most god aweful lunch ever. Plus it was sooooo hot. Even our dorm rooms were like blast furnaces. All of us lay in hammocks and napped for a bit.
I woke up, threw a few rocks at Tricia, who did not stir, so I looked for less vicious animals. I found Ashu who was also up. We decided to throw a brick at Happy. Unfortunately, he stirred just seconds before we heaved it on his chest. We started our motorhead talk and very soon, Pareen and Mahipal beat a very hasty retreat.
It was about 4pm then and we decided to run into the cool pool. A small pool, a reasonably clean pool, but a pool none the less. We changed into our swim gear and were like little kids for the next hour or so. We left soon after some kids came to play.
Along came our evening chai... YES SIR! We were living on the edge. In a little bit, we invented a new game called Pingminton. A fun, fast and catchy game. What you do is grab ping pong paddles (bats/racquets), a badminton shuttlecock and start playing. We had a bloody blast. We even played some carrom. I always played outdoor games as a kid, so carrom wasn't a strong point... eventually Tricia wanted to hang out with us, so we left the games room.
We chatted for a little while. Finally, after 6 hours of sleep, Pareen woke to see us. Then we realised why she had been sleeping all this time. With company like ours, we can put owls to sleep.
We pulled out my magic drinks and ordered some fries. We were getting a bit of buzz and the conversation too was pretty good. In a little while, we moved onto the lawn and watched the stars. I recognized a few of them. Rock star was one, Porn star was another one, Boeing star was another one... among a few of the heavenly bodies we could see.
Soon, the rest of the group arrived, after being lost for 2-4 hours. Immediatly, we wend and had dinner, a hearty meal of meat and rotis. As soon as we sat down, the lights went out and Althea true to her personality started screeching like a banshee. Amusing. There were similng faces, that were frozen in a rictus of revenge.
Happy and Joker took Mahipal and wife on their bikes and thundered off on an important mission. A mission to increase our blood alcohol levels. After a few vodkas , bacardis and beers, we were ready to take a bit of a walk. Brave Althea decided to take the lead, all the while, piercing the quiet night by screaming her lungs inside out. Evlareen might have screamed too, I was deaf in one ear by the end. We were walking in pitch darkness, walking down some unending steps to a geography unknownst to us.
All the while, the boys spoke of Panthers, snakes, lions, tigers, frightning the piss out of everybody. Pareen was nice and happy after a few beers and Mahipal was being overcautious, which is ok... After we got back to the lawn area, we drank a bit more and hatched an evil plan to breaking into the resort kitchen and stealing some meat...
Tricia headed to bed at about 1am but the rest of us continued on. After another couple of hours, I too was exausted and headed off to bed. We were on the second level of the bunk bed. I climbed in, but could barely sleep.
Woke up at 6:30am and another one of Tricia's colleagues Mehzabin also showed up. I was told that Ashish & Niki headed to bed soon after me. JD, took his car, with Althea, Elvareen and both Ashus. headed off to the highway, played music full volume and started dancing. A little while later, they saw an ambulance or something to that effect and all jumped back into the car and high tailed it back to the resort. Too bad the panthers didn't chase them for a while, and even worse there weren't any cops there too. It would have made for a better story.
The next morning, after Mehzabin showed up, we drank our chai and then played 2 solid hours of Pingminton. AshuP and I were a great winning combination, beating EVERYONE, so like ever good thing, people protested and we took on other partners. I had Elvareen and we started beating everyone. After another few games, Ashu and I teamed up again, but we lost two straight games to Elvareen and Althea. Sucks, but life must move beyond Pingminton.
We headed off to the pool and took a volley ball with us. We played for quite a while, keeping ourselves very cool. The management started the artificial waterfall... fun fun... Mahipal passed the ball to me and unfortunately, that was the one moment, I took my dark glasses off to wash them. The ball hit me on my injured thumb. Ouch! My shades were totalled too... heh heh. Soon, we were told that we needed to get breakfast or we'd have no food till lunch.
We headed off to the dining area... breakfast was served. They had idlis and medu vadas. I was trying to futilely convince people the previous evening that AshuP with his motor hips, punches the holes in the medu vadas. Sick, but true. ;-)
We headed back and we sat around the hammocks trying to wash away the taste of the oily medu vadas with good hot chai. Elvareen and I started playing some simple dumb charades. Eventually we pulled out the Monopoly boardgame and started playing. We played for a long time. I had the most amount of property and the least amount of cash. I spent the last 10 minutes in Jail to avoid going bankrupt. Tricia slept right through it. Ashu threw things at her, to no avail.
Then came the defining moment of our dining experience. We had lamb and chicken cooked for us. Now, please understand, I am the kinda guy who munches on green chillies with meals, without blinking an eyelid. This stuff was just pure dynamite. Killer stuff. We could barely eat. I tried really hard considering little animals had been slaughtered for us, but the chef won that round.
We were really hot again, so we jumped back into the pool. This time we had much fewer people. Just Niki, JD, Ashish, Mahipal, Tricia and I. Mahipal arranged some Vodka and lemonade, which he and I shared. We hung out and chatted for a bit... Soon it was time to leave... but we had a 110k ahead of us to drive, and my antibiotics were slowly wearing off. I could barely think straight.
We took the classic leaving pictures and headed back on the road. All the three bikers had pillions. Ashish had Pareen, Ashu had Elvareen and Happy had Althea. Mahipal was in Mehzabin's car and Niki was driving JD's car. We met up near Panvel, where the right people went to the right vehicles and we split up in different directions and speeds.
As soon as I got into the car, I was concerned about Tricia's wallet. It was nowhere to be found. We called the resort, all our friends to see if anyone knew where it was. Nothing. I wasn't sure if I'd even brought her wallet along. I drove back to Bombay, with Tricia riding shotgun since her wallet wasn't in the car. Everything was looking really wierd to me, since the medication had completely worn off and my fever was back with a vengance. I was driving on empty and on automatic. Finally, we got back. We dropped AshuP, Mahipal and Pareen at Fame Adlabs and we headed home.
We found the wallet in Tricia's office bag. I had a couple of mangos, the medication and was kinda comatose for about 10-15 minutes. I knew, I was feeling terrible since "Boys Toys" was on Discovery and I could not stay awake!!!
We went to our room, turned to Tricia's favourite technological marvel, out airconditioner, switched it on and went to sleep after a quick shower.
A fabulous weekend with some great people. What will I remember from this weekend? Well... Pingminton, banshee screeches and a slightly drunk Pareen :-D Happy days!
--
* AshuP - Tricia's Colleague
** Ashu Joker - Our heir of Juker Wadi
