The 6th of January 2007 to the 13th of January 2007 are forever etched in my memory as the most happiest moments of my life, till now that is!! The only nice thing that OU has done, is include an Industrial Tour into our curriculum, which provides a bit of a break from the regular college life and gives us a chance to do something productive[ahem].At first it took a lot of work into organizing the Industrial Tour and I had a lot of doubts that it would be successful. But the grit of Shaan pays off and we finally get an approval from the principal with a lot of help from the HOD. Everyone decide to meet up at the Nampally Station, where there is nothing but confusion. Neha comes to give a send-off along with Archana but then she just gets lost in all the excitement and chaos that follows once all the formalities start commencing. In the middle of all these formalities everyone is introducing the others around which also adds to all the confusion. Finally the list is completed and is handed over to Neha. Everyone board the train and the whistle kick-starts the Industrial tour. Everyone is excited and it shows on their face. Immediately we get to work, that is, getting all the people together by adjusting the seats of fellow passengers. Finally everyone settle down and are ready to have some serious fun. A group of guys and girls embark on a game that is touted to be the best game playable by a big group. The game is called Mafia. Everyone has a lot of fun playing it coz u get to shout, fight and even take out your grudge on someone here! Everyone feels hungry and start having their dinner and then the gals go to sleep. We guys stay awake till we reach Pune at 2 in the morning!
PUNE:
Ah! The first destination PUNE! Expectations are high and everyone is on the look-out for Yogi who was supposed to be our guide for the whole Pune-Mumbai trip. Upon calling him, we realize that he is going to be a couple of minutes late and we all squat around in the station. Finally he arrives and splits the group into two. A group of guys headed to one hotel and the remaining guys and gals headed in another direction to Travel International. This was a temporary arrangement as midnight check-ins are quite rare. Everyone slept and woke up the next day, quite tired looking. My immediate work was to look for a nice eating place to have our breakfast. After a good morning walk in the city of Pune, I and Shaan stumble upon this South-Indian tiffins joint and are quite rejoiced. Everyone finish their breakfast here and go to board the sleeper coach we were provided to roam Pune with. We then land at Hotel Swagat that turns out to be our accommodation in Pune. Then we set out for some Snake Park which turns out to be a great disaster. By this time everyone is quite hungry so we stop at a way-side dhaba which turns out to be a Bigg Rod for all of us. Everyone walks out half eaten and a bit starving. The next stop was Agha Khan Palace where Gandhi was supposed to have stayed. I am not that great a believer in Gandhi, so was a bit bored, but then no one can stop us from having fun, can they?. So we set out looking to make fun inside and around the palace! a couple of photos afterwards we end up going towards M.G.Road which is a great place for all shoppers as it is full of shops right from the best brands to the most cheap ones. You name it, they have it! Some shopping and two footballs later, we leave the Street and head towards MagnaMall that is just a few steps away. Everyone has their dinner in the form of McDonalds / Yo! China and some even sneak out for some Thali. Finally at around 10 everyone are out of the mall and are planning to have a great night time by going around exploring the night life at a nearby disco/pub/lounge. the discussion goes on until 1130 in the night, by that time everyone realizes we need to rest and then we all head for the hotel. Back at the hotel, no one is in a mood to sleep.so everyone starts plying Mafia and the game goes on until 3AM.then some people decide they need some sleep and leave. A small group stays back to have a round of Teen Patte. Everyone goes to sleep at 430. I am woken up abruptly at 7AM as we gotta leave for the Lord Balaji temple. Everyone has a great time going to the temple and spend some quiet time exploring their soul. But all that exercise had made everyone hungry and they realised that they had not had their breakfast, and now everyone is worried about only one thing, EATING. And to make matters worse a cop catches the cars in which we are traveling and says that we are not supposed to be traveling in that road with a transport vehicle. A couple of autos later we are at the hotel and then leave for a late late breakfast or should I say LUNCH. As this is done, everyone gets into the bus that takes us to Mumbai via Lonavala. Everyone gets some rest and respite from the constant yamming of some people. Finally in the late afternoon we reach Lonavala where everyone buys the famous Chikki from the locals. Then we head down to a nice look-out point on the top of a hill. A couple of photos afterwards we head for the Bushy Dam which is a great place to have some peace of mind, by looking at the serene water flowing. But then no one in the group has the same ideas as me and they start jumping in the water and keep on shouting. Two incidents happen at bushy dam, out of which one is fictitious(used to make fun of ppl) and the other one is not for mention here. Finally after Shaan recovers(one event), everyone head towards the bus and then leave for Mumbai. Playing antakshari, in no time we were in Mumbai.
MUMBAI:
Arriving in Mumbai, we head to a mall which is supposed to be one of the biggest malls there. Everyone had their own fun roaming around and poking fun at each other. A small group of us headed into Sachin's, a coffee shop owned by Sachin, where we ordered Hot Chocolate and to our disappointment it was Complan(YUCK!).After a RODD at Sachin's we move out to go to the place where we were to spend the night. This place had two bungalows and a big lawn, right in the middle of Sanjay Gandhi National Park, which is a miraculously preserved natural oasis in the heart of an urban sprawl, not to mention the panthers and snakes that roam around in those areas!. Everyone sit down to have dinner at 11PM which eventually starts at 1230AM, and after that everyone heads out to sleep. Although a few get into the mood to go swing a leg at a self organized disco. After sometime everyone was quite tired and decide to go to sleep. Waking up early in the morning, we knew we had a long day ahead of us. Shaan started his Neeru-Meeru program and during the course of the events, the second Bushy Dam incident was created which gave us a much needed comic relief. Finally everyone gets ready and we all leave for VT to shop at Fashion Street. We have our lunch at some wayside places and then realise it is getting too late to go to the industry. Me, Bhanu and Sanket branch off in search of a cyber cafe to get a print-out of the confirmation email during which we miss the ride to the Gateway of India. Then, we three meet up with Shaan and Yogi at VT and the five of us travel to Navi Mumbai, via a local train. The others are to arrive at the industry by bus. We five, reached the industry and talked to the HR about how we got delayed. Finally, everyone arrive and the presentation is completed quickly to everyones relief. Everyone leaves on a happy note consuming tea and biscuits provided by the company- SYSTIME. Now everyone is excited coz we are ready to go to GOA!! We leave for old Mumbai to get to our sleeper coach that was to take us to Goa. Here we meet All-Rounder(don’t know his name, that’s what we called him!) who was supposed to take us sightseeing in Goa. Everyone gets in and we leave. We stop at a wayside dhaba(way better than the last one) and have a decent meal. Then we played Teen Patte for some time and then went to sleep. Waking up, the next morning, we find ourselves surrounded by vast open fields and palm trees everywhere...which greeted us saying...WELCOME TO GOA!!!
GOA:
Getting down in Goa, everyone shift into the new bus that is provided for us and head to a resort called MELA ROSA, a small distance away. Entering the resort, the first thing that caught our eye was the swimming pool. In a matter of minutes, everyone was ready to jump into the pool. Some of the guys were not allowed as we didn’t have the proper swimming costumes and so were the girls. But then, I convinced the guy there to let me in and eventually, I had a lot of fun. Finally coming out of the pool, everyone decides that we need to go to the beach right away and so we embark on the journey to the CALANGUTE BEACH. We guys hit the beach right away and have loads of fun. Some went around having their breakfast. On the beach, we had time until 430 as we had to go to a nearby palace. But all the girls were busy shopping until 430 that they forgot they had come there to see the beach. So the program of the palace was scrapped and the time at the beach was extended. Here everyone had great fun jumping around in the water. Here I have to tell that just feeling the soft cool touch of the tides on my feet was so fulfilling that the only thing that I wanted to do was walk around the beach looking at the sun setting. But not so soon!! I see another thing that I want to do, PARA-SAILING!!! After having a once in a lifetime experience of Para-sailing, we trudge back to the bus to the relief of all the others. From here all of us head to catch a local sight-seeing cruise. On the cruise, we were treated(??) to some dances of the locals. Then we were invited to dance on the stage too and by the time we finished, we were so exhausted that we were about to doze-off in the chairs that were provided for us. Actually there was no sight-seeing on the cruise per se, but it was great fun. And coming to think of it, the people there have a great strategy of entertaining the audience by inviting volunteers. They do not spend a lot on performers, and the audience also get their moneys worth! Finally we get off the cruise and head for our resort. There everyone decided that they did not have much time at the beach, so all of us head down to the CALANGUTE beach, but with a difference! The guys take bikes that are placed for rent while the girls take a car. We have our dinner at a restaurant kind of thing and then leave for the beach. A traffic cop and a fine of Rs.1000 later, we reach the CALANGUTE BEACH, where we realize that the car in which the girls were traveling has stopped and wouldn’t start. So everyone just keeps loitering around until I get an idea to empty our 3lts of spare petrol into the car, which gets it running again. Having solved the problem, all of us head to the beach where we have a hell of a time playing all sorts of games that we used to play as children. Here I have to mention the amount of torment that was targeted at Topper, and some others. Shaan then once again went off in one of his irrelevant tangents and started behaving oddly, and started to build a small tunnel out of sand. After everyone was tired to their bones, we decide its time to get moving and at around 430 we leave for our resort. After sleeping for like half-an-hour, we wake up again to get ready to visit NIO. Upon reaching there, we were welcomed by someone who asked us to wait in a waiting room which had a lot of educational charts[blechh!] and stuff in it. Here is where we found our proverbial "HORSE-SHOE-CRAB". Finally we are sent to the computer center of the place, where we know some technical information about the network system of NIO. Trust me no one understood a thing. Finally we get out of NIO and head towards Dona Paula beach(I think). After spotting a couple of crabs in the water and some photos later, we leave the place and head for the Basilica of Bom Jesus in Goa. We spend some time there and then head for the Mangeshi temple during which Ashu falls sick. after the temple visit, everyone head towards our resort as we all feel hungry, and have our lunch at around 5PM. We reach our resort and then make a plan for the rest of the evening. Here we decide we gotta go to a disco. So we plan to go to TITO'S. After arguing with the bike and car rental guys, we take a Scorpio and leave for Tito's. After arriving at Tito's, everyone has a blast and in the middle of it all, Ashu and I, sneak out to get a Red-Bull and meet up with All-Rounder, who takes us both to another disco, called the MAMBO. After having some fun there, we meet up with the group and all of us walk to the Bhaga Beach. There we sit on the benches and have some friendly banter. Some of the people start to doze off in their places, so we decide we have had enough of the beach and head for the resort. After catching-up with some sleep, everyone is ready at 530AM to head for VASCO-DA-GAMA train station to catch the train to Hyderabad. On the train some sleep and some discuss telugu movies. I go to sleep after sometime and wake up in the late afternoon. After having some more fun teasing some people, we get a message that results are out(sob!). Everyone knew their result, some were disappointed and some were rejoicing. Teasing some people and consoling others was our thing this time around. Dinner was organized by Topper's dad and we had some nice food on the way back. We were happy to have some Andhra food after a long time. Finally everyone decides to go to sleep, but before we do, all of us have a laugh by making fun of each other and then, rest for the night. Waking up at 5, we are pleased to know that we are in Hyderabad and are getting down at Kacheguda train station. That signified the end of a wonderful tour.
Taking some photographs there, all of us headed in their own directions towards home...AH...HOME SWEET HOME...I just couldn’t wait to reach home and eat the ghar ka khana...boy was I starved!!
PEACE
