First weekend of May - Alibaug n Kashid Part1 - The halo, The bums , The bugle n The beach...

The crowd, the pace n the energy of the city was becoming a part and parcel of the life. As some wise man once said, change is the only thing that is constant. The vagabond in me wanted a change.

A weekend plan was charted out, which consisted of an escape into the not-so-commercialized beaches in n around Alibaug, a place which was at a distance of 110 kms from Mumbai or at a displacement of approx 35 kms. a make-shift travel group – a group of 11 people who had never hung out together in the past. For me, it was an experiment; I prefer hanging out with people who I m close to or am completely new to, nothing in between. This group had members who didn’t belong to both the categories.

Taking into account the time factor and the expectations of an enjoyable boat ride, we decided to take the ‘displacement route’ rather than the ‘distance route’. After having a sumptuous lunch (as always) we boarded the steamer.

As we watched the Gateway and the Taj fading into distance, we realised that the steamer was rocking and swaying more than usual. That’s when the smiling Buddha came up with a dance step to help us stand steady. It was simple – Legs spread apart at 45 degrees, knees bent at some obtuse angle, hands spread to provide the balance. I added a pelvic thrust to the process and it ensured that the deck had some amateur dancers dancing to the tunes of the swaying boat. Suddenly someone screamed – ‘ Halo….The ever so gentlemanly mallu has a halo associated with him, he’s enlightened ‘ . Time, space n every other element freezed for a moment, the boat stopped rocking, the wind stopped blowing, the waves stopped splashing. All eyes were fixed on Ashwin’s head , trying to soak in the sight of the magical halo around it. But alas, no one could c it. That’s when the other mallu – a not so gentlemanly lazy bum – captured the halo between his legs (pun unintended!!!) with his camera. This was the first instance of bum capturing (again pun unintended), which was to unnoticeably become a theme during the trip.

After alighting the steamer at Mandvi, we boarded the bus which was headed to Alibaug. The town of Alibaug and the beach unfortunately didn’t meet by expectations regarding my idea of a sojourn into the lap of nature. Add to that, the constant school-teacher-like-gyaan-n-setting-the-deadlines of some in the group. The vagabond in me was craving for unstructuredness n the randomness associated with the travel rather than the walking-in-a-carefully-drawn-straight-line.

We decided to chuck Alibaug n go Kashid – a quieter n calm place where the encroachment of civilization was to a lesser degree. 11 of us somehow managed to squeeze our arses into a share auto for a 30 km journey. It was already around 5 o clock as the share auto sped away into the dusk. The sweltering heat mixed with the ‘unvagabonding’ spirit of some, was getting to some of the so-called-travellers.

The sleeping topper just switched off as he thought he was better off in tat state, n i would say he made a right choice. The kiddo girl was kiddoish as usual, keeping everything simple, not bothering to think too much n she kept on clicking pics. The big bakar man kept on vomiting lots of gibberish, maintaining the energy level of the group ( though was it actually required ??? ). The smiling budha was thinking, the best possible way to utilise idle time, wonder nowadays how many actually think beyond the obvious. The bugle boy was his usual stuff. (The trousers of the brand Bugle boy has the tag attached at the wrong…err should I say the right place! ). The gentlemanly mallu was flashing his million dollar smile inspite of the tiredness. The FMS dude was getting valuable info from the autowallah. Parvath ka puthar was in a pensive mood. The don n the goggled girl kept on argument about the clichéd topic of gender equality.

I was enjoying observing the small n subtle things around me, the group dynamics of the make-shift group, the interplay of human emotions. A human being n its characteristics , just like life, are a paradox of extremes – It is so seeming simple as well as unbelievably complex, it is a well oiled machine as well as the manifestation of extreme randomness, it is just a speck in the endless emptiness at the same time an entirety in itself.



Kashid was incredible….With its clean beach, clear water, greenery, small crowd, shacks, hammocks among many other features. After settling down in a homely cottage, way past dusk, we set off to the beach. The time until dinner was spent idling around, doing pretty much nothing. After dinner, the Smiling Budha, the Bugle boy n the lazy bum set off to the beach again. Lying on the beach, looking at the stars, hearing the waves crash on the shore n the whisper of the gentle breeze flowing, my mind started wandering exploring the endless possibilities and meaning of human existence. My mind became warped enough to overcome the warped space-time and wrap it onto itself. Memories flooded in – The dreams we weaved lying on the beaches of Cochin n Alleppey, The intoxicated illusions tat were created , destroyed n recreated lying on the beaches of Goa, The numerous rounds of self-introspection and the churning out process that was carried out lying on the beaches of Chennai n Pondicherry. Every human being lives three lives – The memories, the present n the dreams. Lucky r those who can sketch them to form a continuum, with one dissolving into the other effortlessly and naturally...

As the night slept n the day was about to wake up from its slumber, i dozed off…away from the maddening crowd, on the sea shore……..

Rest of the month - April 20th to 30th

Some of the memories from the rest of the month, not chronologically nor in any particular order are : -

The train journey to Kalyan – If u thought western lane was the actual representation of Mumbai locals, I don’t know what u ll think if u travel via the central lane. The journey was normal from VT till Dadar. The scenes after Dadar made me realise that getting into, stayin put and getting out of the train was a combination of art and science. Many of the nuggets of scientific wisdom learned during the school days were coming in handy (and at times rewritten) for many of the travellers –

1) Force = Mass * Acceleration – To get out of or into the train, u need to have either the mass or acceleration. The hulks used their physique to push their way thru, while the davids used the A component of the equation to generate the F one.
2) Every action has an equal (or greater) and opposite reaction – For every newton of force applied by the alighting crowd, the boarding crowd applied an equal (or greater) amount of force.
3) Then there was Bernoulli.
4) Every conceivable particle is made up of several sub-atomic particles – From the stretch from Dadar to Kalyan, I ceased to exist as the well oiled human machine. Many of the parts, physical and mental just weren’t present. I was just the sub-atomic particles, which by themselves didn’t make much sense.

The tightly packed compartments, which redefined the extent of permissible spacial violation of a human being, inside which the travellers didn’t budge an inch during the 3-4 min stretch during the stations, and the subsequent explosion and the uncontrollable force at the which they were thrown or threw themselves out of the openings known as the doors can be compared only to a constipated person hit by bouts of loose motion.

N it always felt as if the number of people who boarded the train was more than the number of people who alighted.

Dinner at New Yorkers – When Anil, my foodie buddy from Chennai n now at A, came down I had to take him to a good restaurant for old times' sake. Based on recommendations by some Mumbaikars we decided on New Yorker, a veg restaurant (for a change) near Wilson College. After standing in the queue ( I have always wondered y it was ‘ queue’ n not ‘que’ – may be it is to give that word that long n first-person-is-so-far-away feeling. After seeing the Mumbai queues I feel the word should be queueueue rather than queue) for around three-quarters of an hour, we had high expectations from the Mexican sizzlers and falafels we ordered. But the food sucked big time. Branding is an awesome phenomenon, but the quality of product is the foundation on which the entire concept of branding can and should be built…

The workouts n the interesting people I met/ continue to meet there – This and other workout related stories n my views on the topic requires several independent and dedicated posts.

Some of the interesting pics captured

' Hindu Swimming....' , ' Building for Parsees' - What the hell ??? India is growing. Y not Indians ?

Innovative/weird ways to add to the topline

U find these kind of boards in every shop in the Fashion Street. N in every shop u haggle with the shopkeeper, starting at 1/4th of the price n finalising the deal at around half the price.

Somebody in the restaruant is good at arithemetic

Nice name for a hospital

An ash tray which conveys the right message