The Beginning
It has been so many different stories till date, starting way back when I took admission in MCA and came to Pune. When I came to Pune, Amruta my closest friend in BCS had already joined MCA, and she shifted with Rucha.
Rucha, a very strong character, dusky skin average height and good looks with very beautiful curly waving hair. Rohit calls her “Ashoka” because of her wavy hair. I knew Rucha as my classmate first and then the senior in BCS but we never had any kind of interaction before that “Dugar-wadi” trek where Rucha and Rohit met for the first time and it did strike a spark between them on that day only. Eventually Rohit –Rucha got married about 3 years after that trek, in December last year.
Rohit – my younger cousin, but hardly behaved like younger one, It always felt that he is my elder brother. About 5’9”, dark, good physic and very dreamy and hopeful eyes. His most amazing and striking characteristic is he is too convincing on what ever he says and wants to do. It is very difficult to convince Rohit otherwise. I guess that is what happened to Rucha, she could not stay away from Rohit. Well they make a very good pair. Rohit is very interesting character, always energetic and ready to try different things, in fact he always wants to try new things.
Swati was other roommate of Rucha & Amruta. I got introduced to Urjit around the same time when I joined MCA, he joined PSPL and he too shifted to Pune. We happened to meet outside Rucha’s room and in the very 1st meeting we developed very good understanding levels and slowly with time we became best of Pals.
Swati – better half of Urjit by all means. Well we met for the first time when she also moved to Pune for the job. Very simple character to understand, very hipper, enthusiastic, very supportive, she is too sensitive, pure at heart. She invented a “Sutti” dance recently. She was so tired of work over number of weeks without a break, that she danced saying “Sutti-Sutti” for about an hour on one Friday after she realized she has a weekend to enjoy end rest and to add to that no one is coming over to stay and bug her. She is the most energetic kid in our group.
Urjit – - very brilliant guy and very fast learner too. He is not extraordinarily tall but well built and yes he is extra ordinarily fair. He too is a very strong character. He thinks at least 10 times before taking any decision and usually comes to right decision in the end. Like Rohit it is not easy to convince him otherwise about what he thinks. He and Swati got married in Jan this year. They both complement each other so well that even in the smallest things like eating Biryani Swati will eat rice part and pass on most off the chicken pieces to Urjit which he likes most. We used to call him and Alok as perfect IT couple.
Alok – my best friend. You need anything, any dam thing, you call Alok he’ll be ready to help you. He is always ready to help anybody. A straight forward guy, he never keeps any bad memories of anybody in mind. He is crazy about shopping; he likes to buy new things every now and then. He talks non stop about how he handles cases at work and will always have a story from office to tell you. Alok and I used to stay together when I was doing MCA while Alok was working. So everybody in the group used to tease us by calling us Husband & wife. After I shifted back to Nashik for some time Alok also shifted to another place. But he used to come and stay with Urjit over the weekends and that is why I started calling them “Perfect IT Couple”.
Alok got married to Shilpa recently and since then we do not call him my wife nor link him as IT couple with Urjit. Alok-Shilpa is the only pair in the group who got engaged and then the love happened and then the marriage followed. They are the most recently married couple in our group.
Shilpa – barely 5’ fair and so slim that she might actually fly with wind, she is a very sweet girl, quite open to speak her heart out.
Everybody in the group has come together and gel in very well, the common background we had was everybody belong to Nashik (except Shilpa), and everybody loved being “Nashik-kar”.
I met Manasi last year through a common friend and we were committed within 8 days. She is the baby in the group, pampered and loved by everybody. She is the best thing that could have happened in my life. She knows me in & out. She is kiddo at times but will surprise you by her maturity when it is demanded most. Most importantly she has the innocence of a small kid in her which makes her even adorable.
“I”? Well let me tell you about myself now, name Omkar, almost everybody in the group calls me “Omki” or “Jaadyaa”.
Ch. 1
It all started 2 months back when an idea of a trip was proposed by Rohit and almost everybody jumped in support of the idea. We had a great longest discussion on trip destination. For about 2 weeks we had discussion going on for deciding the place. Through out the Discussion Urjit was forcing for MURUD-JANJIRA…. He was so enthusiastic to go there that he almost bugged everybody with it.
We had a voting for few short-listed destinations like Murud-Janjira, Harane, and Dive Agar etc. After a discussion about for 2-3 weeks we decided to go to “Dive-Agar, Shrivardhan and Harihareshwar”.
Lists of people interested in coming for the trip was made many of the names were confirmed before hand and we decided to book a 14 seater Bus. But …
1st shock to the plan came as Alok-Shilpa decided to drop-out due to unfortunate reasons. Well then many people dropped out; finally only 6 people were confirmed.
It was Wednesday 11th and most enthusiastic member of confirmed 6 was down with fever. Swati was so badly sick that she took 2 days leave from office, as a very good caring (sometimes over caring) husband Urjit also opted out of the trip, and then Alok-Shilpa joined back again and we were back to 6.
Even though Urjit-Swati were uncertain about there availability for trip till Friday night everybody else was too confident that we’ll take them with us for the trip. We decided to gang-up at Urjit’s home to convince them to join us before leaving for the trip.
On Wednesday we called owner of Bapat-bungalow in Dive-Agar for accommodation booking, but the information about the beach was not at all encouraging. And we decided to change the trip destination. Rohit Found out the details of Alibag and near by beaches and we decided to go to Kihim beach. Rohit took the initiative and book a bungalow in Kihim called “Deval Vadi”.
Rohit and Rucha were in Mumbai and other 4 people were in Pune, so Ro-Ru decided to come down to Pune on Friday night. Rohit booked tickets for them and they stared for Pune @ 8.00pm
Friday Swati was getting better butt she had a lot of weakness and Urjit-Swati decided not to come even if Swati recovers from fever.
As Friday evening was coming closer “I was already into trip mood”. I rushed home from office. I was at Manasi’s home @ 7. Shilpa and Manasi were preparing for the “Aalu-Paratha”. I dropped Shilpa home around 9, and we all had decided to come to Urjit’s place at 11-12 in the night.
After dropping Shilpa, I went home packed my bags and took off for Urjit’s place. I took water bottles for trip on the way to Urjit’s.
Swati was quite okay and did not have fever for more than 12hrs, so my hopes of Swati-Urjit joining us increased, even though both of them kept saying they won’t be coming.
Alok called @ 11 and said he won’t be coming to Urjit’s place as he needs to “REST” before starting for the trip. We teased him for sometime about what kind off REST he needs.
It was 11.20 Rohit called me that he is reaching Pune in 15-20 min. Along with Urjit I went to pick him & Rucha. We drove back home by 11.45.
Swati prepared magi and Tea. We had small discussion and “Gappa” over a coffee (Tea). Then I wanted to go to station and have Maska Pav @ night, so I forced everybody for coming to Station and then we actually went off locking Swati in the house. We reached station @ 1.30 in the morning and to our surprise every shop/bakery was closed, we returned home disappointed though we had a nice late night ridding after about 2-3 years. After coming back home we chatted for some time, kept Rucha awake for some time, then we all went to bed at around 3am, dreaming about next two day’s fun and enjoyment.
Ch-2
“Chanda mama so gaye Suraj chachu jage” my alarm went off 5.30 am and there were no signs of any sleepiness or “Yaar mujhe nahi uthana hai kamse kam Saturday ko to sone do” attitude. In fact I was waiting in my bed for the alarm to get me out off bed.
“Rohit….Rohit get up” I tried to put my hands on the next bed and get Ro off the bed, but then I realized Rohit was not in the bed. So I opened my eyes and looked around, Rohit was all dressed up and ready for trip. His enthusiasm levels were even higher than mine.
“Common Omki getup the Tavera will be here anytime” Rohit said, I got up quickly and suddenly Rucha’s mobile started ringing and she sat up in bed rubbing her eyes. “Oh hell not again Rohit, you didn’t let me sleep yesterday also, 5 minutes more please….” Rucha said in a very sleepy voice. Typical Rucha characteristic we used to call her “Sleeping beauty” seems things have not changed much since marriage.
I was ready in just 10 minutes. “Urjit “I called him so loudly that he came out off his bedroom in a minute. “What? Are you leaving? Tavera is here? What time is it?” Urjit bombarded us with Q’s …
“Nope Tavera is not here yet, but its time now, vehicle will be here any minute” Rohit replied. “How’s Swati now? Fever? Weakness?” I asked.
“Well fever is not there at all, but still some weakness might be there. We will come to know only when she gets up” Urjit replied, while Swati was already in the door in half awake state. “I am alright now feeling much better” Swati said. “Good so you can join us now” we all turned to that direction of voice, Rucha was standing in the door of kitchen, she was fully ready and charged up for the trip.
“No ways, are you nuts?” Urjit said and suddenly we all started arguing. For a change we made Urjit think otherwise as he himself was too interested in the trip. We convinced him and even Swati. But the bigger problem was yet to come. It was even more difficult to convince Urjit’s mom to give permission to Swati to go for the trip. Well Urjit spoke to her on the phone for about 15-20 minutes and he was about to give up, I literally snatched the phone and started talking to Kaku. “Don’t you worry Kaku, we all are there with her and we’ll take very good care of her” I said. “This is probably our last chance to come together and go for the trip” I bluffed. “Don’t give me reasons Omkar” Kaku replied. “What about strain? She still has some weakness!” “Oh weakness will go off once we hit the road she will feel fresh and energetic as everybody is here, and we have hired an A/C vehicle so there should not be any problems of cold wind and travel stress etc.” I answered. We had this discussion for about 15-20 minutes, I made most irrelevant and impossible statements during those 15 minutes and finally Kaku allowed Swati to come with us. Then we called Swati’s mom but she didn’t take much time to agree.
At last Urjit-Swati also joined us. As Urjit-Swati were packing up we called up he travel agent with whom we had booked the “Tavera” and he said He’ll be reaching in another 30 minutes. “30 Minutes?” Alok shouted! He along with Shilpa had come to Urjit’s place to see whether we have started or not.
“What the hell why Tavera is not here? Where is Manasi?” Shilpa asked. “We have to pick her from her home” I said and my phone started its “Baby Laugh”. “Think of devil and devil is here” I whispered while picking up the call. “Manasi he called you Devil” everybody shouted. “Ssshhhh…” I tried to stop them but in vein…. “When are you starting? I am ready and waiting for you all to come since past 1 hour and how dare you call me Devil?” Manasi barked on the phone. “Oh Ga tadi…..” I teased her and said “Yah we’ll leave as soon as the Tavera comes I will call you again when we start from here” and we signed bye, and just then the Tavera Driver knocked the door. He said he is waiting in the car and ready to leave. “Ok” we all said in chorus “we’ll be out in 5 minutes” Urjit continued. Alok-Shilpa went home and I also took my bike and drove off to my flat.
I burned an audio CD and literary ran to Manasi’s place. Urjit-Swati, Rohit-Rucha had already reached there. Manasi was so happy to see Swati & Urjit that she was actually jumping in joy. We put ourselves in the car and headed towards Alok’s home. He and Shilpa had already come down and were waiting for us. Both Alok & Shilpa accommodated themselves in the car and we hit the road. Our next destination was “Kihim beach- Deval Vadi”
Ch-3
“Hey we haven’t had the breakfast yet” I shouted…. “I want Alu Paratha”….. Alok followed….. “Calendar khana do, Calendar khana do” everybody else joined….. “Ok Ok at least wait till we touch the highway!” Manasi tried to cam all of us…. But we were not ready to listen. And finally she opened the Tiffin full of Parathas and almost everybody jumped in, we literally had a fight over parathas and at the end Manasi was left with on 2 parathas for her to eat.
“Hey Rohit sing you trip favorite song for us” everybody was surprised by this request as it came from Shilpa. “Which song?” surprised Rohit asked. “yaar who Trimurti film ka…” Alok joined in the demand “Bol Bhole bol”…. “Common Ro sing it for us” Rucha requested. And how could Rohit turn down her request? … Well he started singing in his special trip voice for the song and I joined him. Then many songs followed which we used to sing during many of our treks and picnics or even while driving the bike along side of each other. Shilpa and Manasi were so amazed that how come these least heard (by them) songs are by heart of most of us? Well then we sang loud for quite some time and suddenly Swati pulled Strepcils and gave our throats much needed break. By this time we entered the tunnel near Lonavala”
Alok and Shilpa were seating on the front seat next to driver and we lost them……. Means after some time we 6 realized that the newly married couple is lost in trance.
“Hey Alok” I break into his trance… He and Shilpa looked at me like “Kya yaar thodi der to akela chodo” I smiled and just nodded they both turned their face and again I called “hey Alok just look outside”. Everybody started looking outside. It was truly amazing, clouds were so heavy that they were actually in the valley and we were above the clouds. We could barely see the mountain top. It was all fog and pure white with some green peaks at far distance, it felt like heavens. And almost every pair lost in romantic trance then. It was me again who brought everybody back to earth (that is because I was seating at the back with Urjit and Swati and manasi was on the middle seat with Rohit and Rucha).
We reached the “Khopoli” Toll point and our vehicle moved out off express way and now we were “Pen” highway. And this was even more beautiful that what we had seen on the trip so far. Small two lane road with too many curves and turns, lush green mountains on either sides, dense forest, sweet sound of cuckoo. We opened windows and that smell of sand almost everything was perfect like a beautiful dream. We took a halt for some time and Rome around. We changed seating positions. Alok – Shilpa shifted to last seat and Rohit Rucha moved to front while myself, manasi & Swati were in the middle seat, and Urjit was accompanying Alok – Shilpa on the last seat. We started again and the new set of songs along with us. We reached “Kihim- Deval Vadi”.
The Bungalow was too good, 2 huge rooms with one huge kitchen. Kitchen was well equipped but none of us were in mood to us it. We called the care taker of the Bungalow and ordered for food, and decided to go to beach.
Ch-4
Beach was about ½ km away from “Deval-Vadi”. We took a bag to put our wallets and purses and moved out of house. We were teasing each other having all the fun on the road, as we came close to the beach the roaring sound of water was getting even louder, while we walked through the Coconut tree garden it felt like a huge jungle of coconut trees. Slow wind coming across the sea was touching our faces making us feel on seventh heaven. We reached the last narrow lane of the road which had other end on the beach and we actually could see the sea and huge water waves. And then we realized it’s a high tide and sea was on song roaring and asking us to jump in.
As Swati was still recovering from fever, she was to sit out on the beach. Manasi stayed back to accompany her. Everybody else was running and jumping in joy. The remaining six of us literally ran into the sea and the first huge wave simply went over our heads and in a fraction of a second everybody was under water.
It was Shilpa’s 1st time in sea waters so she was bit scared by the wave and its force. Then we made a chain and stood in front of the next wave. The wave arose so high, that we all got scared for a second. We swam in that water for about an hour, played some funny games too.
When we reached the beach the high tide was about finish and water had already started going back to normal state. In an hours time we realized we had come some distance inside the water and we could see Swati & Manasi as small figures only, so we started our long walk back out of the water. We all were so tired that we barley could walk back to the house. Unfortunately one thing was missing: No boiler was available so we had to make use of “Gas” to boil water and too lazy to go for it many of us took bath with the cold water only.
We had nice lunch “Chicken Handi” with coconut base gravy which I liked and we do not get that kind of gravy here in Pune. We were so hungry that no one was talking to each other throughout the meal. We finished eating and I shouted “I want something sweet” everybody was puzzled and looked at me with irks look. “Omkar, do you have enough space in your fat tummy to eat more?” Rucha yelled at me “ I can not even think of eating, leave alone the actual process of eating”.
Actually I had eaten up to full capacity and was not even able to drink the water. We again went for a walk. After we came back Manasi took out “UNO” cards and we started playing I did not realized that I slept while playing. And no one bothered to wake me up, as everybody needed some sleep.
I woke up at around 6 in the evening and everybody was ready and dressed up….
“Where are we going? Why all of you are neatly dressed up? No shorts no pajamas? Aren’t we going to beach again?” I asked everybody. “Common you get up first!” Manasi answered “Yes we are going to beach but not in the water now its very low tide and localities have asked us not to go in the water!!” ….
“I want to stay in the bed then” I said and pulled my blanket over my head. Rohit pulled the blanket, Urjit and Alok tied my hands and all the three nice ladies started tickling me. “Ok …Ok I am getting up, just give me 10 minutes and I’ll be ready”. By the time I was getting fresh, the care taker got use tea. I was ready but still in very sleepy mode. We had nice “Adrak ki chai” which charged up everybody and moved out of house.
Again the long walk to the beach. As we reached the same last lane “Oh my god” Urjit shouted, and we all were locking at the beach stunned, shocked and with some what “Bach gaye” look. The complete beach was full of big rocks, which were not visible during high tide. We had gone so close to those rocks and yet we everybody was safe. We went across the beach walked on it making new footprints creating memories.
We came back to house with some snacks, Lays etc. The food was already ready, we enjoyed food with long discussions about the rocky beach. “What about morning?” I asked “I wont go into that beach tomorrow as there is high tide around 11am”. Everybody nodded in acceptance. “We’ll go to Nagoan beach” Rohit said. “It is hardly 30 km from this place we can go early morning and come back by 2pm” he charted the plan too. “Ok that’s fine with me” Urjit joined the conversation. So it was decided to go to “Nagoan” the next morning.
We played “Antakshari” then “Dum Shiraz” and when we all were extremely tired but not ready to give up shifted to “UNO” again, slowly one by one everybody went to bed, but I could not, not so easily.
I was happy to be with everybody after 2-3 years which I felt were too long yet too quick., so many things changed in past 2-3 years, that was the moment I realized its not goanna be this way always, times will change and friends will go away and I’ll be left alone to fight this world. But yes I know these people will come from any distance if I put my hand up and ask for help. I smiled to myself and closed my eyes.
The Last One
Manasi was the first one to get up on Sunday morning. She woke me up. She was all dressed up and ready. “is everybody up?” I asked with half opened eyes. “Nope, but its time for you to getup its 8 am, and tea would be here anytime”. Manasi answered and the door bail buzzed. Everybody looked at Manasi “Oh you are awake, then please open the door” Swati said and closed her eyes again. Manasi opened the back door, it was tea. “Alok, utho bhi” Shilpa was trying to get him out of bed. “Sunday hai sone do” Alok answered. There was similar conversation between Rohit –Rucha with a small difference Rohit was trying to wake Rucha up and get her off the bed”.
Urjit entered the room and then I realized he was not in the room when I got up, and I shoot a question at him “Where have you been?” “Clean up!!” Urjit answered. And simply threw himself back to the bed. Rohit and I looked at each other and suddenly both jumped on him “Common get up, get up” we both shouted at him while we continued tickling him, all this had no effect on Urjit but Alok was out of the bed in flash and joined us so do all three ladies. Finally Urjit gave up and said I am ready to move out, it’s you guys who even have not brushed yet.
Everybody rushed to bathrooms while I went for my bag took out my brush and paste then moved towards bathroom. By the time everybody was getting fresh tea was served with breakfast. Rohit went out side to serve the breakfast to the driver. He came in with a big “?” on his face. “What happened?” Urjit asked. “Driver left the key inside the car and now car is locked” Rohit answered in very low sounding voice. “Oh great!!!” Swati said in very frustrated voice. “Ok will help him in unlocking the door” It was Mr. Engineer Urjit. So Rohit and Urjit helped him to unlock the door. Everybody got in the car and we started moving towards “Nagaon” beach.
Beach was good but too much crowded. It was flat and shallow even if you go deep inside, so was safe for swimming. Except for me and Manasi everybody went to beach we both stayed near the car while Swati stayed away from water but she was on the beach.
I had to go and ask everybody to come out as we were getting late. Again we put ourselves in the Tavera and came back to “Deval Vadi” everybody cleaned up – took bath, We were already behind the schedule as we were supposed to drop Rohit and Rucha at Sion, Mumbai and then come back to Pune by 10pm. We hurried up the things had nice lunch settled the bill quickly and moved out for return journey. The return journey I felt was not as much exciting as the one when we came here to Kihim, may be because everybody was too tired and also was thinking why the hell theses 2 days had to be over so quickly.
We kept on chatting throughout till we reached Mumbai at 6.15. We dropped the Mumbaikar’s to Sion circle and headed towards Pune.
Every one was hungry by now so we pulled over near Panwel and picked up Burgers from McD. While we had food Alok-Shilpa went sleep and Manasi too put her head down in my lap. It was me Urjit and Swati awake but speech less. I guess they too were revising the last two days and trying to re-live them. “We should go to such trips once a year, and if we get full quorum then it will be nothing like it” Swati said. And I remembered a similar dialogue from DCH “Sal main 2 bar aana to dur 10 -10 sal main milana bhi mushkil ho jayega” I smiled, took a deep breath and said to myself, this is what is going stay with us forever. No friends, no family but the memories that we will cherish…. Forever….
Omkar Siddharth Bapat