black forest surprise

weekend of 27th June

gishu, mikil, purva, ajith, sahil, vrushali, diana, bharatan, uday, sujata, supriya, shekhar, archana, ankit, yash, savita, vinod, neepa, susmitha (almost!) and ofcourse dhruti

Happy Birthday Dhruti!

We spent a week "plotting" (no meta data) this surprise for Dhruti. This was one event that Gishu could not refuse! we were piling on into their new house in Lodha. It was necessary that Dhruti catches no "wind" of this event as it would spoil the surprise. So, I was quite taken aback when she walked up to me and said: "Tumlog ka plan hai kya aaney ka? Agar hai to bol do, I will make arrangements". I gave her a foot-in-my-mouth expression and tried to make some lame - "You know how the group is and it is raining as well nowadays you know...". Luckily she took the bait!

Neepa (Yes, Dil mey jagah nahi hai, we know) was glad to arrange for the surprise and even offered to make the dinner, which we unfortunately refused. We caught some quick grub at Veg-World and then packed some last minute naturals ice-cream boxes for the birthday!

Then it is rather quick. Park cars, jump up to 17th, drop bags and get comfy, come down to 3rd. Ding Dong! Greatfully enough she is not expecting us at all! The big crowd, the cake and the wishes bring out the smile on Dhruti's face :)

"Stop the Video-gaming", SHOUTS Neepa when it feels like dhruti's birthday was just an excuse to play the new Virtua Tennis Wii on Gishu's LARGE LCD monitor! After which some courteous few drop the gaming and join together for some dumb-charades with Dhruti. Movies like "pyaasi aatma", "andheri raat mey diya tere haat mey", "jism" and more sidey ones are enacted! One notable dialogue of that episode is: "Body parts dikha sakte hai kya?". This continues until 5 AM! Some more of the gang departs and the rest hit the bed!

Morning - chai and poha and then some of us are given a tour of Lodha and Rustomjee sites. Sujju Neepa and me take it one step further to Kalpataru Hills while what is left of the gang (Diana, Sahil, Ajith and Vrushali) wait up at Cinewonder's Pizza hut.

Neepa kicks us good bye and then we end the day with a "romantic" movie (Terminator Salvation). One gets some Hindi movie smells in the course of that movie!

All in all, another great day together!

Head First - Trek Patterns!

weekend of 20th June 2009

visapur and bhimashankar trek.

sahil, ajith, vrushali, sujata, uday and diana (not in spirit, but in tang!)

Visapur - Grand Canyon ka
baap...

Were we out of our minds when we signed up for two consecutive treks by trekdi? I don't know! But when we came back from the Visapur and Bhimashankar treks - we were glad that we signed up for it! Two days of breath taking uphill gradients, amazing valleys and not to forget - the rain!

"Lesser Castor...", shouted a trekdi guy. I think i got the name wrong, but you get the drift... dont you? "There are two types of castors, one is the common castor and one is the lesser castor. The lesser castor is very rare..." All this, while we were doing our signature tp! In fact we did so much tp on the trek that the trek lead from trekdi got frustrated and exclaimed "tya uday ani group la jara sambhala re..." (please take care of uday and group!)

Staying over at Sahil's house in Khopoli was the highlight of this trek! We had planned to stay back after our first trek to Visapur, but we stretched it and stayed back on our way back from Bhimashankar as well! Being spoiled by Sahil's moms fine cooking did not help any of our dieting resolutions! Bonus was celebrating his dad's birthday on Sunday (midnight)

Sujata restarted trekking after a long time and although the beginning was "breath-taking" for her, she quickly regained her confidence and was running over the rocks while descending from the Bhimashankar peak! Mihir (the trekdi lead) was visibly impressed! I am hoping she will be adventurous enough to try some more treks this monsoon!

Unbelievable yet true: The adventurous group that we are - instead of sleeping peacfully on friday night before the trek, we went over to Bharatan's, to give Supriya a birthday surprise! (Bharatan and Supriya are made for each other) and came back home at 1:30 AM! 5:30 AM we had to start for Visapur... Yikes!

Diana was missed, but since we had got Tang in her sipper, she was present in spirit (read tang). On our way back, we were 'designing' a design pattern quiz for Mikil, who skipped the trek to read the "Head first, Design patterns" book!

Boldly go where no man has gone before...

Weekend of 13th June 2009
Sahil, Diana, Ajith, Vrushali, Shahjahan, Sujata, Dhruti, Uday, Anita and Mikil (in spirit)

"May you live long and prosper" - Cdr. Spock

I forced the gang into what could be an insight into a cult that they could cherish for life. The Star Trek movie! There were some protests about watching other movies, but when I pleaded they should watch it, and given the fact that I was ready to watch it the second time - the gang gave their consent.

Dinner at "Matoshri" was a welcome break after Bharatan's tryst with Crabs at "Something Fishy". We could hear Mikil immitating Ranjeet and saying "Chaan aahe na, Chaan aahe na..." when we were tasting the Daal Khichdi!

The movie was quite a thriller, at the end of which the gang was practicing the vulcan salute!

Trust Diana to make the night thrilling! "Arey, mera cellphone?", She shouts, as soon as we reach home! A mad hunt for her cellphone began and people were checking for it in all sorts of wierd places! Finally traced it back to the theater after we drove back (at warp speeds)!

The special appearance by Shahajahan and Dhruti was very welcome. Played wii upto the wee hours of morning, after which Vrushali and Sujata got engrossed in a no-result movie. Sujata was still murmuring "abhi kuch samjhega, abhi story chalu hogi..." in her sleep :)

"Sahiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiil CHACHA...." - Anu and Udi screaming at the top of their voices in the morning trying to wake Sahil up!

Diana's signature aviyal and a good afternoon siesta completed yet another amazing weekend...