Panchgani & Mahabaleshwar on Friendship Day

There are lots of beautiful places to visit around Pune. Panchgani and Mahabaleshwar are one of the best and pass muster places of people.

Although people were not fixed, the plan of Mahabaleshwar was wrought at our home in Pune.

On friendship day, 7^th August 2011, me and Manjusha reached at Vivek's house 45 minutes late, but 2 hrs early then our last trip ;), then the planned time of 5 am. But this time the culprit was Ritesh, who reached almost 2 hours late. After re thinking on Mahabaleshwar, we concluded to go to Panchgani and if we gave sufficient time will move towards Mahabaleshwar.

Wai:

Started at 7am, with my wife Manjusha, friend Ritesh and driver Vivek ;). It was a pompous morning on top of that cool sound tracks, journey was a stunning start. The highway was marvelous and sports bikes were chasing us one by one. After a continuous drive of 1 and half hour we reached our first destination 'Wai Ganesh Temple' famous for movie shoots. To our luck shooting was going out there, we didn't check out of which movie it was but got to see the actor Arshad Warsi. We took the Darshan and continued with our trip.

Dam:Wai

I reckon, the first unplanned beautiful place of the day suggested by Ritesh. Wai Dam, amazing place to visit on your way to Mahabaleshwar. The charming atmosphere of rainy season with clouds waving over water, an empty still bus at the side, a flock of Ducks playing at the corner, Samosa in one hand and Jalebi on the other, what a time it was. Really it was like we are resting in heaven. Thanks for taking us there Ritesh.

Panchgani & Mahabaleshwar:

What a cool climate with showers, clouds - come and goes and breeze - forcing you to stay back, was giving us a head start for our trip and a feeling of Hindi Movie Songs. The best we expect in a Hill Station. We were uncovering point after point in panchgani and mahabaleshwar with thrilling twisted roads leaving behind the clouds and music just making us believe of some Bollywood movie. A time had arrived where we had such a dense fog that we thought if we move an inch further we will be in 'No Man's Land'. Actually we were praying for our driver Vivek with whom we were travelling for the first timeJ.

Last Point: Table Land

I will say, the best point to conclude your trip, we were thinking of skipping it due to time schedule but it would have been an incomplete journey without it. What a place to visit guys, I had never seen a flat landscape on which we can even construct a Cricket ground in any hill station. The wind blowing us over, the water sprinkling towards sky and an endless view of land like a sea was amazing.

Last but not the least. Mapro OF CourseJ:

How can you return from Mahabaleshwar without tasting Mapro drinks, sandwiches, milk shake or pizza. So while returning we had our lunch or evening snacks whatever you say at Mapro Junction and returned back to our starting place Vivek's house.

We had a coffee/chai prepared by him and returned back to home after meeting newly engaged couple at Saras Baug.

Bhimashankar Trip

On Friday 30^th of July, I sent a mail to our friend's group mentioning about an outing conversation happened between me and Vivek. It was just a formal mail for getting responses of the people who are interested in it. I usually send such email to our friends for either an outing or a movie, but most of the time people come with a negative response, so this time also I was expecting the same form them.

First response was of Gaurav Deore (GD) that 'he is free on Sunday'. Well, the conversation just got started with first positive response, which is most important in any plans we make. I shared my plan of going to Bhimashankar, which is one of the all time best place in monsoons and winter. Initially I thought of a 2 day plan but due to lack of arrangements and people's interest, we decided for a 1 day trip. People started responding one by one positively, and after a long conversation eight of us, Me, Manjusha, GD, Vivek, Salim, Ritesh, Vikrant got ready including mine and manjusha's friend Vijendra who came from Mumbai for the trip. So the final plan was to go by car to bhimashankar on 8^th August 2010 at 6 am. On 7^th night one among us (Salim) gave hand and backed out. So just 7 left now….

Car came to our home at 6 am in the morning and as usual for any trip start, we were late by almost 1 hour. Vikrant came by 6:15 but Vijendra wake up by 6J. We left at 7 am from home to pick up Vivek and Ritesh who were waiting for us near Vivek's house. After picking them we picked GD from Sanghvi and till then we were late by 1 and half hour from scheduled time.

Anyway, finally we left for Bhimashankar. We stopped in one hotel cum tapri for breakfast. We had Misal Pav, Wada Pav, Bhajji, Chai and took BHEL and something sweet ( which i did not like:). Took some snaps with Oxyrich girl :) and started onward journey.

After halting at various places for pictures, we reached Bhima Shankar by around 1 pm. The climate was awesome with clouds hanging around us creating a heaven kind of environment.

We proceeded towards Mandir, took Prasad of Pedha and stood in a queue of Darshan of about half kilometers. In between, we had to keep our shoes and sandals also and without buying something from shop, shopkeeper would not have allowed us for itJ. So one of us purchased some pedha for eating, actually main intention was to keep our shoes and chappal's safeJ, and we left our foot wears there. It took us 2 hours for Darshan as lots of people breaking the queue. There was no management at all, except money management inside mandir by pujaris.

We did not mind and took the Darshan like other common people, took some snaps around Mandir's periphery and headed towards the shops where we kept our shoes. After that we stopped by at corn shop, had sweet corn and ground nut (boiled & roasted) and left back for Pune. On our way back, we went to Dimbhe Dam . Spent some time over there, took some snaps and started back for pune. Had our lunch in a hotel and due to cashier's wrong mathematics and our over smartness, paid 85 Rs extra there in bill. But we came back after going 1 km, when we calculated the bill amount, to take our 85 rs backJ.

Reached back home between 6-7pm dropping GD and Vikrant first, then Lambu and Ritesh. It was a very wonderful plan and everyone enjoyed a lot…..

 

Happy New Year Wish

 

Few days back my friend's cell phone was not working, actually he was not getting any signal in it. I asked him; just try it again by using my SIM card. We tested it and still the same issue. Then we tested his SIM card in my phone, and it was working.

But after re inserting my SIM card to my cell phone, I came to know that my phone contacts is locked and the default Nokia code is not working for it. So I went to a Nokia care centre. As it was under warranty, I thought it will get repaired without any cost. They are having a well managed token system for customers who came for phone repairing.

My turn came, I went to counter number 5, and a young lady was sitting there. She went through the form filled by me regarding the problem I was facing with my cell phone and replied, 'software ka issue hai' need to format and see, '350 charges hoge'. I said, it's in warranty period. She said in a harassed voice, 'isme warranty nahi hoti, karna hai toh bolo' you will get it back tomorrow.

I humbly requested her, can you please ask your Engineer to check it once. She replied he is busy with some other work. I asked her, what is your name? She replied XYZ, I said XYZ, A Very Happy New Year to You and was about to leave.

I do not know what happened in a fraction of second, she stopped me and said, wait for a minute I will get your phone checked from our engineer. She took my cell phone and asked me to wait for 10 minutes. I asked her for any charges, she replied, there will be no charges.

And after 10 minutes I got my cell phone working fine J.