We went trippin'

One of the best things about living in Bombay is that it is in the state of Maharashtra. Given how large the state is, there’s plenty to see and do here. If you’re eager, rich and enthu enough, and not belonging to the media, and therefore may have weekends off, you can take off to a new place every weekend.

Well, after months of grumbling and planning, thanks to one of my closest friends coming to town, my *gang* and I decided to take that long-overdue weekend out of town. And whatte weekend it was.

After a few initial hiccups, we set out for a place called Bordi, a little ahead of Dahanu—hence a two to three hour train ride away. After years, we got into the general compartment of a train with many shady, smelly people. It was awesome—reminiscent of our poor college days when we had no choice but to travel like this. And back then, travel we did. I told my friend that we’ve all moved on in life, we stay at better hotels, but we still have somehow not learnt to travel in luxury—at least not when we’re travelling together as a group. He laughed and said, “But that’s just not us.” And I couldn’t agree more.

We went in batches, since we’re adults now and everyone has different priorities. For the boys, the main purpose of the trip was to drink and unwind. Unfortunately, I can’t drink that much, thanks to my herculean (enter sarcasm) capacity *rolling eyes*. So I made do with the beautiful landscape of luscious green, the sparkling blue pool (even though I can’t swim) and the company of my extended family.

In the evening, after we waddled in the pool for a while (which is mindblowingly relaxing) we sat down with some hardcore, refined alcohol (again, which I don’t drink, sigh) and chilled. Yes, we just chilled. By about 9pm, everyone who was supposed to come had arrived and we just sat and talked, laughed, drank, ate, took photos and were just being us.

Then after everyone was suitably ‘happy’, someone threw the idea of playing Taboo. Now before I get into this, I must warn you that my friends are exceptionally competitive (read: violent) while playing games. To top it off, we were playing the boys versus the girls. Before long, everyone was screaming at each other (really, throat-scratchy yelling), trying to cheat, sitting on each other to save a point... you get the drift. I was scared, as I always get while playing with them. Of course, the girls won, though in their drunken stupor the boys thought they did—teehee—and we humoured them.

The night ended on a balcony overlooking the pool and the darkness of the hills. Picture it. You can’t, because it’s indescribable. Not just the view. The feeling of happy, being there and with whom.

We went back into the pool the next morning with no sunscreen, so expectedly, came back burnt to a crisp. Oh well. This pool was just beautiful. It was clean, a bright blue, with the sunrays kissing it, making it sparkle as the teeny waves ebbed and flow. And it was surrounded by hills, trees and lot of green.

Later, after a filling lunch, we took a train back to Bombay. Of course, we had to run to catch the train since it was already at the platform and spent a claustrophobic three hours—but hey, where’s the sense of adventure without it, right?

The day and a half passed way too fast. Unfortunately, real life beckoned us back and we grudgingly returned.

Life gets to us all, doesn’t it, what with work stress, personal lives going topsy turvy, getting too fat or too thin, among many other things. But when you have a set of people you know you can count on, you can fall back on, and most importantly, be your own stupid self with, you gotta re-evaluate life and think—not too bad, eh?

To my extended family in Bombay—you guys mean more to me than I can ever express. Cheers to *many* more trips and awesome times together.