That holiday feeling...

It's been a while since I posted. Word block for no major reason. Simply that I sit in front of the PC monitor and go blank! Strange that when I am away, blogging ideas race in my head at the speed of Rajdhani Express.

After those dull and monotonous week-days, the weekend was a refreshing break. Not that I got to take away to a hill station, but a quick trip to the nearest city was a blessing in itself.

Excuse: visiting my cousin at Pune. After a whole evening of what to tuck away, trash away, and take along before our Friday morning trip, I slept exhausted. But did not get prepared yet for what was in store the following morning.

For all the speed with which we cleaned up my place, locked and stashed away necessities, closed the windows tight and shut the doors, we did make it on time to catch our bus. Only, the bus, that should have taken about three hours and a half to reach Pune, took over five hours! Imagine boarding a bus at 9 am, hoping to hit the destination by lunch time, dream of a sumptuous lunch by 1 pm...and sleep off in the bus...only to find that you haven't as much as got out of the city by 11.30 am! We did reach Pune, by 2 pm.

Hunger did not put us off as much as the fact that from the place we alighted, his home was a neat 40 minutes away in the reverse direction. We could not have got off en route and made it there though. Nigdi, where he lives, is about 25 kms from Pune city and much off the Mumbai-Pune Expressway.

We did manage to make something and eat, but fell asleep soon, the heat getting to us. In the evening, we managed a Tamil movie, something my Chennai-bred cousin misses badly in that city. Nigdi, unlike the Pune city, in the Pimpri-Chinchwad area, is such a far cry from the dry polluted air of the plateau city!

Superbly laid wide roads, tree laden avenues, hardly any traffic, patches of green sufficiently interspersing housing colonies, and more importantly, no pollution. For us Mumbaikars used to crowds and crowds everywhere, crowds of people, of buildings, of cars, and noise, this was such a welcome break!

The only put-off was scarce public transport options. Even auto-rickshaws are hard to find, depending on the time of the day.

The result: my cousin's two-wheeler came in handy for three of us, for many trips nearby. The last time I ever remember riding `tribles' on a two-wheeler was many years ago, from my daily newspaper office, to a colleague's wedding venue.

Heat did force my husband, cousin and me to stay indoors most part of the day. But when there's nothing else to do, we humans know how to kill time - by chatting up each other! Cooking, chatting, cooking, cleaning, cooking, travelling...

A water-melon meal session, some new dishes exchanged in the kitchen, relishing acquired culinary skills of my bachelor cousin, figuring out how to cook in utensil recession, how to manage yoghurt in the absence of a fridge, and how to make buttermilk out of it when you've nothing to beat it with...

How about a tasty night meal of the dosa at a Tamil family run eat-out! Not the mutated fast-food variety of masala dosa that the cartman near Goregaon railway station dabs grated beets and carrot into with chutney powder, rolls and cuts into so you could finish it in two minutes with a fork. But that regular dosa spread out like paper on your plate, so golden in colour that it melts in your mouth! And cocunut chutney tastes real! Unlike the stale cups of coconut paste one gets in the name of chutney out here in Mumbai! Probably Mumbai has its hide-outs with relishing South-Indian food too! But this one was yummy!

Parts of Pune reminded me of Bangalore's Malleshwaram, Jayanagar and J P Nagar, while some parts of it were a picture straight out of Chennai's suburbs. At other times, I felt I was at South Delhi...GK! Just as I was going on and on about this, my husband called it full-stop. ``Enjoy the city as it is, not as it reminds you!'' Hmmm! Cannot quite agree. Methinks nostalgia has its own value!

The icing on the cake was a trip to town, to meet a schoolmate I had not met up with after year 92', a neat 17 years! For the last few years, we did exchange mails through the class e-group and networking sites, but to meet up with her was so delightful!

In the little time we had, first at a book store and a short while at a restaurant, we managed to catch up with some old times. Only wish I had made it earlier in the day to the city. Did not quite expect a trip to town to be as long as in Mumbai - one and half hours.

Such delays are times when one wishes for a four wheeler, only to rebut it quickly! After all, a four wheeler for two people makes no sense in these times of global warming!

Soon it was Sunday afternoon. Time to start to Mumbai! Terrible! Again, a two-wheeler riding three full-grown adults along the empty roads, even fields and villages (on the brink of getting urbanised)...to the highway. And the bus ride back home!

At times one wishes holidays never end! That holiday feeling...stick on longer please!