Memorable Trip To Goa

So, today we said goodbye after spending the most memorable four days in Goa..'Me' time (as promised,) was spent eating, drinking, dancing with thirty two single women. (er..not single actually, some of them have large demanding family at home, but they decided to spend some ‘Me’ time with friends whom they had not met for a very long time) They all lived in Mumbai (once upon a time) when they were in school but now scattered all over the world, North, South, East ,West of India and also far away places like USA and Canada. There was not a moment of silence (how could that be.??.Women always have much to share)

Most of the women I was meeting for the first time, although I had interacted with many of them on social media and on private chat. I had climbed into a cabin of close knit friends, (who were class mates some forty odd years) and were celebrating their class reunion. But, although I was odd person out, the love and warmth that I received was monumental.

The friendship started two years ago, when I was invited by a close friend for a short trip to Lonavala with her small group of school-friends. Some people are destined to be the part of your life, so although, I was a stranger,(a student from another school, with no friends of my own ) I was able to squeeze in (they were very generous) and I found a comfortable corner for myself. I became a part of their group (pretending to be their classmate) and started attending their parties. I was invited once again for a bigger trip to Goa with a larger group of friends from different parts of country. (I was hesitant at first, since it was their class reunion, but many had become my good friends too and insisted that I join them, so I checked in on their last call)

It is not easy to organise such a big event single-handedly, thus the most talented persons in the group, took upon themselves to come forward and work in the interest of everyone. It was excellent arrangement and they have to be applauded for the efforts they had put in to make this the most memorable trip for all.

The days were planned meticulously, attention paid to every detail, so as to get the best deals with maximum comfort. The team took trips to Goa (at their own cost) and explored the city for best deals for place to stay, eating places to dine and places for shopping and entertainment. The air and train tickets were booked in advance, few months ahead, knowing not if the trip would materialise (some doubts about health problems and family responsibilities are likely to arise). Luckily, everybody was able to come, and surprisingly, many of them, finding a helper to do their chore, stole time to spend their ‘Me’ time with their friends.

The fun started at the train journey itself. We were separated into smaller compartments, scattered all over, but that was resolved as soon as the ticket-checker arrived. Some shuffling with other passengers seats, and we huddled together again. It was a night journey, but most part of it was spent chatting, eating and celebrating (birthday of our team member).

Aguada Anchorage, a beautiful resort was chosen for our comfortable stay. Surrounded by lush greenery and neatly paved path, I was happy with my 3-bedroom villa, that was closer to the dining area and to the main large 4-bedroom villa with attached swimming pool, where we assembled during our lazy hours for chitchatting, swimming and for interacting with each other.

First evening was spend at Chalston, a restaurant closer to the beach. After a light snack of sandwiches, cakes, puffs and a cup of coffee, I found a comfortable seat closer to the beach to spend the rest of the evening. Many of the girls went for a long walk closer to the sea shore to wet their feet in water, I just basked in cool breeze, laying stretched on an easy chair, watching the sunset.

The darkness set in, the whole place lit up with hundreds of twinkling bulbs hanging down the branches of the trees in the large garden, and the live music started, clear and loud. The girls hopped on to an uneven floor and swayed with fun and laughter. There was dance, drinks and dinner.  Everything was forgotten, family, home, pets, the friendship reached its peak.

Second day, morning was planned purely for individual entertainment and outdoor activities. Some chose to tour around the city, some for a swim at the resort pool and then go for local food (Fish Curry is the the speciality of Goa and everybody loved it)  and some went for shopping. Due to the pain in my ankle, I had limited movements, but I was so grateful to a friend, who drove me in her car through this shorter distances while rest of the girls walked. Thank you Universe for blessing me with good people!!

Second day, evening was dinner at Chinese, (with menu previously planned) vegetarians dined at separate tables to avoid the confusion by the waiters. It was the best meal we had, I loved the TomYum soup and after a satisfying dinner, I walked over to an open kitchen to watch the chef fry ice-cream.

Third day, morning was a Sunshine day. All the girls planned to dress in yellow, we had a photo-shoot and then went for a boat ride to watch dolphins. There was so much excitement during this morning, the yellow color reflecting on all faces with pleasant smile that was so infectious. The cameras must have clicked thousand times and moments captured in every mobile.

Third day, evening was to mark the closure of the trip. We walked few blocks away(some shuttled in a buggy) to the large general bar by the pool at the centre of the resort. We feasted on drinks and snacks (and another birthday celebration of our team member). Together we played entertaining games like DumbShera, passing the parcel (each one of us had brought a secret gift for a person wrapped in brown paper with a punishment inside)  and opening our hearts (all of us had sewed a heart on a patch of cloth, that would further be joined to form a warm rug, and these hearts were presented to the moderator of the Watsapp group, it was a thoughtful show of appreciation to one, whose sincere efforts had brought all school friends from different parts of the world together)

During our moments together, we chatted freely, picking up the missed moments, sharing our ideas. We learnt the beauty tips, the cooking tricks, the sewing techniques, all women from different walks of life came under one roof and  they shared their talents. There was laughter, joy, companionship and a promise that there would be lonely moments no more.

It was the most memorable trip of our lifetime. Here was the group of matured women, who listened attentively, talked freely and extended their friendship joyfully. This week there has been much excitement over Powerball in America (I kept getting messages from my cousins telling me that I would get a share if they won) and that had raised their expectation to win and become millionaires, BUT, here I was, already RICH with most lovely friends that I had been blessed with. Truly grateful to the persons behind the scene, the most talented organising team amongst us, who had spent nine months planning and bringing us all together...

Thank you Universe for providing me with such happiness………

PS: See the Video of this trip on U_TUBE at Memories Of Another Day

100 Happy Days: Day 40 Close Friends.

Happiness is spending quality time with close friends

As we grow older it becomes difficult to make new friends. Yes, we do make new friends at work places, during travelling and even on social media like twitter and facebook. But, the friends that we made during our growing up years in school/college always remain our close friends even though the physical distances and family obligations may have separated us.

Whenever we meet such friends, all the distances are narrowed down to naught and we begin to enjoy just the way we always did. These are the friends who understand you, your imperfections, your temperament, your good and your bad point. You don’t need to pretend to be somebody else. You don’t even try hard to please them.

These are your friends who accept you just the way you are.

I met them today, after few years, and the day passed, chatting, singing, dancing and remembering the good ole days.

At the end of the day, when we said goodbye, the sweet memories lingered on…

So here I am, with the project of ‘100 Happy Days’I am posting pictures each day here on my blog then sharing the link on my page on FB too. You can enjoy my work either here or on my page at FB at Pushee’s World

Lavasa Bloggers Reunion

Every morning after a cup of tea, I walk around the pages of Face book, Twitter, blogs and other social media channels to update myself with the latest events. I normally see the same set of people, most of them are unknown to me personally, but I know them well from their profile pictures, their postings and the news that we share.

I am never sure who reads my blog but I was surprised when I was invited by Windchimes to participate in Lavasa Women’s Drive2011 along with seven more bloggers to spend two days of leisure and tour around the city.

That was the first time that I met bloggers whom I had never met before. I may be very active online but otherwise I am quite reserved and don’t interact freely with strangers. It took me some time to interact but others were very friendly and full of news to share, soon I was enjoying with them, laughing, chatting and touring around the city.

Nisha Jha, the travel blogger, Kiran, blogger and author, Leela Shakti, DNA sub-editorand author, Monika Manchanda, the food blogger, Ramya Pandyan, a netaholicblogger, Anuradha Shankar, thetravel blogger, and Shashi, shoppingstories blogger were the eight bloggers whom I met the first time and Biswajit was our friend, our guide fromWindchimes, who would calm our nerves when things went wrong.

We spend two days together in the beautiful city of Lavasa and then we went on with our lives with just the memorable time etched into my mind.

Over the period of one year, everybody has progressed exceptionally well in their own field. I wanted to meet them all, at least once again, but getting them under one roof was bound to be a difficult task. Every month I asked if it was possible to meet up but always somebody was busy. Three months passed but we were not able to find common dates to suit all. I had almost given up and decided to try for one last time and wrote a final mail asking

‘Will we ever meet?”

Kiran responded saying that we could meet this coming Saturday but Shakti had already planned for that week-end and said she couldn’t meet.

 I wanted to call it off again but this idea had stretched too long and we decided to go ahead with whosoever was free on that Saturday. We discussed various venues and finally zeroed it at Lemon Tree at Bandra.

At 1pm, Biswajit send me the message that he had already arrived and was waiting at the top floor of the restaurant. I waited for Nisha, since she was coming from Panvel, 3hours away from Bandra, to attend this meet-up. We met at the end of my lane and took an autoride to the venue.

The ambience at this restaurant was very soothing and peaceful with beautiful decorative plates, vases and blue lanterns on the wall, there were artistically painted white logs and branches on the ceiling, the etched floral glass on the windows, white and mustard paint on the walls and white shades to keep the sunlight out.

The tables were distantly placed with enough privacy to each group. We sat comfortably on the soft seats with ample of cushions of different sizes to lean on. The quorum was not complete, unfortunately, Monica is in Bangalore, Shakti had her college reunion and Kiran had last minute guests. Five of us met, ordered the drinks and refreshed our memories of the days spend at Lavasa..

When bloggers meet what do they talk?

Blogging of course.

We started the meals with drinks, each one ordering their own preferences; they had interesting combination on their menu card like spicy guava, blue berry yogurt, Chunky Muesli, etc. Over the drinks, Ramya, who now conducts regular workshops on blogging, discussed the various methods she used in her workshops and how she uses visuals and content to her blogs to make it interesting.

The next, we ordered the starters like Mediterrian grilled salad, Cajun potatoes and chicken in green pepper sauce. In between our chat, we clicked few pictures of the food as they arrived, which amused the waitress a lot, who was so distracted that she brought the wrong order of potatoes, which had to be moved away before we finish off the plate. This year 2012, I had made a second trip toLavasa again with other set of people, I was happy to share my experience and how different it was from my last visit.

For the mains we had Basil Ravioli of oven dried tomatoes and olives, a Shepherd pie, Ratatatoville Risotto and vegetarian sandwich platter. The food was quite bland to our taste and we had to order extra tomato chilie sauce and Mustard sauce to alter the taste. I was specially amused by this long black pepper grinder which looked like a weapon of mass destruction. We continued our chat on different topics. Nisha had just returned from the Malayasian BloggersMeet and Award Nite, and also had spent two months, working with NGO in Cambodia teaching school kids in the rural areas. It was interesting to hear her stories of the natives and how rewarding it was to work for NGO and contribute to the society in our own capability.  

My Blue Berry Yogurt lasted throughout the meals; sipping slowly and relishing every sip so when they ordered Crème Brulee and Bitter chocolate and apricot mousse for deserts, I only watched them eat. Anu spoke about her romance of apple pie and how she has enjoyed at different places. I have never ever tried the apple pie but now am curious to try one at Yazdaan Bakery when I visit South Mumbai next. Anu has been travelling widely across India and she has a new hobby ofcollecting postcards and stamps of different countries, it was interesting to hear about her adventurous travel tales across India.

The lunch lasted over four hours, bill was paid but our conversation had not yet come to an end. We had to vacate the room for its closure during lunch hour. We moved to another room downstairs, which was cozy bar with wooden tables and chairs, to continue our conversation. Biswajit, who is the social media consultant, discussed the importance of virtual interaction on net and how useful it is to the corporate world.

Blogging is the informal way of advertising and bloggers should not be taken for granted. There may be paid news in the newspapers and magazine but a blogger cannot be hired, because he will be honest and true to his content, he may not hesitate to give negative review if he feels like it.

Blogging is a very powerful medium which plays very important role in spreading awareness. There are no monetary benefits, it is purely passion but much importance is given to the written word. A blogger is invited to different events by corporate in the hope that they will get free publicity, people feel pleased when they see a blogger making notes, clicking pictures but they are never sure of what review they might get.

Blogger is not looking for free-bees; he is just looking for news-worthy content, to share with those who are looking for right kind of service, be it a new product, a film, an interesting place or an event. Bloggers should never be taken for granted because they are creative, moody and sometimes fun too.  

We missed Monika, Kiran and Leela Shakti. We had hoped to listen to Kiran Manral discuss her new book ‘Reluntant Detective’, or Shakti discuss her book, ’Imperfect Mr Right’ or Monika for her culinary stunts of those beautiful cupcakes

But most of all I truly missed Monika gurgling laughter. 

My family re-union in Dubai

The ten days trip to Dubai was an eventful episode. It was to celebrate my cousin's 50th birthday. I love to spend time with my family and since all my family is scattered all over the world, I get to meet them whenever they come to India, or when here is some family wedding then we get time to meet. But during weddings, we are too busy attending occasions and we hardly get time to chill, not really…all our time is spend in visiting saloon or dressing or attending some or the other parties. During the wedding, there is loud music that silences our conversations, and the notes are normally exchanged in groups of three or four. We wanted to spend quality time together, to meet some place, out of India, where we could just be together. The opportunity finally arrived. My cousin decided to celebrate her birthday in Dubai. My nephew lives in Dubai, so it was perfect place for a venue away from home. He has three BHK apartments. The family that was to arrive were Rajni from Chicago, Suresh from Texas, Chandru and Meena from Hongkong, Laju from Lome, Reza from Bahrain, Gitu, Asgar and Neha from Lagos, Rani, Raju, Devkadidi from Pune and me from Mumbai. Then there were the family residents of Dubai that included Nikki, Dina, Karina, Sanjoo, Danisha, and Vinesh, thus we formed a group of twenty and the fun had begun. Except for Sanjoo’s family of four, all the rest of us wanted to live under one roof. Gitoo and Rajni, (who were first to arrive,) headed for shopping and purchased the air mattresses that promised a comfortable dreamy nights. As the family arrived, one by one, the rooms filled with laughter and joy. Mornings were spent chatting and joking that were laced with other odd jobs like preparing breakfast, making beds and washing dishes. Nobody told anybody to help, but there was a special pleasure in working together. Although we were so many of us in one house, we didn’t feel crowded. Nikki’s hall is huge and airy with a large open balcony. He has two easy chairs, two rocking chairs and el-shaped couch, then there is a huge square shaped dining table with twelve chairs. Under the glassy top of the dinning table there is a beautifully carved slab of wood that had mosaic of gold colored, square metal chips The centre of the table is laden with a huge globular vase that contained fresh flowers. A fish aquarium, side table and a bar complete the room. Most of our hours were spend in this room. After idle mornings, we would get ready to go for lunch and to visit malls. Dubai has beautiful malls with clean, large alleys. The shops gleam with merchandise. It is possible to visit only one mall a day, there is too much to walk and too much to see. We did go for desert safari, which was fun, roller-coasting through those sand dunes at break neck speed and late evening enjoying the Arabic dinner under the spells of the magic shows and belly dancing. We also enjoyed a boat ride on another evening and watched the sun set from the upper deck of the boat. But most of our days were spent visiting malls and trying the food at fancy restaurants. We enjoyed the long drives through the city. We had rented a 17 seated vehicle, which was perfect for our group; we shared our stories and comments as we drove through the city. My cousins related how the city has grown in last five years. There were constructions everywhere, a new shiny glass buildings were mushrooming on all sides. We saw Burj Dubai, the super-tall structure, the final height of which is being held as a closely held secret that will feature residences, commercial space and retail space and hospitality elements including the world's first Armani Hotel and Armani Residences. With over 160 storey now, the most number of livable floors in any building in the world, Burj Dubai is already pushing the frontiers in architecture, construction and engineering excellence. The ten days passed quickly and the quality time we spend together is the time etched in our memory for many years to come….