Advertisement
The year 2000 December I landed in Mumbai weighing all of 36 kilos, exhausted and stressed with Kolkata. I managed to find a paying guest accommodation in Bandra and then a job developing business for a medical import and export organization. The next year in February we drove down to Pune for some meetings with doctors. I remember being very impressed with the expressway and it was a lovely drive round the Ghat section of the Western Ghats. A couple of meetings, a quick lunch and a visit to Jehangir hospital and we drove back. A very exhausted me almost went off to sleep during the drive before being deposited near my paying guest accommodation. I believe the expressway is far more advanced now and Pune has developed into a hub. I do wish to go there once again since my sister-in-law lives there with her family and so does my uncle and aunt and various distant relatives.
Many years later we drove down to Aamby Valley, a luxury residential resort built and managed by the Sahara Group. This was a company outbound on behalf of the division I worked in and we stopped for a comfort break on the
way. There was a neat box of breakfast kept on our seats and we checked into our rooms and proceeded to the conference hall for a round of marketing chit chat and motivating round of exercises. One of them was walking on broken pieces of glass and I am so scared of broken glass and burning charcoal but i did it. It is a memory I cherish till date. After lunch we rested a bit and met up in the evening for drinks and a party. They have these beautiful man made lakes, auditoriums, Swiss style chalets and tent cottages. There are golf courses and we all signed up for a massage. I opted for the Swedish one at the exotic spa and salon and it was so relaxing. In the evening I remember being quite drunk and conking out on my bed. Some team members opted for golf lessons, some for swimming and there were lovely sit outs by the lake and walks one could take around the property. A hearty breakfast followed the next morning and we tried some water sports. The banana boat and speedboat is something I can remember now. Being dunked in the pond and
then discovering that we won't drown was exhilarating. We also tried the wave pool and got buggies to take us from one part of the property to the other. One night coming home in the buggy in the hilly region in the month of January I felt the cold air chilling my bones. This was a really positive experience filled with games, parties, food and general bonding that can and does happen at a conference. The only sad memory was the personal life crisis I was being forced to face. But life is like that, it's yin and yang and the balance of negative and positive energies. People say rude things and then they say nice things, sometimes u rise in other people's eyes and sometimes you fall in your own. Life goes on and I shall move on to my next blog.
My second trip to Pune has been planned for February. Hubby is going to Delhi and I will not be accompanying him, so will be visiting common relatives in Pune,the same ones I mentioned in the beginning of the blog. I am flying Indigo on 7th and will return by the same airline on the 11th and hubby should be back on the 12th. I am excited about it as I am about all travel and look forward to all the changes that have come about in Pune since the beginning of 2001. Watch this space for more...I am slightly anxious about the thought of handling so many relatives but I take off bravely none the less. I leave home a bit early and after collecting my medical reports from Apollo I arrive at the airport by Olacabs and pay 767 as opposed to nine hundred and something which Meru would have charged me. I check in and proceed to collect a mango lassi, buy Mysore pak sweets from shoppers stop for my hosts and a Grisham for me. I land in Pune and collect my luggage and leave for my hosts home with my host. The next 4 nights and 5 days were spent mall hopping, catching sandwiches for lunch, browsing books at crossword and watching the morning show at Inox and Pvr. We saw two movies saving Mr. Banks and American hustle, realistic movies but not happy ones. So I cribbed about that. We ate at Bon south, food courts and baker street, we tried the sumptious food at German bakery and I used to help myself to lovely sandwiches and maska pav for breakfast from the Iranian bakery called diamond bakery. Also caught a couple of movies which were pre-recorded the queen, rear window and Rebecca. I enjoyed this experience much more. While browsing one of the self help books at crossword I came across 'you can if you think you can' by Norman Vincent Peale and it appealed to me so much I went back the next day and the day after my return buying some of his titles. I still have many more to buy. Now that's something to look forward to and keeps me motivated. Some relatives had to be tolerated unfortunately and some who's company I absolutely adored and over cups of tea we juggled memories and family photos. I am extremely impressed with the quality of malls and the real estate development. The roads are fine and places like German bakery are very cosmopolitan places to hang out in. Pune is green and clean and still developing, but how. I noticed devotees of Osho ashram in red robes in the vicinity of the ashram although I didn't get a chance to visit this time. A short flight and I was home to bland and nutritious home-cooked food. I wish I hadn't panicked so much at the very thought of relatives. One should make some compromises and then one can enjoy their company so much. Life's trials are so hard on us sometimes, we doubt so much and believe so little. I am now reading The Power of Positive Thinking which is helping me so much!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.079s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 9; qc: 49; dbt: 0.0464s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb