Chapter 7: Journey (Route Mumbai -> Panvel -> Alibaug -> Murud)

Journey (Route Mumbai -> Panvel -> Alibaug -> Murud)
It took us a good amount of time in adjusting our belongings in the sumo and who will sit where. Yogesh was adamant in sitting next to Driver and so was i....however it later dawned upon us that 2 guys with average built like me and Yogi cannot sit near the driver's seat. So i went back to sit in the middle... in between, Sandesh and Pawan. And my place was taken by our petite friend Krishnendra.....aka Krish. So the sitting arrangement was like this :-

Front seats
Yogi and Krish

Middle seats
Sandesh, Myself and Pawan

Rear seats
Tayade and Sunil

When we actually sat we realized that this is the maximum no of people that can accomodate in sumo with luggage. So, ironically, we thanked all those who did not show up for our picnic. So, in all we were 8 people, including Driver - Prasad a good friend of Sandesh.

We left Vashi towards Panvel at around 8.15pm or 8.30 pm, in between we played the music CD cut by Sandesh with the help of another office colleague Mohan Cheema. Out of all the songs, that we played, the ones i had copied were enjoyed by one and all, and for the songs Mohan Cheema had copied only 20% were good for other 80% we could only...curse Mohan.

One thing i would like to point out, Sandesh informed everyone and was literally convincing everyone to wear caps and goggles to avoid dust in our route that can damage the hair and eyes. But everyone turned a deaf ear to him. Poor sandesh, he was the only person in the end to wear cap and goggles and that too .... at night!

Yogesh and Krish who were sitting in the front were not talking to each other but concentrating on the route it seems. May be their frequency was not matched yet! :) We were addressing Yogesh as "Uncle" since he was semi bald ... i mean he still is semi bald. Initially he was in charge of playing the songs from the CD. He had the remote...but for some reasons he was emotional, and was more interested in slow songs...therefore i took the remote from him, and played only those tracks that were meant for picnic.

In the mean time, driver was getting uncomfortable, in shifting the gears, since the kind of road we were going to come across needed quick shift of gears, and Krish's legs were not giving as much room as required for changing the gears. Therefore, at Panvel, we halted at P.K. Wines to get our drinks, and at that time it was decided, that Krish will join Tayade and Sunil in the Back seat. Now Yogesh was alone and probably happy, so also Krish, since now he got closer to Tayade whom he loved as much as his dog in Itawah! :) ... lolz ! in between the route once even the cigaratte's burning end fell on our seat, in between pawan and myself, i was not knowing what happened, but, i was feeling something pricking or slightly burning, close to my butt. It was only when pawan, pointed out "abey.....mote ne jalti cigarette yahan par daal di hai!....abey omkar uth! "....i shouted, "Tayade, saale kamine itni chadh gayi kya tereko!" .....all were laughing including Tayade and me!

The guys, got some beer cans "Kingfisher Drought" and "Romanov Vodka" bottle. In the meantime, Yogesh, myself and Prasad were in Sumo, and we got an sms from Kajal who was still in touch with us. We gave her an update, and resumed our Journey. The cans were opened and Tayade lighted a cigarette. And after that within few minutes, Tayade, Sandesh and Pawan started hanging over. The Beer was showing its effect, Tayade and Sandesh were talking and laughing irrelavantely since they were loosing their senses, intermittently! Pawan was quiet in good control, so also Sunil and Krish. Only myself and Yogesh did not indulge in boozing at that point of time.

Next we halted, at a petrol pump and refilled diesel worth 500 Rs. Sandesh and Pawan got down from the Sumo, since "SMOKING is NOT ALLOWED" at pertol pump. The trio, was getting nearly close to high. But Sunil and Krish were not that close. Whenever, we were close to any check naka ...we had to lower the volume of our deck speakers which were blarring high. Sandesh took a very good care of this.

We were getting close to Alibaug, but we were hungry a lot! So we halted at a dhabba like hotel, run by Maharashtrian Christian whose english was better than any one of us. ....lolz ! We ordered so many things, that i cannot recollect, majority of them were chinese rice items.....oh ...yes....i remember one though...."Chicken lolipop!" and the food was Clean, Fresh, hot, spicy and delicious. While we were eating, we noticed, his son was eating an ice-cream in a cone. But he was feeling so sleepy that with eyes closed he was trying to eat the ice-cream some how. His video will be uploaded soon.

We ate and ate and ate so much...that our bellies were about to burst!...burrp! it was 11.30-45 pm we got back into the sumo, now the position changed a bit, i went back to the rear seat, and sunil came forward. We all noticed that till now, Sunil was quiet! ...we were afraid if he is really enjoying?...so we asked him "Kay sunil, awaaz nahi yet tuza!", to which he replied "aree.......aapala spot yeu de ...maag baagha kiti awaaz kadto!" ......and before he could complete this sentence, Yogesh's favorite song was played in which Javed Akhtar speaks something, for me it was boring, but everyone was fucking enjoying the song. With full stomach, i was feeling sleepy, our route was getting darker and lonelier, with only dogs blocking our way. Yogesh even growled at one of them, and he started following our sumo to get even with Yogi. ;)

...the road was not ending ....at one point of time, i thought we are going round and round in circles since every sharp turn had Temple on left side and a house on right side. I was scared! I asked Prasad, but someone told me that, only a witch can do some such thing with us at night....it was 12.05 am now and we still did not reach, Murud, we were confused, since all the routes looked similar, finally we met a policemen and he showed us the right route. Finally we reached Murud, and now we were looking for "APNA GHAR" ...the first difficult thing about this was....we were searching for map given by Faiq Faoujdar since all our bags were similar. We halted for a moment near one hotel, and person was getting out of his qualis. He was huge. His frame was strong. Therefore, initially only Pawan dared to go and ask him. He heard the name for the first time "APNA GHAR? ....kay re ? aaplya kade navin khup hotela ughadli re!...actually mi pan Mumbai cha ahe.....pan mi Itech asto! aann.....tumhi straaaaaaaiight (he took a brief pause...and then....) right la jaa.." and when he said this his hand was only straight, ....right or left he did not show with hand....so we were confused again, ...therefore we went ahead, and asked a young guy on bike he said "Follow me!" and he was behind our Sumo. ...ha ha ha ....he showed his hand where we must go ahead, and then he quickly took a turn to left and sped away, we saw him closely, there was a gal on his bike almost of his age, and trying to hide her face.

Soon we reached "APNA GHAR", our driver gave a honk, and out came another huge figure, it was non other but Mr. Faiq Faoujdar, ...it was almost 1.00 am, he did not argue or complain since we were too late. He asked the helper guy, to show us the room on top floor, and ....