Wanna become a mom?...Not so easy

If you want to be happy and live a happy life…you have to make some arrangements yourself

You just can’t expect that situation which is troubling you would get better on its own…or if it’s the people who are causing problems to you,

they will be blessed with changed attitude…Naah…it just doesn’t happen

 

so why all this funda and philosophy?…that too when they day is just starting? And when you know you have loads of work to finish

These days I am all allowed to do whatever I feel like.. :) Benefits of being a ‘gonna be mom’ :D

So all this has triggered from my daily schedule …commuting from home to office (which is in hinjewadi, “beautifully planned”(??) area in Pune where most of the IT offices are…

I was a happy bird and proud of myself for being able to manage my office, home and also taking out some time for my little one daily…for prayers, exercises, healthy eating etc etc..

But then, these long awaited rains started..and phew ! Nothing was same L …I had to wait for my bus for 30-40 sometimes 60 mins !!! that too in rains…and at a place where there is no shed…

All the vehicles around are honking in rhythm.. and this scene can be described in big essays…but hope you have got an idea..

And then..even in bus…your educated, cultured (IT??) colleagues will not even give you a place in the front…driver uncle will just start the bus as soon as you climb up first step..

And then in that moving bus you have to request people to give a place..they will make some faces and will finally move !! Such an exciting start of the day !!

All these times, I am just praying Him to take care of my baby…try not to get frustrated, just because its not good for my little one…and at whom precisely can I get angry?

There is no one person or one reason to blame for…(of course, there is always your husband….after all he has earned that privilege by marrying you ;-) )

If I am lucky, I will reach office by 9.30…if “Lord of rains” decides to go in full action, it can be 10am, 10.30am or even 11.30 am…

Wait, it doesn’t end here…I reach office..just to realize that, there is queue for bag checking, queue for card swipe in, and another queue for elevator (queues are ok, but  pregnancy effects! you just want to be given special treatment everywhere…like you get in at home..but who cares?)

You try to move fast so that, you are ahead in elevator queue…No, no, don’t even think about it, no one here will ask you to go first, because u r pregnant….come on, they all are too busy to compromise their spot..

Finally you reach your floor…and u want to use rest room..another queue..and so on and so forth

With all this daily on your schedule, and then heaps of work and project tensions (that’s another story, lets not go into that now)…you really cannot enjoy being pregnant..When you really want to…everyone asks you to be happy, peaceful etc…but its so so very difficult !

Ultimately, you start fighting with ur husband(by the way, who is the best thing you have got in this life)….on small stupid things …and its not really what should be going on..at this stage in your life…

So..finally…husband comes for rescue…as always ! He decides to buy a car…to solve all ur problems..and to make your life comfortable….Yeyyyy !!!

With all these rains and “smooth” roads, he decides to keep a driver for office pick and drop.. J

And with this one change, here is how my new day looks

We start early in the morning in ‘our’ car…Enjoy the ride….with Mr Balaji Tambe to accompany us with his music…reach office by 9am J

You are the only one for bag check, for card swipe…and then elevator comes down..specially for you…takes you to 6^th floor…which is all empty…

You get to use a clean wash room…and you are all enthusiastic and excited to start your work day…

You open the curtain a little more than usual to enjoy beautiful view outside …you go to canteen…buy a special masala chai….take it to ur desk…..and then u start loving the rains again !

Suddenly all your complaints are vanished….Husshhh

And say in your mind…to your client, team, manager etc…Bring it on.. !

 

 

Anniversary Poem

१ जानेवारी २०१४ ला मला एक साक्षात्कार झाला
अचानकच वाटलं , अरे कविता करायलाही जमतंय की मला

अर्थातच त्याची सुरुवात तुझ्यापासून केली
नूतन वर्षाच्या शुभेच्छांची बरसात कवितेतून झाली

परदेशीच्या वाऱ्या, IT चं English vinglish कल्चर
इंग्रजीत लिहायची मजा वाटते न्यारी
पण तरीही प्रेमाच्या नाजूक भावना व्यक्त करायला
आपली मराठीच आहे "लय भारी"

१७ फेब्रुवारी चा दिवस आठवला की सुंदर आठवणींच्या मनात उसळतात लाटा
हा दिवस माझ्यासाठी घेऊन आला असंख्य सोनेरी क्षणांचा साठा

"लग्न" "नवरा" या संकल्पनांची मला धास्ती होती थोडी
कसा असेल तो ? मला समजून घेईल का? एक ना दोन नाना प्रश्नांची मनात गाठोडी

पण सूर जुळले, ताल धरला आणि लय सापडली
आयुष्य इतका सुंदर हि असू शकता याची जणू प्रचीतीच आली

तू म्हणायचास non veg नको, मी म्हणायचे मिशी नको
आता हसू येत न आठवून,
नवरा माझा साधा भोळा म्हणून कि काय खाष्ठ ह्याची बायको

असा म्हणतात, लग्नाच्या जोड्या आधीच जुळलेल्या असतात
खरं असेल का ?
तसं होतं तर मग आधीच का नाही भेटलास,
इवलाश्या सोलापूरात कुठे लपून बसला होतास

तुझी सोबत असली कि सगळच वाटतं सहज सोप्पं किती
छोट्या छोट्या संकटांची मग बिलकुल वाटत नाही भिती

आजच्या दिवशी मी तुला देते एक वचन
सात जन्मांची साथ आपुली
मी कधीच हात सोडणार नाही
मग भले येवो मरण , मग भले येवो मरण … 

New Year 2014

we woke up together on 1st Jan 2013,

after summarizing till late night
what all we did in the year gone by
 

we remembered loveliest memories which started with our togetherness

My dear husband, you filled my world with sheer happiness

there were lots of surprises, making each other happy and romantic nights

but also some misunderstandings, silly talks and stupid fights

Can you imagine, Now it’s already end of another year

and don't you think, we have grown more matured 'together'?

2013 started with planning our beloved parents visit

we planned and planned, to make all their wishes come true
it was one of a big project, but we did succeed Kau

We showed them Dutch shoes, Niagara falls and the Harvard university

but guess what they loved the most was the view from sears tower and the statue of liberty

it’s difficult to write whole of their trip's gist

it surely was a lifetime experience with a very big list

With a bag full of great memories we said good bye to the land of Lincoln

returned back home just to make everyone happy with our "aagman"

festivals, ceremonies and get togethers are lined up

we are as always the hosts, let’s get buckled up

(you would have found out by now, there is a catch

some lines are added just to make rhymes match ;-) )

So, are we ready to welcome this new year

with new plans, new dreams, new home and no fear

I know what you must be wondering now

my wife was a small kid yesterday, today she became a poetess, but how?

Let me end my small poem here

on a positive note, at start of this new year
everything seems so easy, if we hold hands together,

I wish you a very very Happy New Year !

An interesting Sunday Morning

It’s a beautiful Sunday morning… You get up very late (After a fun filled Saturday. Lunch at friends’ place, afternoon nap also at friends’ place, then a very good 3D animated movie at movie theatre, Dinner date with your dear husband.. that too in Olive garden, after a long long time..) ...at 9am (!), when you actually want to get up early and then clean the house (or get it cleaned with a lot of follow up? ;-) ), get ready, and cook ! Because friends are invited for lunch at home…actually they are husband’s friends… that too his friend and ‘her’ husband (is it the reason you get up late?, No No)
 

Anyway, gist is you get up late…at 9 or 9.15 am…Still it’s ok because you have got close to 3 hours to do all these things. You wake up and a big list of ‘To-do’s start running in your mind…Ok, shall I do the vacuum first? Or shall I put Dal in the cooker and then start cleaning? Wait, or I can first knead the dough for rotis so that boring work is done first OR…

you think..Let me have some nice morning tea with toast and biscuits, do some facebooking(it is really important to know what is happening all around the world) and then think about all these…after all I have 3 long hours in my hand…and anyways Menu for the lunch is ready which is Rotis, Cabbage sabji (dry), Kosambari (which husband has volunteered for) , Rassam, Rice and Chawal ki Kheer and that’s it (Huhh)

You have also shopped all the grocery needed (how clever!)

So you chose last option of first-tea-then-all-the-cleaning-and-cooking and guess what, if you are lucky enough, your husband makes garma garam tea also for you (yeyy, yeyy).

Over the tea, you get a fantastic proposal from your kind husband…He says, shall we take our guests out for the lunch?(Afterall he has to help me in the kitchen :) ), you think, no cooking so no mehnat…but of course in this deal we have to pay for the lunch. you do some thinking and some calculations (God knows what) and agrees to his proposal (before he changes his mind J)..and there you are…relaxed and happy.
 

You put up lots of oil in your hair to prepare for the hair wash, you get vacuum cleaner in the hall…you start with your india calls and plan to do all the dishes and kitchen cleaning after that…and “tring tring”…your husband gets a call from the same friend..and she says, they already started and would reach our home in another half an hour. Also they won’t have lunch because they have to travel back and are already late. Oh no ! Emergency Emergency !!…your house is a small mess after a careless Saturday, you are another oily mess which needs a lot of cleaning J and your kitchen sink is accommodating lot of vessels which need to go inside dish washer, you need to cook something real quick to serve for the breakfast, make tea and also cut some fruits or think of some quick sweet dish…Uff uff…where to start from?
 

You keep vacuum cleaner back in the closet skipping the vacuuming plan…you just keep things neatly in the main hall and run in the bathroom for a quick(?) hair wash…your real good husband takes care of dishes and a little bit of cleaning in the kitchen…while you are in the bathroom you decide you can make Upma for the breakfast…so you scream from inside and then your husband also roasts Rava before you come out.

After you finish your bath in ‘just’ 20 mins, you ask your husband to take bath real fast…and he comes out in 10 mins ! You start making Upma, keep milk for boiling and also start cutting mangoes. You manage to almost finish your all the cutting and preparations before they arrive. You welcome them, they give you a small bag, you peek inside and find some chocolates J..

You ask your husband to take care of them and again run in the kitchen…When you are trying your best to multitask, boiling milk refuses to support you and it expresses the same by coming out of the vessel, again it can’t even do that quietly, it makes a great sound so that everyone comes to know L..anyway, you garnish your upma with chopped coriander and grated coconut and serve your guests.

Meanwhile your tea also spills out L You ignore it, and clean it (!)

After all this running around, you get to talk to them and you come to know that, they are really nice and were not expecting much, maybe just a cup of tea..they also praise your cooking and make you happy J After some chit chat, they thoughtfully take their camera out for a group picture and also let you copy the same from their SD card then and there only..how good !

So, you realize that you too have now 2 new friends to add to the list…

You give them a small gift as they visited your home for the first time, they like it and

Then they say that, in the bag of chocolates there is also a 50$ gift card (and you are super duper happy) …but you say, it was not needed, why did you get it etc etc and etc.

After they leave, you realize that you have almost whole of your Sunday free and your dear dear husband offers you to go out for shopping…with that 50$ card…with an offer that you can buy anything you want and he would just pay the bill…

Greece..In my words..with my best buddies

                                             

Bags packed, taxi booked and 4 fabulous girls of 131 were all set to board the flight.. to Athens..

Day was thurs and the date – 21 Apr 2011.

Journey started v well…afterall this time we had booked Lufthansa and not any cheap airlines…

we reached Athens airport… Athens, one of world’s oldest cities, capital of Greece...

Athens –

Location – Airtport

Our luggage… we waited and waited…conveyor was not at all in the mood to show us our ones..

After a wait of 15-20 mins, we realised that everyone else have received their luggage…except ppl who boarded from AMS…all Munich ppl had already got their bags…at baggage counter we got to know that, our bags had never left Munich !!…and they can reach Athens only by 7pm…phew!!…our ferry to Thira(Santorini) was at 7pm..that too from the port (Piraeus) which is 1 hour travel from airport..

So here real story starts…are, kuch to spice chahiye na…if all wud have gone smoothly, wat I wud have written in this story? J

After lot of discussions/zagdas at Lufthansa’s helpdesk, conclusion was, bags wud be arriving in Santorini next day morning .. 4 of us received a small pouch with sum necessary daily stuff, tooth brush-paste etc etc

Anku and Manisha were very happy…that now we dnt have to carry any bags while roaming in  Athens…Anku was to praying, bags shudnt even cum next day ..so after 24 hrs, we can shop and Lufthansa wud pay for all the shopping in compensation

I was a bit irritated…and Sonika…she was quite neutral... balanced.. as always…after all she is mommy of the house J

We got into the metro and reached Monastiraki...weather was quite good, a bit windy though.

Hungry we were… so picked up some strawberries from one of gadiwala in Athens market…got into a small train, its called ‘Happy train’…1 hour ride and it takes you to all famous places…smaller version of hop on hop off….we thot we will get down at only few stops…Acropolis, temple of zeus etc…but then just clicked pics from the train itself…and did not get out at all  afterall, on return journey we had another halt in Athens…with 21 house friends..

After this small ride…21 public arrived…. Smartest of them [;-)] asked about our missing bags… and all of them were happy listening to the news…as they don’t have to carry our luggage (at least 1 day saved) 

We all reached to Piraeus port…and our journey to Thira started in a nice big boat, Blue star ferry.

After a lot of search, we found a big table, which had nice view of sea….cameras came out of the pouches …5 cameras ( though 1 was quite defective, ab kya kare, itne purane cameras leke aate hain log…on-off karne me bhi prob hoti hai)…

All we can see from the deck was amazing blue water… dark blue…clear blue…beautiful blue…

It was really nice…

We all had lot of fun in this 5 hr journey…played cards…antakshari..etc…

Antakshari gets more interesting when everyone chooses songs for sum spl purpose…and for sum spl friends … it adds lot of enthusiasm and fun in the game

We reached Thira at around 1.00am … Our Pension Iliovasilema bus was waiting for us at the port..

They took us to our ‘house’ in Santorini…

and we hit the bed…dreaming of beautifulbeaches which were planned for next day..

 

Santorini (Thira) – 22 Apr.

In morning we woke up and headed straight to the airport… for the bags… that was a small airport, small as in “shuru hote hi khatm ho jata hai” kind of…4-5 ppl were sitting outside… it reminded me of small railway stations in India..jahan aisehi 1 train jane ke bad, 2ri aane tak station master and uske dost…chai pite hue baithe rehte hai…platform ki chotosi dukan par..

 

At the only counter there…we saw 4 of our bags..nicely sitting at a corner, waiting for their malakins. I got v happy…Anku ki shopping ka sapna toot gaya …

Before returning to villa, we did few things at airport, but those are not worth mentionable here…so lets skip it 

We came back, got ready, had nice breakfast and started for Fira.

On the way, we found all those beautiful small houses, white & blue coloured, which we  had seen while doing all the research on internet …and ya..we were actually roaming in that small village in Greece..

At fira, we did a lot of photosession.. view was too good..  small white structures, beautiful blue water and caldera in background….can’s describe more…words can’t give justice, if feel.

From fira, we had to go to Athinios Port from where we can take a ferry to volcano land…there were few options – walk, take donkey ride or cable car… many were fascinated by donkey ride .. but they were too smelly and we then preferred to walk down till the port (arey, itna door gadhe pe baithne thode hi aaye hain) J

Ferry too was awesome… we reached volcano island…it was like a “banjar pahad”…different type of rocks…we climbed up…saw amazing view of caldera from the top…distinct blue and green colours of the sea…       

While returning back to fira, there was a halt near Hot spring…for good swimmers…temperature there is supposed to be 30 degree celcius..and this water contains sulphur, which s good for skin…we just watched ppl swimming…as we didn’t have our swim suits…otherwise…hum bhi kisise kam nahi J…specially naren and RK was sad that they cud not jump in there ..

While cuming back, we chose cable car and came back to Fira… it was almost 1 hr for sunset…and we obviously did not want to miss most famous sunset from Oia village.

Oia is at north part in Thira…we had heard/read that its most romantic place in whole island..  people have got married here… and many have expressed their love at this very place.

we reached oia by bus… it was similar to akrotiri…small small houses built on the cliff and on other side infinite Aegean sea…every view was picturesque … where to click and how many to click ?

With lot of hopes and lot of plans to make this part of trip most memorable, we found a spot where we can also enjoy this nice sunset… it was really crowded, hundreds had cum there for the sunset.

Ok..let not elaborate more of ‘hopes to make it more memorable’ part..idhar thode log marne aa jayenge muze..

In all..it was another memorable evening in this whole trip..

 

23 Apr – Santorini

We had very less time left in santorini…we had to catch 12’o clock ferry…

So our day started quite early..by 7.30 am

Some came out in full-on summer wears…anku, RK…it was damn windy..and bus was nowhere…capri ppl were just walking here and there..and finding places to hide  ..after a long wait..we got the bus..and headed towards Perissa beach ..one of most beautiful beaches in santorini.. it was amazing…a big rock has emerged from the sea and is standing at one side…like a guard….

Sand was a bit blackish…..

We did lot of masti there..racing, singing and dancing on ‘kaho na pyaar hai’….yes we did that too 

another round of photo session there…attitude wala photo..solo photo..group photo… in all possible poses and all combinations….

After relaxing for some time there…we headed back to our pension…and checked out from hotel..Reached port thira.. for next ferry…which is going to take us to Mykonos… Next greek island on the tour.

Ok..now about ferry…this one was quite hi-fi .. unlike the previous one.. name itself was quite stylish, “Flying cats” .. we did not know, name is so meaningful until we actually started.

Here we did not have to search for a place to sit but we were assigned seat numbers and chairs were quite comfy .. we all slept off.. and achanak se…whoaaa…our ferry was in air…it kind of took a big jump .. we actually got scared ..and uske bad to it was behaving like a “ flying cat “ … “sabko swimming ati hai kya?” “itne thande paani me kaise swim karenge” “seat belts bhi nahi hai” …these were sum of the thots which started gathering in my mind.. but nothing of that sort happened fortunately and we reached Mykonos safely.

Here enters Ms Maria.. she was standing at the gate with a BIG smile(really a big one) welcoming us to Mykonos and to take us to Villa vasilis.

she was so so happy meeting us , especially Praroop 

ab kya kare…hamare pappa sabko itne pasand aa jate hain..

This vila was really nice…ya I mean.. we have got a big beautiful house for 5 (supposedly for 21 house ppl) and another small house for 4 of us … obvsly we (here ‘we’ means 131 ki gals) did kabja on the nicer one and guys had to occupy 2 other rooms.. They were not given any choice there  ..but sweet of them…they happily exchanged :)

Maria madam suggested us to rent Quads for roaming in the city .. Quad is a bike with 4 wheels.. no gears … easy to ride and safe on the roads there..

Now 9 ppl and 5 bikes…of course Murghu, hamara bhai was not going to drive .. he is the youngest one anyways… hence we decided that manisha and I wud ride the 5th bike..

Naren and RK were like our leaders, the expert drivers …

Manisha was also riding very well … I too tried it …but after showing sum stunts there, I decided to be a pillion rider … Praroop too was riding nicely…ab peeche mom baithi hai to aur kya chahiye….bolo ! J

On these bikes, we went to see little Venice…venice nahi dekha to kya hua…little Venice to dekh hi liya maine … it’s the same place where shahrukh khan says “tauba tumahre ye ishare” to Rani and also akshay and Jyotika sings “kissa hum likhenge”… exactly same windmills… beautiful place….but weather was not that gud, it was very windy …. So cud not enjoy that view much…we found a restaurant and saw superb sunset from inside …enjoyed stuffed tomatoes, pasta, fries and coffee.

That was the easter night .. so at night we went to visit a church to see easter celebrations…

It was really crowded… everyone had come with candles in the hands…when clock striked 12, they rang big bell for some time…all started lighting up the candles .. passing light to each other.. and then we got to see wonderful fireworks … it was really good show.

Also .. another special reason was, it was RK’s bday …his bday started with such a blast that too in Greece, he must have had a real memorable bday this time.

We found a small café and celebrated his bday with a small pastry … although he did a lot of ‘natak’ wen anyone tried to paint his face with the cream.. in all it was quite a sophisticated birthday celebration compared to wat guys usually do, but was fun  

We came back to our villa and slept off.

24 – Apr – Mykonos.

Only beach…that’s wat we had planned for this day

As we cud not spend lot of time on any of the beaches till now…because of time constraints.

Paradise beach was the destination.this road to beach was quite tough...tough as in very sloppy and small in width...Prasad was driving well, so i was quite safe J

We reached the beach only to find no one else was there... Ankita the great, she just found another board showing way to Nicolas beach...and she took Naren there. Naren and RK again caught up everyone, Praroop, manisha, us and then we all reached Nicolas....another amazing beach ... no visitors other than us...kind of “apna hi beach” ..

water was cold but beach was no doubt superb...we spent sum time there and then went to paradise beach..

Now this was again absolute beauty..serene place... blue blue everywhere and some rocks at shore, randomly placed.. just to make our photos nicer...

We relaxed for quite sum time there ....clicked many portfolio pics... manisha did a lot of photography...naren was declared as “hero of  the trip”.. his pics were cuming out too good.. ekdam dude...

Naren and RK got a brilliant idea there to make a special sand bed for Praroop...Praroop also nicely lied down with his head only coming out of sand ..

Then same was done with RK and murughesh ...3 guys resting aaram se on the beach..

Prasad suddenly wanted to show his high jump skills there...with Praroop and RK’s life at risk..thankfully both of them were safe and hence Prasad was very happy with his talent J

All together it was fun there....good time with good friends...

After the beach, we got into the ferry for going back to Athens....

We were quite sceptical after previous experience, but this one was the best of all.

Big one...with nice tables...where we played bluff , judgement for long time..

We reached Athens in night..and checked in to out Argo hotel, near Piraeus port.

Next day morning, we roamed in Athens...famous Acropolis, temple of nike etc...

After being to most beautiful islands, these structures did not quite fascinate me...or may be I didn’t know properly about history of those..

From Athens, we boarded our flight to Amsterdam... had fun during the journey as well.

Reached Amsterdam at night...happy to see Aashima darling at home with 4 course fatanstic dinner ready for us...

So such was our trip...full of fun, masti ...

It  had ended now... and I closed my eyes with all the sweet memories of Greece...

 

Sangeet Sandhya

                          x

Tempting smell of fresh-prepared besan laddus everywhere in the house, wedding songs like ‘mehendi sajake rakhna’ playing in background, Ankita dancing in her own hatke style in main hall ..sonika busy with her make-up…aashima preparing welcome drink….manisha busy in making delicious coconut laddus…and I….oh I don’t remember what exactly I was doing..let it be J….but this was kind of mahol in our 131 house….occassion? Sangeet for Priyanka-Pooja-Bhawna wedding !

We all were super-duper enthu in organizing this program and making 23^rd Jan evening, one of the most memorable ones…

Whole of Saturday, we danced…for our big performance on next day…of which Ankita was choreographer, manisha and I – freshers J so we were trying to learn each step from anku and sonika…sonika is born dancer..she doesn’t need to learn anyways …it was fun during those practice sessions as well.

At about 6pm, we were all set to welcome our guests …Hemal, our friends at 61 house and  21 house…

All of us were decked up in Indian traditionals…we were even done with our initial photo session in all possible combinations, solo pics, group pics, complete family pic also J

And then, guests started arriving, they were welcomed with Tilak ….and then special welcome drink(obviously non-alcoholic)….sonika ke raaj me daru mana hai ! ..

Everyone was so much surprised as they might not have expected that kind of atmosphere at our house..Ratish pappa was amused after seeing our clean, chamkta hua ghar

Real dance eve started up with Hemal’s garba and in 10 mins everyone was on the floor….thanks to my brand new Vaio pc and its ‘loud’ speakers ;-) … they were equally good as 61 house woofers… hehe…we all danced on the beats of all shaadi songs … as Ankita had already declared… ‘Sirf shaadi wale gaane bajenege bhai!’

Some of injured volleyball players became photographers…and sum still danced, they couldn’t resist….after typical wedding songs..pawanji just took control of my laptop…and we danced on all kind of songs….be it “bhootni ke” or “a ante amlapuram” or “dhagala lagli kal”….we danced so much, that ppl were sweating in 3-4 degress also..

And then…it was time for most awaited performance….”Mehendi hai rachnewali” by 4 of us from 131…everyone seemed to be surprised ..as we had prepared on full song…all of our friends had set up the cameras to record …and we too had fun….dancing and attending so many cameras J

Although whole program created superb Indian traditional atmosphere, we had ordered Pizzas for dinner J, ab kya kare, hamari pooja-priyanka ko Pizza hi pasand hai.. ;-)

We all had garama garam pizzas with tasty garlic breads ….anyways when u r eating with your best friends, menu does not really matter…when its full of chit-chats, gossips, pulling each other’s legs...food becomes tastier !

After dinner program, it was time for gift distribution…gifts? Aashima was back from her Cape town trip, the same day J and so sweet of her, she got everyone nice gifts…South Africa ki yaadein…she is just too good in filling happiness in the air by such small acts !

Now, it was time to say bye bye…par kya kare..kisko joote hi nahi mil rahe the ! Shaadi hai yaar….jootonke paise to bante hain J it was real fun….bargaining and settling with some amt…dulha-dulhan waha india me…and hum yaha lage pade the…..just to make this program as real wedding function…Somehow, after a lot of zagdas, we returned their shoes…and allowed them o take leave…

It was a great time….with great friends…to celebrate most happy day of our 3 lovely friends..who are miles away from us physically….but have reserved lifetime place in everyone’s heart…

Paris Story

Finally the day had come, 4th Sept 2010.

And we all were ready to board Thalys train...total 16(!)..so on Schiphol airport, I was getting the feeling of a school picnic :)

All of us were so excited….some because this was their first trip out of netherlands,

some becoz they were going to visit one of world's 7 wonders and some for monalisa !

We reached Gare du nord station at around 10.45am…and oh, that was sumthing like one of the Mumbai stations(not west line ones), but still…so many ppl ! I was actually seeing so much crowd after 4 months ! Weather was also reminding Indian summers….it was really hot

 

We reached Porte the pantin stn by a metro and then walked and walked and walked….that etap hotel, it was sooo faar….

All girls were given only 15 mins of time L to get ready …(15 mins means anyways at least 30 mins J ) …we had pizza in pizzeria ..again there, sumeet was about to repeat gemany episode where he damaged manushi’s camera, this time he used coke to attack…but fortunately, manushi and camera both were saved, and so was sumeet !

We had got metro ka 2 days pass….its so cheap , only 3.4 eur(if u r below 25 ! so all youngsters, like me, were happy, and oldies had to pay double ! bechare ).. thanks to narendra and praroop, they had made such a good plan, all metro numbers, stn names were already in hand..all were just following these leaders …

Our first place in the plan was montmartre, at Anvers stn.. where there is a beautiful cathedral named sacre de cour ,..another story inside it  – I did not even know this is the same cathedral ‘sacre de cour’ which Pavas advised to see, so I came back and told him, sacre de cour nahi dekh paye ! montmartre dekh liya J and then he only told that u have a FB pic in front of sacre cour ! ..then I knew, montmartre is a street and cathedral is sacre cour

Anyways….cathedral is really beautiful, we could see nice view of paris from it…clicked many pics there , I was anyways very happy with Praroop’s camera, bechari sonika, I hardly gave her a chance to click ..bt she was also happy, as I used her as my model J

When we were seeing the church, sum other girls found small shopping street…it was sooo sunny that day and they did not get sunglasses ! oh…aise kaise ghoom sakte hain dhoop me…they bought sunglasses…pics bhi acchi ati hain na fir J

In original plan we had to cover 3 places on 1^st day – montmartre, arc de triomphe and Eiffel tower…but as expected, we did not have enough time after cathedral …so skipped 2^nd one, and started for Eiffel tower, most awaited one…

Reached Trocadéro stn by metro..metro connection is v gud in paris ….but its just that, u have to be ready to walk a lot…as stns are so big!

And then we walked upstairs which opens on a street, and to the left…’Wowww !!’..that was the expression when all got to have first view of Eiffel ….it was really a very gud feeling

We spent lot of time at Eiffel, clicked so many pics….i was acting very smart as if I know left and right of photography(jab ki I do not know anything properly), so I was clicking and clicking…..and sonika, she was getting worried….aashima ne warning jo di thi, ki sampy ki pics bhi aani chahiye..! so at each place, she used to say, ‘ab main tera photo lungi’ J

There was a very long queue for getting tkts….so many ppl …seriously it was reminding india ka crowd all the time…

We went to second floor…and then after sum time, went to the top floor …its so so huge !

Hats off to Gustav Eiffel…amazing design and awesome view

I was very excited ..I called up home, as I knew my parents will be very happy to hear it….afterall I was at top of one of the world’s wonders..(maine abhi tak taj mahal nahi dekha hai) …again we clicked many pics there …

Came back on 1^st floor…had some coffee and croissant there…french fries also (to check if ‘french’ fries in france are any different?..they were same !) ..it was nice time , meanwhile narendra ‘bhau’acche bacche ki tarah, got all information about Eiffel tower, its dimensions, no of rivets, yr of construction and ol that, we had a small quiz there…KSS u know, knowledge sharing session ! J

And then, in night, we got to see ‘chamkata hua tower’ (in manisha’s words, ‘zigzig-zigzig’ karne wala) ..very beautiful…again photos …poore tower ke sath, solo pic, grp pics..all permutations and combinations were done J

Then eiffel tower ki shopping…it was also fun, as after long time, we were bargaining …we all got so many small towers that, here in Amsterdam, we can set up a small shop as well.

We had dinner at la chapelle, Indian restaurant…rather south Indian restaurant ….ate  wada rassam and chai(which was really ‘zakas’) ..came back to our etap and hit the bed at 1.45am (in terror of Azra’s next day plan which was about to start at 7.30 itself L )

 

2^nd day –

Ok..now this is really getting very long and maybe boring…so I will cut short 2^nd day as anyways, Eiffel is already done on 1^st day J

We ..girls..were ready by 8 (7.30 means 8!)..and guys they did not even get up by 8 ! wo bhi jaan boozke…so bad …..but then they got ready in half an hr…meanwhile we had brkfast and caught etap in our cameras J

Destination – louvre museum

We reached louvre…and omg…such a loongggg queue….free entry kaun chodega na? (1^st Sunday of the month) …sum were planning to drop louvre and cover other places….i was not at all ready to skip this place…which I am willing to visit since I read da vinci code

So our clever minds came up with an idea, half ppl will stand in q and half will go and take picures…of pyramid, fountain etc…to save the time. !

We got an entry at around 12 …and we wanted to see monalisa first (2^nd kuch dekhne ke kiye paintings ke bare me kuch pata hi nahi tha  na ), so we headed towards Denon…monalisa wala arrow follow karte hue..we found her…in a big hall, very small painting, compared to the other ones, …2 guards were standing next to her providing spl security…it was a nice feeling, we were standing in front of one of the world’s best painting…and dan brown had created so much mystery about her…could not even see all those minute details in that original painting…

All the paintings are so beautiful although I have no knowledge of this art, I enjoyed just observing those… their colours, expressions …

We came out very soon as our legs were already paining….1 place was remaining in my check list ..inverted pyramid1 where Dan brown had written  climax of da vinci…

After louvre..next was notre dam, another cathedral…which was also v beautiful …and right in front of it, there was a ‘sparrow show’, not exactly a show…but a cute scene…ppl were holding a piece of bread and sparrows were nicely eating those, sitting on their hands…so not to mention, I again clicked many pics J

After notre dam, it was arc de triomphe …a monument, similar to India gate….it honours soldiers who fought for france in world war 1…

Considering the fact that our legs are not ready to climb up another 284 steps (no elevator), we preferred to see it from the base itself.

Nearby is the champs elysees ….famous shopping street in paris…I was in no mood to go there as I was damn tired, but had no choice …grp picnic J so we just walked some more miles, did sum window shopping…and came back….again dinner at la chapelle…another Indian restaurant..veg biryani!....and back to porte de pantin…

slept off at 11 itself…setting an alarm of  5am to catch thalys train early morn…in dreams..it was ‘chamkata hua’ Eiffel tower..!