Vote Diyok, Vote Diyok: Elections 2014

My dad woke me up at 6:30am. I don’t even wake at my in-laws’ house at this hour. But today is different. I get up quick, get ready real quick.

Today, for the first time in history, I shall vote. Quite an event, I say. I remember last time and the times before that, my name never made it to the electoral roll. This time, with all the lords’ and their wives’ blessings, I have my name on the roll.

My ward is a really tiny place called Dakhingaon. Two years ago, Google didn’t even know where that is. It’s 41 degrees today. My parents “strategically” decide to go early; the decision being solely based on the position of the sun in the sky at 7AM compared to the burning monster it becomes at 10AM.

When we reached our ward, we realized we ain’t the only smart people on the planet. The voting venue was a small school and people were already queuing up.

The atmosphere was more like a local fair. A meeting ground for neighbours who don’t have time to visit each other’s houses otherwise. A live, throbbing, thriving gossip ground. Oooh, field day for the ladies! People greeted, hugged, talked, exchanged pieces of voting trivia and anything they saw on TV the night before. I won’t spare my mother here. She was right in the middle of it all. That’s how people are in this part of the world. Social butterflies, nosey misters. I don’t mind it much; secretly maybe, I like it too… it’s endearing… atleast from a distance ;)

We saw people carrying a white slip that mentioned their electoral roll and we didn’t have it. I know we can vote without that slip but people were all in a frenzy to get that piece of paper, blaming the volunteers for negligence and blaming the government and then, blaming on the sun.

Now, it’s way past 7AM.

7:10AM to be exact.

The queue is getting impatient. The voting was supposed to start at 7AM. They complained loudly; each one mentioned their pending work to the public and how this delay would hamper their entire day. From inside the voting room-cum-classroom (yea, it was a school, remember), someone informed that the polling agents have not arrived yet, hence the delay in the procedure. As soon as it was informed, this news spread like wildfire. (Mouth-to-mouth is the fastest communication! #punintended)

“Polling agent not there”;

“No one in this state is responsible; in my opinion, they should have been at their stations at 5AM”;

“Where is the polling agent? Sleeping? Must have downed a couple of pegs last night. What a waste”…

Frenzy on top of frenzy but soon the polling agent was forgotten and people, after a while, went back to more broad-based topics like sun, water supply (or lack of it) and Bangladeshis.

At 7:20AM, someone gave the hot information that the EVM (Electronic Voting Machine) was not working. Frenzy on top of a frenzied frenzy!!!

People went berserk. The complaints got louder. The pending work-list got longer as they told one another what they could have done had they been at home. (I know for sure, I could have slept more)

“EVM not working? We should all go home, come later”

“These agents must have slept through their training; each one must have thought that the other is taking notes. Now they are all but a bunch of idiots!”

“I shall call the news channel. Someone from the news should be here to witness this epic fail”

“Maybe someone tempered with the EVMs. Why couldn’t the polling agents arrive early and check these discrepancies?”

Finally, after a 10-minute confusion, where everyone spoke at the same time and no one did anything much… (not even go home, like they suggested)… the EVMs started working. There were more comments on the polling agents being completely incapable; fools and morons. I, thankfully, didn’t get to hear much. I was quite ahead in my line and I was out of the voting booth by 7:45AM.

I felt weirdly weird-proud. As if, I’m a part of the process. Like, maybe my singular vote would be the deciding vote between the winner and loser. Don’t tell me you don’t imagine that? It’s irrational but it’s a fun thought.

Anyway, voting over; we met our family friends on the school grounds and we were asked to come for tea. And so, after voting and our morning heavy dose of gossip, we went for our morning tea at our neighbour’s place. 

We voted, we met people, we participated in the public confusion and confused each other more. I quite liked my first time. I don’t mind voting once in a while.

Maybe we shall have a stupid-ass government and it shall fail and I would require to vote again next year?! Chill… just kidding.

Out of the Blue: Powai and a green Mumbai

Would you believe if I tell you this view is in Mumbai? No? Well, believe me, it is... I owe it to my friend, Maitreyee, for the view which she rightly called the most spectacular view of Mumbai. I don't think we see much of green-cover and lakes around Mumbai... but more on this later... Let's first tell you of this place that has an unlimited liquid-brunch buffet...yea, unlimited alcohol... you read it right. Even I thought I heard it wrong when Maitreyee mentioned it the previous night.

It was just another (hangover) Sunday... We had planned to go to a Sunday brunch, so we made the reservations at this restaurant called "Out of the Blue" and headed to Powai. I was about to go to Powai-side for the first time. My friend, Anirban, kept referring to Powai as "Austria" the night before (because of the architecture) and I was quite willing to see "Austria" for a cheap auto-ride of Rs. 150... heeheehee...

Well, Powai is as far as one can go to see a likeness to European-style architecture, I guess... the wide pavements, the lamp-posts, all the buildings in beige-colour, dome-liked structures, big colonial pillars, well-manicured lawns and fountains in the middle of the road junctions definitely rendered a very European buzz.

Cosmopolitan, my dahlings

Just a bit of loitering (cos we were really hungry) and then, we headed to this place called "Out of the Blue". My friend took me there because of the bottomless liquid buffet at the unbelievable price of Rs. 750. Hmm... looks like they haven't seen the likes of us...

The Greek feel

Anyway, the restaurant was quite nicely done up in Mediterranean-inspired hues of white and blue with solid wood furnishings and potted plants. I ordered our first round of Sangria and settled down to enjoy the live performance. Soon the drinks arrived with the hummus and pita bread; the singer started singing and we were all in a pretty good high. I loved the singer's choice of songs. Whether it was 'Sunday Morning' by Maroon 5, or 'I'm Yours' by Jason Mraz or the all-time favorites 'Yellow' by Coldplay or 'Lemon Tree' by Fool's Garden... (you get the flow, don't you?!)... it was just lovely to hear her sing as we munched and drank our way through the lovely spread! Whoa... what a fantastic brunch it had been!

But my Sunday happiness didn't end there! After exiting the restaurant quite tipsy and absolutely happy-high, we headed towards NITIE, the campus where my friend stays. She promised that she would show us the most spectacular view of Mumbai and led us to this building which was (if I remember correctly) a seven-storey building with a lift that didn't function. With alcohol in our head and carbs in our tummy, up we climbed the floors! By the time we reached the sixth floor, I was gasping as if my lungs would burst at any given second. At that moment, my friend realised that the key to the terrace was at the front desk and she suggested that we wait on the stairs while she goes all the way down to collect it AND climb up again. Dude... dunno how she managed! One climb up was enough for me.

As she unlocked the door and we walked out on the terrace, I realised why she wanted us to see this view so dearly. I am new to Mumbai but I know for sure that I shall not see such a view in another part of the city. On one side was the Vihar Lake and on the other side was Powai lake. The mini-"Austria" skyline could be seen at a distant. The green-cover was amazing and there were bright flowers on some of the trees. I had forgotten that it's spring-time! The soothing breeze, the 360-degree view of Mumbai... it was simply beautiful... a snapshot for the soul (and some for my camera!). I'm glad she brought us here.The seven-story-palpitating-climb was worth it.

Afterwards, we walked through the campus and visited her room. The NiTIE campus is sprawling, the hostel rooms are small. (Why are all hostel rooms so purposefully depressing?) Anyway, since my friend is like a book-wala-soulmate of mine, she gave me a few books on loan and we said our good-byes.

Well... that was a well-spent Sunday two Sundays ago... hopefully I shall come back to enjoy the view once again. Thank you guys for the lovely Sunday!

until whenever! Ta-da!

Skandagiri: Conquered

Won't you love being here?

For starts, I'm no trekker. I'm lazy. I'm hedonistic. I am not interested in trekking but I love seeing new sights.

So obviously, I must have been bored out of my brains by city-life when I said 'yes' to a trek to Skandagiri. Before going, I did my usual research online and found that Wikipedia mentioned the trek as 'moderately difficult' (which sent shivers down by spine). Also, my friends' account of their trek to Skandagiri filled me with dread. But braced with a lot of self-motivation and false courage, at 5:30am on a Sunday, I bundled into a car. Yawning, doubtful, worried and sleepy. My biggest worry was death on the mountain, the second worry was slipping and losing some of my front teeth (I have my own marriage to attend in a few months and losing a tooth or two would create havoc on my already jittered family).

Anyway, you'd be glad to know that none of the bad things happened. I survived to tell the story of my trek.

I know that Skandagiri appears to be a favorite for night treks. You start the climb at 3am and try reaching the peak in time for sunrise. But we did a day trek. We weren't sure if night treks were still allowed after a mishap (re: murder? fall?) happened last year and treks were banned in Skandagiri.

Reaching Chikballapur took us an hour and a half from the city, with breakfast in between to boot ourselves up. It was 10am by the time we reached Chikballapur. At around 10:30am, we started on the incline. Lucky for us, the day was pleasant. Sun and shade in parts. The first 30 minutes of the trek was the most difficult for me. My body is not used to climbing huge boulders on an incline. But we were taking frequent breaks. After the first 30 minutes climb, I was feeling so sick and giddy that I let one of my co-trekkers carry my stuff. Yes, I felt miserable that he had to carry extra load from me, but I'm, as it is, a fat female and carrying another 6kg on my body was too much on my constitution! I think my head would have burst if I were to carry that load for another minute. After shifting the load, it was easier to carry on. The frequent stops gave me enough time to steel myself and motivate myself to carry on.




Besides my self-cribbing, the views that the trek provided was gorgeous. The clouds shifting through the valley, the fields at the distance, the constant breeze... it felt good. At one point, we came across a sort of cave, naturally formed by three huge boulders. We sat there, chit-chatted and sheltered from the sun for a while. Then again we went... Aage Barho! The higher we went, the higher my spirit soared. I knew I would be reaching the top soon and hopefully, in one piece. It gave me josh! With our snail-slow climb with very frequent rests, we managed to reach the peak at 1pm.

At World's Edge

The Roof was our Picnic spot

The view at the top was absolutely mesmerizing. All the fatigue we carried to the top disappeared in a jiffy. The peak had ruins of a fort along with an old temple. It was green all around with the ruined structures providing added beauty to the place. There was no one present except our group. Earlier there used to be vendors at the top selling food at exorbitant rates but the police stopped these activities after the mishap. In a way, this was good for us... we had the peak all to ourselves!

After enjoying the green panoramic view, we climbed on top of a ruined structure and had our lunch. We had carried our lunches; bread-omlet, puris, biscuits, beverages and Vachana's Kaya (all the way from Malaysia) with bread.

After that satisfying a meal, who doesn't want a nap? Some of us fell flat on the rock and rested our tired bodies. We laid down on the flat rock and let the breeze blow across us. It is a feeling that can't be expressed, but only felt. I remembered feeling this sort of serenity when I laid on a rock at Athirapally falls in Kerala. These moments are so rare, so tranquil, they make you forget every worry and just be in the moment.

The Wind chimes...

While meditating on my thoughts, I must have dozed off a while; when I did wake up, I realised Vachana was clicking pictures of me! Bad, bad girl!

Afterwards, we explored the area for a while longer and at around 3pm, we started our descent. The descent was, of course, faster. Notwithstanding a few slips here and there, we were intact when we reached the base at 4:20pm.

We were at the top!

At the base, we looked at the hill that we had climbed. 1350 meters... it towered like a giant... I couldn't help but feel a sense of awe mixed with pride. Awe at the hill and proud that I conquered it!

If you are looking for a moderately difficult weekend that is very, very rewarding (in terms of views and calorie-burning), I suggest you take the trek to Skandagiri. ;)

While on it, you might want to carry (i) light jackets (ii) water and (iii) food. Happy Trekking!

Encouragement note # If I, a lazy slob, can do it, then you can definitely do it!

I want to turn the whole world upside down!

And if you require musical motivation, the song "Upside Down" by Jack Johnson should give you a nice, comforting push to the top.

Who's to say/ What's impossible/ Well they forgot/ This world keeps spinning/ And with each new day/ I can feel a change in everything/ And as the surface breaks reflections fade/ But in some ways they remain the same/ And as my mind begins to spread its wings/ There's no stopping curiosity

I want to turn the whole thing upside down/ I'll find the things they say just can't be found/ I'll share this love I find with everyone/ We'll sing and dance to Mother Nature's songs/ I don't want this feeling to go away

Who's to say/ I can't do everything/ Well I can try/ And as I roll along I begin to find/ Things aren't always just what they seem

Grover Vineyard Tour: a perfect birthday gift

I turned one year older last weekend. Birthdays have lost its charm since I turned 25. Maybe it’s the mid-20s crisis (if there’s such a thing), but I so desperately did not want the birthday to come, I slept before midnight, only to be shaken, woken and made to cut the birthday cake. Thankfully, my fiancé is a lazy man as he is smart and he put only a single candle on the cake. Saved himself.

My B'day gift

He is also a good “gifter”; he knows I don’t like surprise gifts (learnt the hard way) and I’d rather tell what I want than let someone gift me anything hideous that fills my limited apartment space.

So this time when he asked what I wanted as a birthday gift, I quipped “The Grover Vineyard Tour!” without a moment’s hesitation. (I had been doing my gift-research, you see)

I had wanted to visit the Grover Vineyard since I heard of it. I read the reviews and checked the photos. A blogger said that the best season was from Oct-March, so then, since March is my birthday month, let the Grover Vineyard Tour be my birthday gift.

Can't miss this

So, I wrote to Grover Vineyard and they were very prompt in replying or assisting me with my dozen queries. We booked the cab and on my birthday morning, we left for the Vineyards at around 9:15am.

The Vineyards are situated at Doddabalapur and it took around 90mins to reach the place. The directions are fairly easy and if you can’t locate, the girl at Grover Vineyards will talk to your driver in Kannada and assist you. J

The tour starts at 10:30am and we reached 15-20 mins late; by that time, the group had already moved to the plantation. We went there straightaway. In my head, I imagined the ferocious sun beating on us, sweat dripping as we look across an arid land with few twines for vines. (I read a review which sounded depressing; I bet the blogger went in a really bad season).

Line-by-line

Sauvignon grapes

For us, it was not bad at all. Vines grown in strict military-discipline fashion, rows and rows of them, greeted us. The grapes were very inviting; though we were told by our guide, Jay, to not pluck and eat as they get oxidized. He provided the tour group (a group of 20 it must have been) a brief history of Grover Vineyards which sounded familiar as I had gone through their website before! Then he showed us the Sauvignon grapes and the Shiraz grapes. After which, we were left to wander through the plantation and the tour group (mostly, a flutter of girls) started clicking photos of themselves twirling around the vines. That must have lasted a good 30minutes. 

After the plantation tour, the guide took us to the processing unit.

Here, in the processing unit, photography was not allowed; but blimey, there’s no way a good photo would come out of huge stainless steel machines!

The guide explained how the grapes arrive (in crates… :/…how interesting!), are manually selected, de-stemmed, pressurized and crushed. He pointed out to various steel giants.

Then, we were taken to the fermentation room which gave out such a pungent smell of grapes that it reminded me of that time when I had left grapes in my fridge for a month (I had went on a holiday) and returned to find pungent fumes attack me. It was nauseous. But you get used to it in a minute or two. After talking a great deal of how the steel giants store the grapes for how long at what temperature, he took us to see the bottling of the wine bottles, and then he said “Please go downstairs to the sampling room”… and… I shook to life!

If we could only drink from those!

The sampling room was more of an aesthetically designed store room. It had tons of wooden barrels wherein wine was stored. Dates were marked on the outside of the barrels. How I wished I could carry one of those home!

The sampling tables were already ready with gleaming wine-glasses, cheese and crackers when we arrived. We were asked to sit on the half-barrels, and the guide took out five bottles of chilled wine. We started sampling from the light wines to strong ones. All of the wines were from Grover’s Art Collection, except the La Reserve wine.

Admiring Art

We started off with Viogner, then Sauvignon Blanc, Shiraz Rose, Cabernet Shiraz and lastly, La Reserve. 

Grover Wines

Introducing Shiraz Rose, prettiest looking wine

The wine expert talks

Don’t ask me which wine is what and what to pair what with. The guide bombarded us all these info but you can hardly expect me to concentrate on his talking when I was busy with my drinking. The guide was quick and the bottles were sampled (and emptied) quite swiftly. I have never tasted wine so quick and by the fourth glass, I was on the dumb-smile phase of happy drinking. I liked. I liked. This was the best part of the tour. 

The second best being the vineyard plantation, and the third being the lunch.

Lunching on the Lawn

 Yes, there was a luncheon. We were directed to a lawn and asked if we’d like to drink some more wine. With the wine flowing, conversation too flowed and the day was looking perfect. Yes, I was euphoric! It was my birthday; the charm of birthdays were coming back, thanks to Grover Wines!

The lunch was simple. A veg soup, veg/non-veg biryani, raita, papad and gulaab jamun. The spices were nicely balanced. It felt pleasant to just relax on the lawn and talk and have good food.

Chiming away

By 2pm, we were done with our part of the lazy lunch. Others were still enjoying themselves, but we decided to move on (I had a party to throw at home… and as a host, I couldn’t be late).

On the drive home, we both slept oh-so-nicely! Grover Wines sure knew how to make a good meal.

I am so happy we discovered this place. Even a non-wine drinker like my fiancé loved the tour. I guess instead of taking friends to lookalike Bangalore malls when they come to town, we should take them to these off-beat but upcoming places.

This tour is definitely a recommendation from my end. As long as you visit on-season, Grover Vineyard Tour won’t disappoint you.

And yes, thank you Neel for the lovely birthday present.

(For more info, you can visit their website, http://grovervineyards.in/)

Kihim Beach (and the Bhootiya Awas Beach): Escaping the fast Mumbai life

I have heard about Alibaug from Neel many times. So, when I was planning to visit Mumbai this February, we decided to include Alibaug to our to-do list, and for good measure (the fun quotient), we threw in a couple of friends on the trip.

Well, the plan was to go to Alibaug beach, but instead, we deviated to Kihim beach. It was told that Kihim is much cleaner and quieter than Alibaug. Sounded good to me. We reserved our rooms at Ghanvatkar Bungalow. At first glance, on the internet, it looked ‘bhootiya big’, but it had relatively good reviews, so we decided to try it anyway.

Junkers

So, Thursday noon, we boarded the PNP catamaran to Mandwa. The tickets are priced at Rs.135/-, and the cabin is air-conditioned; but I hardly liked the stuffed cabin and stood on the upper-deck during the entire 45mins ride. It’s breezy, open and you can see the greedy seagulls following the catamaran for cheese balls and chips. (We are not the only junk-food lovers) 

At Mandwa

By the way, PNP’s ticket includes a catamaran ride+bus ride to Alibaug.  We boarded that bus and opened our Google maps which showed Ghanvatkar Bungalow near Zirad. #Tip: Google is NOT always correct. It turned out that we had gone past Ghanvatkar Bungalow and rode 10kms further to reach Zirad. Next tip: Always ask locals, no matter how tiring an effort it seems to talk to them. Anyway, we had to ride all the way back in a tam-tam (the big brother of autos) to Ghanvatkar Bungalow. In my head, I thought we’d be ripped off… 10kms, non-locals… but the auto-wala charged Rs. 40 for a 10km ride for two persons. Waah!

Now that we were infront of Ghanvatkar Bungalow, it didn’t look so creepy. The swimming pool was tiny, I noticed, but there was a swing on the porch which was a merit and which was my favourite ‘hang’out for the next 48hours. The so-called reception had a certificate that announced that the Bungalow was recommended on a famous travel website for its food. I was intrigued!

In bloom at Ghanvatkar Bungalow

Our room was nothing fancy, but it was H-U-G-E! It had a double bed + a single bed + mattresses on the upper shelf incase I plan to throw a wild party. The sliding doors opened up to the small terrace lawn and overlooked the garden and pool downstairs. Most importantly, the bathroom was clean.

That day, i.e. Thursday, we didn’t do much. We walked a bit to Prashant COOL drinks (we were told by the house-keeper that when asked discreetly, HARD drinks were also available at Prashant’s), had cornettos and came back. We lounged around on the porch the entire evening. The house-keeper tried to make us feel at home by playing Himesh Reshammiya but we thanked him and told him to turn it down. I found the house-keeper very accommodative and pleasing.

Simple, Happy

Anyway, the highlight of Thursday was the prawn curry they served at dinner. Truly, Ghanvatkar deserves to announce that their food is recommended. I recommend it too.

Meals at Ghanvatkar are simple. They’ll ask you whether you want pohaa or bread and omelette, tea or coffee, chicken or fish. Lunches and dinners are usually a simple affair with rice, rotis, daal, papad, salad and whatever non-veg curry you opt for. The chicken curry is also very delicious. Actually, by the third meal, I couldn’t decide whether to order prawn or chicken because both dishes were equally well prepared. Kudos to the bai who cooks there.

Kihim

Next morning, i.e. Friday, we took a tam-tam+auto ride to Kihim Beach. It was 10AM, there was hardly a crowd and the beach is relatively much cleaner than average Indian beaches. The beach has similar rock formations like Gokarna (read on Gokarna here), but the rocks are smaller in size. Kihim Beach is full of colorful shells, I picked up a few zebra printed ones; you know, animal prints are in fashion!

Sea and shells

By noon, we moved from the Beach since our friends were about to arrive at the bungalow. By now, people were playing beach-crickets, stalls were opened and the weekend crowd was coming in. Anyway, our friends arrived by afternoon, and the rest of the evening is a blur. I remember eating scrumptious pomfrets prepared by the honourable Ghanvatkar cook and I remember a point of time when three cameras were being passed around to shoot four of us! Well, in short, we had a good time. The plates were licked clean; the one who slept without food was not missed.

Funeral Pyre and a sexy ghost

The next morning, after breakfast, we headed for Awas beach, again in a tam-tam. Now, this beach is situated near a funeral ground. We passed a pyre. The beach was across the woods. The woods were little creepy. Hehehe… just fooling around… yes, all that is true but it wasn’t like a Ram Gopal Verma set. The beach was really empty though. Not a soul around. It was a flat beach and the sand was too soft to tread on comfortably. Quick-sand-type sand + lonely beach + woods + barks of trees scratched to reveal blood-coloured tree-marks + funeral pyre. This can be a perfect site for a RGV movie. Bhootiya Awas-hawas beach.

The Silence of the Lambs

Awas Beach

Anyway, we planned to return to Mumbai that day, so after lunch (‘course we couldn’t possibly miss lunch at Ghanvatkar), we headed to Mandwa to catch the ride. 

This was a two-night trip and going on Thursday and Friday made us escape the weekend-crazy-crowd. But I can well imagine why this coastal stretch is so famous for Mumbai weekenders. Just an hour’s ride from the most cosmopolitan city in India and you land in a place with tiny lanes for highways, tam-tam rides, cleaner beaches and absolutely laid-back pace of life. We had fun, and Neel says, he shall visit Ghanvatkar again in a few weeks’ time to have some more of their delicious prawns curry! Jai ho, Ghanvatkar chef/bai!