Mumbai Diaries - Part 3(Pune Diaries)

As I meandered towards the dusk of my Mumbai chapter – I embarked upon a new section – Pune Diaries. My first stop entailed a journey through a village in the outskirts of Pune and an enriching experience through the agricultural revolution in the area. Amongst the farmer community, I stumbled upon my long lost buddy Praveen and his wife Arathi. In anticipation of yours truly’s arrival Arathi had admonished all the farmer folks to produce the best of their wares. The result was ambrosia which would have even had Goddess Edesia craving for more. Avial; which apparently is not her speciality, oozed of such exemplary taste that led my palate in to state of euphoria.

After having bolted enough to last me two winters, my next rendezvous led me to Mickey Mouse aka Nilesh. Here I must inform the readers of the perils that underlie when Mickey Mouse offers to pick you up from a meeting point. This extremely hazardous offer necessitates you to pillion on his Enfield Bullet, which gets hammered down on any road at 300 miles per hour( On that note Mickey Mouse stays very close to an airstrip – which sees constant take off of Sukhois). I survived this ordeal and also managed dinner(despite my stomach still reeling from extreme shock), with Mickey & Minnie Mouse as well as Amol. A late night tapri chai topped with a meetha paan brought back senses to my being.

After sometime, I do not know how long afterwards, I was piloting a Sukhoi- which thundered voraciously over the landscape below – and before I could crash, I woke up in shock. Sukhoi was not the shocking part, the fact that I slipped up in calling Her Highness of Pune aka Pooh was all the more quivering. After the initial ‘bash up the rat(myself)’ session, Pooh gracefully announced of her intentions of picking me up at Swaargate.

Pooh managed to pick up her waiting subject, not before being subjugated to the torture of an ignorant Hawaldar(The hawaldar was perhaps unaware of the traffic rules that apply to Her Highness). Soon, Pooh & Myself were ensconced in our seats (with atleast two rows of police protection) awaiting King Khan to start his latest boast(My Name is Khan). The movie started off well with flashes of mature handling of a sensitive topic of autism (though I would not completely agree with all aspects being portrayed as autism in the movie). However as the movie ambled on, it embroiled itself in to two complex topics – autism and Islamic fundamentalism and in the process managed to completely hash it up. My only take away however was – Kajol still rocks.

I was still reeling till my epiglottis; Pooh decided to embark on a shopping spree to overcome the shock and in the process managed to daub a mehendi on her palm. In the mean time, in came a whiff of smile smeared all over a familiar countenance of Amey aka Jet accompanied by his better half – Sayali. Next stop – Little Italy where the troop decided to dine a sumptuous meal which was punctuated poor to horrible service by the staff.

In the mean time, there was another world which was reeling from horror of mindless acts of terror. As India remains subjected to such radical acts of cowardice(German Bakery this time), my heart prays for the innocent victims.

As the last pages draw to a close on this somber note – I did manage to catch up with Sush(just in the nick of time) as well as old engineering mates(Prasanna & Sawant). Jhansi,ever so sweetly, stopped by, laden with a month’s ration of grapes. And soon the SQ421 beckoned. Till next time.