A passionate kiss- .......half done

Beautiful Sunday morning, warm sunlight awakened my eyes early to start of, for the planned outing. Having slept by around 2.oo pm after enjoying Malamal Weekly (Priyadhashan’s own style of handling comedy was well received) at Pune’s hot spot multiplex "E square" felt very difficult to open my tender eye lids that craved to close a little longer. No choice but still sleepy I zip my vehicle to collect a few eatables. Here and there few jerk, thankful the cyclist escaped. Jesus! Would I survive for the next Bday was my first question for the day…On my way back home could not resist the lovely Puligore (South Indian Iyengari food) prepared by the hands of my dear friend Nandu – the software PL at Infosys with an amazing literary sense- her lines are way beyond explanation. Coming back to where I left, immaterial what went on in the morning had to pack and hog and roll out at the earliest as we were already late by 10 min to hit the target time. Aunt calls up and is perplexed with the thought of me trekking on my B’day!. Being the one who is far away from all these superstitions, I hang up the phone with a sweet and sour approval to go ahead and open the doors to Abhi – wicked sunny as we call him is a dear friend of mine who is eager to become an entrepreneur. We grab some horrible upma (real concrete was prepared by me that day) and rush to Swargate (Pune bus station) by- passing the madness of Pune traffic. Nandu who was on a project in Pune for a couple of weeks had a treat of Pune race track roads (full of path holes due to rains- young Schumacher are developed on these roads). Be it what ever the traffic death rate in Pune is lower than that of Bangalore. The common thing about these two folks who had accompanied me to Kamalghad (near Lonavala) is that they never get wild or atleast I have never seen in the last 5 yrs of association that I have with them….later u will realize the advantage of this character of theirs.

After reaching the station we realize that there are many more to come behind us. The bus was delayed over to the delay of these folks. To my surprise find two more collegues of mine. Upna pariwar- Cummins Pariwar (the company that I am associated with) becomes the scenario there, could have been avoided but nothing was better either. Bad lcuk as say I say to myself. With soaring April heat taking a ride over Pune we wait in desperation to get into the bus just to realize that we had insufficient seats in spite of advance booking. Temp starts to boil in me. Reach midway and find that the connectivity to the actual spot is yet being finalized by the organizer. Frustrated in getting my friends into such a faltoo outing I move ahead to have a chat with an elderly gentleman, Mr. Ravi- who I discover to also be from our roots….had a grt time taking to this gentleman who kept me and Nandu occupied till we realize that something was done on the transport… Running between the jeeps we finally manage to get into crowded two jeeps and reach the foothills of the wonderful scenic place next to the bed of Lonavala just to realize that the medical kit was left behind…..my faith on the organizing team is lost but the two buddies of mine are cool and looking forward. This is what I like in them…


We grab some puligore (thankful that Nandu had prepared it) and move up the hill by 2.00. Nandu is so overwhelmed by …….well scenery of course that she is continuously flashing her camera…..hmm inspired by hubby I guess. Abhi is bugged by the slow movement that he rests and waits in desperation for us along with the other colleague. Give a signal to Nandu and we plan to catch up with speed. As we move up was struck with a horrible sprain that we had to slow down….Well scenario of Nandu catching up with sprain in one such trek and finding the ultimate man of her life- Vikas, comes to my mind and we both burst into laughter…..did not even know if any existed in the group cause the frustrations that we were put through from the start took me away from the scenic beauty too…But could see the calmness in both of these buddies…well were they making up for my day…No they truly had the patience in them…..Me and Nandu move ahead as Abhi helps the rest behind….The rocky slippery path starts and Nandu was not interested in tracing back the path the next day….We see a gentleman (a photographer by hobby eager to capture the best with his zoom) take the lead as one of the organizer moves behind him followed by Gayatri (another colleague), Nandu, myself and Mr. Ravi. Few seconds and we here a call of a voice, "Help me". The organizer moves ahead and we just realize the intensity of the above voice increase," Help! Help……….Help" another voice saying "Ho! No……", we just see the gentleman move down the path atleast a 100 ft down….the young organizer up also slides a little and then balances himself.
That was when I felt, "HE (death) had kissed me", and tremor strikes me- "what have I done, have I put two of my buddies also to risk", one who is just married and planning to join her hubby in US another bright entrepreneur. We had no answer for sometime, the path could not be traced back – forget not a inch could the five of us move. It took us 10 min to turn and rest our backs. We waited in desperation as we prayed for the goodwill of the aspiring photographer who rushed down the hill as he tried up the hill….Blessing in disguise a villager comes to our rescue along with another organizer…the photographer was the father of the young organizer from whose hands he slid down. When I heard this we were num – no better word strikes to me…..As I catch up with the rope to move up, felt I had another kiss, "HOLD", screamed the villager, I slide a little, Nandu was also down with me….strengthen up and hear to just one voice, "up, tighter and here u r", of the strong villager. As the five of us sit on top of the hill, Mr. Ravi cools us with his little sense of humor and diverts our attention. Though we were on hold, Gayatri could not take the scenario more to say her helplessness to save the duo.

As we descended with the help of another villager realize that the photographer was safe enough to walk back the path on his own along with the remaining team members…the entire village came to our rescue and helped with water and shelter We relished the heat at the foothill with some local Sachin and Dhoni playing cricket the next morning as some of them moved up to experience the cool breeze in the mines dug up the hill…Bravos! We had a feast on the backwaters with some delicious pulaov and took the same bus back to Pune…..of course the B’day cake was waiting in the late evening at Mahesh lunch home (famous for sea food). Enjoyed the best part of the day with Ashu, AJ, Abhi and Nandu as they enjoyed their fish curry with uppam (Kerala based pancake) as I enjoyed with my own veg curry…….

So that was the beautiful gift that I had on my b’day- A passionate kiss – should I say thankfully half done….