Penny wise and Pound foolish

I was bored at office. So I thought I shall spend some time at the mall nearby, for say, an hour and then return to work. I did not want to spend ten rupees on an auto to reach the mall, just to spend time there aimlessly. So I called my husband who was already on his way home from work and had to cross my office and the mall on the way home. He was nice enough to pick me up from right outside my office gates, and drop me at the mall before he headed home. I walked around the shops for a while. Picked up articles I never needed anyways, checked their prices, and put them back carefully. Then walked into the groceries supermarket. Spotted yoghurt, fresh bread here. Remembered that I had run out of cooking oil. Punjabi chole tomorrow would be nice. Have not watched an old Tamil movie in a while, and this one is indeed a worthy collection. Returned to office on time.

I know what you are thinking…

I was bored at office.
(So is the rest of the world, whats new)

So I thought I shall spend some time at the mall nearby, for say, an hour and then return to work.
(We are smart enough to not put this down in a public place, but we do it all the time too)

I did not want to spend ten rupees on an auto to reach the mall, just to spend time there aimlessly.
(Noble thought)

So I called my husband who was already on his way home from work and had to cross my office and the mall on the way home.
(Yeah…brilliant..you do not have to justify that he did not have to change routes to be of some use to you )

He was nice enough to pick me up from right outside my office gates, and drop me at the mall before he headed home.
(Sometimes this tribe is nice too, and these sometimes are rare..so pen them down and preserve for posterity)

I walked around the shops for a while.
(Nothing works like retail therapy for us)

Picked up articles I never needed anyways, checked their prices, and put them back carefully.
(We are experts at window shopping)

Then walked into the groceries supermarket.
(The mall surely sucks, if you ended up walking inside a supermarket in less than an hour of your time there)

Spotted yoghurt, fresh bread here.
(Everyday necessities, good of you to remember to pick them up while here. Besides, you have to justify the auto fare back)

Remembered that I had run out of cooking oil.
(Even better)

Punjabi chole tomorrow would be nice.
(Gastronomic eccentricity)

Have not watched an old Tamil movie in a while, and this one is indeed a worthy collection.
(Refrain from asking how much and why you actually spent here. But was this your only indulgence? Suspect there was something more, else it won’t deserve a blog post)

Returned to office on time.
(Atta girl)

A hundred to a Zero

Would it not be nice to live life in reverse? Imagine instead of being born, you started off from the dead. It would be nice to wake up positively from the dead, and be an oldie, maybe on crutches, with no teeth, yet salivating for the best foods on earth. And then as each day progresses, you get younger, your limbs get stronger, crutches discarded, and you enjoy a fat pension post retirement phase. Move ahead to the first day at work ( actually the last day)..people celebrate your joining, you actually know many of them, they welcome you with a gift and maybe flowers. Commit more mistakes at work as you grow in experience backwards, and younger by age. (Okay, I hate the salary growing lesser part here). Exit the work life phase, enter college, live youth. Progress to school and kindergarten, kick friends around, laugh over an ice cream, chase bubbles and butterflies. Become a toddler, enjoy everybody’s attention (And this time you actually experience it), drool on them, make a mess of yours and their clothes. Retire into momma’s womb. Degenerate into an egg. And get passed out.

Wonderful.

Edited to Add on 30 Apr 09:
I swear I had not seen Benjamin Button, and was surprised to see all the controversy about a new Amitabh Bacchan movie being inspired by this one. And no, I had not heard about the Bacchchan movie either until I read it in the papers after I had written about this post.

Okay..I am not a genius.

Ganapatipule

When we went: Mar 09
From :Mumbai
By : Road
Drive time : About 7 hrs including breakfast stops
To do : Stay at MTDC, have a snacks/breakfast break at Kamat on the way, Chill at the clean beaches
Don’t believe : White sands on the beach

Ganapatipule was a place on my mind since I first heard about it in Jun 07. Every attempt I made to go to the place was thwarted at the last minute. The well-known MTDC resort never being available in the weekend was the spoiler most of the times. This time around, I decided to go for a booking as early as three months before the stay. Well…at least the countdown seemed as long as the travel to this place.

I am going to leave out the details as to how to get there, as routes and distances are really not my strengths. I could be lost right in front of my house on a cloudy day.

We set out early in the morning….crossed several tolls, and each time we shelled out to pay for the toll tickets, we crossed our fingers and sent up a silent prayer that the resort and the place better be good. It was close to lunchtime, and the milestones on the road kept ticking down. But even at 3 km away from Ganapatipule, there was no sign of the famous white sands and the beach.

Little did we know what awaited us. MTDC resort was not very difficult to locate…and bang behind and the resort stretched the vast blue sea and clean sands for miles and miles. It was too good to be true, and being the pessimists we are, we pre concluded that the resort rooms would be ugly, damp, stinking, and dirty. But it was a day of pleasant surprises…it was not only clean and had a beautiful sea facing balcony for which a Hyatt could charge half a ten grand even in the remotest of places, the attendants did not grudge when we requested for a first floor room instead of a ground floor one.

The room was reasonably clean, though for the more finickier of us, I would advise carrying your own bed sheet and towels.

The seas were beckoning, but it was lunchtime and the convenience of the hotel inside, with chillers as well, was difficult to resist. This was the only sore point of our stay there, as post this one dining experience we never ate there for the rest of the three days. The less said the better. If you must have food here, never order a lime juice..it is some essence dunked in discarded tender coconut water….or something that tasted close to this description. You get the drift….

The beaches, just a stone’s throw away was one of the cleanest I have seen in recent times. Nice family crowds, unlittered, friendly waves, and miles and miles of shore line.

There is also a small temple of Swayambhu Ganesha here, from which the place gets its name. Nothing of note here, except that it is a nice small town temple right by the beach. So even if you are not religiously inclined, you can just hop in and hop out of the place.

The rest of our stay there, we spent wandering around the beaches (no shacks like Goa here though), driving to take a look at Krishnali resorts (only because the rates they quoted were so high were we curious to see the place). Quality food is available all around the place.

We started back to Mumbai on the third day, and even when we crossed Vashi and Chembur at 4.00pm that evening it seemed like it was such a relaxing holiday.