Fleemi Deywane

Recently we made a trip to Ooty (Udagamandalam). The sight-seeing package that we went to on the first day, was aptly name Filmi Deewane. The places which we were taken to had been shot in one or the other film. Our driver cum guide was Shankar, who managed to pronounce it as Fleemi Deywane :)

One peculiar style of his was to start the explanation of a place with the term - Excuse Me Sir(EMS). Even if we were conversing with him, as he stops at a location he first speaks EMS and then carries on to explain the significance of the place. Let me take you to those places along with their significance.

A part of Golf course. The shape of heart that you can see was shown in Qayamat movie.



This bridge was shown in Roja. Actually its KamrajSagar Dam.



The set of Raju Chacha was built here.



A song in Raja Hindustani and few other movies have been shot here.


Rose Garden

There are a few more places, but cant recall their Filmi significance as in case of Rose Garden. But would like to tell you about the scene created at Rose Garden. When we came out of the Rose Garden, we expected Shankar to be in the parking, waiting for us. But it wasn't the case. He was nowhere to be seen. Then we inquired about him at the ticket counter. The lady told that Shankar has gone to the guest house, which is nearby and should be back soon. So we waited for sometime. Then we told the lady that Shankar was supposed to take us to the market for shopping. She replied that here is a guy who can take you there, you can go with him as Shankar had some urgent work and had gone to Coimbatore. My Sony PSP was in that car. Panic !!! We said, we are not looking for someone who can take us to market but Shankar who is our driver, and is suppose to take us to market and to back to the hotel. She said that Shankar is not the driver but owner of the guest house. Then we understood that there were two Shankars being referred. Meantime, Shankar came there. We got into the car and drove off. That was the end of Fleemi Deywane trip !

Choc0l@te - D(eep ,ark,irty)

S had come back from Aus. And ofcourse, for no obvious reasons got many chocolates along. N gave me a few from those. I ate couple of them, and kept the rest to have it later. Not realizing about the consequences I put them in my jeans pocket and forgot about it. As I reached office, I saw a brown mark on my t-shirt and it was then when I realized my mistake of keeping the chocolates in pocket, moreover with the cell. It had melted and spread deep into my pocket, was dark brown in color and had made my t-shirt, pocket and mobile really dirty. I straight away went to the wash-room, cleaned up my clothes and washed my cell after dissembling it. I also tried to dry up my cell faster, keeping it under the hand-drier. Fortunately its working as b4 (mind u, not perfect :)

Moral - Eat the chocolates as and when given to you.

Can a monkey differentiate between land/water ??

We (me n my roomies) were discussing something and someone landed upon the topic of Ramayan. In Ramayan, it so happened that the "Vanar sena" (army of monkeys) crossed the river with the help of some special "floating" stones. Now I dont remember how it started, but a debate started on 'Can a monkey differentiate between land/water ??', whether he can understand that he is walking on land and he cant walk on water. R said that monkey cant, while J said that he can. And they were so seriously and convincingly arguing with each other, it wasnt a scene to be missed :-) Meanwhile B was into a laugh riot and barely managed to speak "what a silly topic are they arguing about" !! I gave few of my ideas that supported R, primarily to tease J. Thinking about it now, I remember a kid's story about a monkey and a crocodile. Not that relevant here, but it does prove J's point :-)

Miss Call or a Mystery Call

One fine afternoon @ 3pm, I was busy doing something in my cubicle and realized that I had missed 2 calls. One of them was Jigar's (my roomie) and other number wasn't known to me(call@2:26). I called back on that mobile number from my extension. I heard a male's voice on the other end. And when I tried to explain him that I had got a miss call from his number, he was not ready to take it that way. Infact his tone suggested that I was the one who was being mischievous. Fine, I decided to leave it there itself. Again @ 5:10pm I saw a miss call from same number(call @ 4:58). This time I called him from my mobile, so that he may recognize the number on which I was getting miss calls. He recognized me through my voice and was really angry this time. He told me that he was in some important meeting and he was some kind of scientist and I should not be disturbing him this way. I was totally confused. Whats the mystery ?? Then he told that he will look into the matter, whether someone else might have used his mobile or so. I said fine and hanged up.

Next day when I was having lunch, I again got a call from that no. And this time I picked it up. There was another guy on the other end. But as it turned out, I was not able to understand his language(Kannada). So mystery still prevails !!

SPicE iT Up

I was excited to board my first no-frills flight, Spice Jet to be precise. Also it was my first surprise trip back home. But God had some surprise lined-up for Gor (thats my last name :-)). Was an experiance rather than surprise though. As I reached the Bangalore airport, I saw a large group and all women dressed up in typical "maarvadi"(originally from rajasthan) style saris. A group check-in and boarding was arranged for them, and it was then when I realized that they would be travelling in the same flight as mine to Ahmedabad.

Time to board the flight. As I entered the aircraft, it appeared all chaotic. People(from the group) dint know which seat was whose?? It was a great effort by the crew to help them and get everything settled. Mine was a window seat. I got to know that it was a group of around 120. Lets take-off now. Believe it or not, as the flight took-off they were speaking out aloud "Jai Mata Ki" (Hail Mother God). As the flight was no-frills, only chocolates were offered. Then a few representatives from the group went and talked to the crew for some time. After that, they got couple of trays from the crew and loaded them with their food-packets containing dry fruits (prasad). These were distributed to the group members and some non-members also like me ;-) We (me and the guy besides me) were also expecting tea to be served, but it dint turnout that way. Damn no-frills, but two thumbs-up to thrills !!

3 to tAnGo (for a MaNgO !!)

I have enjoyed most of my summer vacations in Mumbai (almost all till I was in school). As you might be knowing summer is the season for Mangoezz.... earlier we used to stay at Vile-Parle(W) behind Bajaj Road... there used to be a Mango Tree (Aambo in gujju) near the house... It was so close that we could take down the mangoes by hitting with a stick from our balcony... enjoied a great deal eating them... It used to be Me, and two cousins of mine... three of us... (Lord of the Mangoes - Fellowship of mangoes ;=)

After few years, we moved to borivali... there was also a mango tree there... but wasnt that easily approachable... Still we tried with a bigger stick and all... and managed to succeed upto some extent... Once we (fellowship) were having a stroll around the house... We saw a mango tree that had big mangoes hanging through it... They were low enough, so that we can jump and grab them... The tallest among us, tried the stunt and succeeded... yeah... then we heard "Oye.... Rukk..." We saw that a man was shouting at us and was coming towards us... We got a bit tensed... We opted to run to home... dude also ran after us, shouting and screaming... and got us, when we were almost home... He told us... "The mango you ppl have took is from my tree.. you trespassed my territory, I wont let you go like that"... We were too small then to deal with him, so took him home along with us... where few elders came in handy... they talked with dude and finalized the deal... 100 bucks for one damn mango... and the mango was all ours... it has to be this mango which we should have enjoied the most till date ;-)

Silent Scream

9th March 2005... I was a bit less energetic than usual... had a fast previous day (Mahashivratri).. so just had juices and milk... Got ready, went to a food joint and had a juice... time to board the company bus... Got a middle seat :-( As therz not much option left for ppl staying in BTM... the bus is almost 2/3 full... as it was the front most seat, it wasnt that bad... much leg-room and all.. my disc-man batteries were down... so only option was dozing off or read smthin... i chose to read... Hardly after 5 mins after that, I heard a half scream... looked around... the girl sitting on my left appeard bit taken aback... y the hell did she screamed... silently !! (obviously it wasnt a mute scream but silent relatively) ... I looked in front thru the windshield of the bus... a bike had collided with other and drivers were down... it wasnt that serious an accident... you know how serious can it be ;-) I mean the drivers were able to get up and walk... I thank the girl for that silent scream... Had it been a little louder i would have gone down too.. (fast side-effect !!)