Of Pen-friends and distant friends.

December 2014, I boarded a train from Rajkot to Mumbai alone. Travelling alone on such long journeys give you two opportunities. First being, introspect for there is little you can do without thinking deep when sitting alone for long hours and second being interacting with fellow passengers. My compartment was being shared by a traditional old family so I had to chose the first option until evening, a passenger boarded who had his reservation opposite to my seat. Turned out that man was a backpacker, hitchhiker and an avid traveler. WOW! Just the type of person I would love to speak to.

He was a Doctor by profession who took a mandatory one month off every year to travel the world. These people are full of stories and you would want your journey to never come to an end. He would tell me about where were the best parties held and how he made new friends in each country. How he would cut down on costs so that he can visit multiple places. Those shady hotels that he has to stay in sometime or sleeping hungry for he would spend lavishly elsewhere. The hitchhiking and thrill involved. That how sometimes he visits back those countries only to spend time with his distant friends. Also the negative side of this being how he has been looted at different times or about how his family keeps calling him a crazy irresponsible man for draining away yearly savings into travelling.

I have never had friends outside my city except a few of them whom I have met at work or academic courses. Also, the last time I had a Pen-friend was in 2010 from whom I haven’t heard since long. However, I love the prospect of having friends spread across the globe. The prospect of you visiting them, knowing their culture and way of life, knowing different perceptions and tasting different delicacies.  I still remember the excitement and endless wait of receiving post cards from my Pen-friend in France which later got shifted to E-mail conversations. It is a different and exhilarating feeling. I believe chance encounters are more cherish-able than forced ones. So let’s hope, life throws me some really interesting Pen-friends ahead in my life. 🙂

And they had fun.

Last evening, I met a guy who had come all the way from a small town in Madhya Pradesh. While we had a small talk about how is it here and how is he finding the city of dreams, he told me about his last weekend trip to Tiger Point, Lonavala. For the ones who do not hail from Maharashtra, This place is one of the hot spot location to be as the monsoon commences or even in winter. Be it early morning, evening or even late midnight or at 4 a.m., you will find this place bustling with people who drive there in their private cars or tourist vehicles, smoking hookah, drinking, having campfires and dancing on the music or eating Maggi and Pakodas.

What was interesting is how this man traveled there. He took a train to Lonavala from Mumbai and from there, he took an auto rickshaw to get to this place. This was really new for I have never ever heard people do this or even able to do this for Tiger Point, quite evidently, is located at an altitude. When I asked him why such a route? His answer was a simple, we couldn’t find a reasonable travel option and we 3 friends wanted to have fun. Undoubtedly they enjoyed the experience and honestly, what else matters anyway? I have known so many plans getting dumped for trivial reasons or sometimes because cost goes too high and then I see these bunch of young lads, not giving two hoots to usual norms, find an alternative route and embark.

I have come to really admire these guys for making their weekend happening. A lot of times, having fun is quite easy but all that we get entangled in and eventually spoil it up is trying to sparkle the process of having fun.

View from Lion’s Point, Lonavala, Maharashtra, India

For the ones who haven’t visited this place or never known and wish to go, here’s the guide which you can scroll through before making your decision, courtesy MakeMyTrip.com –– https://www.tripadvisor.in/Attraction_Review-g608474-d2624814-Reviews-Lion_s_Point-Lonavala_Maharashtra.html 

Stars.

Last December, a bunch of my office colleagues who are more like my best friends decided on a day trip to Lonavala. A lot of us wished if it could stretch to an entire weekend but many among us had permission issues from parents. Whole day went by, dancing, swimming, boozing and having fun and while we were an hour from returning back, few of us went on the roof.

The cold night of winter, sky full of stars and pleasant breeze was magnetic enough for all of us to unanimously take a decision of staying back the entire night. People who had permission issues called up home and started frantically convincing their parents. In the end, we stayed back. All of us went up the roof, put up pillows and lied down facing the sky. It wasn’t really spacious but each one of us, despite being congested, didn’t complain and didn’t move. The sight was exhilarating. Its nearly 6 months since that day but I still haven’t forgotten that moment. The sight of dark blanket of sky decorated with countless stars going into animation at short intervals because of shooting stars. I almost felt like leaving everything and moving to such a location, sleep on the rooftop each day or rather I wished if I could stop the time.

I feel there is a heavy price that we concrete jungle dwellers pay to enjoy the luxury of technologies and advancements. A probable reason why large number of people now have started moving to trekking, camping or nature trails. Life never gave me opportunities to travel and explore. But maybe, that trip to Lonavala has given me a reason to work hard in life, a strong desire to create such opportunities.