Weekend destination: Silvassa

Laxminarayan and myself planned and executed road trip to Silvassa yesterday... Laxmi was to spend the night before the ride at my place, n when I said it would be egg-curry for dinner he said he wanted to be around to see me buy the eggs... to ensure I don't feed him pigeon eggs :) Well... he was late and had to trust me with that...

Next morning... 24 Nov '07, 0530 hrs IST..

We're out of the house n hit the western express highway within minutes... couldn't speed too much as the trucks were pretty reckless.. however, we weren't too pissed with them cos their exhaust was thawing us out of the 5.30 chill... When we got out of Mumbai onto NH-8, trucks were fewer, it got much darker than before, and much much colder... Our windcheaters weren't good enough and my bare fists were practically frozen...

We stopped at a dhaba in Manor to heat up a bit.. had hefty alu parathas and tea...

By 9 o' clock we were in Silvassa, and our host for the day - Abhishek Desai picked us up n took us home.. An elaborate breakfast was waiting for us... Laxmi was already full.. so I helped him a bit.. :)

Our first destination after breakfast was Dudhni... about 40 km from Silvassa, through the mountains n trees...on a very well made up road... was an awesome ride... At Dudhni we sat together at a picnic spot discussing the hostel days... updating each other etc... had lunch, and went waterscooting in the Damanganga river..

Next destination: Deer Park... another lovely ride... but the gates were closed n we had to plan something quick for the one hour left until they opened...so we went to Bindrabin temple and had a nice refreshing dip in the chilled pond.. that was like the best activity for the sunny afternoon.. We felt so fortunate that the deer park was closed...

Came back to the deer park... Man! its tough to ride when the roads are not tarred...

Well... mud biking is real fun... but then it kinda hurts to ride your own bike on stones.. :)

Excited seeing some wild animals pretty close, and covered with dust, we got out of the deer park and went back to the town... and got onto the highway to head back home...

We missed seeing a camping site as it would've taken us too long.. Abhishek suggests we plan an overnight to this place... go with a big gang.. I'm game.. interested people please contact me..

The ride back to Mumbai was pretty interesting... we did the first 140km in 2hours... and the remaining 15 km in 90 minutes.. that is Mumbai's way of saying.. "Welcome back!" :)

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Recipe: Kabu Kabab Pariwala

Here is a simple recipe that you would like to try at home.

Ingredients:
Pigeon - 1 nos.
Onion - 1 nos.
Carrot - 1 nos.
Turmeric - 1 tbsp.
Coriander pdr - 1 tbsp
Garam masala - 3 tbsp
Red chilly pdr - 2 tsp
Rava - 3tbsp
Oil - 30ml
Salt - to taste




Directions
Behead the pigeon, skin it and wash it clean. Cut the edible parts into average sized pieces. Rub turmeric, coriander powder, red chilly powder and salt and leave aside.
Go to the balcony and clear it of all the feathers.
Now mix the rava and garam masala. Heat oil in a pan. Roll the kabab pieces in the rava mix and fry for 20-25 minutes
Garnish with onions and carrots and serve hot!

Do try out the recipe and send in your suggestions for improvement.


Okay... now here's how I caught it:
we have an abandoned bathroom where I sprinkled a little toor dal and waited a few days.. the prey arrived, I sealed all exit points and pounced on it... It flew to the kitchen, saw the window closed, flew at my face, and I just caught it in flight. Cool eh?

Aakhir jallad bhi to insaan hota hai na....


Hunters don't normally care for tiny pecks.. but yes.. for the record... that b@$#!% pecked me... and it hurt... :-(

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How my life changed...

I was in a very bad state... Nobody would talk to me.. My moustache just kept growing... N I did not know what to do... It was getting to my head.. People made fun of me... Called me names behind my back.. and on my face... I was going mad... I would've soon lost my job..
BEFORE

But then my friend suggested "Fiskars"..
This has been the best gadget I have used lately...
Life suddenly took a U turn... Now I look sober again...

AFTER


And people talk to me... and girls ask me directions... and kids don't get scared of me... dogs bark at me like before...and my boss points out my mistakes... I'm so happy once again..
So guys... Get a pair of Fiskars... and cut down the whiskers!! . . . .

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WTF!! ?? Thats what came to your mind? Yeah rite.. I feel like reading stuff on the blog, I come to this site and see that its still the same old posts... You have something better to write...? Why not just post it up then?

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Thump thump thump we go....

For all those of you who didn't know, Clyde n myself rode down my bike to Goa in May this year.. And the time for getting it back was nearing.. Clyde - busy as ever couldn't confirm on the date until one day before we actually went.. :-)

Friday, 5th of October I collect Clyde from the airport and we head to Dadar where we would be boarding the train... We reach with one hour at hand, so get into a restaurant for some kebabs n beer...After a 20 min wait, the waiter comes n pisses us off saying beer is not cold... Now we get desperate and walk real fast in a mutually agreed direction with two bags and a helmet in our hands.. Find a place finally.. pretty expensive.. in fact way too expensive... but what the hell!! We get in.. Ek chicken tikka, do beer.. thanda.. jaldi lao..train ja raha hai..

We gulped down in a hurry and made it to the platform well in time, but the train was delayed by an hour!! It was due to a bomb scare at CST.. and we had overheard about it on TV in that restaurant...
Had we been a little more attentive, we could've possibly put down a couple of beers more ;-)

Train journey pretty uneventful, and we get to Goa...

I spend most of the day with my bike checking this and that and getting some stuff rectified by a mechanic..

October 7 - The auspicious day

Cool n cloudy day... seemed like it could rain.. Fingers crossed...Started from home at about 9:15 and headed to Clyde's house who was ready n waiting for me... packed up the bags n headed to the next halt - a petrol pump at Pernem... There we fill up the tank to the brim and mount the big bag on it so the pillion's hands get freed...I rode till Sawantwadi, Clyde took over..

Then we stopped in Amboli for some bhajiya and omlettes.. Normal Amboli scene with some sober monkeys socialising and many anti-social humans making killos.. Other than a guy spitting from inside a Sumo right onto another guy's feet, there wasn't anything really exciting..

All along the way the clouds did exactly what we wanted them to do.. protect us from the sun.. Otherwise we would have been roasted papads by evening..

Ajra, Uttur, Gadinglaj, Nippani and onto the Highway.... where we zoomed past some 100cc toys .. Kolhapur.. we stop for lunch.. home made alu parathas n chatni under the trees by the highway.... Satara... Umbraj.. Indoli... that's where the clouds let out a few drops n cooled the atmosphere further... It was 3:45 in the afternoon, but looked like an average 6:30pm.... The last halt was about 70 km from Pune - tea break and rider switch... Clyde took over and rode home.. We were in Pune by around 6:30... No rest.. excited.. we discussed the ride, had dinner outside, came back n watched a movie... not realizing that tomorrow was a Monday.. and my office was still 200 km away..

Having slept at 1:00 AM and woken by 5:00 I was in no state to ride till Mumbai.. Edwin was kind enough to drop me right until my office gate...

We had a short high tea halt atop Khandala Ghat....

What a ride... Will soon go thumping for another.. and yeah.. keep you updated

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Kyunki yeh Khander bhi Kabhi Hostel tha...

Pranav-Arti aur woh(woh is me) made a trip to college a few weeks back to meet our profs...we also met Umesh, Tulsi and some old memories in the hostel...
The meeting with profs and the topics of discussion were "out of syllabus" for me and I'm not the best person to even summarise it all... Pranav might throw some light on those aspects of our visit if he finds time... My topic is "Hostel"
An abandoned BE hostel.... the windows have still not recovered from our stones... my bicycle is in the same position as I had left it...Ashish's bath-tub breeds mosquitoes and Clyde's room has the only door in the hostel which can be closed... so it has been locked - they've probably stored something in there..

Walking into the hostel was like getting into an old spoilt castle... rebirth story kinda thing... brought alive all the memories... couldn't probably mention all of them, but I did think of Kashinath in particular.... yes.. the toilets don't stink any worse than they used to... And the manure we supplied have made the walls very fertile... lots of moss..

Work's going on... n they're trying to repair the hostel and get it back to life... I wonder what kind of damage would require 3 years to repair :D
Yeah...3 years. Ours was the last batch to live in that hostel, and thus our graffiti was still fresh..

Here are some of the snaps we took... If you guys are looking for a particular pic, it might not have been uploaded cos its was extremely obscene, or probably due to lack of space, or may be the moss had covered it and we didn't manage to capture it... Of course you may contact Pranav for the complete collection of snaps - uncensored.

We dint take Arti along with us to the hostel - though it was abandoned n all... for as we all know, the boys who lived in that hostel were far more decent as compared to what they wrote on the walls.... I've taken care to post only the "nice" drawings etc... however, if you're a girl viewing these snaps, do so at your own discretion..
This may be ADULT material... children of ANY age are not permitted.

Ashish's wing

Savio's room

Shubhalabh's Room

Art By Raghu ......

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