Day one of our Memorable Trip:
When Things have to go wrong, no matter whatever best planning efforts you have put in, Things will go wrong. Reverse too is true. When things have to go right , no matter how little or negligible planning efforts you have put in, Things will go right,
Some thing like this happened in our case we 3 families, sans shri Deshmukh, met at Mrs. & Mr. Kotwal's house for a lunch at their behest, sorry it was more of a " kalkalichi vinanti - agrah ". I for one, being a foodie, have never said No for a Lunch / Dinner. We all met and had a lovey Lunch which included fresh fish brought by Madhurata Tai. That was a heavenly treat.
The Ladies started talking about Surat trip. Sunila Tai was the Leader. Meena & Madhurata Tai chipped in too. Shri Kotwal & I acted as facilitators to help them with logistics. Soon we all agreed on Statue of Unity ( S o U ) to be added to Surat. Meena talked to Neelima Tai & Neela Tai. They all agreed and the trip was finalized. The D Date - 17th Jan was decided. Return was fixed on 21st.
Initially we were to take our cars, which would have been a great fun and a mode of faster travel. However, the majority favored an 11 seater Traveler.
Madhurata Tai organized the 11 seater. Shri Kotwal did the booking of SoU and Home Stays at Garudeshwar & Surat. All set and ready to go. L O L, come Jan 17th, Ganus reached the pick up point outside the Spires Apartments. Gundis too had arrived. Kotwals joined too and we were soon on the express highway. Our next pick up point was at Thane.
We all Puneites were eagerly awaiting for our breakfast to be brought by Madhurata Tai. Finally the moment of truth dawned. Neela Tai & Deshmukhs joined us. Immediately Idlis & Chutney was served. we had a sumptuous breakfast. Music was put on. All the ladies started talking about Kalyan and they dug out childhood memories. Soon the Idlis had their effect on all. Music was put off, Childhood memories deserted the ladies and all were soon fast asleep.
Shri Kotwal is an expert at finding right places to stop for Breakfast / Lunch / Dinner & Tea. He goes in to minutest details like ambience, ratings, menu etc and gives all details in a shortest of time. We all relied on his inputs and followed his recommendations blindly. Very handy & trustworthy person, on such excursions, I must admit.
We had our first big pitstop for Lunch at Bamboos ( I hope Meena's memory has served her right ) on the highway after Surat. Needless to say, thanks to shri Kotwal. The ambience was good, the quality of food was excellent. what more one can ask for? We started our onward journey after refueling our tanks. We then stooped only for our tea . coffee break.
We reached Garudeshwar at bout 9 pm. talked to the attendant of the homestay and headed for Hotel Nirvan, ( near to our homestay ), for our Dinner. Its a lovely hotel. The ambience, food & service were all excellent. The icing on the cake was that Neelima tai & Madhav, both got Baingan ( Brinjal ) which they both love in any form and taste. A new revelation for us all.
We reached our Home Stay at Number 153, The Ladies took charge and decided the sleeping arrangements for next 2 nights there. No arguments. Who could have dared? Gents followed the instructions like tired goats.
That was day one of our Journey on Jan 17th.
More about our trip - shortly on Some Other Day
