“The traveler sees what he sees, the tourist sees what he has come to see.”

(Credits: Above is a quote by G.K.Chesterton)


“Many of my first times have been with you Shails”. I heard myself expressing to my buddy, stepping out of Hard Rock Café, vaguely realizing there’s something not quite right about the way the sentence was constructed. But then, it’s kind of true in many ways. So for the moment I walked away from him taking my arms off his shoulders just not to project a wrong picture again.

Trip to Pune this weekend was real fun, thanks to Shails, who took care of me just like how Gibraltar’s president would have taken care of Obama. Asked him about it too only to see him shrug and say “Can’t help it. It’s in the blood”. True enough! With his hotelier dad, rich with experiences from plush hotel giants like Hyatt, Taj etc, his courteousness should have stopped surprising me long ago. But it still amuses me and thinking about it now, it’s from him I learnt the art of giving your best always to your guests or friends, whoever happens to be at your home or with you. Again, he has always been a special friend to me, as special a friend could get to be.

Friday night was it when I reached the highway to Pune next to Vashi Plaza. A lanky guy with curly hair and curly nails materialized out of nowhere in front of me and started to convince me that his Scorpio ride will be the best ever transportation mode ever invented to reach Pune. Unwittingly, I took the seat alongside the driver’s seat in the Scorpio with 8 other people stuffed in the back and was bit relieved thinking I got lucky to get the front seat. My luck was short lived as soon as I found another ‘pleasantly plump’ guy sitting on my thighs when the cab stopped to pick up more people. Turned out the guy was such an extrovert with apparently no inhibitions sitting that close to me breathing his vadaa pav breath on the back of my neck. Soon he started digging my past with shameless questions and my intention of throwing him out of the open window was getting stronger every passing moment. How he managed to get a girlfriend amused me when she called him that instant and he shifted his attention now to the mobile and sucking and swallowing noises (kissing??! ) were all we heard for the rest of journey. Too much for the smart hundred bucks I thought I had saved by preferring cab over Volvo!

Shailender, was there, reliable as ever, to pick me up where the Scorpio dropped me, exactly like my last December’s trip to Pune. A lot has changed among us – I having lost my moustache and few fragments of my clavicle in the accident I had last June and he having gained some weight and more maturity. Having reached his home after midnight and each settling comfortably in respective cosy beds, old and new stories began to unfold as they usually do. It has been a year since I saw him last but just felt we were still together, just like the old college days. Close to 3 AM, he dozed off while I was browsing through some stuff in his laptop. Man, he has some timeless collection! ;-)

Next 2 days then were total fun; exciting food for all my senses but one. Delicilicious Chaitanya’s Parathas, eclectic drinks n electric music @ HardRock Café, long drive back in the bone-chilling Pune breeze, getting eyes all greedy in 3-D Avatar, meeting Sukhada again after a year etc…Thought about work and things ahead to do only when it was time to leave on Sunday evening. Hmm..Leaving is always the ‘not nice’ part of travel. Bid adios to Shails n Sukh and got into the bus and immediately started reminiscing how the days where better when we were all together, back in college. Few of the best days of my life!

Humans have this reflex behavior of diverting attention to pleasant things and thoughts when they start to feel upset because soon, I found myself looking at a classy female 2 seats ahead reading ‘ A walk to remember’. Curiosity killed the cat! ;-) Asked her if she has seen the movie and we were chatting for a while and told her about my blog when I found she’s with an Ad agency (aggressive promotion this is..lol...) It was what she casually said took over my thinking for a while. “All of you IT guys want to become a writer now or sooner. What’s up with you people?!” well, I never really had noticed that bandwagon driving up its way till her remark. Thinking about it, it’s kind of true, starting with IIT, IIM pros heralding the mast and attracting all attention and now even serious bloggers (the like of Meenakshi Reddy Madhavan) joining the club.

Well, it was Vashi again when the bus and my musings had to stop abruptly. It was me again, alone, walking in the highway hugging myself against the cold air, just thinking how blissful it is to travel. I have not done a lot of travelling this year but it’s already a resolution for this January. I feel Travel takes you outside to newer experiences which bring you back to your inside – refreshingly more fresh!

“A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving.”
-Lao Tzu (founder of Taoism)