Poona With My Sala
Bablu at Rakshak Chowk, Poona, with the Battle Tank he wanted to see along with Rohan & Mamli
We first planned to spend a weekend in Poona in mid July. First Mamli had class tests and then Bablu fell sick. So we finally managed to visit my Sala, Rohan Padhi, on August 15, 2010, after discussing the trip for a month.
We started from Mumbai at about 8.30 am on Saturday, Aug 14, having planned to start at 7 am. Not bad for a family with two small kids who love their sleep and have to get up at 5.30 am on weekdays to catch the school bus and as a result are slightly pampered on wake up time by Daddy & Mummy on weekends.
Anyway it started raining just as we started and the sky was heavily overcast, shadowing our mood a bit but not damping it out all together. I only knew the Thane route and prooceeded to follow it. The MIDC roads on the mainland were a mess. Bad does not start to describe them. It took as a good hour and a half to hit the Mumbai Poona Expressway. The kids and Padmaja had nodded off and finally woke up after the jerking of the car stopped on the concrete of the Expressway. Or maybe because I slowly increased speed till I was doing 80 kmph.
We stopped at the first food plaza after the toll gate. It wasn't very clean and very very crowded. Anyway Padmaja & the kids grabbed icecreams while I bought samosas and vada pao. Then it was back to the expressway again.
We reached Poona at about 11.40 and my Sala's home at noon.
Had a light lunch and the a siasta. In the evening we visited our dear friends Ravi & Vathsala. They moved to Poona in 2008 when Ravi took up a job with Suzlon. We had not met them since. Their two sons, Nikhil & Dhruv are slightly older than Mamli & Bablu. The kids had a great time jumping and playing while we caught up on 3 years with Ravi & Vathsala. We finally left at about 10.40.
Today we plan to grab lunch at a seafood restaurant and then head back to Mumbai at about 3.00 pm. This time I plan to take the Navi Mumbai - Vasi - Gatkopar route rather than via Thane.
Update:
We left Poona at 4 pm and made very good time, reaching Navi Mumbai by 5.45 pm. Reached home just after 7 pm though. I had to go get vegetables etc for the week ahead from the Madha vegetable mandi as I will be away visiting my client in Dubai & Abu Dhabi this week. Plan to return early Thursday morning.
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More Photos From Berlin (July 2009)
During my visit to Berlin in early July 2009 I not only used my old Canon camera but also my Sony Ericsson P1i mobile phone’s camera. I had forgotten all about the photos on the phone’s memory card till I pulled out the card to replace it. Here are a few of the photos taken with my mobile phone.
On the way to my hotel
On the way to my hotel
The Seminaris Hotel where we stayed and trained the EMEA Consultants
Potsdamer Platz
Part of the Berlin Wall, Potsdamer Platz
Part of the Berlin Wall, Potsdamer Platz
Sony Center, Potsdamer Platz
And what is that???
Shopping!
Cakes!
Free Beer!!! It tasted like piss 
I will complain to Bill Gates & Richard Stallman!
Jewish Memorial
Where is James Bond 007?
The Streets of Berlin at 12.30 am 
Bye Bye Berlin…
Photographs of our Gangtok Trip – April 2009
I took more than 2200 phhotographs using my Cannon PowerShot A80 digital camera, Sony Ericsson P1i mobile phone and Olympus IS10 SLR. I have posted most of the photos from the digital camera to our online photo gallery, Mo Chitra.
Photos of Gangtok Visit, Summer of 2009.
Here are a few samples...
Bhubaneswar in the Summer of '09
April 21, 2009, Bhubaneswar
We arrived in Bhubaneswar early yesterday morning by Howrah Puri Express from Kolkata. This was the shortest rail journey of our entire trip this summer and the only one on which we had a coupe to ourselves. All of us were thrilled with that and also lamented the the lack on our other, longer journeys.
Bhubaneswar is hotter than I can tollerate. I am running up my father's air conditioning bill. He has a very large house in Sahid Nagar, his retirement home, and has lavished enormous care on it. He is an avid gardener and the house is teeming with plants of all shapes ans sizes. Just a few minutes ago he was showing me a cocconut tree that he saved from sort of large bettle that bores into the trunk and kills the tree from the inside. He, my father, effectively operated on the tree, drilling two holes into the trunk, saturating it with some sort of organic insecticide and bandaging the wounds to prevent water loss. The tree seems to ne responding to his ministrations.
Today I have to chase down a number of odd jobs like visiting my bank here, checking on my flat etc. The thought of having to go out in this heat is enough to give me a headache but do them I must.
Sigh.
Such is life.
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