Memories of Magical Mahabaleshwar

Well with this trip I am going to write my first blog. So one can imagine how wonderful and inspiring the trip must be..

25th Jan 07
Early morning I was sitting in the lounge of hostel and reading newspaper but before I started reading, bubbling with energy and with full enthu, Mayu informed that her father gave permission to come for Mahabaleshwar trip..I was very very happy with this news and thought other news in news paper is not that important!!. This friend of mine I would say chatterbox, now will ensure our full entertainment.. Also now teasing will be shared so I am at advantage..

In room no 25, NMIMS all of us were discussing about the trip to mahabaleshwar… We had booked Sumo and ideally the capacity is 9 ppl and we were 11 of us.. Thanks to all thinies… after a lot of discussion in the meeting room ( quad ) about various alternatives of few going by bus, taking one bike etc finally we concluded that all of us will go by Sumo only…All of us agreed by the decision of Chairperson Vipul Shah and his advisor Tarang…Although meeting didn’t go that smoothly but finally Vipul could convince all of us ‘Load nahi leneka. Police pakdegi to dekha jayega…’.

So after that I and Aparna (Appu) went to Food bazaar to purchase snacks for the trip.. Out treasurer Ankit Patel gave us 500 Rs…. N kudos to us we exactly purchased for Rs. 515.. implementing practical budgeting!! After this shopping both of us were tired like anything and since we had to wake up early we decided to got to bed early..

26th Jan 07

It was early morning of 26th when I woke up at 3.15 am ( For me its still a night). I never feel so fresh when I have to wake up so early in the morning but yes that day was special since I was full of excitement for the trip.. Brushed my teeth and went to wake up Appu and Mayuri..Got ready by 4 a.m. ( We were suppose to leave at 4 a.m. and we didn’t want to give chance to guys for any complaints)..Then Sapan is calling and told Sumo will be late by 45 minutes.. So I and Appu were sitting i common area waiting for MAyu n Sumo to come.. At 4.20 am we went to Mayu’s room and we realized she was still sleeping..Appu had no reaction but I got shocked n so Mayu had to wake up by seeing my face with shocking expressions.. thank God Sumo was late..:-)) Appu enjoyed nice nap by he time sumo came…

The game begins now…

We went to gate to welcome our friends with flags in our hands..( yeah it was Republic day) . All of had bright smile when we saw Sumo approaching to our gate.. We were waving flags n finally sumo arrived at hostel gate.. We were wondering whether we will be having place ot sit as one after another people were coming out of Sumo..:-)) Luckily total cont didn’t go beyond 11!!! Then Tarang n Vipul with full passion in the early morning climbed on the Sumo to adjust luggage..And rest all utilized this time for a first group snap of the day…Few lucky of us could be captured in the photo.. Sid ran to be included in the snap but he missed the chance!!! Later on Sid and Aparna turned out to be my competitors.. Well I will talk @ that subsequently…

So we started at around 5 am not too late than scheduled time..Usually in trips I had been to earlier, as soon as car moves to first gear people start screaming ‘Jay mata di’ etc.. But here nobody initiated… may be ppl were still feeling being deprived of sleep… Then finally different people started saying different things.. Jai Shrikrishna Jai Hanuman, Jai Hind..after all it was Republic Day…

Ek garam chai ki pyali ho..




Mahabaleshwar is around 220 kms from Mumbai..and height is around 4500 feet above see level…At around 8 am we stopped at Kamath Restaurant to have morning tea.. It was a nice restaurant and Aparna gave suggestion to stay at Resort over there itself.. but I didn’t like the idea :P Mahabaleshwar sounds better that Kedar Resaurt!!! We thought we can utilize some of the snacks from our 3 bags full of nashta.. but unluckily they didn’t allow us to open it there…So we had to be satisfied with tea only..Now everybody’s battery was charged.. So now its turn to sing patriotic songs and other hindi …due respect to Republic day.. I think Tarang emerged as a winner in this singing session.. Second rank I would give to Sapan.. Unfortunately these guys didn’t give us chance to show our talent!!! Anyways let them be happy… Vipul n Taran were our guides for the trip .. there was some discussion about which route to take in order to avoid being captured by police.. if I am not wrong there were some two routes.. Mahad n Pune..dont know which one we finally tool.. May be our guides can comment on this..

Janta ki Avaj - Taja Kahabr.... Dimag ki Dukan( DKD)

After singing and Antakshari session now its time for SERIOUS entertainment!!! Don’t remember whose idea was that but full credit to the person..We started interview session of each one of us one by one..N there were cameramen and camerawomen as well…

Our Reporters: Rohan, Sapna, Ankit, Mayuri
Celebrities: Ankit, Aparna,Vidisha, Sandy,Sid,Tarang,Vipul
Permanent Audience: Arti, Vishwas bhai (our driver)

Best Celebrity award I would give to Ankit Patel (our very own Bhanu bhai Patel)for a wonderful interview.. Credit to Sapan also for taking this interview and providing full entertainment to all of us..Sandy was also impressed and he was motivated to ask a question in HINDI!!! Bhanubhai made reporter struggle for questions….Second rank I would give to Vipul for giving us economics and household budget funda through its enlightening interview session..And Best reporter award I wud give to Rohan for conducting Sandy’s interview… They grilled me also… uska badla liya jayega J Appu got the award of most pathetic celebrity for not answering questions.. Krishi yogdan award was given to Mayuri n she explained us very well about khetivadi!!! ( what was it , agribusiness right mayu?? ) Some of us couldn’t grab any awards L

Approaching Mahabaleshwar

In the midway we stopped for some time.. Guys were enjoying playing with ball…Few of us were sleeping in the sumo, I was enjoying the beauty of the way to Mahabaleshwar.. Took some snaps from Appu’s camera.. We reached Mahabaleshwar at around 11.30 n then it was time to do advance search!! To get a hotel.. yeah we hadn’t book the hotel prior to reaching Mahabaleshwar..We got a decent hotel ( Kedar) and so we checked in the rooms around 12.30.. We had a small fight for the selection of room but finally girls won n so we got a room of our choice..Then everybody was in the same room to discuss the plan for the day.. After all we all are MBAs….( Mane badhu avde…Sorry to nongujjus..I will explain the meaning to you)..the question was how much to sleep n when to take lunch before going for sight seeing…...Dont know how cum we arrived at decision so quickly that we are not gonna sleep and will get fresh n have lunch first..

Hamein bhookh lagi hai


Lunch was great..
we had thepla ( haribhai’s thepla thanks to Saps, Sid n Vipul) , puris ( courtesy Arti Shah…it was amazing..although rohan claimed he also contributed for making Puris.. ,I doubt for this ability…may be Arti can comment on this..Sorry Rohan if my perception is incorrect!!) bread butter, murra, bananas etc… So now we are all set to go for sight seeing..

Sight seeing

We played cricket for some time in area near to hotel.. Well those who have been to mahabaleshwar might have idea that sight seeing means visiting different points from which you get to see different views and beauty of Mahabaleshwar.. some of the points were were good.. Don’t remember name of all the points but few of them were Arthur Seat, Elphiston point, Lodwick point etc.. Also we visited one nice temple there.. Then we roamed around in market..I, Ankit n Sid bought caps from the market.

Then comes time to see sunset.. The place was crowded like anything…. Managed to get once place form where we could see sunset..

Boating in Venna Lake

Now comes the biggest fun. When we reached for boating it was already dark I first thought whether we will enjoy boating in night or not…But it turned out to be great fun.. We took two pedal boats.


Boat 1: Rohan, Arti, Ankit, Sapan, Aparna n I


Boat 2: Mayuri, Sandy,Tarnag, Sid n Vipul

We had competition round and photo click session throughout 30 mins of boating.. In our boat, except Aparna everybody contributed!! Probably she was freezed with cold… After this exercise session now its was again time to fill the fuel tanks…Now we were in main town and were searching for gud hotel..Few wanted to have non veg and few wanted to have veg..Fianlly everyone agreed for veg food and we had Punjabi thali in Mahabaleshwar..After dinner everybody went to purchase squash.. Sandy n Aparna had discovered nice shop….So all 11 of us went to that shop.. We tasted various squash and majority of us took atleast one bottle of pinacolada.. We had a bulk purchasing there for which we got two squash bottles of strawberries…

So after this shopping spree once again we were in market…now peple were interested in playing video games and other games.. Arti Roahn and Vipul were enjoying Video games and were enjoying heir luck..Sapan couldn’t find game of his choice so rest all of us were chatting…..Suddenly I found juta shop on road side..N I could find the similar chappals I wanted to purchase…Disobeying Vipul’s order of not purchasing chappals from Mahabaleshwar ( still I don’t know the reason but I had trust on my other friends that they will save me in case Vipul goes wild for not following his order) I purchased one in Rs 80….:-) Arti also wanted the same kind but unfortunately the stock was out of order…


Strawberry Shake??

Now its quite late ( around 10.30!!) and we were searching for strawberry shake desperately.. Finally we happened to be in a very nice hotel thinking we would get shake here.. but unfortunately we could get only strawberry ice-cream.. Guys started playing cards there… So at around 11.30 in d night we reached hotel..the plan was ot have dance party ( We had one laptop with us).. But all of us were quite exhausted..We did some timepass with laptop and guys were enjoying ‘tin patti’. We all dispersed with decision to wake up early morning for sunrise….at 5.30am


27th Jan 07-Second day begins now…

After shivering night…alarm rings in early morning at 5.15 am.. first though comes in mind..no I don’t want to wake up…..Finally I n Arti woke up.. I went out of the room to check guys are awake or not.. there was complete silence.. Was knocking their door and luckily Vipul comes out of the room from 2nd room Sapan also wakes up…Ankit tried a lot to demotivate us.. but we were firm.. Now Sandy n Ankit also agreed to come for sunrise… We were waiting downstairs in hotel.. First ime I was felt cold of Mahabaleshwar…To my surprise Sid also came down..Unfortunately Arti didnt come for the Sunrise..So now total 6 of us were all set to go for Sunrise

Sunrise at Wilson Point


I think it’s the highest point in Mahabaleshwar... We reached there at around 6.15 to realize the sunrise occurs at 7.10… so now we had a lot of free time..Decided to utilize this time for photo session… Sid n I were in full form for modeling!!! It was fun enjoying pleasant morning…We spent time till around 8 am there…… and then stated back..

I would never forget this sunrise because now they have started teasing me for ESP!! call me to know its full form….N believe me I am absolutely innocent…:P Sapan and Sandy you both are in my target list…not going to leave u guys easily for this…On the way back Ankit bought lots of strawberries for our breakfast!!!


Now it was time to check out..All of us got ready fast..( this was a specialty of the group.. everybody believes in speed.. so we didn’t have to wait any time).. Then except me, Appu n Mayu rest all played cricket for around one n half hrs..

Way to Panchgani

Before reaching to panchgani we visited 2-3 points in Mahabaleshwar itself.. Rested at one of the points where guys played game of throwing stones..and Ankit got injured also…then on the way we visited parsi point.. It was really lovely…Saw the place where Swadesh was shot..We played some gambling games there.. and I and Sapan won biscuit packets in that.. overall we were in loss as we tried various games.. throwing a ball in bucket.., heating the glasses with rubber ball etc… Vipul n others were motivated to start similar gaming venture at NMIMS:-)) then we played dumb charades there…. Where Rohan did ‘gaddari’ by giving clue to Arti… n then he was running for survival…hey don’t have misunderstanding.. he was not scared of me.. but yes definitely afraid of Ankit… Now Sid and Vipul wanted some more excitements.. they peferred to sit on top of Sumo.. People inside the car could sit comfortably now!! :-)) Daring manni padegi in dono ki... Rohan was also desperate to sit on top..but then he controlled his emotions...:-))

Reaching to Panchgani - WHERE IS OUR CAR??? Saps please ans this question in ur comments

In the evening around 4 pm we reached ot panchgani.. biggest plateau on Asia.. It was looking very pretty… N then we saw parasailing!!! All of us decided to go for that.. We had good bargain and then ew enjoyed wonderful experience.. It was little short duration but for me it was amazing ride..as it was 1st parasailing experience for me.. Again we enjoyed sunset there.. That time got info from Ani that class for the next day is cancelled.. This news made everybody overexcited.. We had discussion whether to extend the trip or not… but finally we decided we will go to Mumbai n have fun there next day…




Now on the way back it was time to purchase strawberry…There was scarcity of strawberries!!! Finally we managed to purchase all the strawberries from one small shop over there.. and had shake also….


Hum sare hai mumbaiya….

Now we wee on the way back to Mumbai.. I didn’t feel like coming back..Still wanted to cherish the time there.. We had dinner late night in Pune…Now people were really feeling sleep.. vipul got down at Pune only.. so for the last shift Mayuri n Sapan took the responsibility to sit on the front seat.. they were awake n rest all were sleeping.. Didn’t realize when we reached ot Santacruz.. n suddenly I opened my eyes….We came back to hostel at around 2 am….telling everybody adieu…

Some Awards distributed during the trip were

Bhanu Patel: Dimag ki dukan, Best Treasurer Award, Best Celebrity Award
Sapan: Man of the match award....hey Where is our Car?
Vidisha: ESP............ (unanimous decision)
Rohan: Mr. Enthu, Best reporter award... [Hamare pyare patrakar...]
Aparna: Miss Pathetic celebrity , ESP [3rd]
Arti: Best all rounder Award.. and Best wife award..and Best bhabhi award:-)
Mayuri: one n only Miss chatterbox.. also Krishi Yogdan Award...
Sid: Hamara Hero...and ESP (2nd rank)
Vipul: Vedia No 1 , Best Guide Award (2nd rank )
Tarang: Professor Saheb ,BEst Guide Award (1st) without Tarang advance search wud have failed
Sandeep: Bollywood celebrity ( giving interview in Hindi..Sandy for next trip do bring same goggles)

Don’t know how many of you could reach till this point.. believe me if u r reading this then u deserve a treat!!! This trip is over but next trip plan is all set…. Wishing it happens sooooooooooonnnn…