We all woke up early. Packed our bags and we were on the road by around 8:30 AM.

We were headed to Lonavala.

Early morning Thenapa and I had a good fight over a silly issue. So, our trip started a little sore. Kanna is the person who usually sets right all such issues right from school and now, to till date. The issue got solved, we checked our e-mails. I logged into orkut and sent New Year wishes to few people, since it is blocked in UAE.

On the way Joe had a detour in Powai and he took us through the streets of the Hiranandani Appartment and Commercial Complex’s. It was a very large construction. Tall residential apartments and lots of retail outlets. However there was something which had completely spoiled the beauty of those buildings. The pollution had actually changed the colour of all the buildings. The tall buildings looked dirty with all the dirt and deposits of the smoke from the vehicles. There was another reason about me not entirely feeling good about Hiranandani Gardens. Its at the end of this post.

So we briefly spent some 15 to 20 minutes at Hiranandani Gardens and our guide Mr. Joe decided that we should hit the highway.

The drive on the highway was good. Joe and Kanna took turns in driving and they put the poor car to extreme tests. The expressway was well laid out and it just needed asphalting again.

We reached Lonavala and Joe took us to this restaurant “Homely Food”. This is was the best place Joe ever took us during this trip. The food was absolutely delicious.

Lonavala!

I would recommend anyone going to Lonavala to try the food in Homely Food.

After a nice delicious meal, we took rest at the hotel and then we started off for sight seeing.

We first went to Mushi Dam. A small & nice dam. The lake behind Mushi Dam was very scenic.

After Mushi Dam, we went up hill and stopped at a valley view point. Lonavala is the best weekend getaway from Mumbai. We drove to the end of the road on the Lonavala Mountains and we stopped there briefly.

I was aware that the Lonavala Chikki ws one of the best in India. So, Joe took us to supposedly the best chikki store in Lonavala. We got some 2 KG’s of chikki. Apparently it costed around 2000 Rs. WOW!! Prices in India!!

After buying the Chikki, we started back to Mumbai. We decided to go to Phoenix Mills Mall. If you are new to Mumbai and want to have a background on Phoenix Mills Mall, read the Shekar Krishnan’s report on that mall [Link at the end of post].

A small history:

Phoenix Mills Mall was actually a mill and it was destroyed in a fire accident some 20 years back and 2000 people went jobless. The govt had a re-hab program for the employees. After some 10 years of the fire accident [around 1999] the mill was converted into a shopping and business complex. An 150 year old mill is now a mall.

It is really interesting when you get into the mall you can still see the tall chimneys but they are inside pubs and restaurants. The office buildings converted into bazaars and so on. The concept is really nice.

This is an another recommendation from me if you visit Mumbai, drop into the Phoenix Mills Mall in Lower Parel.

We spent lot of time inside the mall exploring and most of it was under renovation. Hope they are sure by now!

Time was around 10 PM and we wanted to get back to home before midnight so that we start the new year peacefully. We got a fine wine bottle. Kanna suddenly wanted to go Chinese. The dragon restaurant in Andheri was Joe’s joint. We waited for some 40 minutes to get our take-away ready.

When we started driving back home, Kanna suddenly realized that there were no chop sticks. Kanna was adamant that he will not eat without chop sticks. We had to take an U-Turn and go back there. After a brief argument with the hotel manager we got 4 chop sticks. When we got the chop sticks time was 11:55 PM. We would not reach home by mid-night to cheer the New Year. So, at exactly 12 we stopped the car and we got out. Wished all of us good luck and happy life and took a photo.

It is the first photo on the first blog of Good Re-Union. So, that’s how our new year started.

All our eyes were beaming with some sort of light. I thought that it would have been the realization of the fact of we 4 finally making it to the day. The happiness and joy of friendship!

What a wonderful life it would be with such friends!!

If you have 4 good friends, then you had the time of your life!

Click here for the Hiranandani Gardens News

Click here for Phoenix Mills - Brief

Shekar Krishnan Case Study on Phoenix Mill Mall

The next blog is the ending day of the trip.

Tags: Friends Forever, Joseph Antony, Kanan, Lorvin, Manjunaath, Mumbai, Re-Union, Thenappan

We were clueless!

The previous night we had got some “dosa maavu” for breakfast.

Joe & I are woke up first and we decided to make “tomato chutney” and “coconut chutney” for the dosa. I made tomato chutney while Joe took up coconut chutney.

Below is the outcome:

The dosa did not come out well, it was like bits and pieces. Somehow we made some 10 to 15 dosa and we sat down for breakfast.

Today’s culprit was the tomato chutney. Thenapa vomited 3 times. The chutney wasnt good at all. I was sure when I was making it, but something went wrong!

So we discarded the breakfast we made. We decided not to throw the food out considering environmental hazards. We went to “Sukh Sagar” in Andheri and continued our breakfast.

It was almost 11 when we were ready to step out of the house. We went to a market place, not sure where it was. The shops were named Alfa 1, Alfa 2, Alfa 3 and so on. We went to Alfa 3. Alfa is some sort of a factory outlet. We ended up buying clothes for some 5000 Rs.

While driving to Alfa, Joe did an important thing. He called his wife and asked her to arrange for the usual cook who has been asked not to come because of us.

After buying clothes, these guys wanted to have non-vegetarian food badly. And Joe was [again] recommending that we go to some restaurant where the “fish” was too good.
So, the lunch was at that restaurant where I had nothing to do but watch these guys eat!

After those guys finished eating, we left the place for home and we re-checked our purchases. The dinner was luckily secured and we were sure that the evening was ours.

We were lazy after the lunch and we took a short nap and we decided to explore Mumbai for the evening.

We drove up to the BSE. Joe wanted us to see the BSE. He considered all of us Pattikadu. Then he showed his office and other RBI offices in Mumbai. All this was around 7 PM. Then he drove us through the necklace road [Marine Drive]. Then we stopped shortly at a place and took two photographs. Here is one.

Our exploration was getting difficult with the traffic. Joe then decided to take us to the Kissy Beach.

I was wondering what this “kissy beach” would look like.

It was like this…

You can see Kana, Joe, Thenapa and the tea boy.

So.. why is this called Kissy Beach! I found that many young couples had parked their cars by the side of the road and kissing each other..

Apparently the Corporation of Mumbai had closed traffic in that road, not sure if it was to give privacy. Basically after going to India after sometime, I was amazed at the moral decay of the minds there at that beach.

Ok… I have to mention that there was actually no beach there… It was just a road adjacent to the sea and the Corporation of Mumbai had blocked access to go to the sea. And the name Kissy Beach was given by Joe…!

We spent time drinking tea chit chatting about various school memories for about 3 hours and then we left for home..

When we reached home it was around midnight and we all slept with one goal in mind. Wake up early and head to Pune..!

Tags: Friends Forever, Joseph Antony, Kanan, Lorvin, Manjunaath, Mumbai, Re-Union, Thenappan