Tuesday, February 17, 2009

The blue blog... umm... BLOB

So there i was, on top of the tallest building, looking over the city i had saved again. Ohh... let me tell you how i landed up there.
It was a cold morning, and waking up at 10 for me was too early. Anyway, I managed to pull myself out of bed after saving the city from the spoilt karela's (they weren't really spoilt, but where I was going for dinner that night, karela was on the menu). Being laundry day, i took my badly made costume out to the cleaners. I could hear voices that were planning on taking down the city. I looked around, but seeing no one there I thought I was just being paranoid. I mean, who would want to destroy the city on such a beautiful day? I had seen a huge line of ants on the road outside the sweetshop, but that seemed only natural. On my way home, i glanced at the local television shop which was currently displaying the local news channel. Some news about a giant monsterterrorising the city high rises (if you can not imagine this, watch Godzilla, but replace the giant dinosaur with a toothpaste blue blob with an iPod and no shoes). I bought my weeks needs from the neighborhood grocery shop, but weirdly he was out of sugar. Oh wait! the city is being destroyed my the blue blob thingy!
So i dropped the bags on the floor and ran out, only to realize that my costume was at the cleaners. Grabbing some newspaper and glue, I ran to the corner and made myself a mask, a make shift cape and a paper plane out of the last page.
Now with my true identity hidden from the public, and a nice paper plane to play with I caught a rickshaw. "To the blue blob" i yelled. Two
minutes and nine bucks later, i was face to face with the ugly thing. This thing really disgusted me! It left a slimy blue trail behind it and was listening to Akon! I could not let a creature like this roam free in my city. If it was listening to some better music, i would have given it a chance. However, I could still hear those voices while i was fighting the blue blob. The Akon song was now over, and then I could hear Iron Maiden coming from his earphones! At that moment, I knew that he couldn't be a bad guy and i decided to follow the voices i thought i was imagining.
Funnily enough, it led me back to the sweet shop. As i looked down, the ants appeared to be doing the evil dance. How could this be possible? Evil dancing ants? I followed the line of ants which led me to the "Ant brainwashing machine". I knew i had to destroy this...this thing. I lifted it and placed it on the paper plane and threw the plane into the garbage bin (dry waste obviously). Sparks flew from the machine and it was destroyed. As soon as the machine was destroyed, the ants stopped dancing and they all had a confused look on their faces. The machine had been brainwashing these ants to multiply and bring down the city. "Thanks SuperCraig", the ants yelled as they broke into a happy dance.
Which brings me to the opening line of the post. So there i was, on top of the tallest building, looking over the city i had saved again.
What happened to the blue blob you ask? He was always a part of the city. Why wasn't he seen
before? Because he used to live in the sewers and was content living there. Why did he come out now? Coz one of the brainwashed ant had added an Akon song on his iPod. This made him go wild and come out. How did the ant manage such a task? Well... i guess we will never know that.
This is SuperCraig signing out, reminding you to always stay hydrated. :)

Monday, February 16, 2009

Weekend pleasures, Khandala.

No no! This is not about SuperCraig saving the world or kicking Giarc's evil ass. This is about my Sunday trip to Khandala. Sorry to disappoint the fans, but theres light at the end of the tunnel. A SuperCraig adventure will be up very soon! :)
Thanks to Mark for this idea of a trek. 
It all started one evening, when a call from Mark woke me up. "Let's go somewhere for lunch.. i am hungry". Having no better work, i said sure... why not.
The conversation at Bembos suddenly made us realize how long it had been since we had last been on a trek.  Lets make it a trip every week end we thought (like that's gonna happen!).
Anyway.. we decided to ask people who were interested, but we were still going.. no matter what!
We managed to get a person each, and three of us were off on Sunday morning. Miraculously, we got seats in the Deccan Express from Dadar. Dozing most of the journey, we finally made it to Khandala, with people jumping from all corners of the compartment for our seats.
Getting off at Khandala, we knew this would be a good trip. We met my friend Angelo at Khandala station. He decided to come there by bike.A quick breakfast at a small "Hotel" and armed with bread and cheese, which would serve as lunch later, we headed to our trekking spot. 
A few quick pictures from the top, and we began our decent. We started off with eagerness in each step, but that quickly faded away as our legs began to tire. Feeling the pinch of sitting down on a chair for most of the day, the two of us working guys started lagging behind. While the college guys were seen jumping down like a couple of monkeys! Angelo had strapped his helmet on his bag, which was starting to be a hindrance to him. We decided to keep it disguised as a rock, and pick it up on the way back up. But after spotting insects and numerous rat holes, we hung it off a tree, and continued gravityward. There were three really steep part, which were as fun as they were difficult. As we neared the bottom, the sound of flowing water got louder which added as a morale boost. After about an hour and a half we reached to bottom.

Exhausted, we dropped our bags and headed straight for the water. The water was ice cold. We soaked our feet in it for some time, which left our feet numb after just a minute. Just then, we saw a whole group of trekkers in the distance. The "Pune Mountaineers" had come down another route, where they had to use ropes to descend. It sounded like fun, but we couldnt imagine ourselves doing that, especially after what we had been through on the "Easy path".
We started walking down stream searching for a place to sit and rest our weary bones. We came across a beautiful small waterfall and decided to sit there. Soaking our feet again in the numbing water we had a quick lunch and a small rest. 

Before we knew it, it was time to leave for the top as we didnt want to risk missing the train back home. So there we were.. looking up at the path we just came down a few hours ago. Climbing up was obviously way more tiring than going down, but we took almost the same time as we did coming down, with a lot more breaks. Once again, the younger ones went zipping up, leaving us way behind. As we reached the top, we were greeted to a great idea of going to have gola! So giving our legs some rest, we got up and went for gola. The cold gola was  welcome relief from the scorching sun. After gola, a nice cold beer was icing on the cake. However, chilling out a little too long at the bar, we missed the first train option. Mark suggested we hitch a ride to Panvel in a truck, which I was totally into. So there, sitting at the back of a truck, on bare steel, not exactly the most comfortable experience, but an experience nevertheless. And it surely beat standing in a crowded train. Or so we thought. The train at Panvel, seemed comfortable, till about two stations further. Crowds gushing in from both sides, men rubbing against you, sweat being exchanged is not exactly what we bargained for. Anyway, we kept ourselves amused making fun of certain people within sight, without them knowing ofcourse. After several ads with Mark's "Movie announcer" voice for the Indian Railways, it was time to get off at Kurla. I know YUCK!! Being pushed out of the train wasnt particularly fun either. Then catching a rick to Bandra, we thought the trip was ending on the right note, till we hit Sunday evening Bandra trafic. A few minutes later, we found ourselves walking home. Reaching home and sipping water, was like finding water in the desert. ( Mark had a full bottle of water but i didnt feel the need of water till i was two minutes from home.)
So there it is.. the first weekend of trekking. Hope theres a trek every weekend now!