30th Sept, 2012 ....
We had planned for a small trip to Igatpuri. Snobbin, his cousin Linto and his mother; Stesi, Steffi and their parents; and my family said our good-byes and left with a pleasant memories.
The previous day I was excited for this trip because I had wasted away one entire week in Mumbai just sittin in front of the t.v. and the laptop. The others had been to there before so listening to their experiences, made more impatient.
We travelled by train to Igatpuri, on the way we had slight introduction for Linto who came from Dubai for his holidays, and a hilarious debate on which college is better, Wilson's (Stesi and Steffi) or Xavier's (Snobbin and my sister, Dale)? Well, other than the name, I don't know anything about either. We took rickshaw to the Golden Resort. The climate was cool and peaceful, with green hills on three sides. Such an escape from the hot and noisy city.
We checked into our hotel rooms changed to swim-wear, had some bajji and omlet with bread for breakfast and jumped into the swimming pool close by. With a light ball, we started playing "poolball", a game we just came up with. With the poles of climbing board on each side as the goals, we just had throw the ball between them. It began with just four or five of us, and then the others joined us. After two hours of swimming and throwing we wound up the game at around 1:30. We dried ourselves, and enjoyed a delicious buffet lunch.
Back in our hotels rooms all the kids and the mothers gathered in one room, started a conversation beginning from riddles and jokes, to a debate on science and relegion, to Iluminati, then to position of women in Indian society and life in general. Steffi is sort of a conversationalist and so is my mom, they dominated the main part of the whole talk.
At around 5:00, we had a light snack and beverage. And then began our trek to the top of the hill near the resort. It was beautiful with small streams flowing and greenery all around. Climbing from rock to rock, dodging small crabs and animals and a little photography, we reached half-way. But since it was getting dark, we decided to make our way down. I really wanted to reach the top and see whats it like.
By around 6:30 we were back, took a dip in the pool and headed to our rooms. The girls started watching some talent show. I started feeling sick after the swimming so I took a nap till that time. We had our dinner at 9. Next morning we were on our way back home.
From this there was a lot of positive outcomes. Firstly, after quite a long time Stesi and me started talking. I'm glad that she turned over a new leaf, after what happened in the past. Now bygones are bygones. Secondly, I've quite a lot about life in the conversations we had.