Mahabaleshwar

Mahabaleshwar in Monsoons!

We all know how hectic office is. You run around like a headless chicken till 6, only to realize that the work has just come in and its going to be another late night. 

Full Disclosure: Hopefully, I am past that stage now ;)

Well anyways, these are the facts of life. You are busy and you are unable to plan. The wife/ girl friend/ best friend/ whatever could not be bothered to step in. And most importantly if you spend another weekend in Mumbai you will ....

So there is this three day weekend and you need to step out. The most important consideration is the place. 

Have you realized that if you take a mixed group to a restaurant for dinner, you end up going to an average, multi-cuisine place. No chinese, mummy does not like it. No italian, i don't want to put on more weight ! No non veg, Jai is Jain! No south indian, baba is parsi, duh!. So lets go to a food court, where we all can suffer together. Sounds familiar? No! Stop lying to yourself. Still No? I wish i had met you sooner.

Anyways back to the story, so we are on Thursday and the consensus is coming down to Mahabaleshwar. I cry buckets - We have all been there, its a single trick pony, half of Mumbai will be there (rest are in Singapore/ Lonavala), this is not strawberry season, hell you don't even like strawberries, but all to no avail. As long as there are hotel rooms available in Mahabaleshwar at short notice, people will travel there. 

On a tangent, why cant places like Saputara have more rooms or there be more trains to Mount Abu. At least I would check out a new place. 

Come friday morning, make that early morning, we step out from Mumbai for the six hour drive to Mahabaleshwar. We drive at top speed till Vashi naka and then .... we crawl .. till the expressway. Please IVRCL, please complete the Sion Panvel higway soon. Its ok even if you dont complete, just take those barriers away. 

The good part about a traffic jam is that people realize that they are hungry. In a case of rare timing, we reach the MacDonalds just before the expressway. Next time i promise myself, have break fast and leave instead of trying to leave early, having breakfast at MacD and starting on the expressway at practically the same time. I dont like their breakfast too much, I guess.

So from here on, the story gets even more pedestrian. Six hours to Maby, drenching in the rain, eating frozen, "fresh" strawberry with cream at the over-priced and over-rated Mapro Gardens, checking out points in dense fogs, why why why!! 

On a smaller tangent, was it me or does M'war not have many good eateries open during the monsoons?

Three days pass easily when there are no excel sheets to fill, or word documents to format.