The reason I don’t do my blogs in two parts is that Part Two never finds the right time and mood and sadly it remains an untold story, forever lost in the ocean of my memories.
This time, however, the story is faded but not lost and weirdly the memory keeps flashing in front of my eyes at the very mention of ‘Guhagar’. I sincerely remember the ‘SOON’ at the end of part one, promising you the second miracle and believe me you it was a miracle indeed! An experience, short but a nail-biting, edge-of-the-seat kind, that I was super excited to share with you! I’m going to do so now, albeit after a five months hiatus.
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My MIL not being a fan of Guhagar, flatly refused to do the halt and got herself a ticket straight to Panvel! We had our car waiting at Chiplun station and an hour later, we reached the resort in time for an early dinner. A homely veg meal but with the best accompaniment – Hapus Mangoes, that too a King size serving! With the hope of visiting the beach the next day, I called it a night after putting the little brat to sleep.
The best part about Guhagar, I mean obviously apart from the beach, is the view you wake up to! There’s a lot of green around you but it’s the air that makes me fall in love with the place. It’s so modest and welcoming that you can almost hear your system thanking you for freeing it from the shackles of a Mumbai life!
After a hot cup of tea, we headed out to the project site, and thanks to a sleepy Shlok I relaxed inside the air-conditioned car as opposed to a walk on gravel in the scorching heat! Turned out the fish for lunch that day had to be picked up from the market calling for a big sacrifice on my part, the beach 😦
Also I forgot to mention that we had already booked ourselves on a train back to Panvel for the same evening! Basically the Guhagar plan was chalked out only for the site visit and a meeting, both of which didn’t require the baby and his beach-lover mother! With nothing to do after a yummy lunch of pomfret, prawns and Solkadi, baby-mom duo spent the noon playing followed by an afternoon siesta, while the two men were busy in their meeting.
At five minutes to five, PP barged into the room and announced “Chal, nikalna hai in five minutes, the car has arrived.” My heart skipped a beat and I blankly stared at him “Whaaaaaat!?”The room was scattered with clothes that I was supposed to have packed! The baby’s food had to be made because he was in that neither-here-nor-there stage at that point! While I was still a source of food, he needed solids to fill him up and I wasn’t going to starve my son till we got home at 10 pm! Trust me all of these tasks I could easily manage in 10 minutes on a normal day BUT thanks to my getting the timing wrong (in my defense, I had expected PP to do a wake-up call!) we were now behind schedule.
The room was scattered with clothes that I was supposed to have packed! The baby’s food had to be made because he was in that neither-here-nor-there stage at that point! While I was still a source of food, he needed solids to fill him up and I wasn’t going to starve my son till we got home at 10 pm! Trust me all of these tasks I could easily manage in 10 minutes on a normal day BUT thanks to my getting the timing wrong (in my defense, I had expected PP to do a wake-up call!) we were now behind schedule.
When it comes to Laws, a baby can give Murphy a run for his money! For them, the right time to poop is when there’s no time left! 😀
5.15 p.m. – PP ordered me to get ready and arrange for Shlok’s food while he would take care of getting Shlok and the bags ready. Just in case you wondering, Shlok’s food isn’t like the Cuppa Noodles that you can get in the Tejas Express scheduled to reach Chiplun at 6.30 pm! 😀
5.30 p.m. – FINALLY we were on the road with PP constantly switching between G-maps (ETA 6.30 p.m.) and the Train running status (ON TIME, wow!) and me doing my usual thing in such occasions, panicking and praying! The driver uncle seemed all chilled out, confident in his skills as well as the train driver’s 😛
6.00 p.m. – How can one stay calm in such a situation!!!?? Yes yes, I called the situation upon myself but hey, it wasn’t my fault entirely! 😦 Also I have this annoying habit of babbling about what I could have done/ undone…to which my husband always throws at me his default dialogue “Ab maari bhains ki pooch fadne se kya fayda!?”
Among the nice songs playing on the radio was ‘Math Jaa re’ (what an irony!) from Tanu weds Manu Returns that provided me some temporary relief but at such times I doubt even a Saathiya could have soothed my nerves!
6.15 p.m. – Fifteen minutes to the station and the train status still shows 6.30 p.m.!!! By the way, did I tell you the train halts at Chiplun for two minutes??? Also out of nowhere, a piece of information that my husband considered important to let me know at that point was that a railway crossing was to be seen on the map. Period.
“Oh God, HELP ME, the butterflies in my tummy, they’re the dinosaur kind…I don’t think even clicking that one button to unveil my CA Exam results ever got me this jittery!!”, I thought to myself, deciding to mute the babbling lest PP lose his cool!
6.30 p.m. – “Aaaaaah, I can see the station, Please tell me we’re getting on that train!!!”, I screamed in a mixture of delight and desperation, thus waking up the boy that had slept throughout the last hour of drama! The driver parked by the station gate with a ‘I told you so’ smirk!! We had made it on time and the train driver had been oh so kind enough to delay his train for us, I owed him eternally. Phew!
6.45 p.m. – The train has not arrived yet and I’m on the platform capturing a pretty sunset, thanking the Gods for helping us reach there safely before the train!
P.S. Last week my mother called me from the International Airport to boast of the unlimited buffet to which she got an access, having reached the airport ‘early’! When she suggested that I try it once, I just laughed aloud!!! Haha!
You ever think the Patils will be able to reach a station/ airport early again!? A miracle recurrence? What do you think?
C.A.: Confused Aquarian 