Travel Diary: Dec 23 - 27, 2010

Day 6 - Thursday - Dec 23

Assam/Aizawl

Try to sleep on the bus during our 20 hour drive to Aizawl from Shillong. Not much luck. The road is mostly bad and the bus is slow as a consequence.

I see dawn in Assam. We pass fields, farms and villages along a dirt road that's supposed to be a highway. All flat topography. Beautiful calm scenery. Yellow fields and blue skies. Wish the road were better. We'd be able to enjoy the ride more and the drive would have been shorter. I have a couple of chocolate chip biscuits and a chocolate bar for breakfast. Parle Hide and Seek Milano is really good.

The guy next to me on the bus, JG, works for a rural development organisation based in Shillong, but works out of Garo hills, which is next on our itinerary. He tells me about their work in Selbagre village.

The bus journey seems never ending. It seems to go even slower after entering Mizoram, where the hills begin, and seems to snake up the hills forever. We pass three check points, and the bus is searched once at the Assam-Mizoram border. Alcohol is prohibited here, meaning it can't be sold in Mizoram, and I think that's what they're searching for. However, my companions are able to get their few alcohol bottles through, so I guess the border guards are mainly looking for professionals with crates of the stuff.

That first glimpse of Aizawl is breathtaking. Never going to forget it. A white city set into the side of a hill. Like nothing I've ever seen before. Kind of like McLeod Ganj, but much larger, and way more beautiful. We finally reach Aizawl at 5.00 pm exactly. It's very dark.

The people on the bus are nice, helping us with a cab and general info. We go to the tourist lodge at Chaltalang, but find it's closed till the 26th, and so head to the market area, some distance away, where the hotels are. Pity about the tourist lodge. It looked nice. And seemed very favourably located, on top of a hill. And their rates were excellent too. Rs 600 for a room for 3 people.

When looking for a hotel in the market area, we employ the same technique we used 2 days ago in Shillong, and find a room for Rs.700/night for the 3 of us in Hotel Tropicana. We dump our bags and look for a place to eat. It's 7.00 pm now. Our last real meal was lunch yesterday. We've missed out on a whole day of food. While looking for a restaurant, we come across a place called Earth Rock Cafe, some kind of lounge cafe set up by these group of friends. They tell us it's still early and we're welcome to come back later.

We then find Hot Pot, a really cool cheap place, and order mutton biryani, pork chow, and pork steamed momos. The bill for the 3 of us comes to Rs. 165 combined! Unfortunately, I don't have much of an appetite after all the travel, but force myself to eat something. The food is tasty. After dinner, we go back to our hotel to freshen up, and while RG sleeps, ZP and I go back to Earth Rock Cafe. Nothing much happening there. Just a group of friends hanging out. We share a drink with one of the guys there. He used to work in the fashion business in Delhi before moving back home.

We retire at midnight. It's not too cold outside, not like Shillong or Guwahati.

Day 7 - Friday - Dec 24

Aizawl

We wake late today. Go for a long walk around the market area. They don't allow traffic into the city centre during working hours, at least during Christmas time (though I could hear a lot of traffic on the streets outside our hotel at 5 am), so the people have the streets to themselves.

There are loads of people shopping. According to the 2001 census, the population of Aizawl is 228,280. We probably pass by 10% of that number on the streets today. The streets are really crowded, people doing their last minute Christmas shopping. We wander about, and I have a beef egg roll. We walk about some more, away from the market, and then take a bus ride, an excellent way to see the town. We return by another bus, and then another short walk back to our hotel.

Aizawl is beautiful, not like other Indian towns. It's clean, and looks prosperous. There doesn't seem to be any poverty. And the people look happy. Everyone is very well dressed, very fashionable. The people of Aizawl, and I suppose Mizoram in general, are among the most beautiful in the world. There are at least 2 beauty parlours on every street, and everyone looks like they stepped off a fashion ramp. Everyone is making a fashion statement, and there isn't a fugly person is town.

Also, almost everyone we see is a local, and they all look decent. I mean, they don't give out bad vibes or look hostile or anything, nor are they over friendly. They simply go about their daily lives, content, and are happy to help out if need be. Some of them occassionally glance in our direction, perhaps wondering who we are and why we're here. Guess they're not used to tourists, or outsiders. To be honest, this is the first time we feel like we're outside India. We didn't feel this way in Meghalaya. I guess it's because we're the other tourists here. There are other people from other parts of India, but they're here on business.

The guys go out for lunch near the hotel. I join them. We're told that tomorrow (Saturday) being Christmas, and the day after being both Sunday and the day after Christmas, the entire place is going to be dead. We won't even be able to find transport in and out of town. I rush out looking to book transport out of here asap, and after some running around, find 3 seats in a shared Sumo to Silchar for early tomorrow morning for Rs. 350/person. They say there's regular transport running from Silchar to Guwahati everyday, so we needn't worry.

RG and ZP join me by now, after finishing off lunch, and ZP goes to double check for alternate transport. In the meantime, a Mizo friend from Mumbai drops by and we chat for a couple of minutes. He's here for the holidays. ZP returns. He can't find anything better, so we book the tickets and chill at the hotel.

I take a walk around 6.00 in the evening to check out the Christmas eve scene. Everyone's dressed and going to church. I stop by one service. It's in a local language. The kids and adults are in different rooms. The kids are singing. I return to the hotel and drag RG out for an early 7.00 pm dinner. I haven't had lunch so I'm starving. He's stuffed himself for lunch so not really hungry. 

We go to David's Kitchen, a restaurant close by that is probably the best and most expensive in Aizawl (it even has a little fountain and lights in front, and people keep posing for pictures in front of it) but we think 'what the hell, it's Christmas, right? Let's indulge ourselves for once'. The restaurant is mostly empty. Not many locals there. I have pork in bamboo shoots and rice for Rs.185. The food is relatively bland, as Mizo food generally is, I'm told, but the quality and presentation is excellent. ZP drops by after his nap and the hostess tells us that there's going to be a concert at Temple square, so we walk there together, leaving RG at the hotel midway. 

The concert is an open-air affair, with different amateur Mizo bands playing mostly average Christmas music. They have some talent, but aren't really professional. ZP and I leave after a while and catch the remainder of the concert live on the T.V in our room. He drinks; we talk. He leaves for a late night dinner, and returns just after midnight to wish RG and I a Merry Christmas. The concert ends at a little after midnight.

Day 8 - Saturday - Dec 25

Aizawl/Silchar/Assam

Christmas day. We take the early morning shared Sumo that we've booked (4 people per row) to Silchar. The ride is bumpy at times, but the scenery is excellent. And we're all fresh so we can enjoy it. We can see a carpet of white mist in the valleys below us as we ride through the hills away from Aizawl. 

I listen to music on my phone all through the trip. Noise canceling earphones. I highly recommend them. They cancel out the dumb Bollywood music playing in the car. Everyone else in the car is non-Mizo. The ride to Silchar is uneventful. We only see a few locals going to church, but that's it. Everything else seems dead.

We come down to the plains of Assam where we see lots of farms again. It's very scenic. We come to Silchar at last at around lunchtime. We can't decide whether to take a bus or a train back to Guwahati. We settle on a bus since a train would involve changing trains at Lumding as there's no direct train to Guwahati.

We're hungry too; we haven't eaten breakfast, it's lunchtime and RG and I go looking for a restaurant for a minute, leaving ZP alone, who soon wanders off, despite instructions to stay in one place. He's like a child. We eat mutton/chicken thalis at a place nearby for Rs. 70/60 each. Nice spicy ones. We then book bus tickets to Guwahati (Rs. 390 each) and head to an internet browsing centre (Rs. 25/hr).

We return by 4.30 to the bus counter. ZP goes wandering off again in search of a snack and we miss our connecting bus to the ISBT, which means we have to take a rick there (Rs.80). Once there, we find our bus easily and like it. It's more of a luxury bus than the one that brought us here, and more comfortable. I listen to music again, till I feel sleepy. No dinner. The roads through Assam are bad, and there's mist everywhere.

Day 9 - Sunday - Dec 26

Guwahati

I don't sleep much on the bus. We reach Guwahati at around 5.00 am and we're all tired. It's very cold, uncomfortable. The original plan was to go to Tura next, but we figure we need to recuperate and get some sleep, so we take a shared taxi to Wireless, walk the 10 minutes to RB's place from the main road (Rs. 40 each), and sleep beautifully for the next 6 hours.

We wake, freshen up, and at 1 pm have one of the most beautiful meals we've had in a long time, courtesy RB's mom - smoked pork, rice, fish, pork liver & prawn chutney. Very filling. I've been surviving on just 1 meal each day for the last 4 days, and my jeans are getting loose, so this food, and more like it, is welcome.

We rest again after lunch, then take a walk to the street outside. ZP makes us wait while he has some momos in chilli sauce. We return to RB's place for tea and delicious snacks, watch a little T.V, and then go out for a drive in RB's car. We meet his cousin K again, buy some liquor and head to the banks of the Brahmaputra. The others light up and drink while I talk and listen and try not to inhale too much smoke. We leave from there a little after 10.00 pm. ZP and K are drunk and high on the drive back making a lot of noise in the back seat, on either side of me.

Back home, I eat a very light dinner, and sleep. The plan is to leave for Tura tomorrow.

Day 10 - Monday - Dec 27

Guwahati

We wake up reasonably early, and are fresh and ready to leave the city by 9.00 am, after a full day of rest, when we hear that there's a bandh in place that's blocking all roads leading in and out of the city to the east i.e Tura and the airport, which means our plans for Garo Hills might have to be postponed.

By 11.00, we're told the roads are open, but inquiries at the ISBT, where RB's dad drops us (they only have buses leaving at 8.00 pm for Tura) and at Machkhowa (where the 2 private operators have cancelled their shared Sumo services to Tura for the day but one of them lets us book for tomorrow morning at 6.30 am) force us to shelve our plans for the day, after taking a tracker and a bus to get there.

We go to Kamakhya Mandir to kill time, taking a bus to the base of the hill, and a shared van to the top, which is mostly congested and dirty on the outside, though I'm sure the inner mandir complex is clean. No good photo opps here. We take a bus from the top to Palthan Bazaar, where the main city bus & taxi depo is, and get a bus to Wireless. And all this with our luggage. So a lot of travelling today, but it still seems like a waste.

We eat a roll for lunch at 3.45 and return home to RB's place where we chill, wait for him to return from work, and then book an early morning rickshaw to Machkhowa tomorrow. Rickshaw booked, the others head to an internet browsing centre while I return home to watch T.V, read and take a nap.

They phone me out for dinner. I go to the street outside, and meet ZP, who gives me really bad news - there's another bandh tomorrow. We hasten to make calls to see if we can get something, anything to move tomorrow, with no luck. ISBT services aren't running. And helicopter services are out of the question, since the road to the airport is also blocked. There's a longer route to Tura and Baghmara via Shillong along the Bangladeshi border, but that's both long and grossly expensive since we'd need to hire our own private vehicle from Shillong.

In the end, we postpone our shared Sumo tickets to the 29th. This is a bad blow. We could afford to spend 1 extra day in Guwahati, but 2 is too much. We'll have to cut short our trip to Garo hills, and if there's a bandh on the 3rd day, scrap it altogether and go somewhere closer like Kaziranga or Manas. We regret not leaving the previous night.

The roads inside Assam and the highway to Shillong are fine. It's just the main highway and connector east to Bengal and the rest of India that's blocked. Unfortunately for us, that's also the road to Tura and the airport. RG worries that if there's a bandh on 3rd Jan, we might miss our flight back to Mumbai.

It's almost 10.00 pm by now, so we catch a late dinner at a restaurant nearby, before going back home. The others tell me this trip is too rushed, but we had no choice really. If we knew there was going to be a bandh, we would have definitely spent more time in Mizoram or Meghalaya.

Travel Diary: Dec 23 - 27, 2010

Travel Diary: Dec 18 - 22, 2010

I returned recently from a 17 day trip to Assam, Meghalaya and Mizoram. As before, I kept a travel diary and I'll be putting up my entries online, beginning below.

Day 1 - Saturday - Dec 18

Mumbai/Guwahati

RG & I take a cab to the airport at 9.30 am. We reach reasonably quickly, and well in time for our 11.20 am flight. The 2 hour flight to Delhi and the connecting 2.5 hour one to Guwahati are painful. Major earaches. Maybe it's because I've not flown in over a year. Also, an additional 1 hour delay to our 2 hour stopover at Delhi airport means we only arrive at Guwahati airport well into late evening.

It's cold outside. And dark. I'm wearing a T-shirt and a heavy jacket, along with my warm skull cap. Our friend RB meets us at the airport. He used to live and work in Mumbai, among other places, in our colony in fact, which is how we met him. He's now returned to Guwahati to set up his own business. We take a rick to a circle in Guwahati (the airport is way outside town) for Rs.300, where RB's cousin picks us up in his car and we drive around for a little while. He tells us about this idea he has for a houseboat on the Brahmaputra river.

We're dropped off at RB's house, a large beautiful place, where we meet his parents and my friend ZP, who travelled here by train, leaving Mumbai 3 days ago, and only just reached Guwahati early this morning. Greetings are exchanged. I have a bath, and then a special dinner, that's absolutely delicious.

It gets colder as the night progresses. The floor is to cold to walk on barefoot. ZP and I share one bedroom, while RB & RG share another. We plan to go to Cherrapunjee tomorrow, in a car that RB has hired for the day (for Rs.2500), where we've booked a couple of tents at Cherrapunjee Holiday Resort for 2 days, and see a little of Shillong en route.

ZP and I have a lot to talk about. We're up till 4.00 am.

Day 2 - Sunday - Dec 19

Guwahati/Shillong/Cherrapunjee

We wake at 7.00 am today. I've not had much sleep, but feel fresh, excited.

Even though Guwahati and Shillong are the capitals of two different states, Guwahati being located close to the border of Assam to the south, and Shillong close to the border of Meghalaya to the north, means that they're only around 3 hours apart by car. And the good highway connecting them makes for a lovely drive.

We set off at around 9.00 am, after tea & biscuits. Guwahati's roads are dusty. We soon leave the city and the drive to Shillong is beautiful and peaceful. We stop to click pics at Umiam lake on the way to Shillong, and have a little pork snack. Pork is very common here.

We reach Shillong. Most of the city is closed because it's Sunday. No shops. No people. No nothing. But it seems like a nice place, and we make good time because of the absence of any traffic. We go to Ward's lake, which is a kind of picnic spot. Some people are here relaxing on the nice lawns, but the lake itself is brown. We don't want to spend too much time here.

Shillong seems like a nice place to walk around. There's nothing 'touristy' as such here, no clickable sights, it's more a place to take a walk in. We drive to the Cathedral next. It's grand. Lovely. Something clickable. It's past lunchtime now but we go to Shillong peak next. It's this hill really high up on the hill station that is Shillong from where you get views of the whole city. It's literally bone chilling up here, and the view is just O.K.

We drive to Cherra, all of us feeling sleepy in the car. The drive from Shillong to Cherra is again short, just about an hour or so. The scenery is very beautiful. The place is green even in winter. It's essentially a huge valley, much larger than Khandala, and stunning. We stop for a late lunch at Cherrapunjee town. Cherrapunjee is also called Sohra. The restaurant we stop at is called Halari. It's close to the petrol station, and they also offer rooms for 800/night.

Lunch here is delicious. We have 2 plates of steamed pork momos, 2 plates of pork dry fry (the best), 2 pork potato chops & 2 plates of rice, all for Rs 150/person. It gets close to twilight. Because these places are so far east, they're really in a different timezone altogether, but because they follow IST, sunrise and sunset both happen much earlier here. Sunset in winter, for example, takes place at 4.30, with it growing completely dark by 5.00 pm.

Our resort is about 15 kms away from Cherra town, along an inside edge of the valley. The narrow bumpy road means it takes a while to cover these 15 kms. We arrive, and check into our tents. They've set up the 2 huge army tents in a thatched room on the first floor of an under construction building next to the present resort. The tents each have a double mattress and blankets, and the temporary thatched room is somewhat cosy with moody lighting, tables & chairs, & gives us some privacy. A great place to chill out. The room is easily accessible via an external staircase and we have access to external bathrooms too.

So we sit around drinking as dinner time approaches, talking and planning our next day. RB & ZP do most of the drinking from 7-9, and RB keeps us laughing with his stories, after which we go down to the resort to eat. They have an excellent menu, and we have 2 pork jadoh stems (sort of like a pork biryani) and pork neiiong (a spicy pork curry). Heavenly food. I eat a lot of pork in Mumbai, but nothing like this.

ZP and I decide to do a trek to the double decker living root bridge at Nongriat village tomorrow. It's a full day trek. He wants to spend the night at a village guesthouse there, and I would too, but we're on a tight schedule here, so we decide to make it a 1 day trip. RG & RB decide to stay back and stroll around tomorrow.

There's an American here, TP. He did the trek yesterday and gives us some tips, like taking photos on our way up instead of down since we'll be taking more breaks going up anyway. He was here for 2 weeks last year, and went caving. He's done a lot of Alaskan treks, and is used to the cold. He tells us to say hi to Andreas at Nongriat tomorrow.

There's a campfire set up outside the resort, which we use to warm ourselves before retiring for the night.

Day 3 - Monday - Dec 20
Cherrapunjee

The plan today was to trek to the double decker root bridge. We had originally planned to leave at 8.00 am. We finally leave at 8.45, after a breakfast of 1 paratha for me and omelettes for the others. The resort has fixed us up with a guide for Rs.500. His name is Bat. RG decides to join ZP and I at the last minute.

We start walking from the resort. What we need to do is follow the motorable road leading down from the resort to the nearest village, and then to a second village, and it's a proper trek from there. This road is about 3 kms, and we begin walking, taking a few pics along the way. It's so green, it feels as if it's rained only yesterday. We manage to hitch a ride all the way to the second village.

We walk down many many steps from the village, seeing some beautiful spiders on the way, before making it to the bottom of the valley, from where I change into something lighter, and we take a short detour to the first root bridge, which is the longest one. It's a sight to behold, and we walk across it. It's scary at first, but we soon get the hang of it. It's pretty sturdy. We return and get on the trail to the double decker root bridge. This involves crossing a couple of steel cable bridges, where we run into a group of guys from Shillong who've been here many times, and another small wide root bridge, before ascending a few tiring steps to the village of Nongriat, where the double decker is located.

We relax at the village. This trek down has takes us 3 hours, and I'm soaked. I had set out in full warm gear - 2 t-shirts and a jacket - and our guide is now helpfully carrying most of that. We meet Andreas, a local primary schoolteacher there, with whom we arrange lunch with and then walk to the double decker root bridge. It's awesome, like the others. They're even guiding the tree roots in a way that will make it a triple decker in some time.

We have lunch at Andreas' place for Rs. 60 each, and then do the long walk back to the resort. It's much harder this time because of all the uphill climbing, though they're only steps and not an actual dirt track. We make it back up to the village where we take a shared vehicle to the resort which we reach by dusk. So the trek took 8 hours in all, quickened by hitching rides, though I think ZP & RG slowed me down by at least 1 hour with all their extra breaks.

We freshen up, relax and ZP & RB drink while I warm myself by the campfire. We have dinner - pork meatballs, chicken & pork jadoh stem, dal in mustard leaves, and a dessert of apple cubes in cream for RG.

After dinner, ZP and I arrange a cab from the resort back to Sohra for Rs. 300. Travel is really expensive here. It pays to have your own vehicle. Shared or cheap public transport isn't always readily available. We discount any other travel plans here, like hiring a cab for the full day to visit the waterfalls and caves, because of the expense, but we'd really like to return to do some caving & exploring.

ZP and I chat with TP for a while, before retiring. RG and RB are already fast asleep. RB had the whole day to himself here, and he spent it walking around and watching a football match. People here (the Khasis) are really football crazy.

Day 4 - Tuesday - Dec 21
Cherrapunjee/Shillong

We wake at 9.00. Our bodies are aching after yesterday's trek. Have a breakfast of parathas, omelettes and orange juice. The resort restaurant is really good, and we've all eaten well. ZP orders a masala omelette, but gets one with onions and no masala. He queries this, and we discover that's how they make masala omelettes over here.

We pay up and leave by 10.30. Our cab drops us at Cherrapunjee (Sohra) town, from where we take a shared taxi to Shillong for Rs. 50 each. Though they're close, and the ride is scenic, it seems to take us much longer than 2 days before. The approach into Shillong especially is hell. Too many bottlenecks and too much traffic.

We get off at the shared taxi stop and take a local cab to Police Bazaar to drop Ravi off for his bus to Guwahati, and then continue on to Mizoram House to get our permits for Aizawl, the capital of Mizoram. ZP has discovered that there's a direct bus leaving for Mizoram every evening from Shillong, and we're aiming to get on one of those. We've already made some extra passport size photos in Sohra town this morning for Rs.60 each.

Mizoram House is almost deserted when we arrive at 3.00 pm. We have to go looking around for someone, and when we finally find someone, they're just leaving, but get us our permits without much hassle. The permits cost Rs.120 each, and require 2 photos and you filling out 2 forms with your basic info, one of which serves as your permit and the other which they keep for records.

That done, we take the cab to the area where buses leave for Aizawl and visit a couple of travel agencies to get our tickets, but one of them only has seats available for the 22nd evening (the other one doesn't have any), which means we'll have to spend a night in Shillong.

So we return to Police Bazaar and, after searching for a long time with one of us guarding our bags and the other 2 heading off in different directions to inquire about rooms), get a nice room at Stay-Inn guesthouse for Rs.1000 for the 3 of us. We dump out bags and roam around PB.

It's like this huge city centre, a central node on a little incline, with around 5-6 streets tapering down and off from the centre in all directions, like spokes on a wheel, each little street housing numerous hotels, restaurants and different kinds of shops. It's nice, not the cleanest, but nice if you like busy. It's crowded, everyone Christmas shopping, everyone busy. Most of the locals are very smartly dressed. Everything's lit up and decorated.

We haven't had any lunch today, we're all hungry, and it's getting to be dinnertime. We walk to a highly recommended restaurant nearby - Centre Dhaba - but that turns out too expensive and has been mostly booked out for a wedding reception. So we keep looking, find a Bengali section of PB, and then a local restaurant called Travellers Point, where we order chilly pork, mixed special fried rice, and rice & chicken gravy for Rs. 265.

RG goes to bed, while ZP and I walk about checking out the nightlife. We go to Cloud 9, a lounge bar here in PB. Posh, but reasonably priced. Also a bit small, and almost empty. We check out another bar at just after 9 pm, but they tell us they've just closed. Few bars here, and they're either deserted or shut by 9.00. Everything seems to close early here. Even the restaurants shut by 9.00. One of the places we check tells us they take their last order at 8.30.

It's getting progressively colder as the shop lights go out and the night goes on. Shillong is the coldest place we've been to so far in the N.E. We walk around for a bit just talking, watching PB shut down, before getting back to the guesthouse.

Day 5 - Wednesday - Dec 22
Shillong

We get up late deliberately, skipping breakfast. We've earned it. Check out of the hotel at 12.30 but leave our bags behind to pick up later. We begin walking to the Don Bosco museum. We figure we'll go there as it's supposed to be good and we have a day to kill.

We walk a fair distance before realising it's really far and then manage to take a shared cab the rest of the way. The cab driver is playing Scorpions. We reach the museum and discover it's closed from 22-25 Dec due to Christmas. We walk down the street from the museum. This is nothing like PB. It's an area/district called Mawlai, a quiet beautiful locality with lovely bungalows. We catch a cab back to PB by 3.00 pm and look for lunch.

We go to a Manipuri restaurant for lunch. We had first seen it last night. We figure we'll try some Manipuri food here since we're not going to Manipur. And for Rs. 60 each we eat some of the most delicious chicken curry, fish curry & rice we've ever had. It's 4.00 by the time we're done. The owner tells us he used to run a Taikwando school in Colaba.

We kill time for 2.5 hours, first listening to some open air carol singing, which turns out to be a preview to some more serious worship, then shopping for supplies - biscuits, alcohol and chocolate - our next few meals on the bus to Aizawl, and then finally chilling out at a coffee place that's a dead ringer for CCD. I call a Mumbai friend who's Mizo and currently in Mizoram. He helps with some info.

At 6.30 pm we collect our bags from the hotel and catch a shared cab to to the designated bus stop. The bus is late coming in from Guwahati. Damn Shillong traffic. It finally arrives at around 8.30. We leave. No dinner tonight.

Travel Diary: Dec 18 - 22, 2010

Movies: My Life to Live, Joyeux Noel

My Life to Live (Vivre sa Vie: Film en Douze Tableaux)


Quite boring, but not without merit. My finding this movie boring has more to do with what I find interesting personally rather than the movie's quality itself. The movie is replete with monologues about life, love, etc. that would fascinate an intellectual.

Directed by Jean-Luc Godard in 1962, the movie includes many references to popular literature. We eventually see the main character's life mirror the literary ones that are spoken of in the movie.

Joyeux Noel


A 2005 film written and directed by Christian Carion. The film is about soldiers on opposing sides of World War 1 calling an unofficial truce on Christmas Eve and Christmas day, and the consequences that follow.

The film is based on real accounts of a truce and fraternisation between French, Scottish, and German soldiers in World War 1 during Christmas, though the specific characters portrayed in the movie are fictional.

Movies: My Life to Live, Joyeux Noel

End of an Era

One of my best friends, MD, got hitched yesterday, in a much awaited ceremony that went off perfectly.

I first met MD almost 2 years ago. It was Jan 6th, 2007, and I had tagged along with a group of guys from I.C for a Lonavla/Khandala trip, the three guys being CP, JB and J. How I met CP and JB is a story I shall recount some other time. I had walked to CP's place with my travel bag on Sat afternoon, from where JB (who lived next door) drove up in his Volkswagen. We helped CP load the car with water, snacks, alcohol, his BBQ grill, etc. and then picked up a bag of charcoal, withdrew money from an ATM, and went to a third guy's home - J - whom I was about to meet for the first time. Apparently, they were all former classmates, along with another guy from Vashi we were to meet later and a guy named MD who we'd rendezvous with at Khandala and whom they kept saying I'd love. We befriended a friendly pup as we walked to J's place, and the first thing that struck me as we entered his bungalow was the huge cat (I was to discover later that he had 6 of these). Apparently, J didn't know about the trip until we turned up at his place, but sportingly, allowed himself to be convinced to come along with us after CP and JB insisted.

We drove to Centre One in Vashi to meet up with the fourth guy, K, who had his own car. And did the four former classmates, after meeting up, pay heed my advice to make haste so as to make the best of optimal light conditions that could and should have been utilised for a trek? No, the four generously proportioned mates spent an hour loafing around Centre One, a significant amount of that time at one of the supermarkets on the ground floor, and even clustered around the chocolate/candy stall at one point. It was a comical sight, and I stepped back to avoid being paired with them. JB kindly offered me a Marzipan chocolate (which was actually quite good) but I was in no mood to lounge around or snack at the mall, for I was told earlier that I'd be meeting MD, a man as trek crazy as I was. And with each passing moment, I felt like he was having fun that I was missing out on, which later turned out to be somewhat true.

We eventually reached our lodgings - Kune Mission - in the evening at around 7.00 P.M and it was dark. I was disappointed to say the least. I never figured that we'd take so long to reach our destination, and my main fear was that I'd missed out on a trek, which was the main reason I'd come in the first place. We walked inside, and one of the guys introduced me to a man about my height with an easygoing manner, significant beer belly and an evil smile. This was MD, and those were the first three things I noticed about him. I immediately confirmed the possibility of a trek to a place called Deer Falls the following day, though I had missed out on one to Bufallo Falls that day.

MD had arrived there in the afternoon with his own group of friends and relatives, and I soon got to meet them all. I would go on to meet some of them - like Abhi, RV and BD - on subsequent treks and random city meet ups.

Dinnertime was approaching, and we set up our BBQ behind the lodgings, on a patch of ground with some chairs and a picnic table overlooking the valley. It was cold, and just got colder as the night progressed. It was also very dark. The only light we had was that coming from the windows of the building behind us and the moon (if there was one) and stars. We got everything set up with the help of a flashlight that we kept passing around. The chicken that we were barbecuing was already cleaned and marinated so we just had to get the grill started.This turned out to be a major task. The wind at the edge of the valley was quite strong, and every single match we lit would simply get blown off. Try as we might, we simply couldn't light a piece of paper to place among the charcoal at the bottom of the grill. MD, who seemed the most persevering of us all, kept at it, we trying to help by using our bodies as wind shields. The matches were running low and a few times we thought the paper or charcoal were alight, only to have them go out again, but finally, with only a few matches to spare, MD managed to get it lighted.

We took turns overseeing the chicken, and our group sat at the picnic table. MD's group, sitting a little bit away on a few chairs available and on the ground, mostly had their own arrangements, with only Abhi joining us. As the night went on, our group munched on barbecued chicken and sipped our drinks, enjoying a truly enjoyable meal. Our group retired to our rooms after dinner to drink some more and chat, soon to be interrupted by MD, who invited us to join him and his friends to a Grotto on the top of a nearby slope. We weren't in the least bit sleepy, and after wrapping myself up in a blanket (over the sweater I was already wearing for it was freezing now), walked to the Grotto with the rest of the group. I noticed not for the first time that night that MD was carrying a really huge long flashlight, one of those pieces that looked like a really thick stick and might even be used as a weapon.

The Grotto was beautiful, and CP and another guy or two actually clambered up on top if it. Clambering down was somewhat harder, especially for CP who, with his weight, accidentally dislodged a stone that fell on a girl's foot. We rested in the cave like formation that the Grotto formed, which proved a welcome respite from the chilling wind. Once again, MD attempted to get a fire going, with the remaining matches and some dry branches that he went searching for. I didn't get why some one would wander about a freezing forest area in the dead of night looking for a way to start a tiny bonfire that wouldn't make much of a difference anyway. And his tenacity after piling the branches together and lighting match after match to finally get a fire going was something I didn't completely understand, thought it was something that appealed to me, a person who can get equally obsessed at times about doing something particular, though not anything like this. I don't remember who it was who first came up with it, but that night, MD earned the nickname Pyro.

We sat there for a while, talking about this and that, most of us silent, looking at the stars and admiring the beauty of the moment. It was at this time that I got to know RV. My gang decided to go back to their quarters to sleep. MD and gang decided to spend the night under the Grotto, waiting for daybreak. I waited with them for a while, before heading back myself. I slept snug under two blankets.

The next morning I woke up refreshed. MD helped wake up our gang, and we headed off to the common eating room for breakfast. I voiced out once again my eagerness to go trekking, drawing a breath of irritation from J, who felt I had voiced my eagerness to go trekking one time too many. Anyhow, I finished off the remaining rum and we started off on our short trek to Deer Falls, a little waterfall that I'm sure is a lot bigger during the monsoon. Friends took pics of the Duke's nose on our way there, and we took a little shortcut on our way back. It was really hot walking back. Afternoon temperatures go up to 33 degrees in the winter in Mumbai. It can't have been much better in Lonavla/Khandala.

Had a cold shower and then lunch, before CP, JB and I said our goodbye's and drove home. I made it a point to take down MD's contact details, for I didn't know too many people who liked going on treks as frequently as he did. The group I trekked with at the time did an average of one a year.

Since that fateful trip, I met MD many a time. Two months later, he called up to say he was going to Gorai and I readily joined him, even though it was only us two. At the start of the monsoon of 2007, I met up with MD and Abhi at a Goan fast food stall at Orlem. A week after my Peth trip (hopefully to be recorded later), MD and I went on a half day trip to Erangal (my idea), where we took a bus to the church, looked around the beach, and walked to the very tip of that little peninsula that marks the end of Malad, from whose coast we could see Andheri, and from where we took a two minute ferry to Versova. On reaching the Andheri end of the ferry ride however, we didn't bother getting out - the area was filthy - so we simply rode back to Erangal and took a bus to Mith Chowky, and another one to I.C.

As the year went on, MD and I would meet many times. He was studying at the same place I worked, so it was convenient to meet on Fri nights for dinner. We've probably been to more low-life low budget food joints with missing walls that can be documented here, though I could try. I wasn't blogging much in 2007 and so didn't record any of these trips, though there were many. Special mention must also be made of the dhabba near his home where his friends and us spent many a night making merry. All through this time, I came to know MD as a guy who valued his freedom more than any of the rest of us. He enjoyed taking random, unplanned, last minute trips to nearby trekking spots and having a blast, especially with beer. To see him getting hitched yesterday was a potent symbol of my own fleeting youth, and I sensed many of his other friends (now my friends as well) feel the same way.

His wedding Mass yesterday was amazing. The priest he knows so well gave an excellent sermon, with a couple of guitar solos thrown in. I met up with now common friends BD and PV at the church, and we went to my place to chill out before the reception, which was close to my home. The reception was perfect as well, with an excellent spread, and everything going according to plan and everyone enjoying themselves. Met a few other friends there. BD & PV left early, and Ry's group and I hit a bar after we wished the couple (RV handing MD a quarter of rum as a parting gift, MD remarking that it was empty but still accepting it). We went to MD's place after the bar and helped with the unloading of presents, being rewarded with copious amounts of alcohol in return. It was a peaceful way to end the day, all of us friends minus MD sitting on a quiet beautiful porch sipping our drinks chatting and reminiscing. I looked up at the sky at one point and watched the stars - something I haven't been able to do for a long time.

As the friends started leaving, MD emerged and I finally got an opportunity to chat with him for a while, something I hadn't got much of an opportunity of at either the church or reception. It was nice to have a chat at last, before leaving for I.C at 1.00 A.M with the rest of his family. It's a bit sad to lose a friend to matrimony but I'm happy for him and a joyous landmark event in a friend's life has made this Christmas season all the more memorable.

End of an Era

Christmas 2008 - Tis the season to be moderately content

Went to work on the 24th, and caught the 7.15 local home. Changed (too warm for a suit or coat; I just put on a tie) and walked to the grounds for the 8.00 P.M Mass. Lot's of people. They usually set chairs for 15,000 and there are still hundreds left standing every year. Mass finished at 9.30, with a usual joke from Fr. Franklin and a request to stack the chairs. If there's one thing we're good at, it's stacking chairs after a Mass. I waited for the crowd to ease out of the two exits and made my way back home. Met a couple of friends on the way and chatted. Ate a late dinner and slept the sleep of the tired.

Woke up on Christmas morning to read the papers and spend some time on the net, before going back to bed and waking up at around 12.30 for the big family lunch at my cousin's place. Was nice to see everyone again. Played Halo 3 on the Xbox 360 for a while before heading home. Watched Shrek the Third in the evening. To say that it wasn't as good as the first two would be an understatement.

Took some Christmas sweets to the office this morning. They were well appreciated. Overall, Christmas this year was a lot quieter, what with 26/11 and the Kandhamal violence earlier. Less celebratory and more reflectional.

To get into the Christmas mood this year, I deleted almost all the songs on my Mp3 player two weeks ago and filled it with approx. 700 Christmas ones instead, that I've been listening to since, and I still haven't finished listening to them all.

Christmas 2008 - Tis the season to be moderately content