Impromptu Picnic

Picnic planning

Why should Shekhawat and Arora be having all the fun? Or the others with them on the Himachal Tour? They are having the best of weather, the sights and sounds, hotel stay, travel… And here we are holding fort in Mumbai, going through the daily humdrum of morning exercises ad nauseum.
This became the subject of a heated discussion today with everyone complaining that we too deserve a break. Suddenly Geeta Sardhana dropped a clanger. “Let us go for a day picnic, today itself!” she challenged.
Surprise of surprises, there was not a single dissenting voice. Someone suggested a resort near Virar, another near Mira Road, a third near Kalyan… Sunita Jajodia suggested a pilgrimage spot that would entail taking a train to Dadar, switching to the main line and taking the Ambernath local. “I will pack food from home for everybody,” she volunteered.

Geeta Sardhana

“Let us contain ourselves to a maximum of two hours travel time,” Monthi Serrao advised. “We may contact Tour and Travels right away for a small bus, not a ‘bada-bada bus’ as Shekhawat keeps saying. How much will that cost? Maximum Rs500 per head?”
“But first decide where we are going,” Tara Chand interjected.
Chhota Kashmir came up and Nafisa Sayyad turned it down saying that the place had “dried up”. Sushma Gupta informed that Aarey Milk Colony was also no longer what it used to be in her school days. And so the rigmarole continued with everybody beating around the bush, till a kind of consensus emerged about not going anywhere but having a picnic with pot lunch in the Garden itself!
Now this was the anti-climax – the height of desperation, just to get even on the Himachal Tour group. In effect, it had all come down to being dressed up and having nowhere to go. Time was against us… if only Geeta Sardhana had come up with this picnic idea a day earlier so that we could prepare better. “She needs to start taking Mentos,” quipped Bhaswati Bose. “Her dimaag ki batti lights up late!”
Harish Wadhwa:
The Holi pics (in slideshow) have come out really nice. Thanks, Blog Monster.