Angels are for real

 It was a wonderful December Sunday morning. One of those days when you couldn't identify the time based on the weather outside. The cool breeze and the holiday mood just set up the premises, for what would be a beautiful day. It was bliss. On any such day, I would have bet my bottom dollar, that the day couldn't have got any better. Fortunately, I didn't... I WAS WRONG...

It was about to get better and HOW.

As the washroom door gently opened, I saw an expression in Vandana's face which I hadn't seen until then in nearly 8 years of knowing her.

It was a mixture of ecstasy...surprise.. .a strange calmness...radiance... and as if it were not enough, sugar coated with abundant (rather overflowing is the right word) joy. Had we not been married, I would have proposed to her right then, without a second thought. It was that look she wore. And then, she flashed that million dollar smile of hers that lit up the whole room and told me the news which made all that cliched definition of bliss I used to describe the day seem mediocre in comparison.

"We were expecting parents". It was as if we got our wings immediately. We were in seventh heaven.

Almost instantly a silent prayer sat firmly on my lips - “God let it be a girl”. While Vandana and I tried to be gender neutral in all our public discussions, the silent prayer was gathering storm within me. The reason was pretty simple - you could never quantify that cuteness a girl brings to the table. All adjectives put together still shall fall short. 

It is the same reason I fell for that one woman in my life. And honestly who wouldn't like that cuteness overdose at home after a long tiring day at work. It was my reasons and mine alone.

When we caught the first glimpse of ‘her’ (I had almost presumed it was a ‘She’) in the ultrasound screen, honestly, we couldn't make out much. But ‘she’ more than compensated for that optical blur with the rhythmic symphony of ‘her’ heart beats (which in that speaker mode sounded much like dolby digital).

 It wouldn't be entirely wrong to say I skipped a few beats myself. That surreal feel to hear ‘her’ heart pound was some wonderful feeling. Don't think my words would do even half justice to that emotion. Let us just leave it at that.

Weeks flew past and ‘she’ kept getting naughtier within and may be as a result of which I found Vandana got prettier. I wouldn't be exaggerating when I say there was a new sense of bonding between us because of that impending welcome arrival. In my world I called it the ‘Angel effect’. It was all there to see. The spell was cast. The mood was set. We were just following instructions. And needless to say it was happiness all around.

There is a sense of fantastic feeling when you wishes come true. Guess some prayers find a way to reach the right address if they are dispatched with enough intensity. Mine did, and the reward was in front of me on that morning of August 26th 2015.

An angel had shed her wings to bless us all. With that ultra cute eyes and supplementing expression, she took my breath away just like her mother did 8 years back. It was like deja vu. I was falling in love all over... once again. It was the 'angel' effect after all.

I am fully in agreement to the argument that we are all slaves to our destiny. But if it was in my destiny to play father to the cutest angel in town, then honestly I wouldn't mind even being a bonded labour to such destiny. You got to be one, even to come close to appreciate the spell which a daughter casts on her father. It's pure magic.

And to all those who still think all this talk of angels are just a hoax, D1/6 Dolphin Hills is the address. Be my guest and clear your misconceptions.

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@Sun ray it was fun re

 There's precious little one can do when the entire universe conspires to make something happen - Baba Paulo Coelho in Alchemist.

I got the hint of one such conspiracy when during a random conversation with my 'universe'.. ... I got a 'request' to check out weekend getaway options from vizag.

Honestly to say, I had little hope. This pessimism wasn't unfounded. To quote specifically, a plan chalked out every Saturday night to trek down Dolphin hills has had such 'resounding success' that we stopped discussing treks.. And so to say was the jinx on weekend getaways. With the above experience firmly playing in my mind, I thought it was just another disaster of a plan we would be soon sulking over. Amongst the three musketeers, I was the only one guaranteed to be available. One was incommunicado in the line of duty n the other 'communicado' but still in the line of duty.. ... 

And worse still  - "It was on the day of World Cup Finals"... How could I possibly forgive myself, relaxing in a resort when my country needs me to bleed blue... I was stuck between a rock and a hardplace...

Just then,  the Alchemist bhagwaan showed the first indication of his external intervention, conspiring to make this trip happen. Anushka Sharma appeared out of nowhere when Virat Kohli came out to bat in the semifinals. And as if he took a cue from that ad, Virat was back in five minutes.. The Indian hopes ended there. And that's when I felt - Beta, this game is beyond you.This is a game between Mr. Murphy and Alchemist. You better brace yourself coz this is gonna be some ride. But given Mr. Murphy's credentials it wasn't difficult to guess where by bets were placed. 

I knew fully well that disappointing my 'universe' can make hudhud look like mother Theresa. So wasting no time, I contacted the only number I had that of - 'Sunray Resort'. I didnt have much hopes given that i was trying only 3 days before and all i was expecting was a 'sorry sir'. But this game was being played at a different level.. Pat came the reply, "Sir we have a vacant villa with four cabins available". I was slowly getting greedy, I asked if they could consider booking the villa, however charge us only for three rooms keeping the fourth room unoccupied". Given the weekend vacation season, it was analogous to asking for that guy's kidney. But I was in for a surprise when they conceded and as if that was just not enough, further sweetened it with another 10% discount on the total. This sounded too good to be true. But then,lesser mortals like husbands don't know what deadly powers their 'Universes' possess.. 

Within a few hours the booking got confirmed. But I wasn't still very hopeful. If u ever watched cricket in an Indian household, you would know there will be this one person who will sound like a deadly pessimist while hoping like hell that his pessimism works against and the team wins. There's no logic, but by and large this trick works. That person in this group was me. Fingers crossed I waited for the response from the office of the two musketeers.. My bet was with Murphy but heart with the Alchemist.. And then...just like that, the other two got permission from their offices.. It was their DDLJ moment la, 'Jaa jeele apni zindagi'. So both simran1 and simran2 wasted no time and there we were..... all packed and ready set go....... Man this trip was now happening..... ... And real fast... 

On the D-Day, a quick bite primed us well for the drive to the resort.. And bang we were there checking in at 1200 sharp. Just as we stepped inside the villa, we found that the pool was far enough to warrant second thoughts. With a little disappointment, we inquired if there is any alternate arrangement. Turned out there's a private pool we could book for any duration and that too was complimentary.

 

That was like an upper cut on murphy's chin. Take that Murphy.. The time spent on the pool alone was worth every single penny. The kids enjoyed it thoroughly, and we adults became magarmachs taking kids for a lazy sawaari.. And privacy was so absolute that we had to make frantic calls to be fetched back to the villa... It was an awesome time spent.

But Murphy wasn't one to take things lying down.. In comes the worst nightmare.. There wasn't any liquor. We hadn't carried any, hoping we could get something there. And it turned out the resort was a 'dry area'... How could that be.. ..........That hit us like a bolt out of the blue.. It was as if murphy decided to invoke himself and hit us where it hurts the most.. A few 'lie detector' checks carried out with the staff confirmed that we were just getting deeper in this self imposed s**t. Just when we were about to comprehend carrying out narco analysis on those hapless waiters, came the welcome input, we could buy 'stuff' in a shop just few kms outside.

Honestly speaking we weren't expecting much, given the 100% rural population around. Soon we found a theka just nearby and ...what do we find there ?.. Carlsberg and Cranberry breezer. This was bordering surreal now. The guy selling them had absolutely no idea what they were. But did we care ?.. By now I was convinced that this trip was destined to be one helluva ride. Alchemist had knocked out Murphy with that sucker punch... 

The rest of the evening was needless to say one of the best. It reminded me of the soda ad, 'Khoob mazaa ayega jab mil baitenge hum 3 yaar''...

What 3 yaar ?... Here were six of us so the fun quotient increased exponentially so. The night just got younger by the hour recalling all those ageless moments. I seriously feel had there been a fourth occupant, he would have sounded like Swamy in Munnabhai enquiring at the middle of the night- "What is the procedure to change the room ?". It was fun all the way.

A quick n sumptuous breakfast preceded the drive back culminating over a quick lunch bite at PCC. The fact that i didn't mind a burger to finish it off (my liking for continental food is 'legendary'... Mind it..)...quite sums up the tale.

I could say the trip happened, but given our near misses in the past, it would be appropriate to say it was destined to be so. And it just added one more magical moment to the millions already we had, only waiting to be recalled in the next get together.

Blitzed and how

 How would you describe something which is priceless - No words. But the story needs to be told. Even if it doesn't do justice to the emotions, it's important that the effort behind the show gets the attention it deserves. Simply for the reason, please soldier on.

Who would volunteer to plan and execute a course get together for a course so big - you gotta be mad to put your hands up, unless u have an itch at the wrong place at the wrong time.

Well that's what I thought, when the proposal was floated in the course WhatsApp group. The inital response it got, confirmed that I had many like minded friends. It wasn't like there weren't any takers, but that population who were interested, could have met at a couch in a coffee shop. When you talk of a course whose strength is close to Virat Kolhi's batting average, that's more of an insult I would say .

But that's the beauty of this NEC thing you know, you just don't give up. NEVER. PERIOD. Especially on your coursemates . More so when they are stupid. So the brave guys continued to soldier on with the plan. It kept getting repeated in the group. And finally there was some serious discussions.

The proposal, floated in July, kept seeing hope every weekend. It was early August now and could say, guys got a little interested. The response grew. The buzz was now real.

A few more hands went up. There was some speculation as to whether it's gonna be stags only or with families (well that's another equally interesting story for another day), but it was soon put to rest (in the hindsight it was such an awesome decision to take the families along).

Finally the numbers got finalized, numbers including the families quite nearly matched to Virat Kohli's numbers. The show was getting the attention it deserved.

The first hint of 'This-is-NOT-a- routine- course- get- together' came through when the so called itinerary came by. ITINERARY... really, an itinerary.. well that's something new. A minute to minute programme (yes you heard that right, not a wasted minute over 24 hrs) got lot of eyeballs. Now they were talking.

What's the difficult thing to do - to get attention of a dozen ladies. CHECK. The itinerary had done it's job.

What's even more difficult - to sustain that attention.

And near impossible - keep the kids interested as well.

The reason this blog is because the next two boxes two were ticked emphatically. AND HOW.

Finally the D-Weekend arrived. And so did we in the salubrious climes of Shivaji. Even before we reached, our WhatsApp message indicated the rooms ear marked for us. And as we reached,those buggers were standing to receive us.. in the Alpha Hard. Talk of hospitality.

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A quick freshening up and we headed to the-then-dreaded-now-nostalgic hard patch. After re-living a few 'Maharaja' moments, we headed to the NCC. We all got on top of the 'plane' - this time out of choice and few even held the legs on top of the wing (despite the stiff resistance offered by the buoyancy tank above the hips).

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While the ladies did get a glimpse of our - mildly put, 'group activities', the kids had a good measure of their father's 'fun running between the OCC and NCC and even stepping up to explore what's 'behind the pump house'. It was 6 PM now and if you are in Shivaji it ain't rocket science to know where you should be heading.

There the ever resplendent sunset point awaited us. Even as we reached on top of the sunset point, we were welcomed by the cheeky drizzle and the hide and seek of the Duke's nose.

We all have been to the sunset point at some time or the other, but the whole experience of having the biggest family gathering for one BIG AND AWESOME 'groupie' was a priceless experience.

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So far so good. With the hard patch-OCC-NCC-Sunset point you can always bank on the 'nostalgia factor'. But the proof of pudding was the 'get together'. The mood was set for the evening, and needless to say the 'bar' for expectation was set 'high'.

Even as we walked into the OI for the evening party, we were pleasantly stunned to see a recreation of the cadet times memorablia (including the Brass plate of the 63215 NEC) greeting us. To think of the effort it would have taken to just put this stuff in place - given NEC was disbanded close to a decade ago, wouldn't have been possible without that die hard passion. You can take NEC out of Shivaji, but put an NEC officer in Shivaji, the passion quotient is beyond words. A big salute to the organisers.

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The evening started and so did a little ice. And jump over our course free electron AG .. he showed glimpses of his 'talent' (which got him fan clubs in Pune) .. enough to break free the shackles.

Shackles were broken and HOW. DJ Susi took over. Anthems like kala kauwa on a rainy evening in Shivaji after a few old monks can be dangerous for faint hearted audience . And we did prove that theory right only that this time the 'audience' too joined in. Shivaji does that to you you see. Take no prisoners.

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While we couldn't have enough of AG on the dance floor, another hand went up. It was meant to be his day and he wouldn't have any other way. Enter Dhanesh Hinge Suryakant. Ably supported by the omnipresent Romit.

They challenged Susi, well.. sort of. While the rest lesser mortals danced, Hinge and Romit rocked it. But if there was one who owned the dance floor, it was Hingis.

A difficult task is to end the party. Especially when someone is in flow. But a Football match in the morning meant we had to call it a night even though technically it was wee early morning.

There's a small little bug which bites people at wrong places at wrong time. There were three such bug bitten souls who were also planning to retrace the cross country route (albiet with due respect to the age). Will say, I never thought in my wildest of dreams that I would say, I had a great run till Tata Dam and back. But the three of us Bhagwat, Hinge (yes you read it right, after that rockstar performance he was up for a run. RESPECT.) and I, had a great run.

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That was followed by a football match. The Messi (susi) and slick Ronaldo (Madhu) combined to drown the opposition despite the best efforts of Modric (Bajpai). and the rest of us we were all pretentious Neymars (in a sense, just pretending to play).

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When a day kick starts with such intensity, you better be assured that it is going to be a memorable one. And it was indeed. A visit to the motivation hall and remembrance hut was followed by the Grand Finale.

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The organisers sure saved their best for the last. The PIT STOP just knocked the wind out of our sails. Tasteful, subtle and elegant. To call it a Bar would actually be insulting. So I would prefer to say it was a 'Remembrance Hut - Part II, where we reminisced a lot of stories. The Beer and Biryani were just catalysts.

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All good times do end someway or the other. But what it does is makes you yearn for more. That way, the ball has been set for the era of course togethers. Someone aptly named it 'Flashback #1'. Ya that's more like it..

Many more to come. But whosoever putting their hands up got a hell of a task to best this one. But then that's the essence of NEC. Grit Grind and Glory.

Three cheers to the three musketeers again who made this possible - Sachin, Shailesh and Susi - Hip Hip Hooray..