It was a Sunday morning and as fixed earlier with Sajit, I and Fenil had to meet outside Dadar station to move ahead towards Pune for a meet with our Pune Msians. Praveen Babukris was to join us but unfortunately due to health issues of his wife who had just recovered from dengue fever he couldn't join us at the last moment. Hence it was I and Fenil who hopped in to a cool cab to commence our journey to Pune at 9.30 A.M in the morning. I being a lazy driver as my friends know well didn't prefer to take my car for the long drive as I never like self driving for a long time instead I prefer to enjoy the backseat drama :)) After having a vada pav at the famous Bikaneri stall at food plaza enroute we proceeded towards our destination. In between we got a few calls from Sajit, our host and dost in his trademark style asking "Kidhar hai bhai”? :0)) we gave him the details of the exact location that we had reached every time. He just wanted us to get picked up from a convenient location in Pune so that we don't have to ferry across the city as he very well knew about the problem we had to face in reaching his home last time which was some two and a half years back in spite of getting directions from him, so he didn't want that to happen this time. So nice of him.
Just as we entered Aundh, we received a call from him again. We were told that our good friend Vijaymb (Vijay Bhave) will pick us up. We spoke with Vijay and he asked us to leave the cab at the famous Bremen chowk.We reached there at 12.30 sharp. Vijay arrived in his car a short time later and from there we went to take darshan of the famous navgraha mandir opposite the historical yerawada jail. Sajit reached there in a few minutes too. As the mandir was closed for darshan, Sajit said that we would come back at 5 P.M in the evening to take the darshan. The darshan was a must and very important for me as it was at this place that my friend and brother Sajit had performed a small ritual and prayed for my mother's health some 15 months back when she was critically ill. She had successfully recovered from her illness thereafter and I had thanked Sajit at that time and said to him that the next time when I visit Pune, I will definitely take a darshan at that mandir.
Next we reached Sajit's house where after chatting for some time we were treated to a simple but sumptuous Kerala lunch by her better half Veena. Knowing that I and Fenil are vegetarians, they took all the care to serve us in the best possible manner. It was only because of this love and care that I who had never had any type of a south Indian meal in my whole life enjoyed this one to the core. Even Fenil relished the pretty tasty lunch to his heart's content and ate it maximum :0)) After lunch we were served with Kheer which was as tasty as the lunch. I hereby would specially like to thank the gracious lady Veena for all the tasty servings that we were catered to. Kudos!!!!
We sat in the balcony for some time discussing a lot about MS, Msians in general and about Sajit's latest Bangalore meet. We got a call from our good old friend Harkirat Uberoi (Harry) who couldn't come with us due to his busy schedule but he spoke with each one of us. Thanks Harry. After a while we left Sajit's house and proceeded towards Phoenix city mall, one of the biggest malls in Pune. The place was buzzing with various activities like bike stunts being shown by the stuntmen, individual singers performing live at the venue and a huge variety of branded shops that engulfed the lacs of square feet area of the place. We had some variety of chocolate drinks at "The Chocolate Room" a very lovely and decent shop inside the mall. The clock was ticking so fast that we didn't have the time to visit the huge shops at the venue. It was 5 in the evening and hence we left the mall to proceed towards the Shani Navgraha Mandir to offer our prayers. Enroute we were joined by '"Rudraksha" (Brijesh Sharma) an Msian who is not active nowadays for a long time. We visited the mandir, offered prayers and then it was time for us to bid goodbye to our friend Vijay. With a promise to meet very soon he departed. From there Sajit took us to a Jain temple where I offered my prayers as I had to take darshan which I always do every day but as today I had left my home early for the meet I didn't get the opportunity to take darshan in Mumbai and hence Sajit took us to a Jain temple in the camp area of Pune so that I can complete my daily ritual. Again so nice of him. (Continued in comments)
