Kolhapur Diaries

From left: Surbhi, Doli, Nik, Nups, Adi, Pri and Sneha

Finally its here! This post is dedicated specially to d GOG - Surbhi Gandhi, Doli Sakhpara, Priyanka Momaya, Sneha Shah and of course the most important of all Nupur Gandhi without whom this amazing trip would never have happened in the first place... Thanks a lot for getting married Nupur!

Now, before getting down to the actual story, a small clarification - I'm not sure if this account can actually be termed a diary, considering that it hardly lasted for 3 days. However, given the fact that the numerous accidents we encountered were sufficient enough to have occurred over a span of well over a year, I'll take d liberty and still call it a big fat diary!

Now, coming to d point. Here goes d story...

Day zero (being MBAs, we start counting important days from zero): 

We had all been super excited to finally leave for the very awaited trip to Kolhapur for our very dear fiend Nupur's wedding. The tickets were booked and the train was to leave from CST - from where Surbhi, Pri and I were to board it, halt at Dadar - from where Doli and Sneha were to join. However, everybody who has ever known Sneha would know that things were not entirely bound to be smooth when she informed us that she was running a "little" late. Nonetheless, we tried thinking positive even when we got to know that the two of them had reached just Bandra when our train had already departed from  CST. Counting every minute and desperately wishing for the train to encounter a signal of some sort, we kept calling them every 2 minutes, each time getting the same answer - they were still at Bandra! How does she manage to be late every damn time?! Anyways, slowly (and trust me - really slowly) our train reached Dadar, and Doli & Sneha had managed to reach Dadar too. Now came the moment of chase - they were on a different platform than our train, which meant they needed to push trough the extremely infamous peak hour rush of Dadar, cross the bridge and get to the compartment, all in less than 120 seconds! This was a mamoth task for anybody, let alone Sneha and Doli whose Ferrari speed was very well known to us all :P As the two minutes were coming to an end - they told us they were already on the bridge and just needed to alight - and at that precise moment, our train took off. 

It was impossible for us to believe they had actually missed the train by such a close margin. Unsure of whether to laugh or get upset, we made ourselves believe that that was the end of the trip for the two of them. It was the first time Doli had got the permission to be out with us, and such a disaster would mean the end of any future permissions for her. Within five minutes, the news spread to all our friends, and nobody had to take any second guesses to know who was accountable for this. Each one made a point to personally convey this to Sneha in their own way. On one hand, Surbhi, Pri and I settled at our seats, feeling disappointed and angry at the same time, while on the other hand, Sneha and Doli were trying to get tickets to the next train - which of course were unavailable. 

Then came a huge surprise when Doli - of all people - suggested that they should continue by some alternate means, no matter what! They proceeded to book the next private bus to Kolhapur, and made sure they make it to the venue by next morning. We all knew this was the first time Doli had lied to her family - the first time we saw a small hint of a naughty rebel in her :D Finally, with all of us on our way, we felt a cheer in our hearts that the trip was not ruined after all!

Day 1: Kolhapur station

We alighted very early in the morning to be greeted by PINK. It was pink everywhere. Pink was the colour of the seat, the streets, the people and their belongings. The gulal was everywhere around us. Wondering what festivity was on during this off season (for Holi was long gone), we asked a few locals about it. Apparently there was some yatra organized to the famous Mahalaxmi temple of Kolhapur every year, and this was that time of the year when believers from all nearby villages and towns flocked to Kolhapur to pray at the temple to get their wishes fulfilled. 

Amused by the sight, we continued on our way to the lodge. Turned out Nupur had arranged for an 8 bed room for just 5 of us. The best part - there were bunk beds!!!! Feeling like little school girls, we all took less than a minute to select the top floor of 3 of the beds. Within a few minutes, Doli and Sneha reached too. Finally we made it! 

Day 1: Afternoon

We quickly freshened up and moved out to shop and tour around the city. The plan was to visit the Mahalaxmi temple, buy some awesome Kolhapuri chappals, bangles, visit the famous palace at the outskirts of the city, and be back by evening to attend the Sangeet at the water park, where Nups and everybody else had planned performances for the night.

So we shopped till we dropped :) (we were 5 girls - what do you expect!). Having got everything to the content of our hearts, we then set out to visit the palace. We hired a return rickshaw to the palace, and back to the city for lunch. The palace was mind blowing. The deer and peacock sanctuary next to the lake, the spacious lawn and the beautiful interiors with a huge collection of ancient arms - everything seemed superbly astounding to the eyes of any urban visitor. 

Finally, having taken a million pictures in a thousand different poses, we took the rickshaw back to the city. Starving to the core, we hogged on the spicy Misal and Usal pav at a local restaurant. It must have been mid afternoon when we began walking back to the lodge to take a short nap before the evening Sangeet celebrations. We would have walked about five minutes when it struck us. 

Five girls, all having spent three long hours shopping and bargaining, and none of us remembered to check our belongings while getting off the rickshaw! We had left all our morning's efforts and a couple of grand worth of newbies in our rickshaw! The best part was none of us realizing it for a full two hours!

Panic struck all our faces. We had two choices - to let go off everything and go back sullen, or to report to the police and hope to locate the rickshaw and our bags by the end of next day. The decision was easier when we saw the police station right around the corner. We logged a complaint, requested the officers to expedite the search since we would not be around for long. After a check at 2 rickshaw stands, other branches of police stations in the city and a 40 minute long wait, we were told that the rickshaw was not located and we would have to let go of everything. We were so dejected we were about to give up. Just then, we were informed of a last option - a check at the transport authority office to get the address of the rickshaw fellow and pay him a personal visit to get back our stuff. Time was running out since it was near evening and the office would shut in another half hour. Pri, Surbhi and I set out to the office of transport - only to realize that there were 2 auto rickshaws registered with the same license number!

So now we had 2 addresses to check out, in addition to checking at the traffic office and the corner where we had boarded the auto in the first place. Not having located it at the latter two places, we had to pick one address randomly - that we would be visiting first. The one we chose turned out to be a tiny dirty slum. We noticed our rickshaw parked next to a tree at the side. Immediately next to the tree were also empty yellow bags - exactly similar to the ones we were carrying! 

We kept moving towards the room we were told where the driver stayed. When we got there, we see him sleeping peacefully on the couch X( the 3 of us managed courage to knock and wake him up. What followed next was what makes this country the best - the driver was extremely happy to see us and immediately woke up, started talking to us and before even us mentioning it, got out our bag - intact. We did not know how to react. We thanked him profusely and left. On our way back, we realized that more than the joy of receiving our stuff back, we were more elated with the thrill of our little adventure :D

Day 1: Evening

After a tiring day (yes, we were tired already, even before the actual function began), we thought of resting a little before getting ready for the Sangeet. However, as observed in such situations, we ended up taking a little longer break than planned for. The outcome - obviously we were late for the function. We were greeted by a very upset Nupur who was wondering why we had been lost all day. To her question, Surbhi promptly and innocently replies - we were at the police station :) The reaction on Nupur's face was worth a million. Before we could explain to her in detail, she was dragged away by someone for some preparations - surely left curious by the incomplete story. 

The Sangeet went smooth without any further adventures. Nupur's shadow dance was simply superb as were the other performances. Icing on the cake were the many many air balloons we lit up and set going. The sky just dazzled by their light! We got back to the lodge extremely tired and completely drained of all energy. Little did we know that the marathon of adventures was far from over.

Day 2: The Miss

This was the day we had travelled for - Nupur's wedding day! We got up late (obviously), but excited and hungry! So we had to go find something to eat before we could get dressed for the wedding ceremony. Just one extra task that we as girls just had to get done was one more purchase - that of the super famous spicy Kolhapuri Chivda. Not knowing exactly where to find it, we set out to explore the neighbouring area, hoping to have some snacks on the way. We did find it in a store not far from where we were put up. So delicious was the Chivda and the chat that we completely lost track of time. When we did check the time we realized we were already running late for mid-day wedding. So we rushed back to our lodge, only to bump into Neil. Neil was Doli's neighbour, and after a couple of minutes I realized he was also my cousin Kairavi's classmate. Neil and Kairavi were pursuing MBBS in Kolhapur. It didn't take us long to plan out the evening when we decided to go to the lake, where Neil and Kairavi would join us.

Finally, after about an hour (read: a girl's hour), we left for the water park. The wedding was to be in the open lawn f the park. We were running late by more than an hour already, and were desperately praying that the ceremony hadn't already begun. When we did reach the park, we noticed a "doli" being taken away from the venue. We knew that Nups had planned on coming in seated in a doli and we had been dying to see it. Now we knew we had missed it.

Feeling miserable about being late for the most important function, we proceeded to the stage area. We were still contemplating amongst ourselves whether the ceremony had begun or would have gotten over already, when we see Nups and Nik on stage - having a reception.

That was when our hearts truly sunk. The entire wedding ceremony was over and the reception was already underway. Nups noticed us from the stage and gave us an angry look. Somehow we mustered the courage to go up there and wish her. Needless to say she was very upset and it was totally evident on her face that she was going to fire us for it later on - for years and years to come. Quietly we wished her and Nik and went down to have a seat in front of the stage. We were no longer in mood for any chat. Nupur's mom came and asked us to go ahead for lunch. We realized most guests had already had lunch, and some were even beginning to leave. We had our lunch quietly and guiltily. The whole purpose of the visit was washed away. We had repeated yesterday's mistake and were late again. We had missed the wedding.

When we returned to our seats after lunch, we asked aunty about the next ceremony. She was too busy making arrangements to tell us in detail, but we heard some mention about "saptapadi". None of us knew what it meant, but it seemed to be similar to the seven steps or the seven pheras. We started feeling more confused than ever. This only got worse when we saw that the decorators began to take away the chairs and re-arranging it around another smaller stage. 

Then it dawned on us! Nupur wasn't wearing the mangalsutra yet. there was no sindur on her forehead either. Did it mean that the actual ceremony had not yet happened? Can God really be that kind?!

Yes, He can :) We got to know that since it was summer season, and exam time, both families had agreed to get done with the reception first so the guests can leave on time. the wedding rituals were to follow later. This was the first time we had heard of this reversal in a gujju-marathi wedding, so it came as a superbly pleasant surprise for us losers :P

With our spirits lifted, we cheered Nups as she took the pheras while the pandit explained to her the vows she was making with each phera. Each one of us had already begun to realize that she was going away. We would no longer be able to see her everyday the way it used to be. Not just because she was getting married, but because she was moving to US. We were going to miss our friend dearly!

But it was not time for Vidaai yet. Now was the time for us "saalis" to have some fun with our jiju. It was prank time! When Nups and Nik settled on the grand table for their first lunch as a married couple, the relatives began to feed them sweets one by one. This was our opportunity to do something naughty. The sweet on the lunch menu was a Bengali roll of some sort. We thought we must take 2 pieces to the bride and groom and make them have it by the hands of the other. There was only a slight change here - Nik's roll would be sweet only from the outside. The stuffing inside was 2-3 spoonfuls of salt :) We had made the poor guy have the entire roll in a single bite, and his face was now showing a million emotions all at once :D 

Avoid it as much as we want, but the moment was here when Nups had to leave. With heavy hearts we saw her depart - permanently - away from us all. We could only hope that the technological advancements would help us keep in touch in one way or the other.

Day 2: All's not over yet

It was evening of the second day and we were to go to the lake. Neil and Kairavi were to meet us there, we were to have wada pavs and awesome Mastani - a local variant of multi-flavoured smoothie. We had an amazing time in the city and Neil and Kairu were just going crazy listening to our horrendous misadventures of the past 2 days. The celebrations were just multiplied when we saw the procession of Shivaji's descendants going across the city. There were carts and soldiers and fireworks and a crazy number of people on the roads gathered to see the procession. It was a sight worth watching. We were at a tiny restaurant having our Mastanis when it was time for Kairu to leave. She had to be at her hostel as soon as possible, if she had to get an entry at all. So we bid her goodbye early on. We ourselves had to leave within a few minutes if we were to not miss our return train to Mumbai. 

But as fate would have it - we had passed on our misfortunes to my cousin. Within 5-10 minutes of her leaving, we get a call where she informs us that she had lost her way (seemed like utter bad sense of direction runs in the family). She had taken an alternate route to her hostel because she was getting late and the direct roads to her hostel were completely packed with public and traffic to allow any movement - and got lost mid way.

We all completely panicked since losing way on a super populated day like this was terrifying. It was going to be a challenge finding her. Neil - who was more familiar with the city than any of us - rushed on his bike to find my cousin. I was worried to death about my sister's whereabouts. We all were.

Thankfully, we were saved another time. Neil managed to locate her and dropped her to her hostel. She had missed her deadline and had to sneak in by borrowing her friend's lab coat, pretending to be on rounds for that evening. This was a first for my innocent cousin too - who had never before acted so sinister :)

Day 2: Ab Bas!!!

We were only much too aware of the fact that the unexpected accident had caused us a delay and we were running late for the train. Not caring much about the details, we rushed to somehow manage to be on time. Luckily, this time there were no misses. We settled in the train recounting the events of the last 2 days, hardly able to believe that so much could happen in a span of just 2 days!. Tired and exhausted, we planned on sleeping early that night. We all had work to get to the next morning.

It had just been a while, when our train stopped at a tiny station, not listed on the halt list. Before long, we started seeing several policemen around, and a few of the passengers alighting the train. We went to the gate and upon looking around and inquiring a little, got to know that there had been a small fire in the adjacent compartment due to lack of lubrication causing friction between the wheel and some other part. We just could not believe our luck!

Fortunately, the fire was put off immediately, and the train moved very very slowly to the next station, where the necessary repairing was done to the damaged parts. All was well again. Thanking our narrow escape for the fifth time in 2 days, we headed to our beds.

Unfortunately, we were proven wrong once again.

Not long after, Doli - who had taken the lower berth - was woken up by a man asking her to give him some space on her seat. Doli refused politely, asking the man to move on to another area, since this section was reserved for ladies. Seemingly, the mad did not like to be turned down. He took out his cell phone, and took a picture of the police on the opposite seat. The police had been sleeping deeply on duty.

The man used the picture to his advantage and tried to blackmail the police to get him a reservation. The police, luckily, was not a man to be deterred so easily. He fearlessly shooed him away. Only later did we realize, he was not so fearless after all. The very next moment he scribbled a note on a piece of paper and asked Doli to sign on it with all her details. the note was a clarification stating that she had sought police help to get rid of the man who had tried to get her seat forcefully in the middle of the night. The police wanted to cover up for himself in case the man actually got down to doing what he had threatened. 

Finally, after a long discussion with the policeman, Doli signed on the paper and got into bed. We reached Mumbai without any further adventures in the night. Needless to say, we were late by several hours and half of us skipped office that day.