January of '99

Having studied together in college for nearly 5 years, all of us were seriously missing one full day outing together. No doubt we had roamed quite a few places in our free time, hung out in college canteen or some hotel close to college, travelled together in the city's lifeline, watched movies, yet one full day's outing was still missing from our itenary. We all decided it was high time to go for a picnic before we graduated with less than 4 months to go. Thus was born the plan of picnic. And what better than a beach to go for a picnic. The next question was deciding a location. Our first choice was Gorai, because of proximity to our homes and almost all of us know that place well. However, the water at Gorai had become very dirty due to oil slick (just a few months before our plan quite a few ships were stranded on Mumbai coast and had caused too much of pollution because of the oil slick). Dhanu / Bordi / Alibag were too far. We wanted a location where we could reach with the minimum of effort, stay the whole day and return back home with an equal minimal effort. Call us lazy or whatever, but maximizing fun and minimizing travel time was the top priority. Yours truly had a brilliant location in mind - Manori. And I knew, rather, had heard about the directions to reach Manori. Besides, just like Gorai, this too is very close to our homes. So everybody agreed on Manori. And the day decided was Sunday, since that was the only day available to us.

We were 9 of us - Ashutosh, Deepak, Gautam, Krupal, Maulik, Milind, Piyush, Vinayak and me. We decided to meet up at 6:30 am at Malad Station and then proceed from there. The adventure and the misadventure began from the word go. I reached the station at 6:30 am sharp to find nobody had reached yet. And it was not the age of cell phones. So there was no scope of contacting anyone, but waiting for them to arrive. Now, in my hurry to reach the station, I forgot to dump the bag of my spare clothes in my picnic bag and left home. My father followed me to the station, which was at a 10 min distance. Luckily he could locate me and the weight of my bag increased by a few grams. After he left, I was still waiting for my friends. And all of them arrived by 6:45 am. Then started the quest to reach Manori. The first question was - how do we reach there. And I quickly rattled off the directions like a pro - we need to take a bus to Marve beach, take a ferry from there to cross the creek and reach Manori. Bingo... Around 7:15 am We took a bus to Marve beach. We made Maulik - one of the most sincere guys, as the finance incharge. He collected the funds from us to buy the tickets for the bus and ferry including the return fare. With the tickets taken care of, we started with our tp in the bus itself. We reached Marve by 7:45 am. From there we took a ferry and reached the opposite shore by about 7:55 am. Now started the actual adventure. We were greeted by sights of dead eels all around us. I am sure they must have fallen from the baskets of fisherwomen who were moving to the mainland market i.e. Marve and onwards, to sell their catch. Ahead of us lay a road going to the right, beyond the road was a wall and an open space belonging to some resort and to the left was a Ganesh temple. We could see a koli village a little down the road. But nowhere could we see the beach. Again started a barrage of questions all directed at me, since I had come up with the brilliant idea of visiting Manori - "Where is the beach?" "Are we going to spend our day on the sands next to the jetty?" I coolly replied - "Main bhi first time hi aaya hoon idhar. I am as lost as you'll are. Don't worry, lets walk down the road, and ask for directions." Boys asking for directions... Wow... As we had no other choice, we moved ahead down the road. We saw a few koli women busy with their chores. As we neared a church, we saw a koli woman washing her utensils. I asked her how to reach the beach. And she gave me the directions in her language, which was mixed with a few english words. So it helped me figure out the directions. The road adjancent to the church would take us to the End Beach. Walking further down the road would take us to the Middle Beach and from the Middle Beach we could reach the First Beach. Eureka. We could actually see the beach from the place where we were standing. However, we noticed that quite a few fishes were kept for drying, so we decided not to proceed on that path. We decided to walk a little further down the road and hit the Middle Beach. We soon found the route and were on the Middle Beach. Looking behind we could see the End beach and the fisherfolk. Looking ahead, all we could see was virgin sand. And not a single soul in sight... Wow, this was better than expected. We started looking for a place to settle down and put our bags. We walked further down towards the First Beach and identified a good spot for us to offload our belongings, in the shade of the compound wall of a private bungalow with a lot of coconut trees also offering shade. We got down to spreading a bed sheet for us to settle down and keep our bags. With the place identified, me, Ashutosh, Maulik and Gautam decided to take a stroll on the beach towards the First Beach and explore a little. It was already 8:20 am. The beach was just too good, the water clean and at the farther end of First Beach there was a small hillock. This hillock, I believe, is the one that separates Manori beach from Gorai beach. I have always wanted to explore this place a little more, especially this hillock, but I have somehow not managed to visit this place again in the last 10 years. Though, my interest in exploring that place still remains as keen as it was at that time.

Now amongst all of us, Maulik was the only guy who had a girlfriend and all of us were aware of that. I am not sure if anyone else too had a girlfriend, but it did not matter. A little ahead, I drew a big heart in the sand and wrote the words "Ashu loves J". Maulik was very possessive of his girlfriend and her name started with J. On reading this, he lifted his bat and ran after me to bash me up. Why me??? It was Ashu's name in the heart, and not mine... But still he wanted to beat me up. Somehow I pacified him explaining that there are so many girls whose names start with J. And Ashu and Gautam were having a hearty laugh at my expense. So much for drawing a heart and writing some names. With the matter settled, we returned back to our base and decide to have some breakfast before starting a game of cricket - all of us being hardcore cricket lovers. We quickly had our breakfast and got to business. With two teams of 4 each and a common wicketkeeper (who got to play for both the teams) we started our match. Our pitch was perpendicular to the water strip and not parallel to it. The stump was pitched near the wall. The high tide was beginning to set in around 9:30 am, which was a good sign. It meant we could soon go into the water and enjoy. We were not expecting anyone else to spoil our day. But by this time, another group had pitched their camp a little further ahead. And this group was a group of about 7 girls. We had to be all the more careful not to hit too many shots in their direction lest they feel offended. We got so engrossed in our play that we didn't realize when they left. But it was surely before lunch. Better for us. During the course of play, the ball went into the water. And it was pretty far, if one of us went in to fetch it, the water would be upto our stomach level. Some of us knew swimming, but still we did not want to take a chance of showing our skills in the sea at that point of time. We made a human chain of 9 guys by holding hands and standing sideways. I was the lead, which means I was the farthest in the water. After reaching the ball, I threw it out. And the moment the ball was at the shore, everybody ran back to resume the play thereby breaking the chain. And I was stranded in the water. By the time I came out, the play had already begun and I was quite wet. Infact, quite of us were, but then, who cares!!! We finished a game and we decided to head out into the water. Maulik, Piyush and Krupal decided to stay on the shore and not join us. They settled to play cards and we ventured into the water. After swimming and playing for about an hour in the water, all of us were feeling hungry. We decided to come out, change and have our lunch. This presented a few problems. First and the foremost, we did not have a tent. It was just a mattress that we had laid out. So where do we change. We decided to jump over the wall into the private property and change behind the wall. It would be safe since the bungalow in the property seemed to be unoccupied that day. I quickly changed and kept my clothes for drying on the wall. Meanwhile the others too had crossed over and were drying themselves. Now came another funny problem. Ashutosh had carried only a small napkin with him, and not a towel along with the extra set of clothes. He would look at the napkin and then at himself to figure out how he should dry himself and how he should cover himself and what part should he cover. We were having a hearty laugh at his expense. I told him to use my towel to change his clothes. Others who did not have spare set of clothes decided to sit wearing their towels. They decided to dry their clothes on the leaves of the small coconut tree in the compound near the wall where we were changing. Ashutosh was the first one to keep his clothes on the tree for drying. And the others followed. After we settled down to have our lunch, we came across another problem. There was an eagle hovering above. We soon realized that it was searching for twigs and small items to build its nest. Everyone who had kept their clothes on the tree to dry, left their lunch to fetch their clothes, lest they have nothing left to wear while going home. Soon all the clothes were lined up on the wall and we resumed our lunch. We rested for a few minutes after lunch and started with the next match. Other than 4 of us, the rest had put their clothes for drying, and they were still not dry. So we began playing in whatever we were wearing. It was a total fashion extravaganza. Maulik, Piyush and Krupal wearing the same clothes that they wore in the morning, since they had not ventured out in the water. Gautam, Vinayak, Deepak and I had spare clothes and we had already changed into a fresh pair of shorts and T-shirt. Ashutosh borrowed a pair of shorts from one of us and was wearing it with a vest. Milind was wearing a towel and a vest. And we began our game. While playing we noticed a couple strolling on the beach in ankle deep water. The guy was wearing ... I don't remember, and I don't even care... ;-) And girl was beautiful... She was wearing bicycle shorts and one piece swimsuit. The moment we saw the couple, everybody stopped playing. I was sitting on the wall behind the wicket keeper waiting for my turn to bat. And I could see the reaction of each and everyone in the group. Everybody's head was turning following the trajectory of the path of the couple. When I noticed Maulik watching the girl with equal intent, I shouted, "Maulik, tu already booked hai. Hum log abhi tak single hai. Agar tu aise ghoorega to main teri heroine ko bata doonga." And everyone pounced on him. Poor guy. He sat for the whole duration with his head down while the rest of us were busy admiring the girl... After a few minutes, we got back to our game. The couple was not to be seen anywhere on the beach. They had gone and sat amongst the rocks in seclusion. Krupal was standing at Long off which was near the rocks. Anytime a shot was hit in his direction, he wouldn't catch the ball but would run behind it till the time it came to a stop. We believe he wanted to reach the rocks to figure out the action. ;-) Again, we started with our verbal volleys aimed at Krupal and poor guy, he ensured that he caught the ball in time rather than running behind it and trying to reach the rocks. :) Milind and Vinayak were at the crease. Deepak was bowling, Gautam was the umpire, Krupal at long off, Piyush at long on, Maulik was the wicketkeeper, Ashutosh was at square leg and I was sitting on the wall awaiting my turn to bat. I was lost in my world, and didn't realize that the game had stopped. It was much later that the guys told me that the couple went back. So mean of them not to tell me... :( We were still playing in the same set of clothes / towel that we had started in. Milind hit a shot and he and Vinayak set off running. They completed the first run and started for the second one. Mid-way, Milind's towel opened. Poor guy had to stop running to hold his towel. Meanwhile, Vinayak managed to reach the non-striker's end. And Milind was run out as he couldn't reach the striker's end. Everybody was having a hearty laugh at Milind's expense. Milind was not ready to give up his chance at the crease easily. He continued explaining that his towel opened so he had to stop for a brief moment to hold it before he could complete his run. But the fielders were not ready to listen. Meanwhile, the others were having a hearty laugh. Finally Milind relented and handed over the bat to the next batsman and the game began. While Milind was standing as the umpire, we again cautioned him - Ensure that your towel is tightly wrapped, otherwise you will not be able to judge properly standing there. :) Poor Milind, the look on his face was worth seeing.

Around 4 pm, after the match ended, we decided to call it a day. By that time all the clothes that were kept for drying had dried. Everybody changed quickly. We collected our belongings and started our walk back to the jetty. While walking back, we lost our way in the koli village. While searching for the way, we reached a small shack that was selling water and cold-drinks. We had exhausted our stock of water and it was a blessing in disguise. We had cold-drinks and water to our hearts' content before we started again. We asked the shack owner for directions, and by 4:30 pm we were back at the jetty. We took a ferry to take us to Marve and a bus from there to reach Malad station. We were back at Malad station by 5:30 pm from where we parted ways... Rather, I parted ways, since the others had to go to Kandivali / Borivali. It was a fun filled day that is still fresh in my memory.

When we went back to college on Monday, everybody's thighs were aching. But the happiness could still be seen. We then updated our group (read the girls...) about the day's proceedings, since they had missed out on the action. The focus was solely on Ashu's dilemma about using a napkin and Milind's wardrobe malfunction. Everyone had a hearty laugh.

Even now when I think of that day, I burst out laughing. I am feeling nostalgic now... :)