A famous adage says……Change is constant! This cliché is truly clichéd but what I realized recently was how true it was. Not all clichés sound to be true but they do so only when you experience them. Change I suppose is everyone’s partner throughout the life, and so is mine. I was thinking about the way I had evolved as a person, in terms of behavior, attitude, thinking, habits, likings – things which I never thought would change over time. And the best part of all this is I never realized when this transition happened!

I never realized when I changed from being a stubborn tot to a gullible boy, and from that to an emotional buffoon. I never realized when I stopped caring for my studies and started caring for things which never interested me in school/college. I never realized when I changed from being overly cautious to easy-going. I never realized when I changed from being laconic to a chatter box. I never realized when I changed from being introvert to (relatively) an extrovert. I never realized when I changed from a calculative mind to a spendthrift. I never realized when I changed from a timid guy to fearless and adventurous human. I never realized when I changed from a simple character to a complex individual or probably the other way round. I never realized when I started finding bliss in simpler things that life has to offer.

But then that is the beauty of life. One never knows when you change, and when you look back, you can’t even point out what brought about those changes!

Characters –

• Saurabh Rathi (Rathi) - Me :)
  
• Pradeep Polawar (Polya) – My roommate
• Rajesh Agrawal (Raju) – My school/college friend
• Nilesh Yerawar (Yera ) – My college friend
• Ritesh Ganeriwal (Ricky) - My college friend
• Manoj Kurkure (Maku) - My college friend

This weekend came as a welcome change. Firstly, pre-monsoon showers really cooled off the hot’n’humid Mumbai. Secondly, Raju called me on Friday afternoon revealing his pleasantly surprising decision to visit Mumbai. Little did I know that this weekend would turn out to be so much fun.

After a heavy dinner, myself and Raju strolled along Marine Drive enjoying the cool weather and stormy sea. Chat continued back in the room and late in the night we decided to go to Adlabs Imax to see Sarkar Raj on Saturday. I tried desperately to download Sarkar as I hadn’t seen it but to no avail. The net speed was not sufficient enough for the same.

Raju booked tickets for me, Maku and himself for the 12:15 pm show on Saturday morning. We planned to leave by 11:00 am thinking that 75 min was a sufficient buffer. Minutes before we stepped out, it started raining heavily. I managed to get an umbrella. Ran outside to get the printout of the ticket and realized that the soft copy of the ticket wasn’t loaded in the pen drive. Had to run back to the room to get the same. And the poor umbrella couldn’t save me from the heavy rain. Finally got the printout and hopped into a taxi. Reached Wadala station and enquired with about 2-3 people which side was Imax. As Murphy’s law goes, it turned out to be the wrong way. Then we walked upto the flyover (it was still raining and the clock was ticking faster) and heaved a sigh of relief to see quite a few taxis. But no one was ready to go to Imax. Finally got a bus and reached Imax. (The road with no habitation around seemed to be a familiar part of Ramsay horror movie.) The movie had already started by then.

About the movie, I felt the movie is well made (just like Jodha Akbar). Actors and Director have done a great job. But overall, given the hype, I still feel people might be a bit disappointed. There are so many characters in the movie that none of them get enough screen space to make a mark. Amitabh is his usual self and just breezes through the role so easily as is expected from him. Aishwarya looks pretty in her western attire and cries a lot in the movie. That’s the only thing she does in the movie. Abhishek is superb and the chemistry between the Bachchans surely looks great on screen. He looks convincing as a son of Subhash Nagre, the father and as a son of the soil, Maharashtra. But again, I would have loved to see more of Abhishek’s role in the movie. That’s the only saddening part of the movie. Rest actors too have done well. Overall a good time pass.

We moved out of the hall and it was still raining. We decided to go to Vashi to meet Yera. We got a cab after much search in the rain and reached the railway station only to realize that the trains on that route had been cancelled. Had a sumptuous meal given the conditions around(grilled sandwich only) and reached out for a bus to Churchgate. By now, all the hope of going anywhere else had died down. Luckily we got a bus which took eternity to get us to Churchgate but kudos to Maku, for making the journey less taxing by getting chips and biscuits to munch on.

As we reached my room, having drenched in rain, my body gave up. Sore throat. Body ache. So as if I was only searching for a reason, I slept off just to get up for the food we got from Pratap Restaurant as an experiment. It was a successful experiment. And after finishing the dinner, I went back in my BLISS mode.

Next day, Yera came over to Churchgate as myself, Raju, Yera and Ricky had planned to go Band-stand. Myself and Raju were equally excited for obvious reasons and we hadn’t been there earlier. Yera came over by 4 pm. We chatted for about an hour and then stepped out with umbrellas (it was raining already). As Ricky would have taken some more time, we decided to go to Marine Drive for a walk and then head for Bandra. When we reached Marine Drive, none of us could control the desire to soak ourselves in the rain just like so many people there – kids, teens, people both young and old – just about everyone! Not wasting a moment, we shut off our umbrellas and decided to experience the TRUE nature. I couldn’t resist the temptation to call Polya as well. And he came gleefully to enjoy the fresh rain along the seaside. So here we were. All the plans of going to Band-Stand had subsided by now as we were thoroughly enjoying the experience. We walked till Nariman Point and back, took a round along station and enjoying peanuts, chai and chanachor along the way. It was a re-energizing experience for all of us. Completely drenched in the rain water and sea water, we just didn’t realize when the time went by. Sea waves reaching the pavement and cool breeze making you tremble and with so many happy faces around truly made it much more exciting and relishing. It was a first for (I guess) all of us and this weekend would surely be there in our memory for a long long time. We met Ricky in the evening and had fun recollecting our BITS experiences. An overly fatty dinner at Bhagat Tarachand with gulab jamun and daal ka seera and a paan top it was a fitting end to one of my most enjoyable weekend in Mumbai.

Thanks Rajesh, Polya, Yera, Ricky and Maku for this treat!