PUMBAI 2015

PUMBAI. To most, this word may make no sense; few others could feel it is something related to Pune and Mumbai together; for us, it is an experience that triggers a series of wonderful memories. As some of you would have guessed, Pumbai is our annual get-together where Pune and Mumbai friends meet and celebrate a weekend together. Last year, Varsoli beach, Alibag was blessed with our fun; this year, it is Saguna Baug, Neral. While Pumbai is just a weekend, it starts quite earlier than that. Planning and organizing is just a small part of the preparations, it is the excitement of meeting the gang and the anxiety of masti that we would have, drives each of us to counting days for this grand get-together.

Pumbai started on Saturday evening. As few of us were unknown to each other, we spent a few minutes on "Hi" and "Hello". And then, as usual, it didn't take much time to groove in. Before we knew, we were chatting as childhood friends meeting after quite a long time.Chatting continued post dinner and past midnight. Yet we woke-up to a fresh Sunday morning, pepped up to have more fun. Some of us had a river bath, while the rest were happy with heavenly showers (some preferred the shade of umbrellas).

Being International Yoga Sunday, we were treated to a Yoga session followed by a magnificent malakhamb display. Then was the round around the pond in a non-polluting 7-seater (pedal boat). This ride provided a view of a unique fish race which put up a spectacular view. Then we had a fishy experience. Trying to bait the fish, we ended up feeding them. Hence we had to settle for chicken for lunch. Post lunch, most had to leave. Those who stayed back were enthralled with the snake show. Along with a splendid display of venomous cobra, the session was a lot informative as well. All these activities can still be enjoyed at the resort, but the experience with this "gang" cannot be replicated.

When amazing friends get together at a beautiful location in an awesome climate, it results in a deadly concoction, the hangover of which lasts long, very long and the memories makes us nostalgic, every time we hear "PUMBAI".

The blog is an attempt to share an experience that cannot be expressed in words. So are you happy reading or do you wish to experience the magic? If you are interested and want to know more, do get in touch with us. You can email us as mahagsb@googlegroups.com or feel free to call Ashutosh (+91-9820992403).

Family, Food and Fun

It has been quite sometime since there has been any activity on this blog. Though there is nothing posted, there is far more that we have done an being busy in all that, we somewhere missed reaching out to you. So let's start from where we left and all that we did in the past few months to what we are looking forward to.

 

The last activity that was posted here was about the Guru Poornima programme that we had hosted in Mumbai and Pune. There was a good response to the event and it reached across multiple cities, thanks to Saraswat Mitra. It only meant that we would grow and the expectations upon us would start increasing. Building on that, we visited Lokmangal Foundation - a day care for kids of maids. It was a nice experience sharing time with little kids. It was impressive to see how the volunteer teachers used to care and educate these kids on manners and culture. The kids too responded with equal respect. We also visited our friends at Shantikunj Sevasharam - our senior citizen home at Panvel. They were glad to have us visit them. This time, we did not have much activities with them. Our friendship has so much evolved that it was just a pleasure being with them, talking to them and having a jolly good time.

 

We also had our regular coffee meets, which evolved into lunch meets to home-cooked food meets and now we are planning for the annual grand meet - our Pumbai meet. In this whole journey, our family has always been supportive of our activities, be it cultural, social or purely fun related. As a gesture of gratitude to this backbone of Maha GSB and for them to get the feel of the experience that we enjoy, we had the family meet. We invited our parents and relatives for evening gupshup and served them with some home-cooked delicacies (we can't miss that out, can we?)

When we started, we were sceptical of the outcome. Would it be just a hi-hello meet or would they interact further? Will they enjoy the company or will they feel left out? Lot many questions and no answers to any. We started with a brief intro of what we have been doing over the past 9 years since the start of this concept and how we have evolved. Thanking them for the support they have provided us till date, we put the ball in their court seeking their inputs. From there on, they started discussing and sharing their views (which we will work on implementing over the coming meets) and it went on more discussions and gupshups. By the next hour, we started feeling that they had arranged the meet and we had accompanied them. We had planned to wind-up by 7 pm as the Natya Gaurav awards were to be screened. That was before starting the meet, then the chatting started and went on as though long lost friends were meeting. By the time we came to a close, there was already a request floating for a potluck lunch with dalitoy, fish fry, kokum kadi and much more of GSB delicacies.

 

Already thinking of dalitoy and fish fry? That meet will happen soon. For now, we are working towards Pumbai 2015, the annual get-together of Pune and Mumbai teams. So do you wish to just read the next blog, or be a part of the fun as well? If you are interested and want to know more, do get in touch with us. You can email us as mahagsb@googlegroups.com or feel free to call Ashutosh (+91-9820992403).