Sunday, February 8, 2015

Nasik, Sulafest, Feb 7-8, 2015


Saturday, February 7
We have always thought of visiting Nasik for Sulafest, and somehow ended up skipping it for the last 3 years that we have been in Bombay. This time too we nearly missed it as Geet fell very ill the previous week and had not completely recuperated by this day. But we decided to take a chance anyway, and made a visit to the Sulafest that we were cursing ourselves for not making it these last few years.
I woke up at 5:30am itself with all the excitement about the travel, and really wanted to leave before the irritating Bombay traffic started at 8:00am, but by the time we actually left, it was 8:09am, and I was thinking this is going to delay all our plans for the day, as we were to pick up Parul and Shreyansh and then coordinate with Mallika and Nikhil and tail them in their car. But thankfully, traffic was a bit slow to start, as even Bombay get tired by the 6th day of the week I guess, and we managed to pick up P&S by 8:45am, just 15 minutes after our rendezvous time.
En route, we even caught up with NJ, Sushim, Payal and Bangdu who were hotboxing peacefully and driving, and all of us had a stopover at a place called Midway, which was just about mid-way from Bombay to Nasik. All of us were pretty high by then, and ordered a ton of food, all of which tasted fantastic. Mallika came up with one of her pearls here, when she said that the Squirrel character in Ice Age kept losing his nut, and it was probably a way for the makers of the movie to keep telling us that we must be out of our nuts to be watching this. Never really thought about it as “losing your nut” for the poor Squirrel in the movie until M mentioned it.
After downing Poha, Omelet Pav and Vada Pav, which came exactly in that order, as that is how these guys placed the order with the waiter, we had Coffee that I actually exclaimed tasted very different for Tea. Mallika was quick to pounce on me to say that this is actually coming from the Coffee Brand Manager! All I could say was that I was probably too high to make out the difference.
After a good time together, we hit the road, this time with Nikhil driving our car and Shreyansh and I sitting in it. I was in the backseat, and dozed off instantly, and just didn’t feel like getting up when we reached Mallika’s grandparents house in Nasik where we were to spend the night. I woke up grudgingly thinking I will sleep once I find a bed inside the house, but we walked in to a place that wasn’t cleaned for over 2 years! There were actually newspapers covering the furniture with a date of September 2012 lying around. So I had to wait till the maid came in and cleaned up the place, and in the meantime, Mallika was giving away some chocolates she got for the neighbours, and I was having such a craving for chocolates, that P&S decided to go out and get some for me as M didn’t let me have any of the ones she got for the neighbours, and instead of Crackle or Nutties, P actually brings Kitkat, which is more a wafer than a chocolate actually! Anyway, ate what was available, and then quickly changed to hit the Sulafest that already began at 2pm and we were leaving only by 4pm.
We drove to a point where the cars were being parked, and we were to take a bus from here to the main venue. This was when I first got a glimpse of the crowd visiting this place – loads of hot girls in very little clothing! It was stunning to see something like this in India.
We quickly parked, sent the girls by the bus, and we guys walked to the entrance. There we had to figure a way to sneak our smokes in, and Geet came to the rescue, placing one pack in her shades case, and another inside the pocket of her jacket, and peacefully managed to sneak it in. We were given arm bands of different colours depending on whether you were visiting for 1 or 2 days, and I got our 2 day band, which of no use, since Geet and I planned to get back on Sunday itself, given she had a flight to Kolkata on Monday morning, and more importantly, still recovering from here illness.
Once we got it, we checked out a section where they were serving wine for Rs. 300 a glass, and P had an idea to buy a bottle itself from inside and drink out of that, and that turned out to be a brilliant idea, coz they had an offer where 2 bottles – one White Wine called Reisling, and another Red Wine called Zinfandel were being sold for Rs. 1250 together. We bought one pair, picked plastic glasses from the bar, found a place just outside, which was a little lawn overlooking the vineyard, spread our mattress on the grass, and chilled out for the next few hours.


There was even a guy selling packed food coming to us, which ensured none of us had to get up for anything apart from taking a leak, and we spent a few blissful hours in that area chatting and taking photos. The 2 wine bottles finished quite fast, and the rest of the evening was spent continuously refilling them, and we actually finished the night with 9 bottles between the 6 of us!
Anyway, after the sun had set, we decided to get to the amphitheatre where bands were performing, and made our way there and then looked out for Bangdu and the rest, and once we caught up with them, found a nice spot just a few feet in front of the stage, which was pretty awesome given the crowd that was actually there. But the entire ambience was so bohemian, that people were just sparsely spread around, and everyone just chilling with their wine. The music just added to the flavor, with a Cuban band playing salsa music. Geet and I tried out our cha cha cha steps, and all of us partied into the night.
The music died at 10:30pm, after which we snaked our way back to our cars, me barely awake. We had called 2 drivers to drive our cars back, courtesy Shashank who is currently the Factory Manager at Nasik, who safely took us back to our place.

Sunday, February 7
I woke up with a start at 8am, thankful for quite a few things in this order – had a blanket over me, my nose was not blocked with a cold that I usually get after drinking wine, Geet was sleeping next to me, my phone and wallet were lying closeby.. With this, I tried to go back to sleep, but wasn’t really happening, so I woke up, as usual being the first and only person awake wherever I am and went out to buy some Tea, which was probably the freshest you could find, coz the cows were just behind!
Spent the rest of the morning sitting out at the balcony, cooking some Vitamin D for myself with the morning sun, and reading the last few pages of Shantaram from Bala’s Kindle. I couldn’t really have asked for a better start to the day.
The rest soon got ready, and we started off to Igatpuri to lunch at a place called Manas Resort. However, it was only fixed Thali here and no Butter Chicken that everyone wanted, so continued ahead to land at a place called Dalvi Darbar which was quintessential Dhaba minus the beer. Some of the best Butter Chicken we had there, with spicy Chilly Chicken, and the tastiest Boondi Raitha I have ever had! Geet came up with one of her pearls this time, but asking for a “bilkul chotti half roti”.
After a good heavy meal, I handed over the driving to Shreyansh and Parul, and the 2 of us got in the backseat and crashed for a bit. We soon dropped S off at Thane from where he took a bus to get to Pune, and we bid adieu to M&N as well.

Got home shortly thereafter, continuing to feel thankful, this time for the fact that we had friends like M who actually had a house in Nasik, and P who managed to get Shashank to book the drivers for us, and most importantly, for Sulafest, such an amazing event so close to Bombay, with hot crowd, bohemian music, great wine, and an overall ambience that can sincerely rival even Oktoberfest!

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