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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