Matheran picnic on 24th and 25th March! - Report by Vinita

Well, to start with it was arranged by our ORIGINAL DAMAGER.... Oops Sorry... MANAGER... Parag ( Can't dare call him a damager after the very efficiently arramged picnic .. WITH ALL PRE AND POST PICNIC COURTESIES) TAALYA... TAALYA .... TAALYA.... But seriously.. it was very well arranged.. right from the beginning! No hassles about the date too i think, right from day 1-- we stuck to the pre planned date of 24th March for the picnic. ( Even that's an achievement, yaar when it comes to snes95 picnics!!!) This time we had some new NON-SNES members too with us and they too have undisputedly appreciated our DAMAGER---oh sorry.. MANAGER!! WOW!! The new members were Venkat---- who also happens to be MADAM VRUSHALI'S HUSBAND ( I'm resisting adding BECHARA to that as MUZHE ABHI AUR JEENA HAI... Just kidding!! He's a lucky guy) Venkat also is a common friend of Parag's and this was his first picnic with snes95-- hope he wud join the gang on many more picnics to come!The other non snes95 member was Anuja who had accompanied us at the Shanti Sagar picnic--another very efficiently arranged one by Jiten--btw it's one year since we went for that one! Next was Padmaja--from Mulund-- she's a common friend of me, Vrushali, Anuja and Venkat. Other regular snes95 members were Parag--the MANAGER, Atul( surprises me with his regularity at picnics these days!), Swaroopa --the ever enthusiastic and now the sole veteran member as Manish has missed out on some picnics ----Vrushali, Sheetal --who was on an ONLY liquid fast but still came for the picnic---- Nikhil Apte who joined us around 9 pm back from work and me! We were supposed to take the 6.38 am local from Dombivli on Saturday and managed to take EXACTLY that train... thanks to NORMALLY late lateefs like Padmaja and me who arrived on time! Special note:- LAST PERSOM TO ARRIVE AT THE STATION WAS OUR DEAR MANAGER!! But that's because he was busy giving wake up calls to everyone sincerely at 6.15am!! That was when he woke up!!! We settled down in the compartment and soon Atul joined us from another compartment but only after a brief visit to the FIRST CLASS LADIES compartment--- why?? Don't ask me!! We reached Neral station around 7.45 am, i think and then treated ourself to vada pav, hot poha, bhaji and tea while Sheetal was content with her REAL MOSAMBI JUICE--which she refffused to share with Vrushali!! Then we were on our way to Matheran in that small toy train at 9 am-- refer to pics if they are uploaded by now :-) Parag's cousin had arranged for the train tickets so special thanks to him!The train journey was highly entertaining especially the cards game where Venkat was hell bent on HELPING ANUJA with the cards--even when she felt that the hekp was TOTALLY UNWANTED!! We had a real hilarious time seeing Anuja being pestered by Venkat and they fighting like Jr. KG kids over the train seat!! A MUST WATCH SCENE it was!! By 11 we were at Matheran and then the short trek up to our ALEXANDER RESORT..... where we had been put up.. it was a very nice comfy place but the true USP of the place was the food i guess as everyone wud agree! That afternoon the lunch we devoured must have made those people think we were just back from Somalia or some such place! Typical Gujju food with LOTTTTS of Khandvi and garam garam rotis, shrikhand etc etc The place was rated 5 on 5 for the food by us! After the heavy lunch some afternoon siesta was MUCH REQUIRED so everyone went off for a nap! I don't know what the guys did but girls had a rather entertaining session similar to the SPIN A BOTTLE theme!! Eventually hardly any sleep but we were back on our feet for an evening out to see all the points at Matheran! We visited some Rambagh point, Chowk point, one tree point-- at one of those places we tried our luck at a target game of hitting a ball at a stack of glasses--- BUT not before checking if the glasses were glued into each other--that was someone's SMART SUGGESTION--i think it was Vrushali---- but no luck, we couldn't win even a half packet of Parle- G biscuits! Parag kept hurrying us from one point to another --in between also had his snaps taken-- posing sincerely for those matrimonial types--- :-0 By the time we reached back the hotel it was pitch dark... the guys went back to the market place while the rest of us returned immediately. Unfortunately Parag was not allowed by us to visit his dear lake as it was too dark but i think they went there the next morning on their GHODAS -- how could he miss them?? At night after a wonderful dinner we had a round of DUMB CHARADES --- entertaining but quite sober as compared to THE ROCKING ONE AT SHANTI SAGAR--- Missed u guys Jiten and Manish!! Swaroop wud be haunted by CHALIYA for a long tome now as she couldn't enact it out while Nikhil had a tough time with KARTAVYA! Eventually everyone went off to sleep --- Vrushali the first as ever--- we again had a game of cards -- Anuja joined us only after making sure Venkat was not around!The Aus v/s SA match was on too--which Parag was keen to watch. After 2.30 am we had some star gazing sessions-- Atul at his creative best seeing some OLYMPIC CIRCLES among the stars!!!! Finally i think everyone went off to sleep at 4 in the morning! The guys were up at 6.30 in the morning and back from their horse riding session Parag with an injured back! We had a nice breakfast of idli chutney sambar and sandwiches over discussion about daylightsaving and GMT!! Highly intellectual stuff! Just as we were about to leave we had a brush with some monkeys who managed to snatch a pack of wafers and Venkat kept asking them to return-- Kamine wafer de!! after the final photo sesson and abhaar pradarshan we were on our way back to the station. En route we did some shopping and had lunch --- good entertainment there by which time Swaroopa had become a die hard fan of Anuja asking -- TUNM MUZHE PEHLE KYUN NAHI MILI??? All in all a wonderful picnic with lots of time at hand! I had a good time -- my last picnic with the group probably as i'm getting married and shifting to Karnataka in May!! Hope the picnics continue and i get to read all the reports atleast! Everyone is welcome to add their VISHESH TIPPANIS and details that i may have missed out! ENJOY!!!!