Re: Mumbai Winter Meet & Farewell
Well, I am not really a man of few words!
19/01/2014 - Sunday morning!
I get up early in the morning and get dressed up, only to realize that the meet is at 13:30! Damn, I settle down to play some PC games. In between, I check the Mumbai TAI whatsapp group to see if there are any updates from other members. But there is none. Most of the members are coming in groups. But I am driving down solo as this place is just about 15 minutes away from my place. Finally, I message Raja and he informs me that they will be at the venue by 13:30. I leave home by 13:10 and I plan to take a shorter route which is a narrow bylane. Wrong decision! I am stuck behind a slow moving bus. By the time, I reach a main road, it is already 13:25 and I have only reached half way. No worries. It is a Sunday and roads are empty! And I am in a free revving petrol engine! Shift to Sports, dodge some rickshaws and I manage to reach the venue by 13:30 sharp.
Since I see nobody there, I drive inside the complex and park the car in the basement. I again call Raja to ask about everybody's whereabouts and they inform me that they will reach by 13:45 and ask me to meet Pankaj who is waiting outside. I meet Pankaj and his cute little Nano and we have a small chat about the Nano and the Alto 800.
As promised, Raja and group joins us in 10 minutes. Pankaj has some work and so he had to leave us, so Nigel took a quick pic of his. From there, we proceed inside and based on instructions from our director (Raja), the group poses and the cameraman (Nigel) clicks. Soon, our star (Deepam) shouts, "Ae chal na, khate hain na. Photu phir kheech lenge!". Translates to - let's eat guys, we can click pics after food. Point noted. We head towards the restaurant.
Now, as soon as I enter the restaurant, I am simple wowed by the ambience and setup. Without even tasting the food, I decided it is worth the money! Sandy (bhai) had reserved a nice exclusive (and covered) corner for us. We settled out. Again, the kind of customer service they showed was exemplary.
Coming to the food, though I am a vegetarian, I do occasionally relish fish. The list of stuff I tried in GF is so huge that it is difficult to keep count. They have a H-U-G-E variety of starters - Indian and Chinese. This was the first time I tasted Sushi and I loved it. The fish starters ordered by the non-veg guys were finger licking good. Even the selection for veg guys in main course was amazing. And not to mention, a wide variety of dessert choices.
Tip before going to GF - starve for atleast a day!
After we were done with the food, the cake was bought in with a very sweet message written on it, courtesy 'Johnnyboy'. The message of course is censored! Again, the cake from Ambrosia was mouth watering.
Finally, we exited the place and proceeded towards a last series of photoshoot! Whenever me and Raja meet, we always head to an electronics store. I show him good Android phones and he shows me good Windows phones a.k.a. Nokia Lumia. I was drooling over the Samsung Note3 but Raja managed to convince me that Lumia have better cameras. It is just that I cannot digest the WP user interface, else the Nokias are real VFM devices. I am a Samsung hater and a Sony lover. But Sony disappointed me with the Xperia Z1 and Samsung impressed me with the Note3. The latter will be my next phone, whenever I can afford it.
Moments of the day:
#1.
- Deepam is given a slice of cake.
- Raja says, "Deepam, the cake is eggless, you can have it."
- Deepam exclaims, "Arre, I eat egg!"
- Johnyboy points to a waiter and says, "Bro, get him an egg!"
ROFL!
#2.
- We are inside Reliance digital store, checking out the iPad Air.
- We see a white Polo passing by.
- Sandy shouts, "Where is the valet taking me car???"
- Both me and Raja calm him down, "Chill mate, that's not your car, it did not have a black roof"
- Sandy sees an opportunity to make a quick buck.
- He says, "Bet? 1000 bucks only."
- Raja reluctantly agrees.
- I back off. My pride is not worth 1000 bucks! (Guys with petrol A/T cars know the value of 1000 bucks!)
- We go and check out and turns out Raja lost!
All in all, it was a great meet, as expected. The meet ended with good byes and 'best of luck' wishes for me.
Thank you guys. It was great meeting you guys before I leave.