Presenting 'Juhu Beach'!

Mention Juhu Beach, and the first reaction is, oh, there is nothing like the beaches in Goa... and the conversation ends right there. While there are thousands thronging the huge stretch of the Juhu Beach everyday, another thousand choose to stay as far away from it as possible, citing the place dirty! Well, if so many felt that it was dirty and definitely not worth going with kids, and absolutely not taking a bunch of them for a playdate... my curiosity only grew...

My daughter's school is opposite the beach, though rows of fancy houses block the view! After school, one day, both of us decided to go and check out the beach. We went to a quieter part of the beach, and Anushka's first reaction was, "who says Juhu Beach is dirty?!" I was shockingly surprised too! It was clean, not just by Indian standards, but by decent global standards.

When we visited Spain and Portugal last July the beaches on the Mediterranean and The Atlantic were definitely prettier, but they were dirty too in some parts. The beach at the centre of Barcelona was full of beer bottles, crowns and cigarette butts, and not to mention topless women everywhere! It was quite a task to make Anushka not see those women, and yet letting her have her share of fun!

A playdate was organised for my daughter and some of her school friends today. Not just the kids, but the mothers had a blast too! The 'haters' and the-only-discouraging-ones may change their minds if they read this post, but I just hope the authorities continue to do the good work of keeping Mumbai clean. Hope the 'Swachh Bharat Abhiyan' does not become a part of history as a mere campaign!

Here are some photographs from our playdate today :)

Lonavala

Joy and I wanted to take a quick break from the mundane Hyderabad life. The idea was to go somewhere and rest rather than going on a sight seeing tour. So we chose to go to Lonavala and Khandala.

We took a shared cab from Pune and reached Lonavala in the evening. We had a couple of names of hotels on our minds, so we started looking out for them. We checked into one, with the help of an auto rickshaw guy who took us around to find hotels.

The next afternoon the driver took us to Karla Caves, which was about 9 kms from where we were staying. These caves are the largest Chaitya caves in the country. We took the uphill, a little steep, road to reach the Karla Caves. When we reached there the driver told us that we needed to climb about 300 stairs to get there. For a moment it seemed like a monstrous task, almost impossible to achieve, but I am not the one to give up too easily. Joy was quite unsure whether I would be able to make it.

I did make it to the top, but to be very honest, it was not worth the effort. It was extremely hot, didn't expect that kind of heat in January; very unkempt entrance. Nothing looked nice! At the entrance of the caves there were three broken pillars with lions; the stairs to the caves were so dark that I chose not to climb anymore.

The driver was very surprised too see us back so early. He said, normally people take about one and a half hours to get there and come back, and we took about 45 minutes only!

Then we went back to where we came from, that is, back to the city of Lonavala, to go to Ryewood Park. I had heard about this park earlier, so I was quite excited about going to the park and sitting there for some time. As we reached there we figured it was just another park, and it was extremely hot to even step out of the car. We drove past that place with the quaint hope that we may take a stroll down the road and sit at the park on a pleasant monsoon evening.

The next place we passed was the Lonavala Lake. We didn't get off because it was absolutely dry. The city pamflets boast of this place as a replica of Chowpati, there was not a single soul around!

At this point we were rather disappointed with our plan to do a sight seeing tour. Therefore, we weren't even interested to see anything anymore. We reached Bhushi Dam. The place did not seem remotely interesting from the outside. As we went inside we realised that the place wasn't all that uninteresting. It was quite cool. So we decided to sit on the rocks, and we sat there for more than half an hour. Joy even had some tea.

After this, we set for the most awaited part of our day trip, Khandala. I just have one thing to say, this place is hyped beyond any limit. If anyone is planning a getaway from the maddening city life, it is good to check into one of the resorts and rest. There is nothing else to see.