I always had a lot of fun in SLC, but this trip was special since i wasn't looking forward to it at all.. Number of reasons to it, first of all things in my personal life weren't really moving very smooth and i was wondering if things will just get worse if i am not there at all. And then there were my usual cribs like "Oh god, not the same boring work again !!", "We are not even staying in Chase (thats the name of my fav hotel in SLC)", "I am again going to put on a lot of weight, i guess there are fat molecules in SLC air", "I don't know driving, so i got to depend on others which i hate.. I wish SLC had a good public transport"...
So, with all these cribs i landed in SLC on the afternoon of 9th Aug in a pathetic mood (no TV in a 15 hours flight). Of course, Sonia and Irfan were there to pick me up. And then the journey began..
The very first morning i got up at around 6 am (jet lag effect) and i went for a stroll in the back side of the hotel and i was amazed by the beauty and silence of the place.. Little had i experienced such a quiet in the atmosphere, no sound except for the sound of slow moving stream.. With trees on both sides and benches, i strolled down by the side of the stream enjoying the calmness.. One of my friends had said once, "Flowers are not really beautiful till touched and smelled by a woman, so keep doing the honour to them and take their blessings".. And i really did that honour to them :-)
So my crib about not staying in Chase vanished.. I was happier to try out a different place..
Every morning pack your bags and go to office, run STP's, have lunch at Subway and come back home, go to gym, cook food/eat out, go for a walk, browse internet and sleep.. This used to be all time schedule in SLC. But this time we did something special and that was "Midnight picnic with Maggi"
It was one of the weekdays, when we all went to the gym at 8:30 and dint come out till 9:30. SLC is kind of city where one would find it really difficult to find food after 10 (except for american fast food, which we are never interested in). Plan was to go to Ganesh, but unfortunately it closed by the time we even thought of reaching.. So since, there was nothing to eat and no energy to cook, everybody loved the idea of Maggi dinner. Maggi is one of the things that is pretty much common in all the Indians (particularly our generation)..
Then the idea of having maggi by the side of the stream dawned on us.. We cooked maggi with lots of onions, tomatoes and peas and took our bowls outside by the water stream. And that was a WOW experience. I had always loved Maggi and i had always loved water, moon and open sky and i had also loved company of good friends. I had all of them together after about 11-12 years at a place which was thousands of miles from my home and with the people who are supposed to be my professional friends.
We talked of Maggi Clubbers and the famous goodies. We talked of different ways to cook maggi, sang the famous maggi commercial "Badi gazab ki bhook lagi, maggi chahiye mujhe abhi.. Yummm.. Maggi Noodles", and had an amazing time making fun of each other and pulling each other's leg and knowing more of each other.. It truly was a wow experience..
I slept late that night, not because of jet lag but because i had an irresistable desire to write about my last picnic in a jungle, on the hills, with my childhood buddies, when i was 12 years. We played and laughed together, did most things which are stupid and of course we cooked and ate the best Indian dish -- MAGGI..
It is kind of weird, how memories which were never captured in digital camera and were never blogged comes back striking you, when you are least expecting it. It clouds your brain as if it were yesterday. That is the beauty of life, it gives you the memories and moments too precious, especially when you don't expect them at all...
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