Office outings are fun. My colleagues have been planning to go to Kashid Beach for a while now. I could not go with them once in the past and they had to cancel the plan. In fact, I was not too confident about my driving skills, add this up to my car that is a Tata Nano. The plan to go to the beach again surfaced last week and I said I would join them. It so happened that my Flat Registration was also due and I could chose a date to do so. Both can be done one Friday by taking one leave. Club this with Saturday and Sunday it became a long weekend.The registration office is on the way to the beach we were planning to go to. It took us some time to plan and then Anand (my colleague) and I applied Friday (23rd Dec) leave. I informed Rinku and Ridhima accordingly.
Was Ridhima excited! She was happy to skip her fashion show at her play school. Anand had bought a new car a couple of months ago and he was more than happy to take it for a spin. He also hired a driver for the trip. I requested him to company me and my Nano so that I am not stranded midway along with my kid and my wife. At least his car could tow mine if needed. We started at 10.30 in the morning, reached Panvel after much round about and registration was over by 12.30 noon. Anand in the meantime also reached Panvel and was waiting for me on the highway. We started for Kashid at around 1.30 pm, I was driving very slowly on the rather broken roads. Anand's car sped up after a while and disappeared. I managed to reach Alibag by 4.30 pm and then the roads became even worse to drive on. I didn't know how to start a car till August this year and that day I was amidst a jungle on the one side and a sea on the other. Rinku quietly closed all windows of the Nano when she saw a sign 'Leopard Zone'. It was getting darker and we had lost our way. Meandering through endless rough road was tiring as hell but we kept on. Fortunately, my car also did not stop rolling.
At around 7 pm we finally reached the beach. I was so relieved, we went near the water although nothing much was visible as if to say 'thank you' to the elements specially the sea. Ridhima was already busy with the beach-sand. Anand had reached the hotel and I joined him soon. There was literally a sense of achievement that filled me with pride and satisfaction.
Kashid Beach is one of the few very clean beaches you will see closer to Mumbai. Fortunately, bad roads and remote location discourage the crowd to come here leaving it clean and picturesque. We enjoyed till 1 pm the next day. Rinku and Ridhima both were very happy. At around 1.30pm I left for Mumbai leaving Anand and the team there. I wanted to reach Mumbai before sunset. We reached Alibag by 3.30pm had our lunch at Samadhan Restaurant and reached Mumbai at around 7 pm, safe.
