Long Day's Journey to Lavasa - Part 1

[This article originally appeared in the Lavasa Blog.]

It started around 7 o’clock on 27th February morning at the Reclamation Grounds in Bandra, when I walked into, what seemed to me, an open-air theatre. It was the stage for the flag-off for the Lavasa Women’s Drive from Mumbai, and the place was buzzing with people and cars.

They were all there to participate in and/or cheer for the participants of the Lavasa Women’s Drive (LWD) – a car rally to the beautiful hill city of Lavasa, in support of early detection of breast cancer in women and celebrate the modern Indian woman. Women sported the white LWD t-shirt and pink ribbons, their cars decorated with messages for the cause, like ‘Overtake Breast Cancer’, or in support of other social causes they believed in.

The event organisers and Bollywood celebrities flagged off the cars one by one and, soon after, my team of bloggers and photographers followed them on their journey to Lavasa.

Needless to say, the bloggers were all women, the modern independent-minded strong-spirited variety, and our conversations on the journey to Lavasa (and through to the next day) were profound. Topics ranged from Lavasa and how it was their first visit to the hill city, to bloggers as eye-witness documenters of present-day history to travel to food to women’s issues and the changing role of the urban Indian woman to personal experiences of gender compatibility (and attraction).

We travelled along the LWD route all the way to Lavasa without a hitch and, after some confusion over parking spaces and where to have lunch, we settled (somewhat late) in what seemed like a comfy restaurant with a strange name: the Oriental Octopus. Outside, we could see the LWD participants arriving in small groups, satisfied from their long journeys and their kabab and biriyani lunches which were specially organised for them, and milling about on the promenade.

Inside the O. Octopus, a feeling of bonhomie had developed and we all talked and tweeted away without a care in the world, sharing experiences, getting to know each other better.

However, while taking our orders and serving us at our tables, the O. Octopus got all tangled up and began to blot out our high spirit. Apart from the wait and differences over cuisines, some of us were served the wrong dishes while others didn’t get served what they had ordered. Words and feelings were exchanged – and tweeted – leaving us in some confusion. I guess a sudden invasion of high-energy bloggers and photographers was too much for them to handle.

Undaunted, we fanned out in different directions. Some returned to Mumbai to attend to their next-day’s work, while others decided to soak up some late-afternoon entertainment, catching up on the LWD post-rally celebrations. The Band of Boys was belting out a few happy numbers and the LWD participants and their friends were jiving to the rhythm.

When we reconvened in the evening, most of the LWD participants had left. The hustle and bustle of the morning and the afternoon was replaced by a calm which was a welcome break at a day’s end. While the photographers went off to shoot Lavasa by night, the bloggers and I gathered to re-cap the day’s events, sharing our thoughts about LWD. To cut a long story short, we were impressed by the turnout of participants, the support shown by so many others, and the seamless management of the event.

Dinner awaited us and Chor Bizarre on the promenade beckoned us in. It was an Indian fare and the decor inside the restaurant was quite appealing. The bloggers made the most of it by posing here and there, taking pictures of this and that, before settling at their tables for a taste of Chor Bizarre’s sumptuous Indian cuisine. The service was tailored to our needs and, before retiring to our rooms at The Waterfront Shaw, we talked of returning to the restaurant the next day.

However, to get the best and the most from my long day’s journey to Lavasa during the Lavasa Women’s Drive, you must read the personal stories of my lady blogger friends who accompanied me there and made my journey such a celebrated one. You’ll find their stories here (Anu), here (Kiran), here (Monika), here (Nisha), here (Pushpa), here (Ramya), here (Sakshi), and here (Shakti). Happy reading!