Animal Kingdom in Water Kingdom

Before I start, special thanks to Orange for making this event possible. I also take this opportunity to apologize Kandu (Arun) for not informing him about this outing. SORRY DUDE!!! And the other guys who missed out were:
Pritam: Various interviews scheduled and a medical test on the cards too
Sanjith: Couldn't convince his boss
Manprit: Tried to convince us instead of his boss

Last Saturday, the animals decided to get away to Water Kingdom - Asia's largest theme Water Park, courtesy Orange. Orange came up with a scheme which distributed free entry passes to its customers. Now, since all of us did not use this service, we decided to do some cheating. And the partners in crime were Tarun, Rehan and Naveen. They arranged for the extra SIM cards and the latest bill statements. Thanks pals... this free trip would not have been possible without you all.

It was decided that the group will meet at Mira Road station at 9 in the morning. For the first time, myself and Tarun got the opportunity of meeting at a convenient place from our homes. As usual, Naveen was the last one to turn up with Anna. Anna and Atul had turned up from their night shifts. Rehan was hungry as usual and so decided to hog in a nearby restaurant. There were two new members joining us this time....Prashant and believe it or not!!!!! Kamzor Kali aka Bawa from Prod.... I guess he cleared the fitness test this time.

The group of 9 soon split into three groups. 5 got into Tarun's car, 2 on Rehan's bike and the other 2 on Bawa's bike. It took us around half an hour to reach our destination. The trip was made more memorable by a small mini train which took us to Water Kingdom.
Getting free entry was easier than we expected. Nobody checked our mobile phones for the SIM cards. Once we were in, we changed to nylon shorts. 6 of us wore the rented ones.

Brrr!!!! This is what happened when we all went under the shower. The water was icy cold. Somehow we got out and headed straight to the Wet Atlantic - the world's biggest wave pool.
After diving and playing with the waves, we headed straight to the 90 degree slide. There are 2 such slides both adjacent to each other. One is bright red and the other bright yellow. The only difference between these two slides apart from the color is its structure. The red slide has a curve and a steep drop while the yellow just has a steep drop. So, when you go down a yellow slide you literally experience free fall. Its one of the most thrilling spine chilling slides. In local language - FAADU. You lie down on the slide on your back, fold your hands to your head, cross your legs and whoosh!!!! Within 5 seconds you descend from a height of a 4 storey building to the ground. Its really difficult to keep your eyes open when you are coming down at such a high speed. Another best part about this yellow slide is there is no queue. You climb up and slide down. No wastage of your precious time. This is the reason we mustered up courage and tried it a second time. This slide is recommended for those you dare to defy gravity and believe in the saying "Time is Money".

(The red and yellow slide is in the background)

After the 90 degree, we tried out a slide known by the name Black Demon. As the name suggests, this slide is a huge black circular pipe and it lives to its reputation. As you slide down screaming at the top of your lungs, you keep awaiting the next turn and the steep curves. Its very much similar to a Black hole which sucks in everything. Every second of the 30 second ride in the Black Demon is full of suspense curves and beware!!!! one steep drop.

After experiencing all the thrills in less than half an hour, we headed to the other 2 slides. I don't remember their real names. We called one Bubbly and the other one Lazy. You can see Bubbly in the above snap. Its dark blue in color. The slide down the Bubbly is so slow that you almost stop midway. In the other slide, you need to use a tube. This slide gives you the feeling as if you are out on a mission. All of us tried out both the slides twice each.

After the Black Demon it was the turn of another thrilling slide. In this slide one had to lie down on the mat on one's abdomen. There are 6 such parallel slides. At the push of the button, the mats are raised and one goes down the slide.... face first.

This was my favorite slide.

The next ride which we were all so excited about was the Adventures Amazonia. Its a stream of 3 rapid rivers. But one was closed down this time. One needs to sit on a tube and then you find yourself drifting down the river. The ride is very bumpy and your bum is literally taken for a ride. This ride was so much fun that we found ourselves in the queue once again. This time we decided to take the second route and make a tube train by each person holding the legs of the other. The ride was more fun this time, with our tube train chugging along the Amazon's bumpy river. We tried out our experiment one more time till we all had enough fun.

Our next destination after enjoying all the slides and the Amazon river was the Rain Dance Discotheque. The DJ was belting out great Bollywood dance tracks. We had a great time grooving and gyrating to the music. It was a experience in itself. After draining all our energy we found ourselves back at the wave pool again. After having a quick snack of samosas and bhutta, we decided to laze around in Drifting River. This river is a never ending loop of slow flowing water. Each one of found a tube and lazed around in the river like rich business tycoons on some 5 star holiday resort. This pool was the perfect place to play pranks on one other by turning the tubes upside down. Poor Ali was the worst sufferer.
After some prank time, it was time to get the body some much needed massage. So, we headed straight to the vibrator pool. The pool was shallow with hardly 6 inches of water. There were some vibrators at the end of the pool. We all lied down in the pool for a soothing massage. The smiling faces in the below picture says it all.
The massage session was soon followed by a quick shower after which, we all left Water Kingdom with clothes on our bodies and a smile on our faces. After reaching Mira Road, we all went to Tarun's house to celebrate his dad's birthday. We even managed to sing a birthday song for him. The cake treat was followed by a dinner at Hotel Western on the Ghodbunder Highway.
(Left-Right): Myself, Rehan, Prashant, Naveen, Tarun, Amit(Bawa), Ali, Atul & Shirish(Anna)

The night stay was planned at Anna's house, as his parents were out of town. And we guys never miss such fantastic opportunities to host a Bachelors' Party. This is what I call.... "A good weekend with even better friends".

Animal Kingdom Rules!!!

The Room

After getting admission in one of the the engineering college in Dombivli, I began my search for a place to stay with a roof on the head somewhere around the college. This was because commuting to and fro from home to college was like a trek everyday. My parents wanted me to be an engineer and not a professional trekker. So, they suggested that I rent a room and stay in Dombivli.

I was thrilled at this idea of staying away from home. Imagine staying in a place far away from your parents. I could do whatever I liked, no one to nag me and living life on my terms. In short, I could live life KINGSIZE.

So, myself and Tarun rented out a room somewhere around Dombivli station. Our room was a secret hideout in itself. The narrow entrance of the building was well concealed by line of shops. Our room was further hidden in the dark alley on the third floor. If it was not for pure observation, you would find it difficult to say that our room even existed.

Our room resembled a pigeon hole and it was divided into two compartments by a hollow wooden partition. The room was painted baby pink. Each compartment of the room had a balcony. But the balcony served no purpose as it opened just within a handshaking distance opposite to our adjacent building. The buiding was not painted in years and wore a dull gray cement color.

The kitchen in our room was sort of a stock room with the tin drums neatly stacked along the length of a wall. The room wore a dark and smelly look. I could sense the mice peeping around from their holes.

The loo was in bad condition too. There were muddy footprints all over the floor. The sparrows had made their nest here too. Now, imagine your private place being invaded by someone.

It is not all. You are yet to meet my and Tarun's room partner. He was my first ever room partner. You will meet him in my new post. Till then..... keep guessing.