We woke up around 6 pm, the sun had not yet set and we were caught between is it morning or evening? kind of feeling.

I looked around the house and saw that Bhim was nowhere around. The car was not around too so we guessed he might have gone to the town area.

Srini and me sat in the open courtyard smiling because this was the first time in the village we  had a non schedule like this.

Usually we would be out like a light by 9 pm, wake up early and do a long walk to the countryside. But this is the beautiful thing, schedules are meant to be broken, plans are meant to be unplanned.

Then we saw Bhim coming in with his usual swagger and guess what he holds, Beer! 😊 We were out of it so my buddy goes out and gets some for the night.

We sat in the open courtyard on a beautiful moonlit evening and the mood was somber and calm.

After the high tide of fun and laughter, there was this calmness and serenity in the three of us. And the one thing that I hold dear is how Bhim blended in. It was like he was a part of us,this village from the beginning. Just openness to thoughts and people.

We would be returning back to the city tomorrow and packing up again to make our trip to Bombay and more.

Bhim made fresh popcorn and we munched on it and continued our conversations under the moonlit sky. We were missing it already knowing tomorrow would be back to the hustle, bustle and chaos of a city and none of us felt like leaving.

Bhim said it will be beautiful during the monsoon. Then and there we all came to a conclusion that next time there would be no city, we would pick him up and get him directly to the village.

Srini slept off early after eating something while we continued listening to old Hindi songs Bhim was playing a couple of old 50s Hindi songs and our thoughts went to Pankaj. We remembered in July last year, under the open sky Bhim,Pankaj,Sid,Devesh and myself listened to old Hindi Songs.. It was a beautiful memory.

Songs like these never ever go out of style. They would remain where they are. And the people who valued them would continue to listen regardless of any latest trend happening in music.

Suddenly our reverie was broken by another song. In the village some function was happening and they actually had a DJ, so our soft soothing songs got overwhelmed by all kinds of item numbers!

The saying ‘When you can’t beat them, you join them’ held true so what we did was get up and start dancing to the songs. Yup that’s what we exactly did, go with the flow! We were laughing out loud and dancing to Hindi item numbers and Misamma song – a Telugu item number. We didn’t care anymore.

After some heavy dancing and laughing we called it a night by having some more pickle rice and ghee. And right when we were about to go to sleep, the DJ music stopped too. Murphy’s law prevails always!

We woke up the next morning with a trepidation, having to go back to the city, The only consolation was we would be heading to Bombay taking a train for 17.5 hours and the route was not that well known. Srini was amazed as to me booking this route because in his words, ‘ Who takes that route’?? It went through drought and earthquake prone ones.

We had Chai, ate some mangoes said goodbye to the village and made our way to the city. We didn’t feel the heat in the village but the moment we were in the outskirts of the city it was all coming back.

We would have 4 days in Maharashtra not counting the train journey. We were moving onto another phase of our trip which would be nothing like this, not a bit.

We had friends, dear ones, some old and some very new and I was very clear about whom I could really meet and so it would be.

Another trip to Bustling Bombay, wonderful mishaps and a wonderland in rural Maharashtra..

To be continued..