For a long time, my Bunt friends have been asking me to accompany them to their guru Nityanand Baba Temple at Ganeshpuri a few kilometres before Vajreshwari. Somehow it never happened and then last week, out of the blue we planned a trip and everything fell into place. My friends Jagdish and Bhakti Shetty were to drive from Walkeshwar and fetch me early morning from the Western Express Highway in Andheri. We spoke on the phone and confirmed a meeting spot but as I disconnected it began to rain and by the time I made it to the highway it was pouring!
I somehow made it to the meeting point half drenched in a rickshaw. They had not yet arrived and the driver could not wait so I made myself comfortable in a tiny shop on the road stacked with rubber tyres. The owner was kind enough to offer me a hot cup of tea and dry my umbrella hooked on the ceiling. We were on the verge of sharing our lives with each other when my friends arrived in their swanky car and it was time for me to say goodbye to my stranger friend who cheerfully bid us goodbye.
We set out in lashing rains listening to @92.7BigFm playing on our radio. The road ahead was hazy and by the time we reached Dahisar the muddy water collected in the potholes and spilled over the roads into a massive flood. It was bottleneck traffic and there was no way to turn back. All of us were worried but we continued to drive ahead, slowly and carefully…
(To be continued)
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