The bustling life of the city takes its toll on everyone. All have different ways to let their hair down, relax and release the steam off the cooker. While most of the times me and my friends hit the pubs, have dinner and unwind, I find it quite monotonous. The same venues, same food, same atmosphere, even the same set of people crowding the place.

Thats when one day my Maharashtrian friend Sachin told me that hes got a small village house on the outskirts of the city. Its a place called Vajreshwari. Those in Mumbai surely have heard of it. It takes around 1 and half hour of traffic dodging before you can set yourself free from the polluted city.

As we leave behind the city, it feels like moving from Hell towards Heaven. A world free of pollution and noise, dark & serene. Sometimes, when the road is straight and empty, I switch off my bike lights. Since there are no street lights on village roads, the road and surroundings become pitch black. Nothing is visible, not even the bike. The feeling can only be experienced. Feels like traveling into Nothingness. Only the cool fragrant village breeze reminding you of your existence. It is at this point that I look up for a few seconds. The sparkling night sky looks romantic as shown in Hollywood movies. You can see lights above you but none reach the ground. Astonishing.

The Setup:

Generally we unpack and move on to the terrace. Get some cold drinks and chicken, while gazing the beautiful night sky wishing wed company (girlfriends) by our side. Since it gets cold at night we gather wood from below and light a small fire to keep ourselves warm. Usually we take tandoori chicken and some other food to eat from the city.

Then one day I had an idea. I said Hey why not barbeque . Since we didnt have fancy tools like the shops and none of us wanted to purchase anything big and bulky, we decided to go the primitive way...well almost. We purchased a small metal rod from the hardware store. The rod had to be pointed, so off we went to my factory. Grounded the rod to give it a nice point. Enroute we picked up some charcoal.

Later that night we cooked our first barbeque. Placing bricks on either sides and lighting the coal. We placed the marinated chicken through the rod over the red hot coal and sat besides it, looking at the sky & soaking in the fragrance. Sure it wasnt as tasty as Baabs Jerk Chicken but a good start nonetheless. That was the first time a year back. Ive since lost count of how many times we repeated it.

One unusal weekend:

While every experience till date has been memorable, I particularly need to mention one which was more of an adventure rather than a calm night out. Things didnt seem right from the beginning. My bike gave some problems on the way and we managed to reach there by 8PM. We opened the gates and bad luck, no power. We thought ok, no problem, the moons always there. I looked up and it turned out to be 'Amavasya ' (new-moon) . Smiles turned to frowns. Little did we know that power was the least of our problems. We opened the main gate and went inside and oh no!!!. Sachin had forgotten the keys. Damn. Surely we couldnt spend the night under a tree with all our insect friends.

We had to think fast. Mosquitos had already found us and sooner or later the more dangerous bugs would too. A spirit of adventure rose within us. We decided that we can do without the luxury of beds, toilet(???), plates etc. We decided that the first thing we need to do is get on the terrace. Since we were locked outside, that didnt seem easy. Sachin noticed the drain pipe coming from the terrace. We looked at each other and made faces as if we had to climb the Mount Everest. I tried first putting my long legs here and there. My goal was to reach the terrace...fast. After what seemed an eternity, I finally reached the top. I asked Sachin to throw the food packets up. It felt as if the UN were distributing food for the needy, only it was coming upwards. There was a 'chaar paaye' that the gardener uses lying outside. He then suggested we take it up so we have something to sit on. With great difficulty we got the cot up and Sachin climbed up too.

It was the first time we noticed the place without the lights. It looked beautiful. Miles to go and nothing in sight. The stars looked even more prettier.

Night Sky - My camera could capture only so much

We set the food on the cot and somehow managed to sit besides it. As the night passed, it got cooler. Being the winter season, we knew we were in for a cold night. Then at 11Pm, I said, I cannot bear the cold and we need to light a fire. Sachin kept refusing a few times. I though he was too tired to climb down again but there was another reason. The place where the logs are kept are infested with scorpions!!! I sat down quietly upon hearing this. But within 15 minutes the cold once again became unbearable. I got up and said Im going to get the logs . He said "dont be mad, at this hour we wont even find a doctor if anything goes wrong." I said, youll have to call a doctor anyway when I get hypothermia . He sighed and finally relented.

Log Rack - Sure it doesn't look scary now, try it at night

The cool breeze only made it worse while climbing down. Sachin took a stick and I switched on my cell phone cause that was the only source of light we had. He kept hitting the stick on the ground (to scare away anything that's unwanted) and we proceeded through the uncut grass towards the log rack. There were many logs lying on the rack. While Sachin hit the logs, I pulled out one from the top and threw it on the ground. We turned it a few times to be sure. Then I pulled another one and we took both upstairs. We gathered some dry leaves and with great difficulty managed to light the fire. We slept by the fire as there was no other option. The night passed peacefully after that but the incident got itched in our memories.