Umm..What was i going to call this?

Alright, its time for yet another post. Only this time its different. Welcome to the world of computer generated adventure of SuperCraig. Note i was forced to tone down on the special effects for this one. The muscles however, are real.

All characters in the comic below are purely fictional. Alright.. may be not all... but at least the door, clock and phones are.
So here goes, the first edition of the SuperCraig comics...




In case you were wondering, the breakfast did get cold.
Hope the title makes sense now.

This is SuperCraig signing out, reminding you not to be silly like me and run out before having your breakfast. It is the most important meal of the day you know.

History lesson: The Hi-Five

No, this is not a SuperCraig post. I hear a few of you disappointed, but most of you are happy! Today is a history lesson, read on to find out more:

We have all done it at some point of time. Most of us still do it. I am talking about the hi-five or more commonly known as the high five. We do it when we agree with someone, crack a good joke, (or a bad one) at work, at home, while playing sports; the hi-five has made its way deviously into our everyday lives.

Has anyone ever wondered how this global phenomenon started in the first place? Here’s what happened…I think. We take a look back (way back) to the time the first organism was formed. You must be thinking that there were no humans at the time. Well, you are right. But evidence found suggests that unicellular organisms like amoeba, even before figuring out they could split to multiply, hi-fived each other. Of course, it was not called a hi-five at that time. In fact, it had no name! We are talking about unicellular organisms, remember? But anyway, in today’s time, we don’t refer to it as a hi-five, but just a ‘high’.

The hi-five, then disappeared from the face of the earth, but only for a few hundred million years. We fast forward to the prehistoric times where early man were just forming societies, making new friends and asking out the opposite sex to a cup of coffee since splitting a person into two didn’t seem to work now! Getting back to the topic, the hi-five at that time wasn’t the hi-five we all know and love now. Back then, the hi-five was used to check whose hands and fingers were longer. However, since there was no soap back then, germs spread quickly through the constant hand contact, causing catastrophic diseases like gooey substances from the nose, rashes and dirty hands. The hi-five went on yet another break. Prehistoric men then started trying to see which one if their hands were bigger and started hi-fiving themselves. This is when the clap (or the self-five) was introduced into the human society. But that’s another story for another day.

So getting back to the topic…again, as man evolved he started inventing stuff. However, the first hi-five that paved the way for hi-fives to be used as it is today was after the invention of the wheel. Yes-sir-ee! The hi-five that we all know and love today has a round piece of stone with a hole in the middle to thank.

Since then the popularity of the hi-five has grown many fold (Figure 1). However, groups of people started playing around with the hi-five for no apparent reason. Why would you mess with something so perfect? Today, we see many variations of the hi-five like: the double handed hi-five (hi-ten), the low-five, the double handed low-five (low-ten), behind the back, across the chest, etc. the list goes on. But even with these adaptations, the hi-five remains the most used.

Figure 1: Popularity of the Hi-Five

The hi-fives have been doing a lot of advertising as well. In recent times popular TV show How I Met Your Mother makes a lot of references to the hi-five. Borat too, in his movie ‘Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan’ make a lot of use of the hi-five, sometimes even forcefully asking for one.

With the way the hi-five is gaining popularity, who knows, it may one day become today’s handshake.

For those of you who don’t know how to hi-five here are a few simple steps to follow:

1. Locate a potential hi-fiver.
2. Approach with a good joke or a simple ‘Hey! What’s up?’
3. Lift arm in a way that your palm faces target hi-fiver.
4. Wait for target hi-fiver to do the same.
5. Swing arm forward in such a way, that your palm lines up with the targets.
6. Make sure you make firm contact with the targets palm, or you will look pretty silly and everyone will know its your first time.

Tips for a good hi-five:

1. Keep constant eye contact.
2. Do not put too much force in the swing. We don’t want to hurt people.
3. Do it with good intent, not just to look cool.

Pretty damsel and the chocolate moment!

I never thought that day would ever come. The secret villain organisation known only as ASS (Association of Sneaky Scoundrels) had figured out what I thought was the best way to cause destruction and mayhem among the unsuspecting citizens. The one thing that no one could ever resist. DONUTS! I mean come on, they are round, and topped or filled with flavours, one better than the other. Eat them cold, warm, dunk them in your coffee, for breakfast, lunch or dinner, there’s nothing like it. So what’s the relation between ASS and donuts? Well firstly, if you eat too many of them, yours is bound to get big.

The villain organisation, ASS had gone out poisoning all the donuts with some weird gas they only knew as FART (Fatal Aroma Raising-hell Technique). This gas, as disgusting as it sounds, was a hundred times more disgusting than that. Our scientists at the labs (those who were fortunate enough to survive) tell us that the gas starts off smelling fragrant and inviting. But after a certain amount of time, turns into the most foul smelling disgustingly obnoxious green gas. This gas, when inhaled even in the slightest concentrations could cause people to make faces, point fingers to each other or even close their noses with their fingers. Ok enough of this science mumbo jumbo.

Getting back to the day, I woke up and thought, what better way to start the day than with a donut (or two…may be even four)? So off I went to the store, 30 minutes before it even opened. Thirty minutes later, I was not the only person outside the shop. The shutters finally opened and the sweet smell of freshly made donuts made everyone weak in the knees.

Everyone rushed in leaving me at the back of the lineL. But it was alright. I knew I was going to get some sweet donuts at the end of it. Patiently waiting my turn I looked towards the counter. I tell you my friends. It was at that moment I fell in love. The girl in front of me started yelling, “New flavour! New flavour!” “What? When? Why?” I thought. I looked over her shoulder and there I saw it. Triple Trouble was its name. Chocolate on top, in the middle and under the donut! Pure genius! (Let me remind you of the laws of Donuts. Law 1: You can never have too much chocolate on your donut.)

But by the time I reached the counter, they were all gone. But the girl in front of me the kindest soul offered me one. She bought one and got one free! While biting into the donut, I noticed a funky smell around. Gulping down the rest of it I looked around and saw people closing their noses, pointing blame on each other for the horrible smell.

This had FART gas written all over it. Luckily I carry my anti-FART spray, which I carry in my pocket. You never know when you will need it. I sprayed the entire area with it and every thing was back to normal. But what about the rest of the FART filled donuts? Well I ate them. They smell bad but still taste awesome! (Yes all of them!)

Ahh, after that awesome breakfast, I decided to walk back to the liar. Obviously coz I could not fly with all the donuts I had just eaten. Just then, my super hearing told me someone was in danger. And right enough, a few meters away was a damsel in distress yelling out for help. At once, I knew it was the same kind soul who gave me her donut. I knew it from the chocolate drenched clothes. (The triple trouble was so filled with chocolate that it was humanly impossible to eat it without getting chocolate on your clothes)

Something told me there was some problem with her chappal. May be it was a broken strap or heel. “You are so smart. How did you know it was my chappal? And how did you know it was a broken strap?” she said. With a smile on my face I replied, “No one would stand in the middle of the road with their chappal in their hand shouting for help.”

“You truly are super, SuperCraig!”, she said. But I was not going to let this damsel suffer anymore. I would have carried her and flown her to her destination. But as you recall I had more than a tummy full of donuts. With some quick thinking I managed to craft out a chappal from the left over tissues from the donut place. But a few steps later I needed to fix that as well. Something told me I needed to quick fix the original chappal…but how?! I decided to look into my utility belt. (If batman can have one, so can I)

Paper clip, safety pin, chappal strap…. Just then it hit me. I could make something out of the paper clip and the safety pin. A twist of the wire here, and the bend of a wire there. And voila! A contraption to poke holes in her foot! Ohh wait! What if I used the safety pin to hold the strap to the chappal? Genius I thought to myself! Poke of the pin there, poke of the pin there, puncture in the thumb and voila again! The chappal was a good as new.

Another day saved thanks to SuperCraig!

This is SuperCraig signing out, reminding you to always dot your ‘I’s and cross your ‘t’s!

Next best thing to the Human Torch.

What do you get when you cross a young man and a Chinese lady?

It was a dark night, and not the type that goes around fighting the joker. The ‘Torcher’ was in town, pretending to help people. He had a good thing going for him. He would turn off the street lights and pose as a do-gooder. Looking at his name, and popular comic clichés, you would think he probably ignites himself, or even flies. But not him. This Torcher did things far worse than setting things or people on fire. He was far more devious. He would pretend to help people across the dark streets and half way through would ‘flash’ them and beat them up with the torch. The screams of his victims could be heard miles away, but no one knew exactly where they were coming from, until the next morning, when the sun would rise and illuminate the place of the crime.

The Torcher!

Being a superhero (not a well renowned one though) I was ‘Eveready’ for some superhero action. I pursued the villain for most of my superhero life, but he somehow always escaped. Some may say he outsmarted me all this time, but today, right here; I will let the truth be known. No, I am not tied up with him in anyway. It’s just that I would usually be sleeping during the time he would attack his unsuspecting victims. I decided enough was enough!! I have got to stop this guy, even if it requires me to stay up all night.

His weapon of choice.

So that day, I slept in the afternoon, had bought a couple of ‘energizers’ like Red Bulls to keep me awake in the night. I stood at the corner of his favourite streets. It was my bed time, 11 pm! And the Red Bulls were not helping even a tiny bit. They had fallen asleep by now. So I was just a guy standing at the corner with two sleeping Red Bulls.

Scary, isin't it? Now imagine someone coming to beat you with a torch!

Then at about 11:30 pm, just as I had expected, the street lights went off. Now I was just a guy screaming at the corner. No, I was not scared; I had to let the Torcher know that I was there. Two minutes later, as expected the Torcher made his appearance. He said that he was the shopkeeper from down the road, trying to be a good citizen. This was exactly the modus operandi of the Torcher. I decided to go with the flow. “You are so kind. If you take me across the road, I will give you one of my Red Bulls,” I told him. “What Red Bulls?” he asked. As he swept the torch behind me, there was no sign of the Red Bulls. No sign except for their droppings that is. He said he didn’t expect anything in return. I could see right through his lies. While walking across the road, he asked me if I was from around that area. Small talk before he clubbed me on the back of my head with the torch. Without wasting any more time, I pulled out the handcuffs and cuffed him—torch in hand. There were screams alright, but this time it was not of a victim, it was of the culprit. “I am not the Torcher, you have to believe me!” he kept yelling. But I was not going to fall for that. That’s the first thing anyone shouts when they are guilty. People could now roam the streets freely at night, without the fear of becoming a victim of the Torcher.

Ok, just imagine them red. I didn't have a camera at that time.

A few days later, I was reading the paper (comic strips and the TV schedule first, of course), and when I turned to the first page, I was shocked at the headline. It read “The Torcher removes the batteries of another victim”. “Oh no!! It’s a ‘copy-cat’ Torcher. Some one is trying to copy the Torcher!!” I will have to go out and stop this guy as well.

So I went back to the same corner, with the same plan in mind, but this time, without the Red Bulls. It was a waste of time and money the first time. So I decided not to bother with them. The same thing happened; the lights went off at 11:30. A guy came with the torch, offering to ‘help’ me get to safety. But I wasn’t going to fall for it.

I arrested this guy the same way. He too kept screaming, “You have the wrong guy! I am not the Torcher.” I thought to myself, this guy is a real good copycat. Even his arrest speech was copied.

Another criminal behind bars I thought, as I opened the next day’s newspapers. But to my surprise again, the headline read “The Torcher lives to flash his victims again”. “Oh no! It’s a ‘copy-cat of the copy-cat’ Torcher.

I decided to capture this sorry ‘copy-cat of the copy-cat’ Torcher as well. The same story. Street corner. Lights off at 11:30. Man comes out with torch to ‘help’. I capture the ‘copy-cat of the copy-cat’ Torcher. He yells “I am not the Torcher. I was just trying to help you.” “Save the speech for the judge,” I told him.

But just then, I heard some one scream “NOT AGAIN!” I looked around. There was a man on the other side of the street. He was in tears. I went up to him and asked him, “Did you lose a loved one to the Torcher, or the ‘copy-cat Torcher’ or to this guy, the ‘copy of the copy-cat Torcher’?” He replied with a firm no. What could be the reason of his “NOT AGAIN!” yell? Then it hit me as I caught a glimpse of the torch in his hand. I thought back to the first, second and third guy I arrested. They were telling the truth! They were really just good Samaritans trying to help me to safety. Not that I wasn’t capable of taking care of myself. I was face to face with the original Torcher.

I played it as cool as I could. I reached for the source of his power. He sensed that I was on to him and pulled his torch away from my reach. But I was thinking a step ahead. I grabbed his battery pack. He now had nothing to power his torch. Knowing he was now powerless, he confessed, “I am the real Torcher.” That’s what I needed to hear from him. I arrested him with charges of ‘Assault with a battery’

The town was safe again. People could now roam the streets at night, although I don’t know why they wouldn’t rather sleep.

Ohh...as for the question in the beginning, you get both of them very angry.

This is SuperCraig signing out, reminding you to switch off the lights and fans when you don’t need them. It’s your world too you know.

Miss-understanding!

It was a day like no other. Didn’t venture out to work, slept till late hours of the morning (if it was still morning that is) and did everything that a self respecting superhero should not do. Well, that does not mean I am not a superhero— if I am self respecting, that’s for you to decide.

A visit to the old superhero lab was in store. I had been there the previous day to help conduct a few experiments. These experiments went on to late hours of the night. The main experiment that day was to find out the optimum combat techniques that could be used in the field. Obviously, knowing the type of superhero I am, I would never use these. It was fun nevertheless knowing what it was to be real danger.
Anyway, getting back to the day in question. I had visited the lab in the afternoon to collect the final reports of the experiment conducted the previous day. My superhero colleagues (Long-hair-then-short-now-growing-long-again-dude, Black man and the latest addition, The Laughing Buddha) decided to conduct these experiments in an external, uncontrolled environment. The perfect place was decided and off I went to check it out. However, having prior appointments I could not stay long. So finding out the minute details of the location I started moving towards my secret lair. Then, I was contacted telepathically by one of my colleagues. “Where the heck are you?” “I am on my way back. I am not available for any experiments today.”
The three of them suspected that there was a superheroine involved here. Who in their right mind would fall for SuperCraig I thought. I was on my way to a top secret mission, the details of which I could not give anyone. All I will say, it involved a huge ‘M’ a long queue some chilli sauce and a burp in the end.

For the sake of the people concerned dignity, I will not mention who cried that day.
This is SuperCraig bidding farewell, but not for long, reminding you to always flush after you are done!

Glossary:
Experiments: Counter Strike: Condition Zero
Superhero lab: Infomedia18 (old office)

Read at your own risk!

I woke up early that day my friend. The sun had still not risen; even the early bird who gets the early worm was fast asleep. While brushing my teeth I had sensed something was not right. Then it hit me like a bolt of lightning. It was way too early for anyone to be awake, too early for a superhero like me as well. So I unbrushed my teeth by gorging on leftovers from dinner and decided to go back to sleep. But not before brushing my teeth again!! I can’t afford to treat any cavities during this recession.

So anyway, waking up at my usual time I found myself in a dire situation. My hands and legs were tied up to the bed and I ….. umm… sorry wrong narration. Anyhoooo…. I woke up and went about my daily routine. Things seems quiet, a little to quiet for my liking. Usually during the Bandra Feast there is a lot of noise and commotion on the streets of Bandra, what was wrong this year? So I asked myself, if I was quiet, why would I be quiet? After hours of pondering and constant reminders to myself what I was thinking about in the first place, I decided to check it out for myself. So I made a trip to the Bandra Fair.

It was crowded as usual but still to my surprise, not a sound. So I decided to do some further investigation. After some candy floss and two giant wheel rides later I got back to my investigation. It took me far into the depths of the fair where usually you would hear the annoying ‘paaaw paaaw’s of the horns being blown, but this time there was nothing. I sensed something was terribly wrong. What’s the Bandra Fair without the noise? I wandered around the fair in desperation to find out what could be the cause of this terrible silence which was now starting to grow on me. I decided to get on the giant wheel again, but this time with the intention of getting a bird’s eye view of the events. (I never asked for the investigation to be so enjoyable)

While on top of the wheel, I thought I saw something in the distance. Something so simple and so primitive it never crossed my mind. It was a giant megaphone. Was it possible that this megaphone was sucking out all the sound that was being produced in the area? What kind of sick mind would do that? Actually a sick mind who didn’t want to be disturbed would do that. Actually, if I had the resources and the money, I would do it myself. It was brilliant! I decided to take a closer look, after stopping for some more candy floss and a bottle of coke. (WOW! That’s a lot of sugar!)

I reached the spot where the megaphones power seemed to be concentrated. As I stood there, looking at this magnificent structure, the clouds gathered. It was as if it was perfectly planned. Sudden lightening appeared in the sky and everyone was running helter-skelter once the rain started pouring down. But I still stood there, marvelling at the idea of having this at all the railway stations. Then all of a sudden, some weird noise emerged from the megaphone. It was as if it was opening up. I stood there, not knowing what to do. And suddenly, water started gushing out of the cone and flowed into a collection tank hidden underground. I had mistaken a rainwater collector for a megaphone. Knowing that I would never know the true cause of this silence I started walking home, drenched to the core.

Just then, as I saw the bolt of lightening in the sky I got an idea. I thought back to when I last heard sounds coming from the fair. It was when I had woken up early. I had trouble going back to sleep again because of all the noise; I decided to stuff my ears with ear plugs. I reached for my ears, and rightly enough the ear plugs were lodged in there, as if stuck with superglue. I yanked them out of my ears and there it was. The magnificent sounds of people ‘paaw paawing’, hawkers selling channa, people puking on the giant wheel and the hustle and bustle around. Ahh.. the sounds of the Bandra Fair. It was like music to my ears, only less appealing and with no rhythm at all.

You may think that this was a useless adventure to narrate but I think it was a huge disaster which was averted. I could have forgotten to put on my pants!!!

Well anyway, it was a great enjoyable day! Only hope that someone really makes a machine to suck out noise and install them at the Dandia events!

This is SuperCraig signing out, reminding you not to kiss the pigs. You may get swine flu!

Dude... wheres my eye?

It was his second surgery in a few months. The first was on his lip, swollen after a girl scout punched him and ran away with his money. Yes friends! The person i am talking about is none other than "long hair now short dude".So, coming back to his second surgery. This was surgery on his eye. Because of his super height, and the extreme proximity to the sun, his eye had gone bad. So filling his leave card and being promised reimbursement for the operation from the SuperHero Association, he went to the hospital. Little did he know what was in store for him. He was not going to be reimbursed. Anyway, that comes later in the story. Trying to save a few bucks, and probably with the motive of making a fake bill and asking for extra reimbursement, he admitted himself into a cheap hospital instead of the SuperHero Association recomended one. This would later come back to bite his butt. The hospital he was lying in, was the Villian Hospital. He thought Villian was the name of the place!

So they were prepping him for surgery. They asked him what he does for a living. He proudly stated, "I am a pansy by day, but by night, I am Super Pansy!" That was his undoing. The evil doctors now knew that he was not a villian, even though he looked like one. So they drugged him. When asked about his experience, he says, "All I remember are brilliant colors moving like i was so totally stoned man... it was awesome dude!"

While in surgery, the evil doctors took out his eye and kept it in the petri dish. Now this petri dish was not ordinary dish. It was the feeding bowl for the evil mastermind Dr. Know It All's pet eagle named 'Hairy Eagle'. Out of nowhere, Hairy Eagle swooped down and grabbed the eye in his talons and flew away.

Being evil, the doctors then left for their lunch break, laughing and joking as they walked out. The effect of the drugs were now starting to wear out, because Super Pansy is soooo coooooool! He suddenely realised that something was amiss. His one eye was missing! He didnt know what was happening or what to do. He paused to think, and as he closed his eyes, he could see nothing but objects that appeared like buildings. People on the roads appeared as small as ants. He could see what the other eye was seeing! So taking advantage of this 'birds eye' view so to speak, he contacted the only person who he knew would help, SuperCraig.

Now SuperCraig was out on a date with this super hot girl and he was about to.... ahem ahem.. this is a family blog. So jumping forward a few hours, (:P) SuperCraig called back SuperPansy to ask him what happened. He explained everything and SuperCraig was struck with a brilliant idea. (When have his ideas been anything short of brilliant?)

SuperCraig suggested that SuperPansy close his eyes and tell him what he saw. This way they could see exactly where the eagle was going and finally find out the secret hideout of Dr. Know It All. The eagle finally landed after 20 minutes of flight. To a place so obvious, that it would take a genius a hundred years to figure it out! Dr. Know It All was hiding out in Villian Hospital!!

SuperCraig was on his way to the hospital. SupeCraig also summoned a few doctors to meet him at the hospital. Meanwhile, Pansy.. i mean SuperPansy was still in the hospital, pretending to be drugged. At this time he could see exactly where the eagle was moving, and the eagle was on the shoulder of Dr. Know It All. The place seemed very familiar. A long corridor, an operation theatre at the end. Room 101 it read. Wait a minute! SuperPansy was in that very room. Dr. Know It All was nearing the room. He could now hear the footsteps outside. Dr. Know It All, being the person he is, knew exactly what SuperPansy could see. He purposely held a knife in front of the eye. SuperPansy was terrified. If his ear was besides Dr. Know It All, he would have heard "Fattuuuuuuuuuuuu". The door was opened with a bang. But SuperPansy stayed still. He later said he was pretending to be unconcious, but we all know he really fainted with fright. Dr. Know It All was about to cut open SuperPansy's eye when a stone broke the window and "Thud" his eagle fell down. Looking down at the dead eagle, he thought "How did i not know that was going to happen?" "I can not be Dr. Know It All anymore." as he continued to cry over the bird.

But wait.. who threw the stone? What happened to SuperPansy? Ok ok if you insist on knowing.. i will tell you.

The stone came from the road. SuperCraig threw it. It was just a coincidence that there was a mango tree outside. Dr. Know It All was no more evil, and he started dedicating his time and expertise to good. SuperCraig thought, why not go visit SuperPansy at the hospital while he was there.

As they say, Kill two birds with one stone... in more ways than one.

So another disaster was averted thanks to SuperCraig.

*SuperCraig does not recomend staring into the sun for too long. It is not good for your eyes, and besides... get a life!

The blue blog... umm... BLOB

So there i was, on top of the tallest building, looking over the city i had saved again. Ohh... let me tell you how i landed up there.

It was a cold morning, and waking up at 10 for me was too early. Anyway, I managed to pull myself out of bed after saving the city from the spoilt karela's (they weren't really spoilt, but where I was going for dinner that night, karela was on the menu). Being laundry day, i took my badly made costume out to the cleaners. I could hear voices that were planning on taking down the city. I looked around, but seeing no one there I thought I was just being paranoid. I mean, who would want to destroy the city on such a beautiful day? I had seen a huge line of ants on the road outside the sweetshop, but that seemed only natural. On my way home, i glanced at the local television shop which was currently displaying the local news channel. Some news about a giant monsterterrorising the city high rises (if you can not imagine this, watch Godzilla, but replace the giant dinosaur with a toothpaste blue blob with an iPod and no shoes). I bought my weeks needs from the neighborhood grocery shop, but weirdly he was out of sugar. Oh wait! the city is being destroyed my the blue blob thingy!

So i dropped the bags on the floor and ran out, only to realize that my costume was at the cleaners. Grabbing some newspaper and glue, I ran to the corner and made myself a mask, a make shift cape and a paper plane out of the last page.

Now with my true identity hidden from the public, and a nice paper plane to play with I caught a rickshaw. "To the blue blob" i yelled. Two

minutes and nine bucks later, i was face to face with the ugly thing. This thing really disgusted me! It left a slimy blue trail behind it and was listening to Akon! I could not let a creature like this roam free in my city. If it was listening to some better music, i would have given it a chance. However, I could still hear those voices while i was fighting the blue blob. The Akon song was now over, and then I could hear Iron Maiden coming from his earphones! At that moment, I knew that he couldn't be a bad guy and i decided to follow the voices i thought i was imagining.

Funnily enough, it led me back to the sweet shop. As i looked down, the ants appeared to be doing the evil dance. How could this be possible? Evil dancing ants? I followed the line of ants which led me to the "Ant brainwashing machine". I knew i had to destroy this...this thing. I lifted it and placed it on the paper plane and threw the plane into the garbage bin (dry waste obviously). Sparks flew from the machine and it was destroyed. As soon as the machine was destroyed, the ants stopped dancing and they all had a confused look on their faces. The machine had been brainwashing these ants to multiply and bring down the city. "Thanks SuperCraig", the ants yelled as they broke into a happy dance.

Which brings me to the opening line of the post. So there i was, on top of the tallest building, looking over the city i had saved again.

What happened to the blue blob you ask? He was always a part of the city. Why wasn't he seen

before? Because he used to live in the sewers and was content living there. Why did he come out now? Coz one of the brainwashed ant had added an Akon song on his iPod. This made him go wild and come out. How did the ant manage such a task? Well... i guess we will never know that.

This is SuperCraig signing out, reminding you to always stay hydrated. :)

Weekend pleasures, Khandala.

No no! This is not about SuperCraig saving the world or kicking Giarc's evil ass. This is about my Sunday trip to Khandala. Sorry to disappoint the fans, but theres light at the end of the tunnel. A SuperCraig adventure will be up very soon! :)

Thanks to Mark for this idea of a trek. 

It all started one evening, when a call from Mark woke me up. "Let's go somewhere for lunch.. i am hungry". Having no better work, i said sure... why not.

The conversation at Bembos suddenly made us realize how long it had been since we had last been on a trek.  Lets make it a trip every week end we thought (like that's gonna happen!).

Anyway.. we decided to ask people who were interested, but we were still going.. no matter what!

We managed to get a person each, and three of us were off on Sunday morning. Miraculously, we got seats in the Deccan Express from Dadar. Dozing most of the journey, we finally made it to Khandala, with people jumping from all corners of the compartment for our seats.

Getting off at Khandala, we knew this would be a good trip. We met my friend Angelo at Khandala station. He decided to come there by bike.A quick breakfast at a small "Hotel" and armed with bread and cheese, which would serve as lunch later, we headed to our trekking spot. 

A few quick pictures from the top, and we began our decent. We started off with eagerness in each step, but that quickly faded away as our legs began to tire. Feeling the pinch of sitting down on a chair for most of the day, the two of us working guys started lagging behind. While the college guys were seen jumping down like a couple of monkeys! Angelo had strapped his helmet on his bag, which was starting to be a hindrance to him. We decided to keep it disguised as a rock, and pick it up on the way back up. But after spotting insects and numerous rat holes, we hung it off a tree, and continued gravityward. There were three really steep part, which were as fun as they were difficult. As we neared the bottom, the sound of flowing water got louder which added as a morale boost. After about an hour and a half we reached to bottom.

Exhausted, we dropped our bags and headed straight for the water. The water was ice cold. We soaked our feet in it for some time, which left our feet numb after just a minute. Just then, we saw a whole group of trekkers in the distance. The "Pune Mountaineers" had come down another route, where they had to use ropes to descend. It sounded like fun, but we couldnt imagine ourselves doing that, especially after what we had been through on the "Easy path".

We started walking down stream searching for a place to sit and rest our weary bones. We came across a beautiful small waterfall and decided to sit there. Soaking our feet again in the numbing water we had a quick lunch and a small rest. 

Before we knew it, it was time to leave for the top as we didnt want to risk missing the train back home. So there we were.. looking up at the path we just came down a few hours ago. Climbing up was obviously way more tiring than going down, but we took almost the same time as we did coming down, with a lot more breaks. Once again, the younger ones went zipping up, leaving us way behind. As we reached the top, we were greeted to a great idea of going to have gola! So giving our legs some rest, we got up and went for gola. The cold gola was  welcome relief from the scorching sun. After gola, a nice cold beer was icing on the cake. However, chilling out a little too long at the bar, we missed the first train option. Mark suggested we hitch a ride to Panvel in a truck, which I was totally into. So there, sitting at the back of a truck, on bare steel, not exactly the most comfortable experience, but an experience nevertheless. And it surely beat standing in a crowded train. Or so we thought. The train at Panvel, seemed comfortable, till about two stations further. Crowds gushing in from both sides, men rubbing against you, sweat being exchanged is not exactly what we bargained for. Anyway, we kept ourselves amused making fun of certain people within sight, without them knowing ofcourse. After several ads with Mark's "Movie announcer" voice for the Indian Railways, it was time to get off at Kurla. I know YUCK!! Being pushed out of the train wasnt particularly fun either. Then catching a rick to Bandra, we thought the trip was ending on the right note, till we hit Sunday evening Bandra trafic. A few minutes later, we found ourselves walking home. Reaching home and sipping water, was like finding water in the desert. ( Mark had a full bottle of water but i didnt feel the need of water till i was two minutes from home.)

So there it is.. the first weekend of trekking. Hope theres a trek every weekend now!