A day Paragliding

This day was being planned for over 10 months and we must have had at least 50 let-downs just to have a good project outing. The need to take a break from the daily work schedule and to lighten up the mood was the want of everyone; but personal priorities always killed the plan

Someone always had something to do with someone else; may be it was just me 🙂 that people did not want to go out with. Luckily, I proved myself wrong this one time. For reason’s sake – There always was a husband who suddenly could not live without a wife; then there are children who only a mother can take care off after work hours, I wonder how these little humans survive the rest of the day? It’s a little confusing theory but I think they breathe. And if there is nobody, the In Law always falls sick. That’s the trump card – In Law falling sick

If nothing suits a reason, the Next Question is “How much do I have to pay?”

I sometimes wonder how we devote ourselves to our loved ones to satisfy their needs and in turn forget to find ways to satisfy one’s own wants; he does this for her and she does this for him but no one is still satisfactorily happy.

🙂 WE FINALLY, WERE HAPPY 🙂
The team was ready and we were going paragliding

The day finally was here; folks were pep’ed up and we wanted to do it. Three car left for the destination from three different locations from across Mumbai and pickup points were also very well planned; but the humans were missing; they were late ….

I left home at 730 in the morning sharp for scheduled pickups at 8. I was there just 10 min late, but unlike us the others were running extremely late; the ladies in my car were all decked up and waiting for me to pick them up.

Passengers in My Car (that’s Kailas talking to Varsha on the phone and Mona looking over with Vijaya hoping to not get a call)

I did not expect most of the folks to be ready at 8 in the morning when they got to work much later like at 1130… as one of my colleague says…

“If one can’t get to work on time for what they get paid for, they will never get there in time for something they have to pay for”

…. Onkar Didhe

The plan was to meet at the McDonald outlet at Kalamboli junction just before the Mumbai Pune Expressway @9 am. By the time I was done picking up my passengers it was already 830 AM and we were still at Airoli. But then we could not be late; let me rephrase – we are NEVER late. The ladies in my car decided to inform other folks that we were already at the meet up point and were very furious that others did not make it. The proof also was submitted.

A picture with Mr. McDonald

Well, in our case the location was just not right but there was Mr. McDonald, the girls and the food. We were anyways there mentally.

I even fantasized having my breakfast; Sausage Egg Muffin with cold chocolate shake. I dreamt of it being so yum I couldn’t wait to dig my teeth & relish my lust to taste the juicy flesh nicely placed between the unfortunate grains that could not make it to being a beer but landed up being a burger and garnished by an egg with its sunny side up. ahhhhhh, finally by around 930 AM we were there and having our extended breakfast.

We were still the first car to get there. Some folks got smarter and took a rickshaw to Kalamboli.

The first meet up at McDonald (this time it’s Kailas on phone with Vijaya, Varsha and Mona Look over and Amol Joined the group with me figuring out how to take pictures)

For others, the hope that the pickup transportation would arrive was almost becoming a feeble dream, the waiting, standing, feeling hot and sweaty; eventually got over and the cars finally found the way to the meeting point with all respective passengers safe and sound; but hungry

The good thing was Ashwini did not tell anyone that the flying session was moved from 830 AM to 330 PM. That is what I call a good program manager; well she get there in few years from now

That’s the map so far

3 cars-16 humans set their ride to a place called Kamshet, a small town next to a well-known hill station town Lonavala. We were working with a group of paragliders known as TemplePilots. They asked us to meet at a restaurant near Kamshet Village from where we would ride along with them to a point where we will be paragliding.

Given that there was a change in schedule and we were now suddenly a little early we all decided to visit the wax museum on the way and finish off with lunch.

Trying to be careful on what we eat so it does not create difficult situations while gliding; we found a decent clean restaurant and had just enough food to not keep us hungry.

The Food was not too bad but everyone was looking at a way to be careful and so did not really relish on most of the dishes that one would have usually done
Next Stop: Paragliding

Mr. Sachin (+91 9820277975) was the instructor waiting for us at the site. The winds had picked up and it was the most favorable time to go gliding, he had an impressive career. Worked at Capgemini for over 10 years and then took up teaching and paragliding as a fulltime career. He was good.

Folks had to walk down almost half a mile to the spot where the pilots were waiting for us, and then then there were few who had to release some unwanted weight from all the eating and drinking they had done earlier. So we were late again. But the good thing was this wasn’t a group activity people would have enjoyed together. So rest moved on

The TemplePilots charge 2500 INR for a round trip of about 15-20 min in air. If one has a microSD card then 700 for video recording else 1000 inclusive of the card. I say get yourself a GoPro and record yourself for freeJ. The Pilots were good and gave good information on how to maneuver the parachute. If the wind permitted they even did some stunts in the air to make the trip exciting.

The TemplePilots also give training lessons. The information is available on their website.

Weight is an important factor when it comes to paragliding with passenger. I was of course light, so had to wait for the winds to drop; as for what I understood, the combination of weight of the passenger and the size of the parachute has a direct proportional equation to be matched up with.

It was a very awkward for few to be rejected by the pilots because they were not almost close to the weight they first disclosed that they were. So all the fat people suddenly were the lightest. And the lighter ones were in question. In my opinion, this entire sport is very ironical, the fatter and the heavier ones won, they got to get on ride earlier in heavier winds and the lighter ones had to wait for their turn to come later

The ones scared of heights were flying happily and wanted to go out one another time.

Few folks who took the ride before I did, kept telling me to check the bungalows and the swimming pool from the top. I was very excited; but when I got there I just saw water all over, water in the lake, water in the pool and water around the mountains. What was so fascinating about checking out water in the pool; I was expecting much more… mermaids … may be. But then the world from above looked so different that for once Mermaids really did not mean anything.

There was only one catch, in case the primary parachute faulted in anyway there was a secondary parachute that could be easily deployed AND they had “never deployed the secondary chute in at least 20 years”. I did not know, if I should be finding this a comforting statement or was something I need to be worried about. May be they are so close to getting their name in the Guinness book of records that they would not have deployed the secondary chute for couple of more years J

Voila!!! And finally…

So came to an end “a day paragliding”, a day well cherished with memories to take back and re-experience