My dream was to fly, don't give a damn about the rainbow...

Since I am writing again after almost two months, today there should be something different. Today, it’s not about one person, it’s about a place, rather an experience. Now whenever I listen to this song, my memory takes me back to the place.

The song is “ Tujhe Dekha to yeh jaana sanam,’ from the film Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge. The song featuring King Khan and Kajol is probably the most famous song in the history of Hindi films. It always reminds you of the yellow mustard field, Kajol in her white dress and Shahrukh standing with his arms wide open. Though I never really liked the voice of Lata Mangeshkar, the song has gained eternal fame in Bollywood.

It was June 2009; the heat in Mumbai was becoming intolerable as the rain god had planned to postpone the monsoon by two three weeks. I was back from a office offsite trip in Goa, and the heat was just getting on my nerves. So packed my bags and drove down to Panchgani, the nearest hill station. There was another reason for us going to Panchagani. It was the last official week for paragliding this season. There were four of us and everyone was equally excited about the whole funda of gliding in the sky. We reached and the next day at 11am we were there, waiting to fly…

But the wind had some other plans, the two girls with us went up in the air in ten minutes, as the wind was favoring lightweight people; But us boys, who were eighty and hundred kilos respectively [ and still increasing], had to wait for two hours till hanuman’s dad took pity on us and started blowing faster. And then I got the chance to fly. There was captain Ajay who was supposed to take me up in the air. I got the glider tied to my waist, Captain Ajay settled behind me, patted on my back and asked ‘ do you have vertigo?’ I thought of screaming “Vertigo!!! are u nuts!!! I only know vertigo comics, and the U2 song.” And we started running towards the edge of the cliff… and yes we are flying. We went straight up in the air, took left and right turns and then when we are at the highest point, Ajay’s phone started ringing “ Tujhe dekha toh yeh jaan sanam”. Wow.. I mean first of all, 10,000 feet above the ground Vodafone is still following us and secondly my boss Shahrukh Khan’s presence is still lingering here. That’s called omnipresence I guess.

But after that time, whenever I listen to the song, I can see the the open sky, the green fields, the top angle view of everything as if I am viewing something on google earth. Well if you guys want to feel the same, please visit Panchgani between Jan-June. [ Can’t promoise SRK though]!!!