Pune

I arrived at the reception of the Meridien Hotel in Pune, I checked in to my friends room, where I'd be 'crashing' for the next few nights. Rich wasn't expected back to the hotel until about10pm as he was working UK hours.

I went up the room and made myself comfortable. The view from the window overlooked Pune train station and out over Pune and beyond. Pune is an ever growing city, currently home to over 10 million people. From the eighth floor I could appreciate the sprawl as high rise office buildings appeared to shrink away as they fell in to the distance. Large dark brown soaring birds, black kites, circled above the city, coming within feet of the window from time to time. An impressive sight indeed. These glorious looking 'birds of prey' with their mighty talons and sharp hooked flesh tearing beaks do little more than scavenge through the rubbish. They have become opportunists like the thirty or so poverty stricken locals who sleep on the pavements outside the hotels. They find and eat what ever they can.

From the window.... Slight reflection...Sorry.
Three images stitched vertically together.... Almost got it right!

That evening Rich & Rich returned tired and hungry. We headed for an Indian buffet. The food and company was superb. It was great to see Titch, and lovely to meet his colleague Rich, who may I add is a smashing guy too.

The next morning whilst we sipped peppermint in the lobby, Jaswinder the hotel manager (possibly owner) and Gopan another manager came to meet Rich and Rich. I was introduced to
them both. Both were well educated and well travelled. Gopan provided some pointers on my travels, whilst Jaswinder seemed to take a shine to me. He asked about Amanda. How did it happen, how old was she, when did I lose her and so on. He showed much interest. He then called over one of the hotel staff requesting a complimentary massage voucher for me, and a copy of 'Chennai Express', the most recent Bollywood smash hit. He said he'd love to hear what I thought of it. How very kind I thought.

Rich informed me later he'd taken advantage of the interval at a cinema showing of 'Chennai Express' and headed out in to the sweaty crowded streets rather than returning for the final hour and a half of this three hour Indian epic. My copy was subtitled, the cinema version was not. I hoped this would make it more bearable.

I decided to take advantage of having comfortable surrounds and a good Internet connection, and focused on my writing. I submitted many articles to various publications and started work on what will eventually be a book based around our blog 'The Lump'.

The trains to Gokarna were once a week on Saturdays at 11pm, so I booked myself a ticket first thing Tuesday morning. The PNR status was WL11. I hoped over the next four and a half days I might end up with a confirmed seat this time. I decided to put the powers of positive thought to the test, visualising myself comfortably lying out on the train, content and pleased at my berth. I fully believed without doubt that I would end up with a confirmed berth by Saturday night.

Each morning and evening I dined with Titch and Rich, it was nice to have the company of one of my very best friends from the Isle of Man, and also to have surrounds that were conducive to work.

On Wednesday morning Titch and I decided to head along the road to 'Fab India' a local store with a variety of gifts, such as trinkets and clothes. As we walked along the road, Titch did his best to jump back up on to the less than well surfaced pavement. He was clearly nervous of the intense and unpredictable levels of traffic. I had become accustomed to the chaos over our previous visit to India. On one trepidation filled road crossing, I spotted an old pariah dog, skin and bones, with three little puppies following her. She picked her way between the traffic as two puppies managed to keep up. The third, hadn't attempted the crossing, looking as nervous as my friend Titch. I was immediately worried that the frightened pup might make a dash for it and get squashed by bike, bus or rickshaw. So I made a dash across the road and scooped him up before the traffic washed him away. I picked my way back through the traffic and gently plopped him down with his Mum and siblings. Titch and I crossed back to where we needed to be accompanied by the sound of clapping and much smiling from the local rickshaw drivers. One held his hands above his head clapping and shouting, 'Very nice. Very nice.' I nodded and smiled back appreciatively.

Fab India didn't have what we were looking for. Titch was looking for dresses for his little girls, and I was looking for little bits for mine and Amanda's nieces on the Isle of Man. Unfortunately we found nothing suitable. I talked Titch in to walking a little further in to town, then down in to a subway market. Neither of us were impressed with the general tat that was on offer. The hustle bustle and filth had Titch dragging us back in to the return journey gauntlet to the Meridien Hotel.

As we walked with the traffic along the edge of the road Titch decided that the pavement was a safer option. As he dived back between the parked vehicles to hop on to the pavement he was almost set spinning by a motorcyclist who clearly though the same things as Titch and was cruising along taking advantage of the clear pavement. Titch couldn't seem to find sanctuary from the mayhem that was Pune. He looked lost, confused, surprised and entertained displayed simultaneously in one facial expression.

After Titch (who is also a Rich) and Rich headed off to the office at 12.30pm I headed back to the room to work. At 5pm I decided a saunter to the spa for a sauna and jacuzzi was in order.

I slipped out of my white linen trousers and t shirt grabbing a towel from the stack of folded fluffy cotton. I wrapped the white towel securely around my waist and headed in to the sauna. 15 minutes of intense heat was plenty.

There was no one to be seen, I had the little spa to myself. The jacuzzi looked very tempting, but I had no shorts with me. I pressed the button on the wall, the bubbles started to flow. I quickly dropped my towel and lowered myself in to the warm frothing water. I assumed the bubbles would cover the fact that I was naked. As I sat there waiting for the bubbles to become more vigorous, from my belly button to my knees was still clearly visible, this wasn't panning out as I had hoped. I heard the door to the spa open, by the time it had swung back on it's hinges I was out and rewrapped in my white cotton towel. It was a close call!

I headed back up to the room to write.

Each morning before breakfast we carried out a little yoga session to keep us stretched, supple and strong. I followed on with a short meditation.

Thursday was no different. Yoga, meditation, breakfast, writing.

I had my massage booked for 6pm. It was very enjoyable. It was a cross between an oil and Thai massage. As the guy buried his thumbs in to the soles of my right foot I squirmed a little, when the same pressure was applied to my calves it was simply too much to bear. I turned, smiled and said a little gentler please. He smiled, having not heard me properly and continued to brutalise my calves for the next couple of minutes. As he moved from the backs of my legs, by passing my lower and upper back in favour of my shoulders, he deftly pulled down my rather fetching white paper underpants (They were not mine, they were provided by the spa) and then started massaging my shoulders. I thought this seemed strange. Did he just want to look at my pert buttocks as he pummelled my trapezium muscles? Was he simply airing them for me? I don't know.... A few minutes later he did head down that way to finish what he'd kind of started!

That evening I watched 'Chennai Express'. The languages varied between Tamil, Hindi and English it was strange to say the least. It was set as a comedy, when I say comedy I use the term loosely. It was a bit silly/slapstick.... and three hours of slapstick can be hard work. There were touching moments of love and beautiful scenery and wonderful Indian dancing, which I wish there'd been more of. The car chases were entertaining. Rather than filming the cars driving fast, the film was instead sped up to double speed like the old black and white movies. Funny!

I was pleased I'd watched it as I bumped in to Jaswinder the next morning in reception so was able to wax lyrical about it. My review was summed up as 'Fun'. I think that was fair.

Titch headed back to the UK on Friday night.

Saturday Rich headed in to the office at 9.30am returning at 4.30pm.

At 4pm I checked the PNR status of my ticket again, it was WL 8. The train was at 11pm. It didn't look promising, but I knew if I got on the train I'd somehow get a lovely berth.

Rich treated me to a couple of beers on the rooftop bar at the Marriot. I washed Masala coated peanuts and chilly coated dried banana slices down with a chilled bottle of Kingfisher Ultra. Later we ate some delightful India fair to finish the night off. Thanks for a cracking evening Rich, you're a good man.

I decided to check the PNR status one more time before I headed to the train station.

BOOM!!! 3A Carriage 1 Berth 54. I was in!!! Brilliant.

I lugged the 13kg back pack over my shoulders, and the 6.5kg front pack containing the cameras, lenses and laptop bits and pieces on to my chest, and said goodbye to Rich.

10 minutes later I was on the platform looking for my carriage. 5 minutes later I was all cosy ready for a night of rest as I headed to Shankar Prasad in the village of Bankikodla in near Gokarna. This is where the money raised at Amanda's funeral went to, to help build and maintain a natural playground and classroom for the local kids. I was looking forward to seeing Yogaratna, the lady who runs the project. It had been over a year since we'd visited her back in 2012.