When finally all of us did meet, we showed him his gifts & he loved it! The whole setup was nice, everyone was happy. We cut cake, took a few pics & shot some videos... it was classic. Appa would've liked to have Lucky there & so did we all but we couldn't possibly leave her at home, while we went on our day trip. So, we had to make do without her!
At 9AM, we were all trooping out of the house & started off to Innovative Film City at Bidadi. Surprise, surprise, it is just a stone's throw from bro's office. he he he! We reached there just as the place had opened up. Also, because it was a weekday, there was hardly anyone. In fact, we seemed to be the first bunch of visitors. We bought ourselves the best day package we could find & went in.
Our first stop was the pottery man. Sadhu & Ullas made pots, while the rest of us had fun watching them dirty their hands & struggle to make intricate designs in clay! It was fun walking around and it wasn't crowded, so we had all the time to check out everything. Plus no standing in queues. We got some good pictures in the mock-up of the police station, radio station, hospital, et al. Sadhu & Ullas played paintball without paint... they looked quite something. Sadhu won, at the cost of a couple of bruises... but as they say, no gain without pain!
The rides and go-kart were highly overpriced and might have been more fun if there was a crowd, so we skipped most of it. There was also mini golf, an artificial beach and similar stuff which we decided to bypass. Ullas absolutely loved the skating rink, even though it wasn't big enough and he couldn't use his own skates, which were warming up inside the car. Umlimited skating for 100 bucks is pretty worthwhile, I think. Especially for someone like Sadhu, who was learning the ropes for the first time. She fell a fair deal and hated it in the beginning but I think she liked it better as she learnt to balance herself. I was too tired to do it, so I saw with amma and watched.
The dinosaur park was one place where we totally freaked out on the photographs. My favourite is the one where one of the dinosaurs whispered something into Ullas' ears. Mmmmm, I wonder how that happened!
Appa loved the museums best. There was the Ripley's museum, the wax museum and the haunted house. The tongue twister in the Ripley museum is a must-do for all! Do it to know what it's like. The wax museum was in no way comparable to Madame Tussaud's, of course, but there were some good ones. What I loved best is that some of the best people in history are short in the museum. Whether they were short in their real life or not, they definitely made me feel proud in the museum. he he he! The models and the setup in the haunted house are well done but the timing is really bad in some places, so not scary. The noises in the last house & lighting are pretty well done. The chick at the ticket counter tries to hype it up a bit but we chewed her head off and headed straight into the house!
We skipped the fancy restaurant and settled for some very expensive masala dosa and Jeera rice, which was quicker. In the end, Ullas did the Bungy jumping & put up quite a brave show, even though he insistence that we ought to do it to know how it feels, clearly indicated that he didn't feel quite so brave. The Bob's pacer was like a live video game. Sadhu won both rounds. Well, it was a day of victory for her all along. What can I say?
The ride back was pretty traffic-free too, fortunately for us. Amma & appa headed straight to the kitchen and made coffee & snacks for us, while we kids hit the sack right away. It's amazing how much energy they have at 60! It's funny how little energy we have at half their age!
All in all, it was a fantastic day. The only sad part was that Lucky had to miss all the fun!
The story is not complete if I did not mention the yelling match in front of Shekar Hospital, when a silly old doctor reversed into our car! It had a funny ending because everything went kaput the moment appa appeared on the scene. The cop was appa's friend and the doc was the one who'd operated on appa sometime back. To save him from any embarassment, we had to leave. To quote a friend, "It was anarchy".
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