My first trip to Vaishnodevi was unimpressive. Climbing was hard, and it only served to highlight how badly out of shape I was, while my in-laws managed to cope so much better. Further, I hadn’t quite realized that the cave experience wouldn’t be the same as I had imagined, since the original cave was only opened at certain times a year, and that we only entered a newly created tunnel, one far easier to access, and hence more manageable with the crowds that thronged the mountain shrine. The resulting experience at the shrine, for barely a fraction of a second, hardly compared to what I had expected / imagined / heard about. So, for me, Vaishnodevi was like any other temple, nothing to write home about, something that was reflected (though not explicitly mentioned) in the blog post I wrote then.
Imagine… huge boxes of Lego
bricks, all separated by colour, ready for building, to be scooped to the
floor, to build what you have in mind. Wouldn’t you call that a Lego
enthusiast’s idea of heaven? For us, this vision of heaven becomes a reality,
every time a Lego event arrives at a Mall near us! Our first experience was two
years ago, when we attended the Lego Fire Truck building event, and we had
another fantastic time last week at the Lego Train building event, both at HighStreet Phoenix Mall at Parel, Mumbai, held in association with Hamleys and
Funskool.
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| The small scale model of the train |
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| How often do you have so many bricks to play with? |
My fascination with Lego goes
back to my own childhood, when the few Lego bricks I had, were a prized
possession, and reluctantly given away only when I grew up and realised that we
really had no space in the house. That was almost three decades back. Today,
samhith has a BIG box filled with his Legos, and we desperately try to make
space for more! Which is why, we look forward to events such as these!
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| Busy helping out |
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| Different sizes of blocks already made... and lots more yet to be made! |
This time, the folks at Lego
decided to build a train, or rather, just an engine, due to the space
available. It was a 3 day event, but we weren’t able to make it on Friday, the
first day. We made it to the mall by Saturday afternoon, by when we realised
that the base and the sides of the train were almost ready! We had little to do
but settle in and help out as much as we could.
Surrounded by blocks, we were
soon busy with work, helping out by making blocks of specific sizes. It took a
while, but once we got used to it, our fingers flew, as did the time.
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| We met friends here, which only made it better! |
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| And made new friends too! |
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| Volunteers at work! |
Meanwhile, the train grew too.
The two grown up Lego-
enthusiasts – John Seemon and Dominic David, busy with their plans, making sure
the right block fit into the right place, that nothing went wrong.
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| John on the left, and Dominic on the right... the Lego experts! |
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| Part of the plans - look how much work goes into play! |
By the time we left, at 8 PM,
almost all was ready. All the pieces they needed were done, all they had to do,
was fit them together.
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| working into the night |
When we arrived on Sunday
morning, this was the sight that greeted us….
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| The train... and its smaller model |
The train was ready, all set for
viewing, and we happily posed with it, and its creators, before the crowds
arrived.
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| Samhith with John Seemon (left) and Dominic David (right) |
Even more fascinating than the
train were its creators. John, we had met before, the first time. We knew
already of his love for Lego, and over the past two years, have seen, online,
some of his creations. Meeting Dominic was a first this time, and it was a
pleasure to know that there are such enthusiasts in Mumbai too, with our space
crunch and all!! We gaped over Dominic’s photos of his creations at home, and
over his creations at the World of Lego in Hamleys.
And that is where we went to,
next – to Hamleys, where a Lego City event was to be held. The idea was to fill
up the plan of a city with buildings, vehicles and people, based on the City
series of Lego blocks. Here again, a huge pile of Lego bricks greeted us,
unfortunately, not sorted out this time, which made things a bit more
difficult. But once again, the kids (and parents) were in action, building all
sorts of things, both, sticking to patterns, as well creating their own.
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| The 'city' to be filled up |
Yes, Samhith did his bit too…
making this tiny cycle….
And this house…
Once again, he proudly posed for
photos…
And late in the afternoon, after
having spent almost 2 whole days there, we left for home, but not alone. We had
goodies galore from Lego, which Samhith is now busy building… and we carry back
our memories of all the wonderful people we met. I hope we have many more
events in the future that we can participate in. Are you listening, High Street
Phoenix, Lego, Hamleys, and Funskool?
If you would like to get regular updates about events happening in Mumbai and elsewhere, please join me on my Facebook Page or on Twitter.
Anu I can see how much fun this would have been for Samhith! And you too.
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