Watch this video on YouTube.

Watch this video on YouTube.

Watch this video on YouTube.

I’d like to say that this was a youthful indiscretion, a move made by an earlier, younger and perhaps stupider incarnation of myself. But I can’t. Because a few days ago, I took a similar leap of faith — and this is despite the fact that I have a toddler and no life insurance.

I’d like to blame it all on my brother. See, during our two-week Hawai’i adventure, he was celebrating his 28th birthday. And to take stock, he decided to put his life on the line and jump out of a plane at 12,000 feet. After all, what better place is there to do that than Hawai’i? Veteran skydiver Navdeep, who’d jumped twenty-plus times during his days in the Army, said he’d join him. So how could I resist reviving the latent dare devil in me. It’s been a while since she was roused, but I couldn’t help it. I just couldn’t let them go without me.

This time, though, we played it smarter. Knowing the flack and outright resistance we’d get from our parents, who were on the trip with us, we decided to leave them out of the loop until after the fact. So we told them we were off to Chinatown for a morning food tour, knowing full well no one else on the trip would be interested in such an outing.

I have to confess, I’d given a sleeping Kavi about a zillion kisses before I left.

At 7 a.m. on the morning of the 26th, the day after Christmas, we jumped on a shuttle which took us to Skydive Hawaii, some forty minutes away in the North Shore area of Oahu. As we signed our lives away on Skydive Hawai’i's incredibly thorough waiver form — the footer on each page boldly reminding us that skydiving could lead to injury or death — oddly, none of us were nervous. Just excited. That waned a little bit as we waited more than four hours to jump, but in the end, as we donned our gear and our small but sturdy Cessna aircraft climbed to 12,000-plus feet above the Pacific ocean, it was so worth it.

We flew for a good 15 minutes, the fresh Pacific breeze washing over us through the open door of the air craft. I didn’t know it before I climbed in, but I’d be the first to jump. And I wasn’t even anxious. My tandem diver Lyle and my photographer Rod and their pals were cracking jokes and rough-housing, and when I wasn’t busy gaping at the incredible view, I would turn back to look at Navdeep and Tarun, who were not far behind me.

Then it was time to make the leap. I had done this once before — in the Alps, no less — but if you’re gonna jump out of a plane at 12,000 feet and 120 miles per hour, Hawai’i is the way to go. You can’t beat this view — the ocean roaring before you, Diamond Head and the other Oahu mountains in the backdrop, the outline of the Earth clearly visible. It’s moving. It’s amazing. It’s literally breathtaking.

Checkout the video!

Watch this video on YouTube.

Watch this video on YouTube.

Watch this video on YouTube.

We got a bit bored of hanging out by the shops in Waikiki, and it was Tarun’s birthday (my brother-in-law), so we all thought the best option was for all three of us to jump out of a plane. No, that is not a metaphor.

LOLLYWOOD
Lollywood is arguably the most underrated film industry in this part of the world. There has never been the sleekness, sex-appeal, string of  “super-hits,” or the budget that Bollywood has had over the decades. But then again, it wasn’t funded by the Indian mafia either. During the 1960s, Indian entertainment in almost all forms were heavily censored, and in many cases, banned. This inevitably gave rise to blackmarket dvds, and radio programs playing bollywood dance numbers based out of Sri Lanka. These days, most Pakistanis (and Indians), as well as Desis the world over, get their hit of movies from Bollywood. But in its heyday, Lollywood made a string of the most awesome Punjabi films. Now Punjabi films are relegated to Sikhs from outside India, so you have a handful of Punjabi films with the same weepy storyline and the hero is a Punjabi singer with zero acting ability who is funding the production.

CHECK OUT:
Maula Jatt, which launched the careers of Sultan Rahi (the hero) and Mustafa Qureshi who plays the villain, Noori Natt. The storyline is simple. Maula Jatt is the hero. Noori Natt is the villain. He steals his woman. Maula Jatt kicks ass while wearing a loongi, carrying a gandasa, and gets his woman back with a lot of dishoon-dishoon, and some of the most awesome zingers in the world. There is also a lot of mustache tweaking. Here is the best fight scene you have ever seen:

BOLLYWOOD
The Hindi-language films of Bollywood, usually shot in Mumbai (but increasingly shot on location, often in the United States, Australia, or the Swiss Alps), are what defines Indian cinema for most audiences—a masala of melodrama, action, song-and-dance and star-crossed romance. In fact, Bollywood films draw large audiences in the UK, Pakistan, the Middle East, Africa, Russia, China and many other nations. The current kings of Bollywood are Amitabh Bachchan, his son Abhishek, and of course Shah Rukh Khan, a Punjabi lad who got his start in TV serials twenty years ago.

CHECK OUT: Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s 2002 epic Devdas, an adaptation of the Saratchandra Chatterjee novel, which stars Shah Rukh Khan as a tortured but poetic rich boy who drinks himself to death after an ill-fated romance with the poor girl next door, played by Queen of Bollywood Aishwarya Rai. Here is the scene that sets off Devdas’s downward spiral:

MOLLYWOOD
The Malayalam film industry based in Kerala, is often called Mollywood, but much better known as Malluwood. The industry has never been one to follow suit and blazes its own trail. There is a long list of national awards bestowed upon actors and directors of Malluwood beginning with the 1928 silent film Vigathakumaran. Neelakkuyil won a presidential medal in 1954. Like Sandalwood, Malluwood experimented with parallel cinematic traditions in the 1970s. The Golden Age of Malayalam films (the 1980s) was a blend of paralleli cinema and more commercial genres. The big actors include a crop of newcomers and old school gems like Manmootty and Dileep.

CHECK OUT: Vinodayatra starring Dileep who plays his usual role of being a slacker. But there is a twist: he falls in love with a girl who ain’t havin it, so he sets about mending his ways. Okay so not really a twist, but it’s a fun movie! Here is a really funny scene from the movie . . . .  but it has no subtitles. The sound effects in the background and camera angles will clue you in as to when you’re meant to laugh. So there’s that. Here’s the clip:

KOLLYWOOD
Home of composer A.R. Rahman who won an oscar for Slumdog Millionaire, the Tamil film industry is no joke. Based in Kodambakkam, Chennai (formerly Madras), Kollywood regularly churns out blockbusters. Storylines follow the same masala protocol, but are a lot more action oriented. Its two biggest stars are Rajnikanth and Kamal Hassan, but there are plenty of talented newcomers.

CHECK OUT: A.R. Rahman lends his voice to recent blockbuster Sivaji starring Rajnikant. He plays an NRI pissed off at the corruption he sees upon returning to India. Think he sits back and takes it? No way, Jose Tejas. Here is a scene with some bubble gum action I don’t recommend you try without proper training:

TOLLYWOOD
The Telugu film industry centers around Ramoji Film City in Hyderabad, a whopping 1,600 acre film studio, and according to the Guinness Book of World Records, it is the biggest film studio in the world. Tollywood spits out more than 150 films a year with superstars like Chiranjeevi and Mahesh Babu.

CHECK OUT: The gangster flick, Pokiri. Sorry, I meant, “underworld romance.” It is one of Tollywood’s highest grossing films starring (who else?) Mahesh Babu. He plays an undercover cop infiltrating the gang, but alas he falls in love while battling crime. Dilemma. After watching this badass fight scene, remember that the moral of the story is this: don’t mess with Manmooty. Here is the scene:

SANDALWOOD
Nobody really calls the industry sandalwood even though they have tried to get the name to stick. The film industry of Karnataka, while considerably smaller than its counterparts, produces a box office shatteriing films putting larger film industries (including Bollywood) to shame. While Bollywood was “remaking” every James Bond movie they saw in the 1970s, Sandalwood was experimenting with parallel cinema. Home to four time national award winner, Girish Kasaravalli, and newcomers like Vijay.

CHECK OUT: Hotshot actor Vijay in Duniya, a gritty 2007 drama about a nice boy from a small town . . . . with a very chiselled bod . . . who gets sucked into the underworld.  And then unleashes hell. Check out this scene from the movie:

That’s why I decided to research renting houses instead of multiple squishy hotel rooms. I’d first looked into this when trying to find a place on the beach for us this summer in San Diego, checking out sites like TripAdvisor.com and VRBO.com. Alas, everything was booked up then because we ended up traveling during Comic Con (but not actually going to the crazy event). But with a good six months lead time on our Hawai’i adventure, I figured it might just work out for us there. And it did.

The rationale was simple.

-First, this is supposed to be a family trip. If everyone traipses off to his or her respective hotel room after our daily outings, it really takes the family time out of the whole experience. Renting a house offers you that shared common space, a living room or maybe a lanai (that’s Hawaiian for deck or terrace), a place that everyone can chill out together.

-Secondly, a house or multiple rooms in a home rental mean a cheaper deal over all, especially when you divide it eight ways! Plus, people owning these homes are frequently paying a mortgage, so they need the rental income — and will make it worth your while.

-Thirdly, renting a house or apartment means you get access to a kitchen. With a big, fussy bunch like ours, that will no doubt be a life saver. We can cut costs by making some meals at home — breakfast at the least, but likely some lunches and dinners here and there, too — and everyone can eat what they like when they like. It just makes mealtimes easier all around.

So keeping these things in mind, I set about house-hunting in Hawai’i. (And anyone who knows me knows just how much I LOVE house-hunting.) While we’re staying in a two-bedroom suite at the Wyndham resort in Waikiki (which comes complete with a kitchen), I found a fabulous house with a huge terrace (with peekaboo ocean views!) in a little town called Pai’a, off the beaten path in Maui. And I found an equally fabulous house with fireplace and back-deck jacuzzi in Volcano on the Big Island.

It remains to be seen how the Charaipotra-Dhillon clan reacts to my master plan, but for now, I’m really excited to hit the hay in our second home(s) in Hawai’i.

Photo Courtesy Ohia Plantation House