Shantanu Moitra

When the weekend comes along, I just have to go somewhere — I’m a true-blue traveller. The general idea is to catch up with my friends outside the film fraternity. So I take the opportunity of a free weekend to meet up with a bunch of school friends. Some stay in Pune, and I either drive down there or meet them midway and head off to any of the pretty little places near Pune like Munshi Lake, Karjat and Koyna Dam, or Harihareshwar, which is on the Mumbai-Goa highway. That’s the best part about Maharashtra — it has these little spots that are definitely worth a trip or two.

Of course before heading out for the weekend, I take care to carry all the necessities for pitching a tent and cooking. While out on these jaunts, we like to cook Continental food. Bacon, mashed potatoes and bread seasoned with olives — now that’s the life! I enjoy cooking and have mastered the art over the past few years. But when I’m not cooking or exploring some nook and corner, I love tinkering with my radio-controlled planes that I always carry with me on such trips.

If I’m in Mumbai over the weekend and not holed up in the studio, I love pursuing my passion for astronomy. The astronomical calendar comes out a year in advance, so it’s easy to keep a track of meteor showers and the like. Now you don’t get a clear sky in the city. So, it’s only when you head out to the suburbs that you can see — with the help of a telescope, of course — a phenomenon like a Leonid meteor shower that usually takes place in April.

Photograph by Gajanan Dudhalkar