This time to Wayanad (Part One)

I could hear the chatter for sometime now and precariously agreed that this wasn’t a dream. I was half awake now from my three short hours of nap. Yet, it didn’t take me more than half a minute to run into my shower and take a bath in the cold early mornings of Bengaluru. I continued listening to the conversation that woke me up while I freshened up. Just that now I tried making any sense out of it.

I quickly grabbed hold of a shorts and a tee that I thought would be good for the three hundred kilometer drive. Sai and Savio were both smartly dressed. The three of us did resemble coming to a party in an uniform of sorts. Each one of us were in a shorts, a loose tee, a sporty cap, an aviator for shade and a designer slipper. The two went to pick up the car from Ginger while I stayed back to pack up for a three day outing. Yes, we were getting into a long weekend and we had planned this trip a few weeks in advance. I made sure that I don’t miss out on anything. Well, for those who don’t know me well, I can get ready in three minutes, I can pack my luggage for a 30days tour in ten minutes, but it takes me more than a few hours to decide if I need to carry my long lens with me. So it is an accomplishment and you must cheer for me when I say I packed up in a little more than fifteen minutes, before Sai and Savio had returned with the car. Of course I took my 70-200 . That’s a no brainer. The question however is how. I have dropped the idea of taking my lowerpro since the last couple of tours, and instead take my camera in the very ultraportable skybag.

A single honk in front of our main gate and I was running down the stairs like a kid excited to visit the zoo for the first time. We stuffed the trunk of the car with all our luggage. I kept my camera handy. I don’t like missing a shot because I have to first pull out my camera from a pocket inside a bag stacked into the back of a car. We had decided to have our break fast after we cross the city limits. It was already close to nine and we knew the traffic would be a pain. We sealed the doors and windows of our rooms and locked our apartment before getting into the car. Savio will be the lone driver and Sai will be his front seat companion. I am the single passenger in the rear and have two seats to entertain myself with. Sai took the responsibility of being the jockey for our trip. He did a pleasant job for most of the time – mixing his music selections with road directions wherever needed pretty well. Savio, on the other had, kept Sai on his toes all through the route – sometime asking him if he needs to take a turn, sometimes asking him about his life in office and at other times, teasing Sai to drive the car in city traffic. The trip had started and we were rolling into the highway with the clouds above satirically wishing us luck.

To be continued …

Palolem Diary

I was lying on a cozy mattress, peeking from underneath my warm blanket. The curtains were draping down, swaying with every gentle breeze passing through the windows. Again and again, mama calls and asks me to have the delicious recipes that she has prepared only because I am home. Dad asks me to go for a ride around the city, mentioning with pride that he has personally serviced the bike. Little sis starts complaining that I haven’t brought anything for her and insists that we must go out for dinner before I left. Neighbors plunge in to look at ‘their kid’. They come with sweets and they never forget to mention how lean I have become even though I know that I look like carrying a child in my belly! Of course, mama never mentions that when she puts a piece of homemade cake in my mouth. Dad just smiles and says that you need to exercise to keep yourself fit.

It is not always that we think of our management school during our term break. But this time it was different. I was thinking of the fun that I was missing out without my friends. I would be returning on the second of January and I thought that Goa would be as dead as before when I left in the early December, devoured of its energy after the engrossing Christmas and New Year Street Carnivals that had turned Goa into a city of ‘divas’ and which of course meant no more to us than a cluster of colorful juicy fruits dangling at the perch of a tall tree, which we could only see but could not touch. End terms had caused this havoc and the resolution for Twenty12 was made back then. Explore Goa; Tours; Night outs; More Tours!

It didn’t take us even a day after we came back on campus to decide that we were going to Palolem the very next Sunday. There was some commotion about who should and who should not be a part of this touring group. It was settled that nine of us would be going together and the others could arrange for their own transport. Words spread like wild fire and within two days, we could make out that we were not alone on our quest to South Goa and its sublime beaches. We booked a car in a hurry and packed our things well in advance. The anxiety could easily be felt when you see many groups talking about Palolem and other nearby tourist destinations during their dinner and occasionally during group meetings as well. We were no exception and Palolem had become the ‘In-Thing’ in GIM.

Hangover from the diaries of a the fake drunkard

When you are drunk alone you get senti not knowing what to do next. When you are drunk with your friends you speak your heart out. When you are drunk with dudes from different Business schools you enter into a group discussion syndrome where you argue you counter argue and you just never give up. You talk about people of whom you would have never thought of. Not at least in the last thousand years. That unwanted unloved unimagined lad would define the next few hours of your supposedly exotic night out. You fight for him. You fight against him and you never realise that the result is not in any way going to make any difference to this lad's life. However the discussion goes on and on as the bottles keep rolling uncorked and empty on the floor frothed with delicacies from far off continents and the left overs from the ought to be dinner.
The gang realises that cigarettes are in short supply and it is already 2 in the morning. The drunkards hesitantly decided to go for a ride down the block about a quarter of a mile away - only because the man burdened with the "power of attorney" judged the pilot of the car to be not insane. Guess what. Drunkards even imagine that the other one could have been a safe driver. Irony. There is no other driver. The pack safely returned from their short trip except for the fact that they would have given a nasty nightmare for the neighbourhood dogs.
Peeing in the open was never as exciting as awesome as after getting drunk. You tend to break the status quo. You are the leader in waiting the world is looking upto.
Next the men decide to dangle their legs in a well maintained pool. The only problem is when one of our magnanimous friend decided to shoot one of his slippers into the green waters. Salute to my self proclaimed idealist friend. Ideal is the world till there are not too many like you my dear idealist.
After climbing back the ten storeys trying to do service to the nation by not spending on electricity for the lift,  these new born social activists drentched their bellies for the one last time.
The night ends with the story being  documented of how men from different occupations can still be the same animal we call humans. Hopefully it will be a memorable night. I mean not like the other nights that we forget once we fall unto or bed drunk and pull on the sheets.

Mohabbat Pani Waala

Today I had the honour of meeting Mohabbat Pani waala. Mumbaikars do you know about him? He made me fall in love with the city. He distributed and made people drink water that he was carrying in four large bottles all through the one hour journey that I shared with him from CST to THANE free of cost. He was literally begging people to believe him and drink the water. And then a man asks, "aap ki guzaara kaise chalti hai". Our Man replied, "Jaise mei apka khayal rakhta hun... koi mera bhi rakhta hai". Humanity is all about sharing. This man practices humanity every day of his life.