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 …
