And you act on it, well thats exactly how it all began , wont bother the reader with the complete details, but the leave was sanctioned, the packing done and all set for the morrow. But before that ofcourse the celebration of vacation , wheres the booze. Drank till 2:30 am , woke up at 5:00 am and all set for a 1000 odd kilometer drive. I guess the best part of it all was that i didnt have a clue as to where i was going, it was planned in the night, though i bet my friend always knew where he was taking me and probably if i had known i wouldnt have come , but now the leave was sanctioned , couldnt waste it could I.
So off we were to Manipal - banglore is about 600 odd Km from Hyderadab, and from there Manipal is about 400 Km more, if i would have known this man i would have called us insane specially since we planned to travell this humongous distance in 1 day ,
Travelling in the morning is so beautifull, now iv done it twice, before sunrie, its all so quiet , and as the daylight peeks in , it becomes more beutiful. So off we were travelling at speeds of a 110 and 120 kmph , the breeze was like a full blown howl, I think i passed out for bout half an hour somewhere in the middle, first stop a cigarette break, we were carrying just bout two cigarettes with us and thats not good when ur travelling so early in the morning, but then u gotta make do with what you have, it was by this small hillock kinda thing the sun was out but not hot yet, the grass was green we went ito the field to take a leak , smoked the cigarette like cool dudes sitting on the grass, next to the shiny black Aveo, it felt good. A few more miles covered , the stomach growls , the hungers setting in , didnt have much of food the night before u see , so we stop at the first place we see, this small hut kinda place ,the owners woken up , hes by the fire probably makng tea, its a shanty kinda dhaba , where probably truck drivers and road workers have their first cuppa, the teas not great but the omelet and paratha , hits just the right place. As for cigarettes we have run out , so we smoke small goldflake , not bad a bit tough on the throat though, but for experienced players like us we handle it with finasse. There are these two very cute girls in the place some 6 - 7 years old cleaning bout the house , and i think to myself man she takes care of herself better than i do, so while she boils milk i have a bit of a chat with her , shes going to a muslim school , i think she meant a place where the religion is tought not education, but i wonder.
We have a large journey ahead of us so we go on . Somewehre down the road maybe 20 odd Kms away theres a traffic jam a stupid , lorrys gone and hit the pillar of a narrow bridge, no great damage to either but the roads blocked and we have to wait there for forty minutes, strike a conversation with one of the lorry drivers but then , suddenly turn a bit snobish, attitude i guess. But over all uneventfull. Then as we cruise we realise that we are travelling in a car and a car requires fuel , and ours already blinking the sign , i guess Avi is thirsty , we surge ahead and no petrol pump in sight , we get a bit panicky , i mean the car looks heavy pushing it that too on a highway , no way . Lucks with us, for we reach a petrol bunk just in time, tank full please. By three after many pee stops we reach Banglore, to my disappointment , and then after looking at the traffic to my delight we are bypassing most of the town . It strikes me this stark contrast between the banglore women and the women in hyderabad, man the hyderabadis are for sure missing out on lots.
We pass through the outskirts of banglore , more local women there yet they are much prettier than the average andhra woman , the Andhra women for some strange reason are either disproportioned or manly or both, I could get crucified for this but i simply state what i see.
Are we on the wrong track , there were no clear signages in banglore , showing us the way to Manglore, rather the signage was for a place which sounded something like Tumki , or tumkur or something like that. So so very unlike the others of our species we ask for directions. I personally have no hassels in asking for directions, its much better than getting lost, of course that is if im not in a hurry, or when i dont care where im going. This was again a panick situation ,cos according to our calculation we still needed to cover about 450 km and it was three which meant we were gonna get really late. Asking for directions is good , but then not seeing any signage to verify that direction is bad, finally after crusing for bout 50 odd minutes , ie by bout 4:00 pm we saw the signage 332 Km - Manglore. So we drove on , I was still fresh , the destination was still inviting , though i would have really liked to have just stayed back in Banglore because I also really like Banglore , and have some friends there to catch up with. Though i have never really had the chance to stay in Banglore , i really like it because its a mix of care free existence yet which is full of energy , laid back but still happening. With its lakes , parks MG road, shopping malls, book stores, tea houses, eating joints and driking holes i think its just perfect, though its expensive on a shoestring bdget like mine I dont even think i could have lasted there a day , or maybe just a day, but probably still id have to beg for the petrol.
Anyways we fly , its bout 5:0o pm now, havnt had lunch the stomachs growling once again , we reach a beautiful little place , its one of those South Indian restraunts called brindavan , i wonder why most of these places are either called Kamath , or brindavan, or shantla, i mean there are these common names, probably you could guess the name of any of these restraunts within 5 guesses. The place is so clean , and the foods amaizing , or maybe it was just the hunger , but great dosas. We refurbish oourselves and smoke a ciggy , having a pure southindian coffe, what aroma , what flavour , nescafe eat your heart out.
The evening was setting in the rains that manglore and manipal are so famous for greeted us a good 180 odd km away from Manglore, the ghats, it was night , it was foggy and the curves were the most vuluptious that i had ever seen , well almost , Simlas not too bad on those either, but it was the night and the rain that was getting to me. The journey had been long now , it was getting tiresome, tedious and basically we just needed to finish it. Though i must say that when seen in daylight its one really picturesque route, its beautifull, curves , greenery , meadows, a dirty river flowing next to the road for a bit, full of silt yet beautifull. And its great fun to drive through too in the day.
So we reah Manglore its bout 11:00 pm , we are tired infact cant even keep our eyes open , its the cigarettes that are keeping us alive, and the desire to hit Mpal. Food , im certain the hotel we are gona stay in ( Booketd through Ranga while starting from Banglore ) wont serve us, it was a last choice , no rooms available in Manipal , admission times u see. Anyways we are getting dizzy with hunger, but a stop means lost time, we choose the food, the first dhaba which we see open after Manglore, it turns out to be the only one on the route and that to vegetarian, the foods not great the teas really good. The road from Manglore to Manipal is a disaster area, it really seems like a battles taken place there, potholes, mud, diversions, and at places no road. They are actually trying to construct a 4 lane track , but right now its a mess, an the rain yet agan didnt help.
Finally 12:30 we reach manipal , as expected the hotel aint great , but the rooms big, the balconies nice , they dont serve us tea , the cable tv dosent work at present , but it dosent really matter cos we are dead tired, even too bathe, so we crash , and sleep like babies. The morning beautiful morning.
We have a plan morning the work of the transcrips to be dealt with , Ranga to be met , and basic loafering in Manipal to be done. All acomplished by bout two. Coming back to it , it was strange to see the guys in the office recognise me, i mean they even remembered my name, and asked me how Nalina was doing, it dosent pinch anymore the thought of her or of my breakup with her, the answer came out as naturally as ever, we arent togeather anymore. Its kind of strange that the pain goes away and even stranger that the guilts gone too. Being 28 and single though at times i think it might have been my biggest mistake , and yet i feel that probably i would do it again.
Met Sebastina maam , shes carrying , and very visibaly preagnant, i was shocked , at first had no clue wat to say , but then the conversation started, and it was ok , the crowd changed I mean the Manipal crowd, there are more NRIs now and quite a few people from up north , i guess to be read as delhi and also from Bihar, which in my opinion , and solely in my opinion are quite indisciplined places. Another reason that i dont really like going to the department is cos iv changed direction , and probably at one time was considered as one of their really promising students, i guess im guilty of leting them down , and also cos most of my colleagues from then are now abroad , which at present im dying to do . So i guess its a bit of failure to, but then i dont take that too seriously.
So the works done breakfast in the Hospital canteen , a new AC canteen by the way , in the hospital, it seems the old canteen that use to give us those horrible leaf idlis has become passe and is used only by the patient attendants now. The dosas still taste the same though , and it brings back a bit of Nostalgia, i cant really talk that much to Ranga yet and i know something is expected out of me , but im really glad to see him and hes really happy to see me too, and thats enough , you dont really need words at times. We go pick up his daughter whos in preschool ( man the thought has to still sink in though i have been aware of it ever since her existence, Rishika is now almost three) shes in a good mood comes too us happily , shes grown from the last time i saw her. We say our goodbyes, and promise to come for dinner in the evening, but ofcourse as soon as we leave him the plans change, thats the problem when u r travelling with friends you gota make adjustments, specially if you r travelling with just one dude.
So where are we going to Turtle bay of course, i dont really wanna go my memmories of the place dont seem to be that great, tainted i guess by my last visit there. But i really dont want to see the sea during rains. We reach there , the management has become horribly strict , coming out with these strange rules. Anyways we woo them to serve us beer and some really good fish , and we have a conversation listening to the sea. The conversations about moving on and loosing weight , probably the two most dreaded things for both of us, we give each other fundas , we plainly tell each other that we are assholes, we feel sorry for each other at least me for him , and well are just bout to hit each other , its gotten a bit messed , but then friends do that once in a while. Its really sad to see Sinu like that, but then i guess he had gone there looking for some sort of closure , i hope he found it cos theres little else he found. By the wa y TURTLE BAY WAS ASTONISHINGLY BEAUTIFUL. Anyways on the way back we buy bananas , and intricately important detail as the manipal Bananas are really famous for their flavour according to me atleast. We also took a detour to visit this rustic church and this lake that Sinus girlfriend once sat at eating sweets with her cousin, which Sinu had sent her , he ofcourse knows all this as she was on the phone describing it to him , the towns a strange little town where everyone stares at you, the street goes on till it ends abruptly into the lake as if one was suppose to drive over the lake, its beautifull , the church too was nice , atleast from the outside, the mass was in Kanada no clue wat the good man was saying , we stay ther for a bit , Sinu cries his tears while I ofcourse pee as the beers gotta come out. He is nostalgic and theres only that much that a man can take of him and the love story , but then i realise somewhere on the way out of the church , how badly it must be hurting , and im cautious and we are friends again somewehre by the time we reach back to the hotel.
The evenings setting in we are late to reach Rangas cos we were buisy picking presents, one for Rangas Daughter and the other for Sridhars, Sridhar is a friend , or an aquaintance who likes me , or liked me , we have smoked up togeather , we have drank togeather and iv met him a total of bout five times before this, but ther was some intimacy , if i were not to be leaving Manipal when i met him I think we would have been good friends. Ok so Rangas daughter is reallynaughty , and its strange to see his take on it , in a cold non emotional way he handles his daughter well , though shes a brat, and i see in him the excuses that he gives for her, its kind off strange to see the father in him, hes a really caring father and probably husband too, maybee not extremely romantic though. He had brought flowers for his wife it was her bday . Man Ranga flowers never absolutely never. We didnt speak much either there was nothing really required , but the closeness was immense and i did really feel sad leaving him.
So after tea and humungous amounts of snacs we were off to sridhars, ofcoourse after extricating a promise from ranga that he would join us after dinner at whichever place we were drinking. Sridhars become this timid man , whos always stating the fact that hes realy happy. Having married out of love , an affair that lasted a total of three months , in which he probably met her five times , i would say that really rushing things up. Anyways his daughters just one and shes a darling, his dogs pretty cute too and really timid , i mean to the extent that he would rush away as soon as you come close to him , reminds me of the cartoon courage the dog. The baby really friendly , no problems coming to Sinu , though to me she came on the second go , i guess im not really father material yet, so i state the conclusion no need for marriage for some time yet. Anyways after having a slightly strange conversation about the job , and no communication with the wife, who just stood there looking at us and then feeding her child some goo she had prepared in the mixer, I guess the kid and the dog were the most interesting of them all.
So it was me Sinu and the two kidnapped married men , with their own transport facilities to go back in case an emergency cropped at home, ar an angry spouse growled. We went to lake view a place that i had actually just visited twice , with very unfamiliar people, one Jason Divyas boi , after coming runners up in a Basketball match , there was the entire NRI gang there who had beat us, Putlur had wanted to go so we had, i really had felt out of place. And the second time was when Maneet had come for internship one month , and that time i had gone there drunk after having too many beers in the room , had puked outside it with four really pretty girls and a Sardar , one of which was my girlfriend (not the Sardar) and then had made a chiken fly ( Cooked chicken off the plate) to the plate of the hottest girl there (sadly not my girlfriend again). Anyways once i reached there i just mentioned that the place was bigger before, and the main steward who was old staff , said it was true and actually toured me all around the place, they have opened up a pub on the top with hookas and all , man really cool. Follwing this the Smirnoff was good and the conversation was about the changing student profile how they had no respect for the faculty ( since the two married men were faculty), and all i had to say was chill out and be cool , but i didnt say that , Ranga has turned out to be much cooler than expected, but i take full credit for that. Man even the conversations dont remain the same. I guess at some level it is really cool to live in Manipal , but as faculty you get really restricted from enjoying yourself, cos ur scared what the students would think, what a waste of life, though i didnt mention it to the people concerned.
We split early straight to bed , the jet lag had still not worn off. Got up late the next morning, Sridhar was there by 10:25 am , got up late by the way means by 9:30 am , i realised how much Sridhar missed his friends , i realised how stuck he was and how he was coping with affirming the opposite. I mean otherwise why would a married, working guy be there at 10:25 am , but then it could be his love for us. Man he was so lonely. Anyways off to the hospital , a patient to be met by sinu, and from there to Cosmos to drink beer, The place is atrocious now, I wouldnt go there if i was in Manipal now, the prices are exorbidant for the student community , I basically go there cos iv really spent some quality time there,cos it s air conditioned and cos i like the continental food there, specially the chicken in Mushroom sauce. I really woneder why they made it non smoking cos otherwise it might still have been ok. anyways Ranga joined us and wouldnt eat properly cos it was too expensive , trust Ranga to do something like this, i love him for it, anyways from there we went to Dolops cos its the best and more importantly we were still hungry and i wanted to go there.
I guess the best part of it all was people recognising you , like Jain , the guy who supplioed me with Cigaretted and pumped Lemon Juice into me for atleast a good two years, and whos Zippo i always had eyed, we specially traced him , they had shifted him , probably does one fourth the old business now, but i gues thats the story of the small man. The guy near sheelas , hes supplied me ciggys , specially when Marlbro reds were just 30 bucks a twenties pack, the waiter at Cosmo also did reconise me , and the guy at Dolops.Its always good visiting the past , but ofcourse theres never a comparison cos past would always seem better.
So after having a light meal at dolops it was off for us , on saturday itself , we planned to break the journey , the goodbyes were not tear full , probably we didnt even look back like they do in movies, but they were genuine and heartfelt.
Thats a long post so ill end it here as to the journey back lets hope for Trip - 2
2 comments:
*sigh*
i need that.....some of that spontaniety .....some of that trip.....in my life right now.
Well N , then just stop talking bout it and walk out on life for a bit.
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