|| "Adventure Lies in the heart, excitement in eyes & beauty is scattered around, observe it all when you walk! " ||
It was almost 7:00pm in the evening and i was in front of my white LCD monitor at the grey carpeted freezing office at Guindy (Chennai). What a moment!. It all became merry when i just realized that the same time tomorrow i would be somewhere or may be lost in the no were! i was thinking about the trek for which i had been planning.
There had been a plan to trek all alone since the Yercaud adventure and this was the right time. 3 days of holiday and i had finally made up my mind to visit kodaikanal for trekking. Vaalparai , Kollimalai and kodaikanal were my options and after several discussions and weighing weather conditions, Kodaikanal won.My plan was simple, 3 days holidays, so 2 days trekking and traveling and one day to suffer from the leg pain and burning feet.
My mind slowly drifted away from the A2 cell in the bright white excel sheet and wandered into a indescribable worry on how am i going to catch a bus and how to reach Kodaikanal etc.I have never been there and i don't know anyone who live there. As my worry dragged me somewhere to sad fantasies, a buzz came within me and reminded that it is already 6:45PM and i have to get out of office.This is one reason i hate my office! my boss sits next to me! i cannot just escape from office!
I leaned to my left and smiled at my boss and said i have to leave! she gently smiled and gave a go ahead. I saved all my work closed the excel's and hurried leaving behind my colleagues, my boss and my manager. I left the office grabbing a square folded printout from my desk and waved bye to all. The square folded printout was my hope! it contained detailed Trek routes in Kodaikanal and along with the directions.
I was excited and nervous. Nervous because the next day was Tamil New Years day and all buses would be fully packed , even if i manage to go by standing then it would make me tired during the trek. I decided that i have to get a seat somehow and planned that i will get a bus to trichy or Dindugal and from there to kodaikanal.
As i played with the probabilities and the events that are to happen in next few hours, i stepped out of my office,clearing the white cigar smoke from the unshaven Saravanan's tea shop. when the Traffic signal hit red, i hurried to the U turn opposite to my office and got a share auto as usual. Without listening to music and 30minutes of creeping through the traffic i reached my stop. I ran down into thoughts of catching a bus as i walked quickly into the beautifully plundered and unearthed street. I reached my room and as usual a wave a foul smell welcomed me when i unlocked my door
I immediately charged my mobile and camera for a while and in meantime packed and equipped myself for the trip.it took around 20-30mins and i started with my VIT alumni Grey T-shirt, Blue jean and coolers hanging down the neck of the T-shirt. .My parents agree halfheartedly whenever i say im going alone, so it is a tradition that i call my parents and update them on plan before i start to the trek or where ever i go alone.I called my mom and dad said im starting from room and i will call them tomorrow and just like i expected, the love within my mom combined with the general fear and took the 2 powerful words that i hate! Hate especially when im starting for an adventure. The words "Dont go" or "Come home" god!! it hurts!!
I made a video of my baggage and my room and few clicks of me and started. I had to walk back the same unearthered street to get an share auto to Avichi and from there to koyambedu.As i walked, my reflexes detected extra bright light irrelevant to the night's fall and competitive to the sodium vapor lamps.A bike's headlight it was and my right hand stretched piercing the air with thumbs up!i had asked for a lift and Good man , gave me a ride till the main road. "You working in a IT company?" he asked, "Yea" i replied without any interest". "So you are staying here with family? ". "No im from vellore and i go and come there during holidays".
"Oh! like today? " , i smiled to myself and said " Ya like today ". People have this stereo type, they think young men who are neatly or fashionably dressed with some expensive shoes and watches , work in IT company for a 40k salary! thats totally wrong! i dont know why people correlate the way of dressing and the profession.
As i thought about that my legs were ready to touch the ground and to march against gravity. March towards Porur until it finds a share auto. As the bike approached the main road, i got down and quickly got a share auto to Porur and from there quickly to Avichi. It was highly annoying when things get delayed at the last moment. I waited in Avichi for more than 5-10mins and there was no sign of any share auto. A vision of me returning home because of overcrowded buses creep-ed into my mind and my heart took the responsibility to put different theories and convince it.
My reflexes sensed a extra bright light and my brain mapped the lights wavelength and quickly matched to the possible source of emission. Big oval Doom and a bulb within was the result. The Share auto with the oval Doom light stood before me and i have put myself in.
It was around 9:15PM when i reached Koyambedu and it took another 15mins for me to find were buses to Kodikanal or trichy or dindugal stand.When it comes to observing and understanding the geography and structure of a place, im the dumbest. I roamed around asking people to find were my buses stand. Koyambedu is one of the easy access bustand and THE DIRTIEST. One had to jump across several animal excreta , vomits , mucus and other nonsense to move across platforms.
After considering my friend shiyam's advice over phone, i took a bus to Dindugal. Double confirming with the conductor i got in and yeah with a seat near the engine were i could stretch my legs and sleep.By the time i sat on the seat and turned back all seats were full! It was around 10:15-10:30 when the bus started. For the first time i did not put on my earphones and listen music as i had to switch off my mobile as a part of power saving strategy.
Old ladies with Pan in their mouth , drunken guys, dudes with korean mobile phones playing irritating songs loud in speakers are all the persons i hate to sit with. Next to me was a 45 year old family man whose native was dindugal. He carried a laptop Bag marked as E-go. I asked him were he works and i told him were i work and why am i here. A question popped . "You going all alone??.. seriously?? any friends joining you??" it was a long question and my answer was "ya, I'm going alone".He smiled and asked me to go to the place Berjam, 23KM from Kodaikanal. He also said how he used to cut classes when he was a kid and go there and see Forest Authority people camping, cooking and live in tents there.
It was his daughters ear pearcing day the coming Sunday and that is why he too had to rush like me. As we talked he started explaining how tough was it for him in his first job and good thing is, he is now in a reputed company (outsourcing to Louis Vittons) in a responsible position were Team Leads report to him. As we talked we fell asleep and It was around 12AM, the bus took a sudden turn to its right and halted in a Motel. What on earth will people eat at 12:00AM in a midnight , i wondered.
An alignment of one over another, something green neatly settled on a wooden bench, it is always good to have a Coconut water at chill night and especially when you have a running nose! i got down the bus and walked towards the coconut shop and could not resist i had one chill coconut water!! at the last sip the driver and conductor walked pass through me and i followed them to bus. As soon as i sat on my seat i became blank, lost in the deep sleep without wishing the world a Good Morning.
Im proud that i can have a Deep Sleep. A deep sleep of mass destruction!
I had several backlogs in my MBA beacuse i fell asleep at 10PM in night of exams without even glancing the subjects. One incident was that, my friend put a cigar in my mouth and i slept smoking one whole cigar! ( im a Teetotaler). Now Something had been disturbing my sleep for a while and my brain insisted me to open my eyes, when i did the road was bright as evenings at Chennai roads, hell of a traffic at 2:30AM in National Highway towards dindugal.The driver was also moving front and back in sleep.
The bus moved in inches and centimeters per hour for a while. I reminded i had trek and i had to have proper rest before that, so i had to shutdown my whole system and went back to sleep.The engine roared and hit good speed and i went to a state of no thinking.
Good night!
Read the next post : kodaikanaltrek.blogspot.in/2012/04/hot-seat-aweome-driver.html
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Wow SUSU......enthrilled to know the rest of the story.
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