Thursday, April 1, 2010

Wayand Trip... D's Log- Day 2

6:00 am- Woke up, freaked out at the strange surroundings. Remembered where I was, calmed down.

6:30 am- Laughed at the boys fighting over who gets to use the bathroom first.

6:45- Got ready and went looking for breakfast-was told it would be ready at 7:30.

7:20- Went to the hotel's dining room hoping that seeing me there would make them hurry with breakfast-it didn't.

7:45- Done with breakfast. Had first cup of coffee.

7:50- Saw that the tall fellow had somehow managed to get a stronger brew than me-had a second, stronger cup of coffee.

8:00- Was told to board the bus. Got another coffee to go. Ravi uncle refused to let me on with it in hand. Finished it, got laughed at by my vanmates, got on, set off to "View Point"
Lost track of time. My phone was still in intensive care. It was nestled in between the window-pane and van curtain. I was told it needed a lot of sun,u see.

Reached View Point.... went "mmmmm waaaaaaaww" (it truly was beautiful)..
Decide to take some dangerous pictures.A bunch of us lied down in the middle of the highway(always wanted to do that)- scattered when a tuck approached-managed to get the picture taken tho! :p


Got back onto Van, set off towards Pookut Lake.
Reached Pookut Lake. A loooooooooooooong line of school children were waiting to use he boating facilities. Said "Mmmmmmmmmmm Waaaaaaaaw" from where we were and got right back onto the bus-was later told tht it is a really wonderful place.

Set off to Kuruva Islands.. took forever to get there... 
Went through dirt tracks which got Ravi uncle grumbling about his baby-we ignored him(at least I did)


Fainially got to Kuruva Islands. Was told I had to walk again..this time wade through the river... Didn't like it but didn't want to be the only one staying behind...Set off... Thought it was worth it until I realised I had to walk back. Walked barefoot the whole way back(turned out my feet had swollen with all the travelling and couldn't get my shoes on)


Had an overpriced lunch near the islands and set off towards home. Too tired to care about the lack of entertainment in the van. Stopped for coffee. Walked around barefoot again :p
Energised by the coffee, we monkeyed around in the van on the last stretch of our journey-amazingly Ravi didn't say a word!!!! Encouraged by his sudden change in temperament, asked him to drop me home before taking the others to the department, he actually dropped me off at my doorstep!!
Dragged myself up the stairs, realised there was no Power-cursed the electricity dept and the government and my neighbour's dog(who was barking mad :p)
Called up the parents told them all..they were very sympathetic about my poor phone. Power came back-showered, viewed the trip pics over and over again, made myself a biiiiiiiig bowl of Top-Ramen Noodles, crashed!


Dreamt about the Ooty trip that the LLM seniors had planned for April-end :p













Bboooyyyaaaa! : )

Friday, March 26, 2010

Wayand Trip... D's Log- Day 1

5:00 a.m- Got up, last minute packing. Walked to college. Outran a jogger.

6:15- Reached college. Found only two other people there. Waited for the rest. Announced I was hungry-was ignored. Demanded breakfast-was ignored again.

6:45- Some more people showed up. None of whom were my classmates who had promised to be there by 6:30. Called up my friends and yelled at them- was told G was playing Mafia Wars. Called up G, yelled some more. Regretted having skipped coffee at home.

7:00- Breakfast was brought.-was told it was for later. Grumbled aloud.

7:15- Everyone finally arrived. Vans drove up-was pleased we got the new van. Did a happy jig.


7:17- Bumped my head against the LCD tv when getting into the van- was told off by the bus driver. Regretted getting the new van.


7:20- Opened a pack of biscuits. 


7:21 - Finished the biscuits


8:30- Stopped for breakfast-was shocked that there wasn't any tea or coffee.


8:40- Realised there wasn't a loo around for miles.


8:41- Regretted being born a girl.


8:42- Got together a bunch of girls and set off on our "find a loo adventure."


9:00- Got back to the van safely.No one got bitten by a snake. Set off.
Played Dumb Charades. Creamed the opponent team in the first couple of rounds. Lost a round. Got bored of Dumb Charades. Lost track of time.


Reached the Kerala border. Got off the bus. Found a tea stall. Almost hugged the tea-stall guy in sheer joy. Downed three teas.


Got back into the van. Bent down real low so as to not hit the dumb tv again. Set off into Kerala. Marveled at Kerala roads. Marveled at Kerala scenery. Saw some elephants. Went "Mmmmmmmm Waaaaaaaw" like in the ad. Decided to make that the catchphrase of the trip! Drove some more. Got bored. Connected G's mp3 to the USB port on the van's system...yelled at G for his sudden crappy choice in songs.


Reached Eddakal Caves. Got off the bus mighty excited. Was told we had to climb up to Eddakal Caves.  Excitement level dropped down a couple of notches. Saw the hill we would have to climb. Excitement level dropped down to negative. Many motivational sing-alongs later, reached the top. Was told we weren't at the top yet. Almost burst into tears. Rested for a loooooooooong while.Recharged our batteries.


Started off again-was glad there were proper steps this time. Reached caves. Went "mmmmm waaaaaaw!!!!" 
Stared in amazement at the carving on the cave wall. Paid no attention to the guide. Started spinning my own interpretations of the carvings Narrated them out loud. Was glared at by the guides-ignored the guides. Realised we had to climb down again. Legs started to shiver. Climb back down was excruciatingly slow.


Got back onto the bus. Too tired to care about bending low. Realised the weird growling noise was coming from my stomach. Stopped for lunch. Regretted being born a Libran. Finally decided on the fried rice. The Parotas arrived first. Regretted ordering the rice. Gobbled down lunch at a speed uncharacteristic of me.


Set off again. Too content to bother where to. Got off near some dam.. Went "mmmmm waaaaw"-was pleased that it didn't take too long to catch on.  Checked out the dam. Asserted tht KRS was better-was told we had to walk some more. Wanted to scream. Rested our feet in the river-enjoyed the cool water-was told we had to leave-wanted to bite someone's head off.


Got into the bus-remebered to bend low. Laughed at the tall guy who hit his head. Reached the falls-remember it as Kanthaaa. Realised we had to walk to the falls. Tried to get someone to carry me-was forced to walk. Saw a rocky area we had to climb over. Almost suffered a break down reminiscent of the freak down at the trek. Got over it. Jumped up and down at having finally reached the falls.Went "Mmmmm waaaaaw" Got in with the rest. Swam around for an hour-found weird things in the water-4 handkerchiefs and a pen drive. Laughed at the poor sod who lost his pen drive. Realised my phone was in my pocket all this while. Shom realised his wallet had suffered the same fate as my phone. Got laughed at by everyone around. Water got too cold-got out. Walked back to the bus-was too worried about my phone to care about the walk. Shom tried drying off his money. Didn't work. Laughed at him-remembered my phone-shut up.


Drove to the hotel. Too tired to go "mmmmm waaaw". Dumped bags in room. Looked around for a decent place to eat. Found one. Ate. Worried about phone. Delivered phone to Drs.G and B for emergency treatment. Back to room. Showered. Worried about getting up at 6:00 a.m the next morning. Slept the sleep of the dead. Didn't even hear the boys having a pillow fight next door.

Monday, February 1, 2010

Trek Ordeal..

Treks are supposed to be fun and exhilarating. So, our gang and our mascot-the dog Oi, got up early on a fine Sunday morning, to experience the joys of trekking. We were supposed to climb up the hill and end it with breakfast at one of the city’s famous joints.

While making this awesome plan, nobody factored in me FREAKING OUT up on the hill. This trek shattered my convictions of my previous life as a cat. As one of my friends astutely observed, “D, I think, no I’m sure that you were a fish in your previous life.”

Fish are not meant to climb up things and neither am I. I exhibited initial sign of the major freakdown,  (my version of nervous breakdown) at a seemingly innocent rock which lay a little to the side of our trekking path.  “It barely has a 30° incline” they said. Ha! It looked like a camouflaged dragon with its mouth wide open, just waiting for us to climb in! With a lot of help from my friends, I finally managed to clamber up this Draco-Rock (whaaaat? I like naming things! A rock that looks like a dragon is just begging to be called Draco!)

When I’d managed to frimly plant myself in a safe place on top of the rock, I was told that this rock was just the trial, the actual ordeal lay about fifteen minutes ahead. That rock (it was actually a big bunch of large rocks) lay right in the middle of our path –no way to avoid it.
I felt like I was on the electric chair and they were passing me short bursts of electricity before actually frying me! My legs were trembling and I started sweating even though it was terribly cold. I was deeply terrified of what lay ahead but I didn’t want to look like a coward and climb back down (besides, I didn’t want to make that journey myself. A downward, uneven slope coupled with my incredible tendency to fall isn’t desirable.) I was literally stuck between a rock and a hard place.
I somehow managed to climb down Draco-Rock in my terrified state and followed the rest of the group on our journey to the top, almost tripping over the dog while I was lost in morbid thoughts of myself tumbling down the side of the hill.

Just as my legs seemed to be un-jellified, I saw it. It looked like Draco-Rock’s entire family was waiting for me............  and they looked hungryyyyyyyyy.
“AAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhHHHHHHHHHH” screamed a voice in my head. “Oh no no no NOOOOOOOoooooooooooooooooooooo”, I screamed out aloud. Even Oi, who until then, was running around excitedly, was struck by a sudden attack of acrophobia.  But then, she is one tiny thing, easy to carry up. Me, on the other hand......

Everybody else scrambled up like a bunch of mountain goats. I was left there bleating away like an innocent, lost lamb. I was matching Oi’s every scared whimper. Then when I finally tried to make my way up, my foot got stuck somewhere.
I was now on the verge of hysterics. One of the mountain-goat-boys slid down and freed my foot. He was the kind who was born to climb up things. I was supposed to follow him up, place my foot exactly where he did, shadow his movements, in the hope that, at least that way, I could make it to the top.

But by now, I was in full freakdown mode. I was clinging on to the side of the rock, positively hanging on for dear life. My hysteria caused me to break out into uncontrolled laughter. My friends didn’t know how to handle me! They repeatedly told me not to look down...
That’s when the realisation hit me! I wasn’t  scared of the height , I was only scared of falling and breaking open my head. It had happened once before and I’d lived through it!! I could definitely handle it the second time around. So I gathered up my last ounce of courage and struggled up the rest of the rock.
And I was up! I had done it! This was my Everest!! I was greeted by the most amazing view of the city. I was overjoyed that I had conquered my fears. I wanted to call up everybody I had ever met and tell them all the details of my feat.

I fished my phone out of the pocket mentally making a list of all the people I wanted to call when I saw the message flashing on the screen “NO NETWORK AVAILABLE”





Bboooyyyaaaaaa!!