Kodai II: A story of Betrayal and Vengeance... Buhahaha

We all have fond memories of many ‘first times’ in our lives. Most of those are moments we all want to keep close to our heart till the day we die and all of us like to look back at them only with a smile on our face. The first time you got on a plane or travelled by a train (that you remember, of course), the first time you saw the sea, the first time someone let you hold the steering wheel, the first time you drove, the first time you rode a bike, the first crush, the first love, the first time you kissed and what else? The list would go on and on. Beautiful, isn’t it? Are you not smiling already, thinking about that first kiss of yours?  Well, how about the first time you passed out on a party? Didn’t see that coming, did you? Okay, this story starts with a party that went as awesome as it could be and the consequential passing out parade that followed (jk, it was just me that passed out)

 

So, it had been more than a year since we left college and the phenomenal apartment D306, Ramanuja Enclave, that we called home for the last two years of college. Nostalgia had started creeping in and it felt like memories were already getting rusty (thanks to people who left Bangalore over the time). It was at such a moment Susu (Read Suraj Sugathan) announced his arrival on a rescue mission as he was coming to India on a vacation. Sheikh told us that he would be in Bangalore by September 2 and entitled us to arrange a place for the party. It is always a problem when the person who used to be the event manager of the squad asks you to arrange things yourself this time. However, we were lucky enough to get our old apartment for a day to party after a bit of confusion and it was just going to be the beginning of an awesome long weekend (me and Anshu were set to leave to Kodaikanal on a trip with another set of friends on Saturday morning 3:00 AM and this post will eventually come down to that in a few more lines)

Susu had come with one bottle of JD and another bottle of Glennfiddich and the Mallu genes have this habit of starting to function right away when exposed to presence of alcohol (especially the expensive ones, we drink them only at parties thrown by others). It didn’t take a long time for the squad, comprising of mallus mostly, to gulp down both the bottles and to start entertaining ourselves. It was some peaceful rounds of card games for the first few hours but by around 1:30 AM we all wanted to go to our old hang out place over NICE road near the apartment. This is an incomplete over-bridge built across NICE road and we used to come here for star gazing while we were in college (only after getting high). The grain juice had started doing its magic but, despite the lame jokes and the silly acts, I was in total control until I decided to take a nap on the railing. 

The CULPRITS! 

My head started getting heavy when it was time for me to get up and go back to the flat and by the time I reached the flat, I wished if I could puke all the poison out. All I wanted to do next was crash on a bed and take a nap until my ‘other set of friends’ arrived to pick me and Anshu up. Now, gentlemen, the twists and turns start from here onward. I only remember falling on the bed and it was then I passed out. I opened my eyes the next day morning hoping to wake up into the fine greenery of Kodaikanal but what was in front of me didn’t look anything like Kodai at all. It took me five minutes to realize that I was staring at the light yellow walls of Ramanuja enclave and it gave me a shock to see Jince, Abin, and Susu lying next to me on three other beds. It still didn’t occur to me that my so called besties left me behind and continued with their trip, and I was about to go and wake Anshu up when Abin told me she was not there. 

Now on I would definitely understand if someone spoke to me about betrayal because my so called friends did to me what I would have never done to them (I know you bitches have your versions of the story but I am holding the keyboard and I own this show, huh). Any normal person would have expected their friends to carry and put them in the car in that particular scenario, but my friends are not friends friends, and they tried to wake me up rather than carrying me to the car and four heavy men failed miserably at one simple mission. It was around 9 AM and I was sulking in a Kengeri apartment, still hung over from last night, thinking about what kind of a failure I am and it was then the spontaneity kicked in and I decided that I am going to Kodai no matter what. Luckily, Fabi hadn’t taken my bike home and I asked Suraj to drop me to Satellite bus stand so that I could take a Bus to Salem. I got my bus around 10:00 AM and my epic journey started from there.

If it wasn’t for sheer determination, this trip wouldn’t have happened and I would have slept until half past noon at least because I felt like my high lasted until around 2:30 PM. Somehow I managed to get inside the bus and took a window seat and all I did until I reached Salem was, sleeping in different positions abiding to the space constraints set by the majestic design of TNSTC buses. Bangalore to Salem is around 200 Kms and on an average speed, you should be able to reach in 3 hours or maybe 3.5 hours. You get up after 3 hours and realize that you are nowhere close to Salem. Then you get up after around 3.5 hours and you realize you haven’t made much progress from the place you were at, half an hour ago. Now you get impatient and you are not sleeping anymore. You are trying to stay awake, despite the bad hangover, hoping that you will reach Salem in any moment. And finally you reach at Salem at 2:30 PM after travelling for almost 4.5 hours.

If there was ever a slow racing competition among State Transport Corporations of the country, TNSTC would remain the unbeaten champions till world’s end. Also, I understood the logic why they don’t have any Volvo/Scania or any such luxury buses in their fleet because driving these buses at  less than50 Kmph is not humanly possible. Instead, they have got numerous categories of services starting from ordinary, town to town, bye pass rider, fly over service, express, 1 to 3 etc. etc. but you wouldn’t be able to distinguish these buses unless you know to read Tamil because all these categories use the same green/brown buses with a label on the front wind shield that says what kind of service it does. If you are thinking about what difference it makes to travel on an ordinary bus and an express bus, here is how it goes: Suppose there are ten stops between start point and end point. The normal bus would stop in all the ten stops while an express skips 3 or 4. Considering the speed factor, they all travel at a comfortable 50 Kmph. It would be blasphemous to say that TNSTC buses would ever drive into accidents because they never ever travel at speeds that would remotely qualify for an accident. Oh wait, I shouldn’t be ignorant about the possibilities of accidents or irritation caused to other people sharing the same road with these buses due to their snail pace. Whatever, I need to reach Kodai man.

I had to get down from bus even before it reached the bus stand because the puke I wanted to make last night had reached my throat 12 hours later. And listen people, I am a gentleman and don’t like causing trouble to other people. I humbly requested the co-passengers to make way for me to get out of the bus so that I don’t puke on them and that was the quickest response from anyone I saw during the entire trip. I got out of the bus but struggle was real since I was in the middle of the city. I had to find a proper place to puke so that I don’t dirty the city (yes, I am a pro-Swachh Bhartian) but the nausea gods were not much in my favour. However, I spotted an opening on the drainage cover and ran towards it with no time to spare and started my job right away. It felt much better once it was over even though I got a little tired after that.

The reason why I shared my throw up story is not because I thought that anyone would get fascinated by that but because I wanted to tell you about two uncles who were standing next to me at that time. They came and helped me in a very commendable way when I was about throw my stomach up in the drain. They told me to wash my forehead, then face, back of my neck and ears once I was done throwing up and, trust me, it did help me feel much better instantly. However, the thing that surprised me was something else. One of them offered his hanky to me thinking that I didn’t have one. Honestly, I would never be kind enough to offer my kerchief to some random stranger to clean up his belly juice and the incident made me realize how, good people can still be found around. That was moment number one where faith in humanity was restored in me during the trip.

I walked towards Salem bus stand and entered a hotel for lunch. I ordered meals (rice and sambar would remain my favorite food at any given time) and it was there at the hotel the moment number two happened. I had requested for a spoon since my finger was still dressed due to an infection but the hotel didn’t have steel spoons, so the waiter got me a plastic spoon. Another waiter who was standing nearby saw me struggling with plastic spoon to put rice in my plate and he went and got one more plastic spoon and asked to use them together so that it would be easier for me(this was done without request). Even with both the spoons it was not that easy to transfer the rice on to the leaf and this guy transferred the rice with his own bare hands. I know you might go ‘ewww’ over the hygiene factor but I know he did it only out of his innocence and compassion and it did make me happy.

I started searching for a Dindigul bus hoping that I would get a Kodaikanal bus from there according to what had conductors instructed me. I got on a Madurai bus that was about to leave and managed to get a seat. The bus started from Salem bus stand by around 3:00 PM and I was hoping to reach Dindigul by 6:00 PM or something. I got my next shocker when the conductor told me that the bus would reach Dindigul only by 7:45 PM. That’s when I started getting paranoid because I was not sure whether there would be buses from Dindigul to Kodaikanal late night. I made friends with two co passengers who sat beside me and they reassured me that there would be buses to Kodaikanal throughout the day from Dindigul and not to worry about it. I eventually realized that people were all talking to each other despite being total strangers and that was obviously a great way to pass time in that slow moving bus. Clock was ticking past 7:40 and there was no signs of bus reaching Dindigul yet and that concerned me a lot. Bus reached Dindigul only by around 8:15 PM and the trip was getting adventurous with every passing moments. 

Despite reaching late to Dindigul, I was somewhat relieved thinking that the next bus would take me to Kodaikanal and told myself that there was no reason to worry at all. I walked towards the nearest bus I saw and asked the conductor when the next bus to Kodaikanal is and the way his eyebrows made a formation wasn’t comforting at all. He told me to go to the next terminal and ask in the enquiry and I just followed the instructions. The officer at the enquiry counter told me that there was no bus to Kodaikanal but I can take one bus to Batlagundu village and I might get a bus to Kodaikanal from there. The Batlagundu bus had already started and was on its way out of the bus depot when I started running towards it. There was no seat and the bus was overcrowded considering the fact that there wouldn’t be another bus to Batlagundu in a very long time. I had to stand and travel for one hour and ten minutes to reach Batlagundu bus stop and another kind guy helped identify the ramp where Kodaikanal buses would stop. It was around 9:30 PM and I was informed that the next bus to Kodaikanal would come at 10:00 PM and it did come at that time but left for Kodaikanal only by 10:30 PM.

It was a 3 hour long journey to Kodaikanal from there and I would reach by around 1:30 AM as per the calculations, which would have been fine in a normal case. But I had a problem. My final destination wasn’t Kodaikanal but Poomparai village which was tucked inside the forest 22 Kms far from Kodaikanal town. Even though it was only 22 Kms it was almost a 2 hour long journey considering the road conditions and the terrains and the last bus supposedly would leave at 1:30 AM from Kodaikanal. People in the bus told me that the next bus would be at around 3:30 AM if we didn’t make it on time to Kodaikanal for the 1:30 bus. My fingers were crossed but the fact that there was absolutely nothing I could do about it made me remain calm and I decided to sleep off on the bus. 

I was very excited when the bus reached earlier than ETA at 1:10 AM because I thought I would be able to catch the 1:30 bus to Poomparai. I thougt of taking a taxi to the resort if the rates were reasonable but obviously Rs. 1500 for a 22Km ride didn’t make any sense at all. I sat on the lonely and empty lane beside Kodaikanal bus stand waiting for the 1:30 bus to come. Also, my phone was dead by that time and there was no way of communicating with anyone. It was already 2:00 AM and there was still no sign of Poomparai bus. When it was half past 2:00 AM I understood that there is no 1:30 bus and the only bus going to come next is the one that was supposed to come from Batlagundu later. I could have taken this bus if I had waited at Batlagundu skipping the first bus I took. Finally the Poomparai bus came at around 3:40 AM and the conductor was a bit skeptical when I asked him about Club India resorts. He asked me if I was willing to walk to the resort if he dropped me at the intersection and I said yes.

I wasn’t even puzzled why everyone was so skeptical when I told them about going to Club India resort until the bus dropped me at the intersection and conductor showed me the road I had to take. The bus left right after I got down there was literally nothing I could see around myself. No moonlight, no flashlight, no phone but just the hope that I was looking in the right direction. I was able to identify a trail that went down from the public road and I started walking down on that trail. After a few meters, I saw a moderately illuminated field that looked much like a flat lawn at a distance and I concluded that it was the resort and started walking towards the light. I could see people flashing lights at distance and I tried to get their attention by trying to switch on my phone but it didn’t work out. I kept walking towards the light and with every step I took, I was getting less convinced that it was the resort. I reached the building that I was targeting, after around ten minutes and was panicked to see that it was an empty building. 

There were all good reasons for me to panic and I decided to walk towards the next building that was lit. I reached near the building but there was a moderate sized trench built around it and hence I couldn’t reach inside the compound. I started shouting ‘Anna, Anna’ hoping that someone would be there inside but the only response I got was the barking of a dog. I was about to give up my hope after about two minutes when I heard somebody getting up inside the building and opening the door to come out. It took some time for the person to point his flashlight at me because I was standing at the backside of the building. However he came out and I explained to him my ordeal and a chill went down my spine when he made me realize where I was and what kind of an idiot I was.

My friends were so great and responsible that they didn’t find it necessary to warn me that the resort was in the middle of a jungle. Literally a freaking jungle crawling with bison and wild boar at night. Yeah, Anshu had told me to give them a call once I reached the resort entrance from Main road so that they would come and pick me up since the building was around 800 meters inside. Firstly it was more than a Km inside and secondly there was no proper road leading to the resort. The guy whom I met was a farmer at night watch protecting the cattle and the crops from possible wild boar attack. The flashlights I saw were not security guards of the resort but other farmers watching over the crops. I understood the severity of the situation I was in when the farmer didn’t allow me to walk to the resort. I had asked him to show me the way so that I could go and he asked me what I was saying when there are possibly so many wild animals around. I asked him if he could drop me to the resort and I would pay him and he explained to me it wasn’t a matter of money but he couldn’t leave the cattle in case some wild animals sneaked inside.

However, he was kind enough to not leave me alone out in the dark and he called out for another watcher in the next hill and woke him up. He entitled the other guy to walk me up to the resort but I still had to walk up to the second guy from the hill where I was standing, so that he could accompany me from there. The first farmer told that he would show the flashlight and asked me to follow it until I reached the next guy. I was scared enough but I walked towards the second flashlight following the trails flashed by the first guy. There were so many ditches and loose mud that covered up until my ankle but I kept walking and finally reached the second guy. The second one wasn’t very impressed about the idea of waking him up in the middle of the night and he didn’t speak even a single word throughout the walk. It gave me shivers when I realized that the guy kept flashing around to see if there were any animals nearby and I only wanted to reach the resort somehow by then. 

The eventful journey on four different buses came to an end by around 5 AM after 19 long hours on the road and I took that sleep I deserved much, afterwards. I decided to sleep until afternoon while others decided to go on a small trek nearby. I had had my share of trekking the previous night and it was very thoughtful of them to let me sleep until I felt good. I found out that my feet had got hurt with thorns and twigs despite wearing a shoes and I cleaned everything up after taking a shower. 

We headed to Vattaikanal that afternoon to have brunch at the famed ‘Altafs’ café and also to visit the Dolphin’s nose cliff to take those awesome pictures. Even though we reached Altafs at around 2:00 PM, we got our food only by around 4:00 PM. The place has great food and an awesome view with shitty service. There are only two waiters and they treat the customers as if they would be happy to see us leave the place. However, the food was great and the view was awesome from the café. But our dolphin’s nose plan didn’t work out that day because it was already getting late. We came back to the cottage by night and had made arrangements for an awesome campfire which totally made our day. The ‘I have never done that’ game that we played at midnight put some light on some cool facts about my old friends and new ones and those facts were indeed fascinating for me.

Mushroom Facts

 

This was my second trip to Kodai and the search for Magic Mushrooms turned out to be disappointing yet again. I might have to wait until the next trip to witness the magic of those shrooms. I am hoping that the wait would be totally worth it because Kodaikanal is a small place to visit so many times otherwise, honestly. We returned from Kodaikanal the next day and if it wasn’t for the awesomeness of Dolphin’s nose cliff, the trip would have been rather a boring one because we didn’t do a lot of other stuff during the trip.

People in the trip

Honestly the trip would have been boring if it wasn't for the awesome people whom I was traveling with. Nino was amazing as always and she lived up to the expectations by introducing me to some great people to travel with. And we always used to carry a bundle of excitement with us in all our trips and that bundle, without doubt, is Anshu always. Even though that bitch ditched me and went ahead with the trip, we had great fun together at Kodai. Solomon handled all of us really well and took it upon himself to be the DJ for the trip. And there was enough time for laughter with Vinita's and Vanessa's awesome timing at making dialogues directed at us. Vanessa had made some promises to me during the trip which she never kept though :( .

'Adventurous' and 'Stupid' are to distant things

We are all young and hot blooded and would do anything to feel that adrenaline rush inside of us. But I want all of you all to remember that being adventurous and being stupid are two entirely different things and there will be no point in screwing up your life over your stupidity. I would call my journey till Kodaikanal an adventurous one because I had a thrilling experience all the while. The second part of my journey, from Kodaikanal to Poomparai, is something I would call utterly stupid and senseless. The first thing to do before setting out on a trip or back-packing across a new place is to get an initial idea about the place itself. I should have checked where the resort was located and how to reach there and I should have abandoned the idea of going to the resort when it was pitch dark in the night. Honestly, I would have abandoned the plan if I knew it was in the middle of the jungle. My idea of the resort gate and the road inside was that the resort had a huge compound with a gate and once I was inside the compound I would have to walk another Km inside the compound. I was expecting a security guard at the gate who would guide me to the resort when I reached there but all the revelations happened to me too late.

Photoss 

Vattaikkanal road

The new squad B|

Can't help the retardedness :)

 

Let's get that philosophical pose done

Told you that we carry our bundle of excitement  along with us 

Not sure if it is common in Kodaikkanal for bison to be found even in crowded areas

The views remain mesmerizing always

That is some Ninoshka Lobo photography :p

Dolphin Nose at a distance

Them ladies admiring the nature

Yayy that's us and the shivering of knees is not visible in the picture :D  

It is indeed an experience to look down from Dolphin Nose cliff but please be extremely careful and responsible here.

 

 

Vanessa always takes advises seriously

The Israeli breakfast at Altaf. It was good.

Time to head back home