A memorable trip

July 2011

It all started with a phone call at 5.45 in the morning. And it took a few seconds for me to realize it's context. One of my friends, with half my name, was scheduled to arrive at my 'IT' city. On learning that he had indeed reached the bus stop nearby my room, I was quite relieved: for I had awaken only when there wasn't any other option. Though I had provided him clear guidelines, on the previous day, about the mode of transport and the finer details required to reach my residence, had he given a call to clarify on any information midway, then my sleep would have been aborted well before.

After getting up from bed I strolled down. There he was, in his usual attire and attitude, hearing to songs with no pronounced expression for meeting after a long time. Just a smile and a short chat, we were back at my room. With little or no concern for my room-mate's sleep, we woke him up "unintentionally". Poor guy, he didn't have an option and had to give up.

To give some background, we three were part of the same batch during our undergraduate course. And the reason for our sync up today was to meet one another batch-mate of ours who resides a bit away from here. Infact, after her marriage, she had moved onto a town quite closer to the metro where Sachin grew up fine tuning his skills.

Our train was scheduled to leave a couple of hours beyond noon and hence during the first half of the day we were quite busy on taking care of our packaging activities. We successfully managed to have everything in place before boarding the train. I don't know why, but these days for almost all journeys we board the train or bus only at the last minute. No matter how much earlier we plan to be there, there's always something or the other needing our last minute attention. I used to wonder why my father would always be keen on every minute detail while planning for a journey. He would always advise to keep things ready atleast a day earlier. May be, if I miss my bus or train on a couple of important occassions, I would gradually begin to follow his path with no more questions or fascination.

The train was on time. Given that we were travelling towards the west coast which has been experiencing a rainy season for quite sometime, the temperature wasn't on any of the extremes. Moreover, since we had taken our dinner with us (yes, it was part of our packaging activity ;-)), we did eat well. In short, the journey was quite comfortable. It wasn't like the one which I experienced last summer while travelling on the east coast.

We reached our destination on schedule. And our friend's husband was awaiting us at the railway station. Since we knew him personally right from our college days, he wasn't any alien to us. It wasn't a case of pretending to be a "nice" guy in front of your friend's family. After a day's travel in train, that's the least we wanted. By noon, we were there in their home. Our visit was planned to be a surprise for her. And it indeed turned out so. Visibly, she was quite happy on seeing us. Hmmmm... Nice.

May be, she could have thought "Oh no! Who asked them to come? They have spoiled an otherwise pleasant weekend". Whatever, we were there to spoil their plans. :-)

I had already "been" in this town once when my train passed through this place enroute to the nearby metro. :-P

The temperature was similar to my 'IT' city. With the developments happening across, I felt this place was on it's growth path and once the 'IT' effect catches up, then there's no looking back. As it has been in any other "developed" city, the cost of living will keep sky rocketing.

We refreshed and were there in a nearby restaurant by 2. After a terrible breakfast in train, we deserved a good lunch and so it was. Need to say the food was quite good there.

Her husband had reserved tickets for an evening show for a newly released movie. And one of their relatives too joined us for the movie. We later learned that he too had studied in our college . May be we could have seen him then. Just that we didn't remember him now. The movie was really good. The silence at the end of the movie said it all. Though the movie was derived from an English original, the director of this movie had done remarkably well. Be it the cast or the screenplay or the cinematography, it was a telling portrayal. We had our dinner on the way back and reached their home around 11. Needless to say, had a very good sleep. :)

We woke up, in the morning, to find that her husband had planned for a trip to a nearby hill station. :-)

Again, not to mention, had a very nice breakfast and we were ready to go.

Little did I know that the path we would be taking to reach the hill station would involve one of India's fastest roads. I had already read about this expressway when I came across it's existence a few years ago. And I had been quite fascinated about it since then. My fascination was more towards: What is it that this highway possesses which an NH doesn't have. Is it the stability? If so, even what an NH provides is of world class I suppose. If not, then what else? Whatever, I had always wanted to go through this stretch to experience it.

And now, there we were - on the very same expressway. It was raining heavily when we entered the six lane stretch. And quite gloomy as well. The visibility was restricted to a few hundred metres. Nevertheless I was trying to figure out what makes this road to stand apart. It had six lanes in all. Two more than an NH. The stability was similar to that of an NH. So what else? There was a big sign board indicating that vehicles which have anything less than four wheels weren't allowed to enter it. Also, the boundaries of the road were guarded with fences and stopping vehicles on the roadside being declared as illegal. In other words, they have created a road with rules in such a way that there is nothing wobbling (so to say the two wheelers) or obstructing or roaming across. Hmmm... Good. Our cab was zipping past every other weak contender that we came across.

It was raining quite heavily and the hill which we had planned to climb was already engulfed by clouds. It took a couple of hours for us to reach there. Given the rain and traffic ahead, we stopped a kilometre ahead and began walking towards the hill-top or wherever everyone was heading towards. I need to say it was a nice experience walking completely drenched in rain. In half an hour, we were there. And we found out that, the main scene of attraction was a dam from where water flows down through a rocky terrain. We three (leaving behind our friend, her husband and their relative) began to get down to the flowing water. We got soaked ourselves and climbed up-hill over the rocky terrain with the water flowing against us. After a couple of hours of that raw water sport, we had to come out with the time meter running against us. It was already 4 in the evening. So we had to pack up. We again walked back to our cab amidst heavy rain. With the occasional wind flowing against us, the return walk was quite chill. With the traffic jam still existing, it took a couple of hours for us to reach home. We had something for "lunch" on the way back and reached their home at around 7 or 8 I suppose.

Given that we were completely drenched and tired, the moment we stepped in, we were keen to change our clothing and take rest. Yes, just lie down in our own comfortable positions and just chat around. We three (the so called guests) were successful in doing so. But it wasn't the case with our friend and her husband. They had to prepare dinner for us as they were the hosts. That's the moment I thought, it's never advisable to take the role of a host, atleast after a tired day. I think they too would have felt the same. May be, they couldn't spell it out. Whatever, I was content to think about getting a nice dinner and nothing else. :)

I need to say our friend's cooking skills has evolved a lot. She has indeed become a true home maker. Hmmm... Good. The food which she prepared (both for breakfast and dinner) was like the way I used to have in my home. With the tiredness glooming in front of everyone's eyes, we had a very heavy dinner.

We packed our bags at around 11 and bid adieu to them. There were words exchanged like "Take care while going", "Let us know once you guys reach there", "So, when do you both plan to shift to Bangalore?", etc.,

Whatever, I was sure, there should have been one untold sentence from them - "Get away. Better please don't come again and make our weekend more occupied than a week day" :-P

With our cab driver expressing his skill-set  we were there at the railway station within half an hour. Myself and my room-mate couldn't refrain from sleeping, while the other guy stayed awake, as our train was scheduled to reach around 2 am. As expected, the train was a bit late - only a little though. We got into our train and had a nice sleep till 10 in the morning.

The subsequent day wasn't charming. Just an ordinary day in train. Given that the climate was friendly to us, we didn't suffer much. It was a calm journey on the way back and we reached the 'IT' city around 10 pm as scheduled. Our friend, who had travelled to our place a couple of days ago, was scheduled to catch a connecting train at 11.30. So myself and my room-mate thought of expressing our [dis]pleasure in bidding good-bye to him so that we could take a local bus. Atleast I was keen on running towards the local bus stand as early as possible since my city's transport corporation doesn't have a healthy night service. However, since my friend had to travel for another 6 to 7 hours, we pitied him and I was looking at the departure charts so as to help him figure out his train. And then, suddenly out of the blue, there she was - whom I didn't expect to be there at that point in time. A surprise - for me. Wow... It took a couple of mins to come back to normal. And, being a very "intuitive" person, it took close to an hour for me to figure out how this was staged, given the uncertainty of our train's arrival time. Later learnt that my room-mate was the traitor. He was the one who had given enough updates periodically and ensured that she meets me there.

All in all, it was a wonderful trip for all of us. We thoroughly enjoyed it. The only bitter part is to think of days when we would turn out to be hosts. Let's hope it's as far away as possible. :-P