The Munnar Trip

Bus comes at 4pm. Madamouiselles,Monsuiers and materials all aboard by 4.15pm.
Well, almost everyone except the 2 Dinesh's were in. While Dinesh
Goyal was at his elusive best, Dinesh Kumar was busy with the sysadmin world.
While Soms was successful in pulling the later from his worldly matters,
the former, like those onsite, has to remain content in reading this account.
The bus started Munnar-wards at 4:30pm. Once the Bangalore traffic was left
behind, the Cheif Entertainment Officer (CEO) of CT was summoned to get his
act together. Nishanth, as ready as ever, obliged us with some of his now
well known and much liked mimickery performances. Filmstars and CT team members
were mimicked to a good deal of perfection. There were the occasional shouts
of "That's not me" or "When did I do that ?" but overall everyone enjoyed.

Yours truly (YT) was'nt fully part of all this merriment and preferred
to reflect on Life in general. So when Smita suggested Antakshari, YT opined
that some food be diverted to his stomach so as to deprive his thoughts.
Everyone then feasted on cold samosas. After the snack break, Antakshari
commenced and progressed with the usual enthusiasm and arguments associated
with the game. Soon songs beginning with Na and Ha became scarce (imagine
even Nanna Munna Rahi hoon was sung !!) with even 'The Database' (Yamini)
returning null results for queries on songs beginning with these letters.
So we decided to call it a day for Antakshari and relax our stressd out
vocal chords and gray cells. Dinner stop was made at a hotel which called itself
"Sri Sarvana Bhavana" in Dharmapuri. Well the food was quite unlike what some
of us have had in its namesakes in Chennai. Anyway, this was'nt the time to
worry about such small matters. Munnar was still quite some way to go ;
Dharmapuri Sarvana Bhavans's can be dealt with later. Off we all went...

A word or two about the bus and its supposed driver. A fluoroscent
yellow Sharma travels 18-seater - a bus that David Dhawan would surely
consider using if he makes a "Driver No. 1" or something. And the driver
seemed to belong to the
its-travelling-that-is-important-not-reaching-somewhere school of thought.
Between Salem and Coimbatore he stopped the bus every few metres to ask
by-standers and tea-shop owners if road on which we were moving would have
Coimbatore at the end of it. After gathering votes, enough to win the Salem
legislative assembly seat, the driver decided to reduce some of his inherent
bias for the brake pedal and shift that to the gas pedal. The team meanwhile
was napping away to glory. Soundest Sleeper award was shared by Smita and
Yamini (later they earned the 'Sleeping Beauties' title too). Mamatha was'nt
getting any sleep and she decided to count sleeping heads instead of sheeps,
for a change. Oh, and all this with the 'wonderful' music system that the bus
boasted off at its loudest (the bus also had a 14 inch TV and fans for every
seat. The fan was allegedly a Flex feature the license for which had expired
which explained why they were'nt functional). Well, if you could call
5 buttons, 3 knobs, 1 slot and some speakers playing back some
approximation to the original signals as a music system. It also made YT
wonder if he had done the right thing in buying those cassettes with his
'khoon-pasine-ki-kamai'.

The road did end in Coimbatore. RangaPS rued the fact that he was'nt
awake when the bus passed his alma mater. Soms was pestering RangaPS for a
coffee shop. "What, good coffee shop open at 2:30am in the morning ? Are you
crazy ?" replied our Tamil Pulavar (TP). The team had some light snacks with
the its-never-too-early-for-breakfast spirit once we passed the Kerala-TN
border. Morning came and with it some really stunning greenery greeter our
sleepy eyes. A welcome change from the hazy green trees visible among
concrete structures in 'Nammu Bangluru'. Stop for morning duties and some
'chaya' was made in ?? . Mali decided that tea is for the lesser mortals and
he wanted something stronger to restore his shaken spirits - so he went off to
a bar-cum-restaurant. Whether he simply visited the restroom or had a quick
sip or two of the 'colored water' available there, still remains unknown.
Our driver, meanwhile fresh from the victory of the Salem seat, repeated his
performance in Kerala too. The team started second round of Antakshari. Couple
of songs beginning with Na and Ha were the surprise of the show. Around
11-30am we reached our destination - Sterling Resorts which was about 22 km
from the main Munnar town. To be fair, the driver did a wonderful job -
driving 19hrs is no joke and all of us were safe with all bones intact.

The manager of the resort turned out to be an interesting character.
"Ladies and Gentelmen", he addressed us. "You could'nt have at come at a more
appropriate time of the year. Not a drop of rain to be expected. No need for
any winter clothing; you can move around in normal clothes" proclaimed our
copybook salesman. "What about view from our rooms ?" asked someone.
"Every window has a valley under it" was the prompt answer. We could'nt
reconcile all this with the manager himself sporting a half sleeve woollen
jacket and people moving around with umbrellas in hand. Anyway we all
freshened up and got ready for what was to be a culinary shock. It came in the
form of tomato soup for lunch. That day it was proved beyong a trace of doubt
that even simple things like tomato soups can be made to taste like the worst
of swills. Some of the guys who finished their bowl of soup (mind you,
purely out of sheer hunger) would be recommended for the Red and White
Bravery awards. Rasam was the saving grace and the we all satisfied our
hunger.

Much as would have liked to stretch our legs and take a nap after
lunch, we also knew that time was not something we had in our hands. So it was
decided to go for some sight-seeing and shopping. Making a sensible decision
of giving rest to our weary driver, we hired a couple of jeeps for the trip.
The jeep drivers turned out to be some sort of local Schumachers. They covered
the 22km stretch to Munnar town in less than half an hour !! The pros used the
steering as some sort of joystick for video games. 'The Database' also had a
large stock of Surd jokes, some of which she dished out during the trip. First
stop was at the ?? Dam. The team went for a whirlwind tour of the dam waters
on the speed boats available for rent there. Next stop was at what was called
the 'Echo Point'. Now one of the jeeps had reached there earlier and people in
that group claimed that you can shout at any volume and you'll get an echo.
That sounds odd, does'nt it ? ( The other odd thing was that this echo point
was at an altitude of a hill top but more at the base of a hill). So some of
us spoke at normal volumes and true enough some sound came back after a delay.
Sometime later a beaming Mali came out of the bushes and the secret of this
amazing phenonmenon was revealed to the world at large. The team had some
spicy pineapple and group snaps were taken.

Back to main Munnar town for shopping, we decided to have some tea and
tiffin. Another of those Saravana Bhavana's was located and some of us ordered
food. YT and Nasir (the Nature Lover) were'nt feeling upto having anything but
still decided to split a plate of idlis. So we summoned the waiter and asked
a plate of idli by 2. The waiter looked offended and refused to lay down the
plaintain leaves and later clean them up just for the sake of 1 idly each. He
said that they run out of idlis. We decided to have a good laugh.
Anything in general and nothing in particular was the kind of answer one got
when asked about what exactly the shoppers wanted to buy. Anway it was around
7-30pm when the shoppers were sure that the shopkeepers of Munnar had nothing
more to hide from them and they had seen-it-all if not bought-it-all. And as
always the true fun in shopping is not buying yourself but making others buy.

Back for dinner, the historic tomato soup was looming large in our
minds as we trudged warily for the buffet. The sweet corn soup turned out to be
much much better. Again satisfaction of hunger was the primary motivation for
completing the dinner. BONFIRE !!! we shouted after food. "Planned for
tomorrow" said the hotel people. There seemed to be some communication gap
among the hotel junta , but we stood firm and demaned a bonfire right then.
The manager was forced to entertain our demand and a fire was soon ready on
the lawns.

Dance is an evolved art form. However, this would'nt have been the
first thing that would have come to the mind of even a casual observer of the
bonfire bash. With the musical beats and our steps going off in tangential
directions, it would have quite a site. But the main thing was the spirit
behind the effort - nothing can be taken away for that. Of course, there were
notable exceptions - Nishanth, Smita, Ravi Kiran. Nasir was grace personified.
Rest can be put in the also-danced category. Once the fire went out (both the
literal and the metaphorical) the team settled down to play Dumb Charades.
Movies were the obvious choice for the domain. Ben Hur to Jurrasic Park,
Aradhana to Aakrosh; old and new alike were given to enact.
Among the lighter moments was Mali showing a battle scene , swinging an
imaginary sword (movie : Kurukshetra) which some people saw as someone playing
table tennis !! Towards the end it became a game of guessing the name of the
hero and heroine and finally the movie name.
Dinesh Kumar wanted to become healthier, wealthier and wiser and decided to
go to bed real early. Or maybe he had an appointment with his wife in that
wonderful world of dreams and he did'nt want to be late for that. Who knows ?
The rest, meanwhilte decided to call it a (long) day and retired for the
night. Not before planning to go for trekking early next morning which did
sound preposterous to many.

When YT opened his eyes next morning and looked at his watch it showed
5:30. But when he looked out of his window it was too bright and sunny for
that time of the day. On closer observation, he found that his watch had
stopped. It was 6.30 already. YT then woke up Dinesh and Soms who woke up
cursing RangaPS who had'nt allowed him to switch on the room heater saying
"If you have come so far, enjoy the weather man". It was clear that everyone
won't be up and trekking soon and so a quick game of bat-ball was commenced.
The Guide who was to accompany us took some time in coming during which we
finished breakfast and did some cycling on the sloping roads within the resort.

There are two kinds of people - those who trek 6Km and come back and
others who trek 3Km and come back. That's what one would have said when (s)he
would have been at the scene where the Guide arrived. The main trekking
attraction was upto Devikulam lake and according to him the distance to the
lake was 6Km ( he also added that one would'nt feel that distance). When some
people protested, he suggested another spot which was about 3Km but not as
interesting as the former place. Here's where our world got divided into two.
The 6Km group prevailed and the team set out for Devikulam lake following the
Guide. It was a long trek along a narrow trail, going through dense bushes,
winding up through steep slopes. After about an hour's walking we reached a
tiny waterfall. The water was quite shallow before falling off. We decided
to cool off a bit. Slowly, we started behaving like a herd of elephants -
splashing water on one another. Soon everyone was made to offer themselves
for a splash session. Even the Guide was not spared. The Guide turned out to
be a real sport - immersing himeself in the water on his own. The Lake was
only a little distance away, but only some of us went to see what turned out
to be a breathtaking sight. Mother Nature does'nt make them any more
beautiful. Stuff that picture postcards are made of. The water of the lake was
sweet (for those who dared to taste it). Soaked to the bones, we all started
our trek back.

It is at these times that one realizes the joy of being comfortably
dry. And the Hot'n'Sour soup given during the lunch did'nt taste half as bad.
After lunch, it was time to check out of the resort. Feedback ledger was
brought to us. Nasir and Co. wrote out couple of pages of complaints, the
praise being given to the Manager for his attitude. We were back into the
hands of our Driver who by now had a good 2 days rest. We were hoping for a
better deal from him on the way back. Well, the Driver did show some of his
old touch by losing his way and then executing what looked like his favourite
manouerve in driving school - the U-Turn. But overall he did'nt mess up much
and we all reached back where we stared by about 8.00 am. Oh! and those who
were wondering about the 'confession' session that took place the night before
in the bus on the way back, YT has decided to steer clear of the sensitive
matters disclosed there and instead refers the interested and curious readers
to the respective autobiographies (if and when they are written).

So yet another journey came to an end.

But Life still goes on.