Tuesday, August 22, 2006

Losing senses

To start with let me tell you that this is my first ever blog. I have been reading quite a few blogs lately and find it quite interesting to share your personal experiences with others. I hope it continues :)

Ya. Last weekend I had been to Pondicherry inspite of all the resistance at the back of my mind since it was a place which I had already visited thrice, where I knew it would be too much to spend two entire days because there are not much tourist spots and most of them known to me, and since I am not a great fan of beaches after staying in Chennai for two long years. Doesn't it sound boring to visit the same place again and again? :) But ya sometimes these weasel words are overridden by friends or to be more precise 'the company of friends'. Thanks to Nitin, after Anang, who was very much proactive in injecting such a positive thought into me; god knows what was the reason since he had some backup plans already :). To be honest, a stimulus which was even more stronger in making up my mind was the fact that there were a few girls, i would call them 'chicks' at this point because we were strangers, who were supposed to accompany us. With this positive frame of mind I finally packed my bag for the adventure :)

After the rendezvous and a formal introduction with the platoon me, Nitin and Gaurav took our seats in the bejewelled Qualis with the chicks as per the plot :) It was a night journey and since we were still strangers there was not much of conversation between the two groups. It felt as if the only congruence was the humming of the Radio Mirchi songs. But hey where is Mr. Murphy ? :) You got it rite! Our tyre was punctured after taxying for about 200 kms, thanks to the other group travelling in Indica as they spotted the rear flat tyre and informed our driver. So now we were out in the woods in the middle of the night with the pop singer Alisha singing 'Lover gal' in the background and the driver replacing the flat tyre.

We reached there by 9:00 am IST. All of us zonked, badly needing a sound sleep, checked in the "Pondicherry inn" with AC rooms which were surprisingly much better than our expectation. We were told by our mentor (the aunty), our landlord, to get fresh and be ready by 10:30. Taking things granted we slept like monsters and were late by one hour to reach the restaurant for breakfast.

I presumed that everything must be well planned and organized, and I am quite particular about it especially when it comes to visiting unknown places otherwise it takes a lot of time in exploration. But I didnt bother to do my homework as I was a frequent visitor. We headed for 'Aurobindo Ashram', a place too serene for guys like me. But Mr.Murphy said that the ashram is closed and would reopen at 2:00 pm. The beach was in proximity so the fans could not hold themselves from heading there and enjoy the scorching heat, ooops, the gust and the Bay of Bengal swashing against the rocks. I felt as if I was in a flashback fighting with this deadly heat during my days in Chennai. Me and Nitin went for a stroll, a bit isolated from the others and sneering at trivial things as we normally do. We could not resist ourselves from playing the beach volley with the localite children at the beach. Ya, forgot to mention the photo session going on right from the word go. After satisfying our guts we revisited the ashram. The platoon, to me it appeared as if they were quite inspired by Sri Aurobindo, did some prayers and meditation. Worth mentioning my dear friend Nitin buying a 'spiritual' book in search of the Divine :) I hope he reads atleast a few pages and gives a KT to me so that I can be closer to Thee.

Post having a consensus we came back to our rooms for a nap as the platoon was eagerly waiting to see the sunset at beach. But we, the monsters, enthralled by the chilled room and exhausted by the prickly heat changed the definition of the word 'nap'. It was 6:30 pm , one and a half hours late from the scheduled time and the only car Indica left for us to go to the beach. The sun was on the verge of vanishing at the horizon and we got ready to be the lucky ones to see the sun setting at the dying moments. But Mr.Murphy loves us so much that he absconded the driver. "Ohh man! where is this F***r", "Uski toh mein..." were the words uttered in frustation. We waited next to the car for 45 minutes, trying every possible way to contact the driver but in vain. Resolved to teach him a lesson with the intent of excercising our prerogative and being indifferent to the fact that the guy was awake the whole night we occupied our rooms again. The only way of refreshing again and not letting the tempo down was to chill out at a disc, bar or a pub.

I am not a regular drinker, but I do drink socially. Being in Pondicherry and not drinking is a crime :) We went to a pub called "Hot and cold". My two partners started off with two pegs of bacardi. I am very reluctant starting off as there is always a thought in the subconscious that drinking is not good :) So I went for a mild drink, a bacardi cranberry breezer. I was always eager to try Tequila due to the unique way in which the drink is taken with a pinch of salt and lemon. There goes three shots of locally manufactured Tequila for the 'Three musketeers'. Ya thats what you feel after drinking, on top of the world. The Tequila shot, as they say, was like the kick of a 500CC Enfield. Nitin wasn't feeling the kick yet, which I felt might be because he was used to this. So he was fully engrossed enjoying peg after peg waiting for the 'real' kick. I always avert being fully drunk and 'Losing senses' or being 'talli' and hate this kind of behavior in public. But I was told that once you start drinking you dont feel what is going in and you just cant stop! Something similar happened to me and I sipped alongwith Nitin from his glass, not ordering the drink myself and thus obeying the subconscious :) At last we decided to stop and head back to our hotel. On the way as one of my friends was still in search of the kick bought a Haywards 5000 and consumed it all alone.

It was now that the bullets were on fire. I was still under control. My partners in crime were on the roll, laughing like anything in the autoricksaw and making sound of the horn- the bhoopu - after each and every word they uttered. The auto guy knew about our state and ignored us otherwise it would have been a scene on the roadside. We went in the room berserk, shouting like kindergarten kids and clicking snaps. Sometimes I feel this is a good way to let your heart speak out, but certainly not the right way. I still remember some of the words by Nitin for me "Man, You are my darling!". I knew it wasn't Nitin but the bacardi, the tequila and the beer :) Those were the most wonderful moments spent in Pondicherry but deeply inside I even feel guilty.

The next day was packed with fun and frolic. By now we had a rapport with the other guys Girish, Sandeep and Sudhir and the gals- no more chicks now -Rashmi and Tushita. We went for a long beach ride in a boat gossiping and pulling each others' legs. On the way back to Bangalore we were closely knit playing antakshari all way long and didnt knew how time flew away in a few minutes. Ya the winning team comprised of me, Nitin, Rashmi and Sudhir. Hurray!! It was really a great experience to cherish in years to come.........