This post kind of summarizes the events of this World Cup. Wait!!! No, this has absolutely NOTHING to do with football. Actually I must make it clear here that I'm pretty much a zero in football (Yes, we used to play it with great zeal in school, but I never cared to watch it on TV). Infact, the last match I watched before this World Cup was the finals of the 2002 WC. I didn't know that a man named Ronaldo existed before that.
Rather, this post relives the legend of how this WC turned few ordinary men into wizzards... how few mortals (read my classmates) discovered the power of divination within them... the power to tell the future! This post attempts to recount the innumerable predictions made by the guys of ECE, 2006 batch... And how NONE of them actually came true!
Sorcercer #1
Now what is a better media than blogging to tell the world your predictions. It all started with Asif's "Everybody is talking about the World Cup" ( http://asiftherock.blogspot.com/ ). And talking they did. Though Asif refrained from making any explicit prediction of the results in his post and was mostly discussing the strengths and weaknesses of various teams, he did hint a support for the world wide 'Brazil will Win' syndrome. He dismissed France in "Why don't they change formations" as having poor strategy and that very team with the same strategy made it to the final!
Sorcercer #2
Then comes, of course, our very own, 'The Dark Lord' alias 'Sirius Black' alias 'Siriusly Silver' alias Dijango Maama. This 'Disgruntled English Fan' ( http://siriuslysilver.blogspot.com/ ) constitutes those in this country who still loyally serve our old colonial masters. His devotion and deep 'love' for ManU players can be no less exemplified than Asif's post on this nerd ( http://asiftherock.blogspot.com/2006/01/so-today-lets-look-at-my-buddy-ilango.html ) hehe! None of the teams in his "Order of Favorites" crossed the quaterfinals, and the "Woeful French...Again" AGAIN came close to claiming the honours. His "Go Three Lions!" soon became "Unconvincing Three Lions". Poor chap had a pathetic World Cup this time around. And as it always happens, his passions are often met with hostility by my classmates. Everyone hated England to begin with ( "They are overrated"- Asif ). I sometimes have a feeling people hate England just because Kilango likes it. Its this obsession with which he worships the sportspersons he likes that puts off most people. Everyone was celebrating the day England was out of the WC campaign. And Jango din't come online for a few days... I was worried if Jango, under a fit of passion, did the unthinkable! No one was complaining though, when I expressed this concern to my friends...
Me: "Dei, its been 3 days since I saw him online... you reckon he committed a suicide or something?"
Everyone else: "We hope he does that!"
Poor Jango almost always ends up as a "Black" Sheep. Then finally he was back with the post "Henry is No Saint!" which was but a mere offspring of his frustation and agitation at the world cup results.
Sorcercer #3
Next in the list of sorcerers is the Eternally-Fickle-Minded-Jerk, Kalyanaraaman. Now Kalyan is not exactly a blogger, but then he doesn't need a blog to let the world know what he thinks... His big loud mouth, which goes an extra mile in ranting, does it for him. During ABK's treat in Hot Chips, he proclaimed, "Dei, Brazil thokkanumna Ronaldovukku bedhi varanum, Ronaldinovukku vaanthi varanum, Adrianovukku jaundice varanum" (For Brazil to loose, Ranaldo must suffer from Diahorrea, Ronaldino from Nausea and Adriano from Jaundice)... apparam?... Kakavukku Kakavalippu varanuma?. Hmmm... I'm sure that after they went back to Brazil after the defeat in the Quaterfinals, the whole team WOULD have infact got Diahorrea watching the videos of their own games.
Sorcercer #4
A step toward sensibility was VAC. His "Heart says England... Mind says Brazil" ( http://thayir-sadham.blogspot.com/ ) gave away his "Go England Go!" mind set while acknowledging the power of the former World Champions. Unfortunately, neither his heart nor his mind gave him company beyond the quaterfinal! Later he acknowledged England's pathetic state in the post mortem "God Din't Save the Queen, Murray Did".
Sorcercer #5
One afternoon in the Lab...
Me: "Don't you think tonight's quaterfinal between Argentina and Germany will be pretty close... I mean both of them are playing great"
Kiran: "Dei, isn't it obvious? Argentina will win da"
And not so obviously, the hosts partied home that night. End of the road for the South Americans.
I must mention here that a respite from all these prophecies came in the form of Vivek's light hearted post "Football, England and a Bet" ( http://viveksniche.blogspot.com/ ) which narrates a funny account of how his ignorance of the game almost lost him a bet to his brother.
What I have understood, from my watching these WC matches, is that soccer is pretty much a random game with almost always, the stakes being 50-50 or something close to that. You can almost everytime draw straws between the teams. With no natural elements aiding or frustating the players (like pitch and weather in cricket), and the very tempo of the game being quite high, the game is left to the mercy of a chance rush of adernaline and a very rare display of genius even among the very great geniuses. And since the game has incurred a very defensive mindset over the years (unlike the flamboyance with which it was played in the 80s and 70s), most of the games this WC ended at 1-0s or 1-1s at full time which demand penalty shoot outs which, in turn, only increase the randomness.
And now... the greatest Sorcerer of all!
And then the night of the Finals came. Everyone was chanting "France, France, France.."... Orkut profiles, messenger statuses... almost everything on the internet was flooded with messages predicting a definite French Cup. Being online before a match is a tough time, especially if its the Finals. People just don't stop asking "Hey who do you think will win da?". I was wise enough by now not to make any statement. But my brother (who was as pathetic as me in football before this WC ) was relentless and kept messaging me asking whom am I supporting. Tired of his pestering, I uttered my ONLY prediction for World Cup 2006 Germany...
" I DONT know who will win... but I think there will be atleast one moment of great passion on ground and atleast one interesting Red Card"
... they say Lord Saneeswarar resides in my tongue. An what a red card it was! That raised hand of the refree pushed an illustrious career into oblivion. A rare moment in the history of football when you get to see a street fight during a match! Zidane fans, please don't be mad at me. Human actions are supposedly controlled by Lord Indra, not Saneeswarar!
And by the way, the French lost the match to Italians, and yes, again a penalty shoot out decided the result.
Now tell me folks... who will make a better Nostradamus... me or the self-proclaimed soccer-sorcerers of my class?
PS: Even Nostradamus got it all wrong! He predicted a Spanish win: "In the sixth year the Spaniards will bring the Holy Grail from the battle fields of Central Europe".
Monday, July 17, 2006
Saturday, July 15, 2006
The Land of Divine Nectar
The Great Kodai Trip, Day 4: Mystic Madurai
Day 4: Tuesday, 23rd May, 7:30 AM, Jilu's House
I opened my eyes to the bright madurai morning. that sleep did good to me. there was no more turning of the stomach or any uneasiness. infact i was hungry. i went into the large front room to find everyone fast asleep. they were obviously partying late into the night.
jilu's mom was happy to see me walking around and speaking more than a sentence! she made me a hot cup of tea after which i went about my routine. i called up home and informed mom about my condition the previous night. she asked me to replenish water and salts at regular intervals as a safety precaution. slowly everyone starting coming around. a plan was made- to visit the Meenaxi temple and then ma kannan's place. we needed to move out as early as 10 o clock to keep schedule.
we took a bus to the Periyar stop near the temple after which it was a 10 mins walk in the hot sun. we were all terribly thirsty by the time we entered the south western corner of the quadrangle surrounding the temple. we relished cool fruit juices at a stall near by.
this is the view encompassing both the south and the west tower.
Madurai, Meenaxi and Tamil
the history of madurai is as old as tamil itself. it was the seat of power of the Pandyas, one of the 3 dynasties which ruled the south from the prehistoric times to the late medieval. they were confined to the southern half of modern tamil nadu for most of the time in history. after about 3 centuries of exile (1000 to 1200 AD) in srilanka, when they were driven out by the rising Chola empire under Raja Raja Chola, they found a new resurgence under Jatavarman Sundara Pandyan and reached their peak in the 13th century when they ruled from the banks of Godavari in the north to central Ceylon in the south. after that, Delhi sultanate, Madurai Nawabs and then the English East India Company came in succession.
legend has it that king kulasekaran, one of the most ancient rulers of the pandiyan dynasty, buit the grand meenaxi temple and a lotus shaped city around it. lord shiva danced on its creation and divine nectar flowed from his locks and poured on the city. thus the name "madhurapuri" which means the Land of Divine Nectar. some times, it is also referred to as 'Then' (south) Madurai, the 'Vada' (north) Madurai being Mathura.Tamil literature found its salvation in the city as recorded by the Sangam history.
Darshanam
I bought some archanai materials before entering the south tower. we were greeted by a spectacular model of the whole temple jus few yards into the entrance.
the temple has 12 gopurams in all- 4 entrances, the 2 golden shrines of meenaxi and sundareshwar, 4 internal gopurams surrounding Shiva's shrine and 2 surrounding meenaxi's. the entrance towers have a whopping 1124 figures engraved into each of them!
the huge man-made lake near the southern tower has a huge golden lotus in the middle. visitors are supposed to wash their legs here before they proceed.
we soon reached the shrine of the main deity and stood behind a long "special" darshan queue. thankfully it moved rather fast. sham, either 'sick of crowd' or being male chauvnist (he he...) prefered to stay out of the shrine and went on to explore the rest of the temple, vivek gave him company. i performed the archanai rites and we sat for a while in the quadrangle surrounding the shrine.
Historical Interpretation of Mythology
scores legends revolve around the meenaxi temple which is dedicated to the wedding between Princess Meenaxi and Lord Shiva. this wedding- of a warrior princess born with three breasts (possible initial demonification of the existent mother goddess worship), who goes to fight Shiva in the Himalayas and in the process becomes human and feminine, and then the ceremony being presided over by the 'dark skinned' brother of meenaxi- can be viewed as a symbolic marriage between the cultures of the patriarch aryans who came from central asia represented by Lord Shiva and that of the pre-vedic mother goddess worshippers.
these pre-existent tribes, who are believed to have migrated from the fertile crescent of Africa about 10000 years back, are the supposed fore runners of the dravidian language which later evolved into modern tamil and telugu with the influx of sanskrit and prakrit. the Fish ensign of the Pandiyas itself is a characteristic of many ancient proto-saharan tribes. even the name 'meenaxi' means "fish-eyed goddess". the worship of the goddess of fertility later spread to the northern india and became as essential part of faith all over the nation. this confluence hastened the evolution of the "sanathana dharma" or the Hindu religion as it is known today.
Sundareshwar
on the way from to Sundareshwar shrine, we found the abode of the Mukkuruni Viayagar. A huge larger than life image of Pillayar, which was believed to have been discovered by some traders travelling to a neighbouring kingdom.
we then proceeded to the Lord's shrine. the idol here, which is believed to have been dug out of the temple lake, is the usual silver clad "Nataraja" but with a difference. while the Lord of Chithambaram lifts his left leg in air while suuporting himself on his right leg on the Arakkan depicting a pose in the Thandava Dance, here its just the opposite. as we stood in the queue, Jillu told us about the legend that talks about a devout Pandiyan king who spoke to Lord Shiva during his prayers,
"You always stand on your right leg. It pains my heart to think that it hurts you. Why don't you change the legs?"
And lo! Shiva indeed changed the pose the other way round! this change of legs is the trademark of this temple among all the religious sites in the state.
after the darshanam, we set out to explore the huge hall in front of the entrance of the Sundareshwar shrine. it was ladden with the finest examples of medieval tamil art. to start with, at the door way, an optical illusion created with 5 torsos and one head of a monkey. looking at each tosro with the head gives u a feeling there are separate monkeys! then, there was this mythical creature called "Yazhi", as told by our guide jillu whose body was made up of many different animals.
then there were two idols of Shiva and Goddess Kali standing in identical dance postures- stretching their legs and placing it flat on their heads. jillu told us the story behind this strange sculpture. once, Lord Shiva and his Consort Parvathy decided to compete against each other in dance. Parvathy was able to do every move that Shiva made. finally, Shiva gave his death punch by bending his leg and placing on his head. stretching legs like this was considered indecent for a woman, hence Parvathy ceased to be a woman and took the form of Bhadra Kali, the goddess of death, and performed this act.
we also saw life size images of 'half-vishnu-half-shiva' and the 'ardhanaareeshwaran'. then there was this famous picture postcard sculpture of the Meenaxi Marriage ceremony. Lord Vishnu placing the hand of Meenaxi over the hand of Lord Sundareshwar. this sculpture captures the legend of the usually gory looking warrior Lord Shiva who turned handsome (and hence the name, 'Sundareshwar') with the arrival of Lord Vishnu. the facial expressions are well depicted here, with Vishnu looking Happy, Meenaxi blushing and Sundareshwar epitomizing man hood.
Vaigai
we left the shrine and headed for the aayiram kaal mandapam, when jillu narrated the story of how the river vaigai came about. for the meenakshi wedding, there were scores of relatives representing meenakshi's family while only Gundotharan came from Shiva's side. people ridiculed Shiva saying that they had prepared meals for 1000 people expecting a large following for him. Enraged, Sundareshwar kindles a fire in Gundotharan's stomach and he is plagued by monstruous hunger. he soon gobbles up the food made for a thousand people and still asks for more. then he devours the raw rice and vegetables and all the water available in the kingdom and still remains hungry. people get scared of his seemingly unsatiable glutton and realising the power of the Lord, ask for his forgiveness and plead him to satisfy Gundotharan.
Shiva consents and turns to Gundotharan and says "Kai Vai" (place your hand) gesturing him to kneel down to drink. as he bows down in front of him stretching his arms, water flows down Shiva's head and falls on his palm. Gundotharan drinks the water and the fire in his stomach is extinguished. the water which trickled down his palm formed a river. the phrase "kai vai" was reversed and was bestowed upon this river as the name "Vaigai". since it flowed down Shiva's locks like the Ganges, Vaigai is also known as Southern Ganga.
as we neared the mandapam, we stumbled upon an Aanjineya figure engraved into a pillar. this image was recently rumored to have grown in size!
Aayiram Kaal Mandapam
Next we proceeded to the famous Meenakshi Temple Museum or the Aayiram Kaal (1000 pillared) Mandapam. this was built much later in the 16th century. in addition to 990 odd pillars, this madapam houses some great sculptures from the same period. we met sham here. and he was not alone... there was a Hungarian Lady Tourist looking at the sculptures with him! our Mr. Know-All seemed to have offered her a free lecture on what he knew about the history of the temple. while he played guide, we set out to explore the place and take some snaps.
The Prophecy
we decided to leave at about 12 in the afternoon and as we headed for the exit, an old lady, an astrologer, stopped us and offered to tell our future! vijay decided to try it just for the fun of it. we all sat down, she looked at his palm and then asked vijay to throw seven sea shells on the floor. this was repeated a couple of times. looking at the pattern, she kept giving general remarks about his past and future. after some "you are intelligent and peaceful " (yawn...) and "you have the signs of travel to foreign lands" (yeah yeah...every body in india go to foriegn these days) ... she made a more specific statement "you are unusually lucky in what ever you strive to do"... (huh?, god knows what was running through vijay's mind when she said that... given that he was fresh from an emotional turmoil back in the college ;) !!!!
The Tale of a Jerk and two Wives
then sham tried to give it a shot. and after the usual crap, she said, "if you were married at 19, you would have had 2 wives (everyone on the floor!), else you will be married to a single lady of a foreign land at the age of 23!!!!!!!!( everyone rolling on the floor)". by the time we left, we were more sure about the former!!! though sham thought otherwise (which means some unfortunate american woman in Rutgers will commit suicide in 2 years).
after she was finished, she looked at me and said "intha kannaadi potta thambikku jotsiyam paakkanum!"
Hell NO! "er.... no thank you..."
we left the temple and were terribly thirsty. on the way to the bustop, we stopped at a cool bar and had 'Jigarthanda' the traditional thirst quencher of madurai. it was mix of milk, curd, ice cream, some javvarisi, some sherbet and just melted in our mouths. i had two of it.
Foot Ball
we reached home at 2:30 and given we were pretty wasted out, we decided to drop the plan to visit kannan's place. jillu brought some cds but no one was interested in watching a movie and soon after the lunch, everyone was snoring. at some 4 o clock in the evening, everyone was up and we decided to play football in the near by ground. jillu's pal since childhood, rakesh arrived with some other friends and we split up into two teams.
i was in jilu's team. most of us had the best exercise in years that day. but not without casualities... seeku tried to take the ball head on with his foot and bent his toe in the process! it was about 6:30 when we decided to stop and headed back home after taking a team photo...
we got ready for the 11 o clock train. it was time to take the final group photos of the trip. director sham timed his camera to cover everyone in the group.
lights... camera....
action!
The Last Voyage
we bid jillu's parents adieu and left for the station. we had plenty of time there and so chatted over a cup of tea about life, acads, where everyone was headed etc...
and then we boarded the train and bid jillu good bye. me, ravi, sham and seeku were soon ensued in an argument over the state of private schools in india which became rather loud (god save the passengers in the next cabin!).
late in the night, we decided to sleep. the Great Kodai Trip finally came to an end and 5 tired men made their way back to chennai.
Wednessday, 24th May, 9:00 AM: the train reached Tambaram junction. me, sham and ravi got down. while vijay and seeku stayed back to get down at egmore. we went our separate ways. i reached home at about 9:45 and dropped down to sleep with images of the woods and meenakshi flashing across my mind....
And they lived Happily (?) ever after...
Vivek: joined American Megatrends in Thorappaakkam, Chennai, in June. After a few hitches in the begining, settled well into his new job
Ravi: poor chap's miseries dint end with the trip. some infection in the train gave him Rat Fever (alias Leptospirosis)- a rare condition believed to be existent only in a few districts of Tamil Nadu in India. it weakens one's immune system and that triggers off further complications. in fact, at one point Ravi suffered from malaria, typhoid and rat fever simultaneously! was hospitalised for about three weeks. Rat Fever's only cure is Penicillin. and for those who are allergic to penicillin, things may go pretty bad as they are put in a awful situation wherein, both the disease and its cure are fatal. I couldn't thank god more when i heard from his parents that Ravi was, in fact, NOT allergic to penicillin. all's well that ends well... he recovered gradually and then joined Conexant Systems, Hyderabad in the end of May. he is still weak and on a strict diet. my brother has promised to take care of him as long as he is in Hyderabad.
Seeku: went on to win Intel India Student Research competition along with Kiran. is all set to join ME, Communications at IISc.
Sham: went on another trip, soon after, with school friends to shimla. continues to laze around his dwelling place. will leave india this August to join Rutgers with TA .
Vijay: the lonely lover put his sorry tale behind in chennai and left for Delhi to join Indian Institute of Foreign Trade for an MBA.
Jillu: kept roaming around all over tamil nadu visiting friends. came to chennai recently and visited my place before appearing for US VISA interview. made it. will leave for Ohio State University in September with Fellowship.
Mars: this idiot attended IISc and IITM MS interviews. got selected in both. will join Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada this September with Aid. awaits VISA result.
Shanka: went into hiding for a while. got selected into IIT M. will join ASU this August along with Harish. Last heard, he planned a trip to Goa (!!!) with school friends and... yes you guessed it right, cancelled the trip the night before the journey.
Day 4: Tuesday, 23rd May, 7:30 AM, Jilu's House
I opened my eyes to the bright madurai morning. that sleep did good to me. there was no more turning of the stomach or any uneasiness. infact i was hungry. i went into the large front room to find everyone fast asleep. they were obviously partying late into the night.
jilu's mom was happy to see me walking around and speaking more than a sentence! she made me a hot cup of tea after which i went about my routine. i called up home and informed mom about my condition the previous night. she asked me to replenish water and salts at regular intervals as a safety precaution. slowly everyone starting coming around. a plan was made- to visit the Meenaxi temple and then ma kannan's place. we needed to move out as early as 10 o clock to keep schedule.
we took a bus to the Periyar stop near the temple after which it was a 10 mins walk in the hot sun. we were all terribly thirsty by the time we entered the south western corner of the quadrangle surrounding the temple. we relished cool fruit juices at a stall near by.
this is the view encompassing both the south and the west tower.
Madurai, Meenaxi and Tamil
the history of madurai is as old as tamil itself. it was the seat of power of the Pandyas, one of the 3 dynasties which ruled the south from the prehistoric times to the late medieval. they were confined to the southern half of modern tamil nadu for most of the time in history. after about 3 centuries of exile (1000 to 1200 AD) in srilanka, when they were driven out by the rising Chola empire under Raja Raja Chola, they found a new resurgence under Jatavarman Sundara Pandyan and reached their peak in the 13th century when they ruled from the banks of Godavari in the north to central Ceylon in the south. after that, Delhi sultanate, Madurai Nawabs and then the English East India Company came in succession.
legend has it that king kulasekaran, one of the most ancient rulers of the pandiyan dynasty, buit the grand meenaxi temple and a lotus shaped city around it. lord shiva danced on its creation and divine nectar flowed from his locks and poured on the city. thus the name "madhurapuri" which means the Land of Divine Nectar. some times, it is also referred to as 'Then' (south) Madurai, the 'Vada' (north) Madurai being Mathura.Tamil literature found its salvation in the city as recorded by the Sangam history.
Darshanam
I bought some archanai materials before entering the south tower. we were greeted by a spectacular model of the whole temple jus few yards into the entrance.
the temple has 12 gopurams in all- 4 entrances, the 2 golden shrines of meenaxi and sundareshwar, 4 internal gopurams surrounding Shiva's shrine and 2 surrounding meenaxi's. the entrance towers have a whopping 1124 figures engraved into each of them!
the huge man-made lake near the southern tower has a huge golden lotus in the middle. visitors are supposed to wash their legs here before they proceed.
we soon reached the shrine of the main deity and stood behind a long "special" darshan queue. thankfully it moved rather fast. sham, either 'sick of crowd' or being male chauvnist (he he...) prefered to stay out of the shrine and went on to explore the rest of the temple, vivek gave him company. i performed the archanai rites and we sat for a while in the quadrangle surrounding the shrine.
Historical Interpretation of Mythology
scores legends revolve around the meenaxi temple which is dedicated to the wedding between Princess Meenaxi and Lord Shiva. this wedding- of a warrior princess born with three breasts (possible initial demonification of the existent mother goddess worship), who goes to fight Shiva in the Himalayas and in the process becomes human and feminine, and then the ceremony being presided over by the 'dark skinned' brother of meenaxi- can be viewed as a symbolic marriage between the cultures of the patriarch aryans who came from central asia represented by Lord Shiva and that of the pre-vedic mother goddess worshippers.
these pre-existent tribes, who are believed to have migrated from the fertile crescent of Africa about 10000 years back, are the supposed fore runners of the dravidian language which later evolved into modern tamil and telugu with the influx of sanskrit and prakrit. the Fish ensign of the Pandiyas itself is a characteristic of many ancient proto-saharan tribes. even the name 'meenaxi' means "fish-eyed goddess". the worship of the goddess of fertility later spread to the northern india and became as essential part of faith all over the nation. this confluence hastened the evolution of the "sanathana dharma" or the Hindu religion as it is known today.
Sundareshwar
on the way from to Sundareshwar shrine, we found the abode of the Mukkuruni Viayagar. A huge larger than life image of Pillayar, which was believed to have been discovered by some traders travelling to a neighbouring kingdom.
we then proceeded to the Lord's shrine. the idol here, which is believed to have been dug out of the temple lake, is the usual silver clad "Nataraja" but with a difference. while the Lord of Chithambaram lifts his left leg in air while suuporting himself on his right leg on the Arakkan depicting a pose in the Thandava Dance, here its just the opposite. as we stood in the queue, Jillu told us about the legend that talks about a devout Pandiyan king who spoke to Lord Shiva during his prayers,
"You always stand on your right leg. It pains my heart to think that it hurts you. Why don't you change the legs?"
And lo! Shiva indeed changed the pose the other way round! this change of legs is the trademark of this temple among all the religious sites in the state.
after the darshanam, we set out to explore the huge hall in front of the entrance of the Sundareshwar shrine. it was ladden with the finest examples of medieval tamil art. to start with, at the door way, an optical illusion created with 5 torsos and one head of a monkey. looking at each tosro with the head gives u a feeling there are separate monkeys! then, there was this mythical creature called "Yazhi", as told by our guide jillu whose body was made up of many different animals.
then there were two idols of Shiva and Goddess Kali standing in identical dance postures- stretching their legs and placing it flat on their heads. jillu told us the story behind this strange sculpture. once, Lord Shiva and his Consort Parvathy decided to compete against each other in dance. Parvathy was able to do every move that Shiva made. finally, Shiva gave his death punch by bending his leg and placing on his head. stretching legs like this was considered indecent for a woman, hence Parvathy ceased to be a woman and took the form of Bhadra Kali, the goddess of death, and performed this act.
we also saw life size images of 'half-vishnu-half-shiva' and the 'ardhanaareeshwaran'. then there was this famous picture postcard sculpture of the Meenaxi Marriage ceremony. Lord Vishnu placing the hand of Meenaxi over the hand of Lord Sundareshwar. this sculpture captures the legend of the usually gory looking warrior Lord Shiva who turned handsome (and hence the name, 'Sundareshwar') with the arrival of Lord Vishnu. the facial expressions are well depicted here, with Vishnu looking Happy, Meenaxi blushing and Sundareshwar epitomizing man hood.
Vaigai
we left the shrine and headed for the aayiram kaal mandapam, when jillu narrated the story of how the river vaigai came about. for the meenakshi wedding, there were scores of relatives representing meenakshi's family while only Gundotharan came from Shiva's side. people ridiculed Shiva saying that they had prepared meals for 1000 people expecting a large following for him. Enraged, Sundareshwar kindles a fire in Gundotharan's stomach and he is plagued by monstruous hunger. he soon gobbles up the food made for a thousand people and still asks for more. then he devours the raw rice and vegetables and all the water available in the kingdom and still remains hungry. people get scared of his seemingly unsatiable glutton and realising the power of the Lord, ask for his forgiveness and plead him to satisfy Gundotharan.
Shiva consents and turns to Gundotharan and says "Kai Vai" (place your hand) gesturing him to kneel down to drink. as he bows down in front of him stretching his arms, water flows down Shiva's head and falls on his palm. Gundotharan drinks the water and the fire in his stomach is extinguished. the water which trickled down his palm formed a river. the phrase "kai vai" was reversed and was bestowed upon this river as the name "Vaigai". since it flowed down Shiva's locks like the Ganges, Vaigai is also known as Southern Ganga.
as we neared the mandapam, we stumbled upon an Aanjineya figure engraved into a pillar. this image was recently rumored to have grown in size!
Aayiram Kaal Mandapam
Next we proceeded to the famous Meenakshi Temple Museum or the Aayiram Kaal (1000 pillared) Mandapam. this was built much later in the 16th century. in addition to 990 odd pillars, this madapam houses some great sculptures from the same period. we met sham here. and he was not alone... there was a Hungarian Lady Tourist looking at the sculptures with him! our Mr. Know-All seemed to have offered her a free lecture on what he knew about the history of the temple. while he played guide, we set out to explore the place and take some snaps.
The Prophecy
we decided to leave at about 12 in the afternoon and as we headed for the exit, an old lady, an astrologer, stopped us and offered to tell our future! vijay decided to try it just for the fun of it. we all sat down, she looked at his palm and then asked vijay to throw seven sea shells on the floor. this was repeated a couple of times. looking at the pattern, she kept giving general remarks about his past and future. after some "you are intelligent and peaceful " (yawn...) and "you have the signs of travel to foreign lands" (yeah yeah...every body in india go to foriegn these days) ... she made a more specific statement "you are unusually lucky in what ever you strive to do"... (huh?, god knows what was running through vijay's mind when she said that... given that he was fresh from an emotional turmoil back in the college ;) !!!!
The Tale of a Jerk and two Wives
then sham tried to give it a shot. and after the usual crap, she said, "if you were married at 19, you would have had 2 wives (everyone on the floor!), else you will be married to a single lady of a foreign land at the age of 23!!!!!!!!( everyone rolling on the floor)". by the time we left, we were more sure about the former!!! though sham thought otherwise (which means some unfortunate american woman in Rutgers will commit suicide in 2 years).
after she was finished, she looked at me and said "intha kannaadi potta thambikku jotsiyam paakkanum!"
Hell NO! "er.... no thank you..."
we left the temple and were terribly thirsty. on the way to the bustop, we stopped at a cool bar and had 'Jigarthanda' the traditional thirst quencher of madurai. it was mix of milk, curd, ice cream, some javvarisi, some sherbet and just melted in our mouths. i had two of it.
Foot Ball
we reached home at 2:30 and given we were pretty wasted out, we decided to drop the plan to visit kannan's place. jillu brought some cds but no one was interested in watching a movie and soon after the lunch, everyone was snoring. at some 4 o clock in the evening, everyone was up and we decided to play football in the near by ground. jillu's pal since childhood, rakesh arrived with some other friends and we split up into two teams.
i was in jilu's team. most of us had the best exercise in years that day. but not without casualities... seeku tried to take the ball head on with his foot and bent his toe in the process! it was about 6:30 when we decided to stop and headed back home after taking a team photo...
we got ready for the 11 o clock train. it was time to take the final group photos of the trip. director sham timed his camera to cover everyone in the group.
lights... camera....
action!
The Last Voyage
we bid jillu's parents adieu and left for the station. we had plenty of time there and so chatted over a cup of tea about life, acads, where everyone was headed etc...
and then we boarded the train and bid jillu good bye. me, ravi, sham and seeku were soon ensued in an argument over the state of private schools in india which became rather loud (god save the passengers in the next cabin!).
late in the night, we decided to sleep. the Great Kodai Trip finally came to an end and 5 tired men made their way back to chennai.Wednessday, 24th May, 9:00 AM: the train reached Tambaram junction. me, sham and ravi got down. while vijay and seeku stayed back to get down at egmore. we went our separate ways. i reached home at about 9:45 and dropped down to sleep with images of the woods and meenakshi flashing across my mind....
And they lived Happily (?) ever after...
Vivek: joined American Megatrends in Thorappaakkam, Chennai, in June. After a few hitches in the begining, settled well into his new job
Ravi: poor chap's miseries dint end with the trip. some infection in the train gave him Rat Fever (alias Leptospirosis)- a rare condition believed to be existent only in a few districts of Tamil Nadu in India. it weakens one's immune system and that triggers off further complications. in fact, at one point Ravi suffered from malaria, typhoid and rat fever simultaneously! was hospitalised for about three weeks. Rat Fever's only cure is Penicillin. and for those who are allergic to penicillin, things may go pretty bad as they are put in a awful situation wherein, both the disease and its cure are fatal. I couldn't thank god more when i heard from his parents that Ravi was, in fact, NOT allergic to penicillin. all's well that ends well... he recovered gradually and then joined Conexant Systems, Hyderabad in the end of May. he is still weak and on a strict diet. my brother has promised to take care of him as long as he is in Hyderabad.
Seeku: went on to win Intel India Student Research competition along with Kiran. is all set to join ME, Communications at IISc.
Sham: went on another trip, soon after, with school friends to shimla. continues to laze around his dwelling place. will leave india this August to join Rutgers with TA .
Vijay: the lonely lover put his sorry tale behind in chennai and left for Delhi to join Indian Institute of Foreign Trade for an MBA.
Jillu: kept roaming around all over tamil nadu visiting friends. came to chennai recently and visited my place before appearing for US VISA interview. made it. will leave for Ohio State University in September with Fellowship.
Mars: this idiot attended IISc and IITM MS interviews. got selected in both. will join Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada this September with Aid. awaits VISA result.
Shanka: went into hiding for a while. got selected into IIT M. will join ASU this August along with Harish. Last heard, he planned a trip to Goa (!!!) with school friends and... yes you guessed it right, cancelled the trip the night before the journey.
Friday, July 07, 2006
Kodayil Kodai: Ravi's Redemption!
The Great Kodai Trip: Day 3
about an hour ago (10:05 AM, Wednessday, 28th June 2006... theres a lot of gap between the time i started writing this post and the time it was actually posted... my apologies!), kumbi flied to bangalore to join Montalov. i went with his parents to see him off at the airport. we were pretty early and so had time to sit there and call most of the folk from college and inform them abt the departure. the call for the bangalore passengers came and it was time to enter the boarding gate. as karthik turned back for the last time to say good bye to us, for the very first time i felt a belonging toward chennai. till date i had been thinking that hyderabad is where i have to find life and sooner or later ill end up there. probably it still holds good, but atleast i guess i ve now come to terms with the fact that the memories of the 6 years i ve spent in chennai, though mostly bitter, will be worth cherishing in some distant future as a phase of my life when i became wise... having seen both the abyss and peak of life.
hmmm... enuf of senti talk... lets get back to the story where we left of!
Day 3: Monday, 22nd May, 7:30 AM, Jilu's Cottage
"dei mokka... yendhiri da.."
"huh...uh...yenna?.."
"machi nee dhaane yezhuppa sonne..."
"dei.... innum... innum 5 mins la endhudichhirven....."
5 mins.... "ye ye... ill be up now, before u come back from bath"
10 mins... i had a bath and got ready "ye the sleeps almost over da..."
20 mins... every one was up and were at their chores "dei im not goin to take bath anyway da (now thats a surprise) so wake me up when u are ready to leave da"... (i give up)
after half an hour sham walked out to brush his teeth.
he had asked me the prev night to wake him up at 7:45 in the morn as he wanted to make sure we wont miss any fun and sight seeing to "unnecessary delay". nevertheless, moksham's words are supposed castles in air.
at about 8:35, we were out having a pleasant walk to the hotel for break fast. the flower bed infront of our beautiful cottage looked just like out of a windows desktop background.
we had a nice breakfast after a long wait for seats to get empty.
Coaker's Walk
then we got into the car and headed for Coaker's walk. it was crowded as any other place we had been till now (except the cycle trek to the top near the lake). but there was enough room to walk freely and take snaps all the way. but we desperately wanted to go to a place which was sans people.
we had an mental agreement amongst ourselves not to mention the previous day's incident just in case it upsets ravi. so we were like fresh tourists busy taking photographs and talkin about all the good things.
the views were breath taking
after a long walk, we sat down to rest near the tower which was housing a telescope for tourists to have a view. there was an man-made wall made of rock and trees separating the path way and the private houses built along (lucky people... rising every morning to this great landscape). me and seeku climbed on to this wall and posed as PlayBoy models... sans stripping!...
Upper Lake View Point
we exited the Walk from the rear where our driver had already brought the car. we chked out some road side shops for soft drinks as every one was thristy. we stumbled upon a souvenir shop which was selling eucalyptus oil and stuff. the shop keeper showed us a trick, by wettening a handkerchief with the oil and lighting it up with a match. when the flames died down, the cloth was as good as new with no burn marks on it! i remember reading about it in Resnick... its called Leidenfrost Effect where when a liquid is heated beyond a point called film boiling temperature, it forms a thin film of gaseuos liquid shielding the handkerchief from the flames on the other side. since gas is a poor conductor of heat, the cloth is un harmed. the shopkeeper managed to sell us some six bottles of oil. we couldn't find refrigerated drinks there so went back to the car and headed of to Upper Lake View Point, a tourist attraction on the outskirts which had almost a full lake view.
the journey to Upper Lake View was pleasant with some harpin bends. the area around the view point is completely fragmented into various private estates and so not much room to explore. on reaching the place we found the view point to be excessively jammed and crowded so we never went inside. rather, spent some time taking photos in the beautiful road connecting the view point to the outside world.
this road had lush terrain with gothic steps carved into the mountain on one side and a deep valley leading to the plains of the lake on the other side.
and then jilu's obsession with Alaipaayuthey started which lasted for the rest of the trip...
The Suicide Point
then we went to the famous kodai suicide point. the steep path way to the top was flanked by a busy market resembling Burma Bazaar.
we finally got to the suicide point managed to find an unoccupied place near the guard wall.
in all these posts on the kodai trip i ve written, one character has never found any significant mention- vijay. thats coz he is the type who severly underplays himself and is seldom seen in any lime light. this Eternal Lonely Lover (a name which he has earned both because of his silent ways and the recent 'events' in the college ;) ! ), was staring into the suicide point with god knows what on his mind...
wired guard rails were put over the walls with a "don't cross this wall" board over it... but then when did our countrymen ever follow rules? there was a huge crowd fighting to cross over a thin gap in the guard rails on the left side. moksham couldn't obviously miss this chance to get better snaps.
vivek bought coolers which triggered of a fight for posing for photos with it (as it happens in every single college trip) ...
we got back down via the market place... and since we were terribly thirsty, we went to a cool bar and had some ice creams. me, seeku and vijay also bought a few packets of kodai tea in a near by tea shop...
and then we came down to the road to find a huge traffic jam with the whole road packed with cars of all sizes and shapes moving an inch every 10 mins. even walking thru this road was difficult. we savoured some mozhaga bajjis and makka chola. we sat there hoping our car will turn up. an hour passed and we were still stuck there sitting by the side of the road.
me and jilu decided to go back and look for the car while sham was trying to call up the driver's mobile in vain. me and jilu walked along a gold course where hundreds of cars were jam packed.
we still couldn't find the car. so we decided to follow the traffic (jam) to the Pillar Rock Point which was our next destination hoping the driver will turn up there eventually. on the way there we found another part of the nice golf course along the road..
Pillar Rock Point
we got to the pillar rock which seemed to be the source (rather the end) of the whole gigantic traffic jam. we got some stupendous views (this time of the mountains rather than the valley) at that point. the coolers were still passing around and the cam memory was being over loaded with snaps. my cam was running out of battery so i stopped to save it for the next location.
Entering Ground Zero- The Woods
as hoped, the driver met us there with the car and we started trying to figure where next. Guna cave was the initial plan but we were all sick of the crowd and wanted to go to a place which would be all ours to explore. jillu suggested a place just short of Guna caves which satisfied this criteria.
and wat a place it was... tall tress every where with no one around. cool place to hang out. there was huge trunk of a fallen tree which served jillu's , which soon became everyone's, purpose of doing the maddy act.
there was a slope after a few meters from where we were standing and we climbed up to explore the woods better.
i got bored of sham's obsession with taking photos with different photos and permutations and set off leaving the guys behind.
Ethereal Silence
i just kept walking deeper and deeper into the woods and in no time i realised i couldn't see the guys any longer. i could hear faint laughing sound of ravi though. i saw in front of me dense vegetaion completely blocking sunlight. i tried to call out for ravi and seeku but no one seemed to hear me. it was cold and a bit humid out there. i couldn't see anything moving except me. the mist condensed on my glasses. the earth was soft with atleast a feet of fallen leaves beneath me. i dint feel any tiredness walking up that slope. that silence was overwhelming and i felt like lying down there forever. this is the place to capture inthe camera, i thought but drat! my cam ran out of battery and i managed only one photo...
i kept standing there looking up at the trees. long time passed and i suddenly realised the guys may be looking for me and so started walking back the long way. after i covered half the distance i heard jilu's voice crying out for me! they obviously thought i had got lost... or worse committed suicide! then an idea struck me... to go a longer way making a loop and catching them by surprise from behind. i could see ravi at a great distance already looking for me in the wrong direction!
i ran down the slope trying not to make any sound and hiding behind the trees all along and watching out for the folk a la "Roja" climax! the calls from jilu and vivek got louder and louder. they really sounded a bit desperate. i had crossed them and was about to make move toward them from back when i skidded as i tried to hide behind a tree and jilu heard the sound and looked straight at me even as i tried to fall back. i dont think he was sure he saw me. he called to me at that direction anyway and i gave myself in (so much for the surprise)... jilu then called up the others and they came down running towards me. man they were furious or what...
nevertheless i got the usual treatment ...
after they were done with me, we resumed taking snaps. there was a stump which was climbable and everyone started doing it... and seeku posed as God Himself!
Ravi pays for his sins
and then something got into ravi which he might regret for the rest of his life (believe me, he will). he started throwing sticks at everyone, especially those who were posing for photos. probably he was still mad at the guys for playing that prank on him... one of his sticks almost missed vivek's $%*^# !!!!!!!!!....
everyone was furious but we continued taking snaps as it was getting late and we had to leave. sham whispered into my ear that we will catch ravi by surprise and give him treatment. sham obviously still had last night's episode on his mind and wanted revenge. soon the message was conveyed to everyone (except ravi of course). and then at the the right moment sham grabbed ravi. we joined him as vijay did the job of capturing the show in his camera. we dragged him, kicked him and... well, i think describing whole episode in words will be an injustice to what really happened. so i give u the video...
Video Link (make sure you turn on the speakers!): http://youtube.com/watch?v=8oru_IXFD-U (Duration: 56 seconds)
and just when we thought it was enough, sham yelled " DEI... maattu saani da!" ... yes! by the time ravi's treatment ended, he was actually lying on a heap of cow dung! sham had actually noticed it before but prefered not to diclose it till it was all over ravi's pants! (some people are filthy beyond description... and im not talking about ravi !). well, poor ravi tried to clean his pants with the very stick he was throwing at guys till then!
we took one last group photo...
... and got into the car. ravi was getting into the front seat when vivek said, "dei u stink da... now we literally need BREATHING SPACE!" (laughs) and ravi had to sit alone in the back. he was never the same for the rest of the trip. his 'cool guy' image was broken down into billion pieces by his tormentor- sham and the immortal words of Morgan Freeman "Every man has a breaking point" found its realisation that day in kodaikkanal. poor chap... guess this was his worst trip ever.
The Mound
we still had some time left so we decided to go to the mound me and ravi had discovered yesterday. the place was cool with a beautiful view of the lake. and everyone started doing wat they do best...
lonely lover #1 vijay sat down looking at the ground and lost in thoughts...
lonely lover #2 sham stood alone looking around... probably answering the calls of a cow which was tied up near by and was mooing loudly looking for a mate!
... and me and jilu posed for more photos!
Good Bye Kodai
we finally decided to call it a day and got back to our cottage. we rested for a while. ravi had a much needed bath!
i set out to explore the backyard of the cottage which looked upon a valley and had a splendid view. i collected some Kurunji flowers there. these kurunji flowers, found only in kodaikkanal, bloom once in 12 years and the last time it happened was 1994. our trip was well timed. but this wasn't the full bloom. during the peak season, it seems the whole mountains turn violet with a dense sheet of flowers. what a spectacle that would be!
i brought home some flowers from the trip and proposed!
and this was how ravi reacted the previous day when he saw the flowers... his attempts at looking romantic would put even Goundamani to shame!
we had dinner at a hotel near by and set off to madurai. seeku offered me avamin tablet for nausea. taking that pill was the gravest mistake i had committed. it turned out my body is allergic to that tablet and that, coupled with the freaking speed with which the driver took the car down the hill turned my stomach into a geyser! we had to stop THREE times before i puked out the dinner we just had and still i felt sick. at one of the stops, i actually jumped out of the car in a hurry and my flotter slipped down unnoticed. i realised i had lost one slipper only after we reached madurai. i started puking out even bile juice and it never seemed to end. i was praying for the plains to arrive soon and then i fell asleep.
we reached Jilu's place and his mom was there to welcome us. i was exhausted and still too sick to speak even a few words. i just managed to tell jilu's mom that i don't want anything to eat and i want to sleep asap. as i lied down, i could hear the others talking loudly over the dinner. my eyes felt heavy and i dropped down asleep... a very silent end to a dramatic day!...
about an hour ago (10:05 AM, Wednessday, 28th June 2006... theres a lot of gap between the time i started writing this post and the time it was actually posted... my apologies!), kumbi flied to bangalore to join Montalov. i went with his parents to see him off at the airport. we were pretty early and so had time to sit there and call most of the folk from college and inform them abt the departure. the call for the bangalore passengers came and it was time to enter the boarding gate. as karthik turned back for the last time to say good bye to us, for the very first time i felt a belonging toward chennai. till date i had been thinking that hyderabad is where i have to find life and sooner or later ill end up there. probably it still holds good, but atleast i guess i ve now come to terms with the fact that the memories of the 6 years i ve spent in chennai, though mostly bitter, will be worth cherishing in some distant future as a phase of my life when i became wise... having seen both the abyss and peak of life.
hmmm... enuf of senti talk... lets get back to the story where we left of!
Day 3: Monday, 22nd May, 7:30 AM, Jilu's Cottage
"dei mokka... yendhiri da.."
"huh...uh...yenna?.."
"machi nee dhaane yezhuppa sonne..."
"dei.... innum... innum 5 mins la endhudichhirven....."
5 mins.... "ye ye... ill be up now, before u come back from bath"
10 mins... i had a bath and got ready "ye the sleeps almost over da..."
20 mins... every one was up and were at their chores "dei im not goin to take bath anyway da (now thats a surprise) so wake me up when u are ready to leave da"... (i give up)
after half an hour sham walked out to brush his teeth.
he had asked me the prev night to wake him up at 7:45 in the morn as he wanted to make sure we wont miss any fun and sight seeing to "unnecessary delay". nevertheless, moksham's words are supposed castles in air.
at about 8:35, we were out having a pleasant walk to the hotel for break fast. the flower bed infront of our beautiful cottage looked just like out of a windows desktop background.
we had a nice breakfast after a long wait for seats to get empty.
Coaker's Walk
then we got into the car and headed for Coaker's walk. it was crowded as any other place we had been till now (except the cycle trek to the top near the lake). but there was enough room to walk freely and take snaps all the way. but we desperately wanted to go to a place which was sans people.
we had an mental agreement amongst ourselves not to mention the previous day's incident just in case it upsets ravi. so we were like fresh tourists busy taking photographs and talkin about all the good things.
the views were breath taking
after a long walk, we sat down to rest near the tower which was housing a telescope for tourists to have a view. there was an man-made wall made of rock and trees separating the path way and the private houses built along (lucky people... rising every morning to this great landscape). me and seeku climbed on to this wall and posed as PlayBoy models... sans stripping!...
Upper Lake View Point
we exited the Walk from the rear where our driver had already brought the car. we chked out some road side shops for soft drinks as every one was thristy. we stumbled upon a souvenir shop which was selling eucalyptus oil and stuff. the shop keeper showed us a trick, by wettening a handkerchief with the oil and lighting it up with a match. when the flames died down, the cloth was as good as new with no burn marks on it! i remember reading about it in Resnick... its called Leidenfrost Effect where when a liquid is heated beyond a point called film boiling temperature, it forms a thin film of gaseuos liquid shielding the handkerchief from the flames on the other side. since gas is a poor conductor of heat, the cloth is un harmed. the shopkeeper managed to sell us some six bottles of oil. we couldn't find refrigerated drinks there so went back to the car and headed of to Upper Lake View Point, a tourist attraction on the outskirts which had almost a full lake view.
the journey to Upper Lake View was pleasant with some harpin bends. the area around the view point is completely fragmented into various private estates and so not much room to explore. on reaching the place we found the view point to be excessively jammed and crowded so we never went inside. rather, spent some time taking photos in the beautiful road connecting the view point to the outside world.
this road had lush terrain with gothic steps carved into the mountain on one side and a deep valley leading to the plains of the lake on the other side.
and then jilu's obsession with Alaipaayuthey started which lasted for the rest of the trip...
The Suicide Point
then we went to the famous kodai suicide point. the steep path way to the top was flanked by a busy market resembling Burma Bazaar.
we finally got to the suicide point managed to find an unoccupied place near the guard wall.
in all these posts on the kodai trip i ve written, one character has never found any significant mention- vijay. thats coz he is the type who severly underplays himself and is seldom seen in any lime light. this Eternal Lonely Lover (a name which he has earned both because of his silent ways and the recent 'events' in the college ;) ! ), was staring into the suicide point with god knows what on his mind...
wired guard rails were put over the walls with a "don't cross this wall" board over it... but then when did our countrymen ever follow rules? there was a huge crowd fighting to cross over a thin gap in the guard rails on the left side. moksham couldn't obviously miss this chance to get better snaps.
vivek bought coolers which triggered of a fight for posing for photos with it (as it happens in every single college trip) ...
we got back down via the market place... and since we were terribly thirsty, we went to a cool bar and had some ice creams. me, seeku and vijay also bought a few packets of kodai tea in a near by tea shop...
and then we came down to the road to find a huge traffic jam with the whole road packed with cars of all sizes and shapes moving an inch every 10 mins. even walking thru this road was difficult. we savoured some mozhaga bajjis and makka chola. we sat there hoping our car will turn up. an hour passed and we were still stuck there sitting by the side of the road.
me and jilu decided to go back and look for the car while sham was trying to call up the driver's mobile in vain. me and jilu walked along a gold course where hundreds of cars were jam packed.
we still couldn't find the car. so we decided to follow the traffic (jam) to the Pillar Rock Point which was our next destination hoping the driver will turn up there eventually. on the way there we found another part of the nice golf course along the road..
Pillar Rock Point
we got to the pillar rock which seemed to be the source (rather the end) of the whole gigantic traffic jam. we got some stupendous views (this time of the mountains rather than the valley) at that point. the coolers were still passing around and the cam memory was being over loaded with snaps. my cam was running out of battery so i stopped to save it for the next location.
Entering Ground Zero- The Woods
as hoped, the driver met us there with the car and we started trying to figure where next. Guna cave was the initial plan but we were all sick of the crowd and wanted to go to a place which would be all ours to explore. jillu suggested a place just short of Guna caves which satisfied this criteria.
and wat a place it was... tall tress every where with no one around. cool place to hang out. there was huge trunk of a fallen tree which served jillu's , which soon became everyone's, purpose of doing the maddy act.
there was a slope after a few meters from where we were standing and we climbed up to explore the woods better.
i got bored of sham's obsession with taking photos with different photos and permutations and set off leaving the guys behind.
Ethereal Silence
i just kept walking deeper and deeper into the woods and in no time i realised i couldn't see the guys any longer. i could hear faint laughing sound of ravi though. i saw in front of me dense vegetaion completely blocking sunlight. i tried to call out for ravi and seeku but no one seemed to hear me. it was cold and a bit humid out there. i couldn't see anything moving except me. the mist condensed on my glasses. the earth was soft with atleast a feet of fallen leaves beneath me. i dint feel any tiredness walking up that slope. that silence was overwhelming and i felt like lying down there forever. this is the place to capture inthe camera, i thought but drat! my cam ran out of battery and i managed only one photo...
i kept standing there looking up at the trees. long time passed and i suddenly realised the guys may be looking for me and so started walking back the long way. after i covered half the distance i heard jilu's voice crying out for me! they obviously thought i had got lost... or worse committed suicide! then an idea struck me... to go a longer way making a loop and catching them by surprise from behind. i could see ravi at a great distance already looking for me in the wrong direction!
i ran down the slope trying not to make any sound and hiding behind the trees all along and watching out for the folk a la "Roja" climax! the calls from jilu and vivek got louder and louder. they really sounded a bit desperate. i had crossed them and was about to make move toward them from back when i skidded as i tried to hide behind a tree and jilu heard the sound and looked straight at me even as i tried to fall back. i dont think he was sure he saw me. he called to me at that direction anyway and i gave myself in (so much for the surprise)... jilu then called up the others and they came down running towards me. man they were furious or what...
nevertheless i got the usual treatment ...
after they were done with me, we resumed taking snaps. there was a stump which was climbable and everyone started doing it... and seeku posed as God Himself!
Ravi pays for his sins
and then something got into ravi which he might regret for the rest of his life (believe me, he will). he started throwing sticks at everyone, especially those who were posing for photos. probably he was still mad at the guys for playing that prank on him... one of his sticks almost missed vivek's $%*^# !!!!!!!!!....
everyone was furious but we continued taking snaps as it was getting late and we had to leave. sham whispered into my ear that we will catch ravi by surprise and give him treatment. sham obviously still had last night's episode on his mind and wanted revenge. soon the message was conveyed to everyone (except ravi of course). and then at the the right moment sham grabbed ravi. we joined him as vijay did the job of capturing the show in his camera. we dragged him, kicked him and... well, i think describing whole episode in words will be an injustice to what really happened. so i give u the video...
Video Link (make sure you turn on the speakers!): http://youtube.com/watch?v=8oru_IXFD-U (Duration: 56 seconds)
and just when we thought it was enough, sham yelled " DEI... maattu saani da!" ... yes! by the time ravi's treatment ended, he was actually lying on a heap of cow dung! sham had actually noticed it before but prefered not to diclose it till it was all over ravi's pants! (some people are filthy beyond description... and im not talking about ravi !). well, poor ravi tried to clean his pants with the very stick he was throwing at guys till then!
we took one last group photo...
... and got into the car. ravi was getting into the front seat when vivek said, "dei u stink da... now we literally need BREATHING SPACE!" (laughs) and ravi had to sit alone in the back. he was never the same for the rest of the trip. his 'cool guy' image was broken down into billion pieces by his tormentor- sham and the immortal words of Morgan Freeman "Every man has a breaking point" found its realisation that day in kodaikkanal. poor chap... guess this was his worst trip ever.
The Mound
we still had some time left so we decided to go to the mound me and ravi had discovered yesterday. the place was cool with a beautiful view of the lake. and everyone started doing wat they do best...
lonely lover #1 vijay sat down looking at the ground and lost in thoughts...
lonely lover #2 sham stood alone looking around... probably answering the calls of a cow which was tied up near by and was mooing loudly looking for a mate!
... and me and jilu posed for more photos!
Good Bye Kodai
we finally decided to call it a day and got back to our cottage. we rested for a while. ravi had a much needed bath!
i set out to explore the backyard of the cottage which looked upon a valley and had a splendid view. i collected some Kurunji flowers there. these kurunji flowers, found only in kodaikkanal, bloom once in 12 years and the last time it happened was 1994. our trip was well timed. but this wasn't the full bloom. during the peak season, it seems the whole mountains turn violet with a dense sheet of flowers. what a spectacle that would be!
i brought home some flowers from the trip and proposed!
and this was how ravi reacted the previous day when he saw the flowers... his attempts at looking romantic would put even Goundamani to shame!
we had dinner at a hotel near by and set off to madurai. seeku offered me avamin tablet for nausea. taking that pill was the gravest mistake i had committed. it turned out my body is allergic to that tablet and that, coupled with the freaking speed with which the driver took the car down the hill turned my stomach into a geyser! we had to stop THREE times before i puked out the dinner we just had and still i felt sick. at one of the stops, i actually jumped out of the car in a hurry and my flotter slipped down unnoticed. i realised i had lost one slipper only after we reached madurai. i started puking out even bile juice and it never seemed to end. i was praying for the plains to arrive soon and then i fell asleep.
we reached Jilu's place and his mom was there to welcome us. i was exhausted and still too sick to speak even a few words. i just managed to tell jilu's mom that i don't want anything to eat and i want to sleep asap. as i lied down, i could hear the others talking loudly over the dinner. my eyes felt heavy and i dropped down asleep... a very silent end to a dramatic day!...
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