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!...