Thursday, November 20, 2008

Kerala Brahman - Day 1

Continued from previous post...

3 bikes, 6 friends were on their way to explore the exotic Kerala. We were cruising at the break of simply beautiful dawn. Actually it had to be the one coz I had not witnessed the sunrise after coming to Kozhikode (thanks to late night slogging). Malik was driving, I was the pillion riding, making myself busy in capturing the landscapes in my IXUS. Bhargav vrooomed on his cruiser bike as if he aspired to be next Rossi but what he did forget that chetta-land is not a motoGP track. Cool breeze blowing through my hair had evaporated all the weariness from the past week.


We reached Meppadi at 8 am and stopped by at a food joint for the breakfast. We were simply swayed by the hospitality of the people there. It was time to savour the flavour of Kerala. Fortunately Bhargav was aware of some palatable mallu dishes & ordered for us. I will do a great injustice to Kerala tea, if this post goes without a special mention of it. Fresh from the bagans, no quantum of words will be proportionate to express the aroma & taste of the tea. Had any corner of our tummies caught unoccupied, we would have gulped 3rd cup of tea.

Next we headed to Chembra estate from where we were supposed to start the mission. FYI it is the second highest peak in Kerala!! Getting hold of authority letter didn't take too much of time & 'K'omrades were on their way. Accompanying us was our local guide Max. We had scarcely trekked before |A|'s (Amod's) health refused him to stretch anymore & he decided to return to base camp. One down! Our next target was to reach the heart shaped lake situated mid way(crookedly claimed by those who haven't made it to the top) between base & peak. Weather was playing tricks with us: scorching sun & just few minutes later cool breeze could be felt on the face. Two self proclaimed photogenic komrades (thats me :P & Vaibhav) komrades were making sure that we do not miss any of our pic against any backdrop. It was not too late when we were having our photo-session at the lake. This time Prashant's endurance had depreciated.Two down! But this wasn't a wet blanket, he also had decided to move back to base.
Our sojourn at lake had re-charged our batteries & we decided to make headway. Soon we had forged ahead peak by peak (7 to be precise) to make it to the top. Obama would not have got more sense of achievement on becoming the president elect than we did on conquering the top. We spent an hour celebrating our accomplishment before we started descending.

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Kerala Brahman - Day 0

I can literally count the things that could have given me more sense of relief than this. I was walking out of exam hall after last midterm exam. For a guy like me who seeks inspiration from Garfield, the week had very little to offer: 3 hrs of daily sleep!! But thankfully the horrendous period was over and I had already scribbled a couple of entries in my to-do list. You need to have -ve IQ to be unable to guess that one of them was sleeping. Other one was to pay due respect to zamorin(local shared server at IIMK which offers us plethora of movies, serials).

I had started my weekend in style: watching 7 episodes of friends in a go. But there was something else in store for me. Malik had called me up asking me to pack my bags. We were leaving for Waynad early morning next day. But I was in no mood of getting early next day & going to bed early is a crime here. Actually we, nocturnal homo-sapiens take immense pride in slogging (or atleast pretend to slog) late at night. When I finally switched off lights & my mind at 0330, I was hoping that Malik & other guys too are asleep till 8 or 9 in the morning.

"I was sitting right across Piggy Chops while we were having dinner. She was looking stupendously gorgeous in the dim radiance of the candle light. It was followed by stroll along the beach. I was wondering if this evening could last for ever.... "

Tring tring....It was my mobile ringing. I bet I never hated my ringtone so much.
Damn it Malik... its 5 in the morning and we are not leaving right now...
The response: "Dude get ready in 15 minutes"
I wish I had put some sleeping pills in their dinner last night. Anyways my dream was over and Malik left me with no other option than to wake up. We ,"Adrenaline-junkies" were all set to leave at 0530 hrs.

Friends, gotta sign off..its 3 in the morning & I have a case study pending :(