A WEEKEND TRIP- PART3

A WEEKEND TRIP- PART3

There were several interesting people in our group but let me introduce you to this one very interesting guy named Aaseesh. I don’t know what’s with him and gravity but the latter (gravity) seems to have a peculiar propensity towards him as he keeps falling all the time, no matter where he goes.  There was a Mom and kid too in the group. Namisha was worried about her hyperactive 12 yr old son, Sivam. But then we took care of him like our little brotherJ. You’ll get to know the others as you read along. Anyway there we were making our way into the forest; we had to be a little careful with the footing as it was a bit slushy and slippery.   We were taking pictures of almost everything-See a flower *Click*, see a huge tree *Click*, see a spider *Click*, see a bird *Click*. Nature must have felt like a celebrity being dogged by paparazzi.

After a cautious walk of about 10 minutes or so we came to a level ground with a small clearing with a few small houses here and there. I saw kids in school uniform there jumping and frolicking around .It was good to see that these kids went to school. When they saw us they were like little bubbles effervescing and when they saw me they wanted to have their picture taken with the 'Bade Unkul' :-p, I was more than happy to oblige. After a few pictures with the kids we moved on, continuing our journey into the wilderness through the slushy path. Soon we could hear the sound of the steady flow of the river. After a long walk, finding a river in the wild, I came to know, was like finding light at the end of the tunnel.  I pictured a beautiful, crystal-clear river with lots of fishes in them (Thanks to watching all those Travel n Living episodes, now TLC:-D), but boy, was I in for a rude shock.  The river appeared to be an outlet from a chocolate factory; it was absolutely muddy!!  We lined ourselves near the edge of the river, looking at each other. We were hesitant because God knew what was in there. The little guy Sivam was in his swim shorts in 5 seconds flat but the firm hand of his mother prevented him from going in; he was like a wild horse waiting to be freed.

But the silence and hesitations were soon broken when one of them said “I didn’t come all this way to be stopped by some muddy river from having some fun” and off he went trudging into the river.

We exchanged silent glances which said “What the heck!”  And then all hell broke loose, almost all followed suit, splashing into the river like there were some hidden treasure inside.  This guy called Satish, took some time to get into the water as he was hydrophobic, but after a lot of egging he mustered enough strength to get into the water.

All but two of them didn’t come into the water-Reshmi as she was afraid that she would get skin allergy and Suresh our dedicated and passionate photographer. We tried to persuade him into getting in but he preferred to stay behind the lens and take some good pictures of us (We didn’t mind that awfully too much actually, he he).  Those who knew how to swim crossed the river and the remaining guys formed a human chain and crossed it. And Aaseesh while crossing the river slipped and fell, but he knew how to swim, so no tensionJ. By the time I reached the other side my tracks were completely drenched and heavy as it had absorbed water. We sat on an old fallen tree on the other side and were just dangling our feet in the water, which wasn’t as bad as it had first seemed.  Some of the girls saw the mud as some sort of a beauty product and started applying them on their legs. (Even in the wilderness all they can think about is makeup, Sheesh! ) I tried it on too thinking a little more dirt wouldn’t make much of a difference (plus it was free) and must say, it felt nice and cool with the mud on: P. Suresh meanwhile was having fun finding us in this state and was clicking our ‘dirty’ pictures . After the mud bath we headed back towards the farm house where lunch awaited us. It was a simple homely lunch consisting of white rice, daal, cabbage, pappad and the savior pickle.

 After lunch we just sat  there talking, cracking all kinds of jokes one can imagine and there was no mobile signal there so no one was disturbed by any sudden  and ’important’ calls . We put Satish in the spot light. Apparently that dude has been religiously working out every day in the gym for ten long years, and the result was there for everyone to see.  His biceps were 10 times bigger than mine; soon everyone was comparing their biceps with this guy. When girls put their arms beside him it was like comparing a 200ml coke bottle to a 1000 liter syntex tank.  We jokingly called him Johnny Bravo aka muscle man. We all had a good laugh, for once no one was racing against time, in fact we were mocking time to go on its merry way and we didn’t have a care in the world.  All of us were just having a pleasant time, when we suddenly heard a shriek.  We rushed to see what it was. It was one of the girls, Harini staring down at Shubam’s bloody feet. He was bleeding from the web of his toes (It was hardly a few drops of blood, girls I tell you!!) On closer observation we found a baby leech lodged there. It must have got there from the river.  We carefully removed it with a stick and put it in the floor, for all to see as if it was some exhibition piece.  Soon we noticed the leech puking out blood. We then started teasing Shubam that his blood was so polluted that even the leeches don’t drink it :p.

After lunch and a little bit of relaxation we geared up to go for kayaking (It’s a small one-seater boat where u have to row with a peddle). I was a bit excited as it was my first time.  We reached there in about 30 minutes in a couple of cars.  The name of the river was ‘Kali’, I gulped, not a very encouraging name for a first-timer like me, I thought.  Going by the name I thought it would be a river with strong and violent currents, but to my relief the river was very much placid with normal currents. The river cut across the forest.  We reached the spot where we were supposed to get on the kayaks.  The brave ones volunteered first. Aaseesh was the one among the first who went.  He confidently sat on the kayak after securing his life jacket and off he went and not to our surprise within seconds he toppled his kayak over and was neck deep in water, but luckily he knew how to swim,so no tension J  I now learnt that  this thing should be done with poise, if you shift  your weight  a bit to either side then you’ll inevitably find yourself in the water.  This little stunt by Aaseesh did little to improve my confidence, but I was adamant that I would try it no matter what.

After most of them were done, I mustered enough confidence and decided to go for it. I precariously got onto the kayak after putting on the life jacket; I prayed I wouldn’t have to use it. My legs were too long for the kayak, but somehow I adjusted.  The guy just have me a little push and I was off. I was now on my own with nothing but my paddle, life jacket and the little common sense I had. I was so focused on maintaining my equilibrium initially that I dint notice I was peddling wrong, I was going in a zig-zag pattern, but it dint take long to get the hang of it. You had to row at 90 to the kayak to get it to go straight, but if you rowed in a wide arc then you would be directing the kayak to change direction. It was fun once you got the hang of it J. I rowed and rowed focusing on not to fall, soon the kayak bay was completely out of sight. I was so engrossed on maintaining my balance and making sure of my rowing technique that I almost missed the breathtaking scenic beauty that lay around me .I stopped rowing to take in the surroundings, I was surrounded by water on all sides. But the river felt like a royal carpet laid down with the forest on either side welcoming you. I dint feel like a King, far from it, I felt humbled and privileged just to be there. The tranquility that one gets to experience there is something else; I wished everyone could experience this, at least once in their life time. I didn’t want to go back to the deadlines, rush hour traffic, materialistic, egoistic society that we live in, I just wanted to stay here and not go back.  After spending considerable time of bliss in nature’s lap I reluctantly started rowing back to the bay; the return was a bit easier as you were going with the current but still fun never the less. Should give it to the guys, they were there waiting, they were clicking pictures and cheering as if you were a hero returning from war. We encouraged and appreciated each and everyone. But unfortunately our friend Satish (Johny Bravo) didn’t try out as he was dead scared of water.

Then we started off for the river Jacuzzi. I didn’t exactly know what it was but I was soon going to find out.  The guys who had finished kayaking earlier were already there. When I reached the Jacuzzi spot I saw the guys sitting there in front of the mini waterfall like thing. I was all excited, and quickly took of my shirt and went in. You had to be a touch careful as the rocks were a bit slippery. It was nothing but the place where the river changed the levels because of the step like formation of the rocks. I went in and sat there. So this was what river Jacuzzi felt like I thought……and it felt NICE!!!  The cool river moving past your body was like a nice water massage to all parts of your body (and I mean ALL- it went where no man has gone before, even women for that matter, lol :-p ). It blanketed our entire body when we lay there looking at the evening sun set. It felt like paradise on Earth. Usually there is a time slot for this, but since there was no one else there, it was all ours!  Even the hydrophobic Satish came in after a lot of persuasion and he felt at ease with everyone around. Someone told me one of us fell and I had missed that when I was kayaking. When I asked him who had fallen he gave me a stare as if I had asked the most retarded question ever. His look told me  that it was none other than our little gravity loving buddy Aaseesh, but he knew how to swim, so no tensionJ. By the time we came out of the so called Jacuzzi we were drenched to our sinew and our hair was surprisingly soft, thanks to the mineral rich river water I guess.  We returned to the farm house exhausted but exhilarated.

Once back we had a nice refreshing bath and got ready for dinner. Dinner was again with roti, rice, potatoes and there was chicken as well this time. Post the palatable dinner there was a bon fire and we all sat around it. We decided to share some interesting/embarrassing/frightening experiences of our lives. We came to know each other a little better after this. We came to know how Satish developed his hydrophobia, he and his friends had gone for an outing when he had slipped and almost drowned.  Reshmi shared her experience of her horrifying accident where her jaws were fractured and both her jaws had to be stitched together (My stomach churned when I heard this line). She couldn’t talk for months and she could drink only fluids. The doctors gave the most excruciating news to her parents saying that she would die if she sneezed anytime those few months. But due to God’s grace she was among us today having fun like any of usJ.  After this story there was a stark silence, the crackling of the wood in the fire was the only thing that could be heard at that moment. I wanted to change the mood and lift up the gloom, so I said something on the lighter side and shared an embarrassing incident of mine when I was in engineering after which we all had a good laugh about it. Of course I’m not going to write it here :-p.  Soon after that many others started sharing their memories with us one by one.  But the most hilarious of them was by this guy called Rajesh. He shared his stories of when he was in hostel, about his roommate. They were absolutely hilarious and had us all in splits when he was narrating the funny incidents. (This is not the appropriate forum for me to share them.  But if you do want to hear them or even my embarrassing moments may be, you can always give me a call or over a coffee may be J )

We had to wake up at 4:00 clock in the morning so many of them retired to bed. Our organizer thought it would be a good idea to sleep right there in the open air, and I had to agree, it looked very enticing, the only question was whether we would be able to withstand the freezing cold late in the night, but we decided to brave the cold. We wore our warm clothes and slept outside, around the fire and on the mat. Soon many others decide to join in and almost half of us were there with our sleeping gear settled cozily around the fire.  Unfortunately for Cristeen, the curly-haired girl who I l almost ran into, she ended up between me and Rajesh. We were firing Pjs after Pjs and jokes after jokes at each other. She must have felt like digging a big hole right there and going inside it.  The clouds soon cleared up and when they did, almost in unison all our rambling stopped. The beauty that lay sprawled in the vast expanses of the November night sky captured all our senses.  I have seen a sky in the night with stars, but nothing came remotely close to this one. The number of stars that I could see studded in the dark velvet sky was unimaginably huuuge!! I mean we were playing a game of finding out alphabets, several geometrical shapes in the sky, and we would find it with some difficulty.  I could see almost all the constellations. As if seeing this plethora of stars  wasn’t a gift  in itself,  I saw something that night which I thought happens only in Karan Johar movies and  I never got to see it  in my entire mundane life- A shooting star…and not just one but FOUR!!!:-)  This was a cherry on the cake for me and it outright made my day, a day which I was not about to forget anytime soon.

The fire that was once burning nice and bright like us, was now going to sleep along with us. Staring at this celestial wonder in amazement we slowly drifted off to sleep with a completely de-stressed mind and a smile on our face. And the day finally ended with the hope of a better tomorrow…..To be Continued.

PS: If u have read all the way through and reached here, then congrats, you now know you have this rare trait known as patience J