it was not an impulse trip. i just didnt want to spend my birthday in madras, with the stupid cake-cutting and stuff in college. and i needed some time for introspection. yes, it is an annual affair.
bangalore wasnt the ideal place — hate it actually — but it wasnt madras and it was jus 6 hours away. and i hadn’t met murali and anand, friends from school, in a long time. hadn’t seen them after the first farewell in my first year of college. murali was in a spot, stuck in bangalore, the way i saw it. he used to live with some of his college friends at a decent place in GM Palaya, near BEML Gate. that’s when his parents, who were already worried about their son because of GIRLS (aiyyo shiva shiva) calling him on his phone while he was at home, decided to take matters into their own hands. both of them had just retired, uncleji having taken early retirement, and with their benefits and retirement money, they bought a nice little 3-bedroom house in bangalore. well, not exactly bangalore. the place is called hudi, or huddi, or hoodi, and it is in the outskirts, beyond whitefield. the only consolation was it was close to his office in ITPL. but then, he was so far from the city, his friends from school and college. and brigade road. and i think that is exactly why his parents did that to him. but you havent heard the full amount of their treachery yet.
they made the initial downpayments for the flat with their money, then took out a loan in his name for the rest. so he is as good as stuck in TCS — that’s where he works — till he repays the loan. and he got a bad deal when he joined, being assigned to one of the worst task groups possible, where the annual raises are always less than the company average. his only way out is an onsite, that is working where the client, Aviva, is based. Britain to be precise.
my first night in banglaore was like the sunny deol ad. khoob jamega rang jab mil baithainge teen yaar, aap, mein or hamara bagpiper club soda. i could never figure out what the two guys would do with plain soda, so murali, me and hercules rum did the honurs. intimate discussions about life, parents, siblings, women, our dreams and what not.
the second day was more of the same but with more friends.
the third day, the birthday, i got back to murali’s place in the morning from anand’s. murali had some work in the city, so i had the whole flat to myself and i wasnt complaining. people kept calling throughout the day and i was only too happy to talk to some of them. the realisation that i had more than my share of friends who are really good human beings was quite humbling. and the feeling kept coming back, what did i do to deserve them? them and my parents, who i valued so lightly till recently. it was a sick feeling. a guilt trip is the last one i will take, but once a year is ok.
the weather was just perfect, reflecting my mood, cloudy and raining at intervals. and i stood on the balcony and looked out at the barren landscape in front of me, with just one or two houses and the electric pylons to break the monotony, and cried.
i took the morning lalbagh from KR Puram to jolarpettai. the hills tugged from afar and i thought i had found the perfect substitute in yelagiri. what a disappointment!
Yelagiri is a small hill station around 45 mins out of jolarpettai and an hour from vellore. the view as you climb the hill is incredible. all the hills i have seen till now were surrounded by hills. but here, as you climbed, a flat plain just stretched out endlessly in front of you. i am pretty sure the white cluster of civilazation i saw far away was vellore. but then, it could have been ambur too.
but once you reach yelagiri, there is absolutely nothing for a single traveller like me to do. it turned out to be a bleady picnic spot. a small lake where some boating happened was the only tourist attraction. and it was too hot for a hill station. at 1400 m, i suppose, that was to be expected. but i wasnt beaten yet.
i had come for a trek and a trek i would do. yelagiri is surrounded by reserve forests, small hills that rise above the plateau that is yelagiri. i walked through fields and grazing spots, with farmers staring at the oddly-clad tourist who seemed to be going in the wrong direction, before i found a path that seemed to go into the forest. i was right on that front. the climb wasnt tortuous, but the blazing sun was a pain. i would have preferred climbing in a snowstorm any day. halfway up the mountain, i found some huge boulders in the shade and pitched camp. took my shoulder bag and kept it under my head and went to sleep would be more exact. i dont know how long i slept — my old phone’s clock has Y2K issues i think. the sun was still right over my head, just a bit off to the left, when i woke up. after two slabs of milky bar and some water, i was off again. i reached another huge boulder after a short climb. i dont know what got into me, but with all the hills around, i thought it would be a good echo piont. it wasnt all that bad, but the lady who had been cutting wood up on the hill gave me a wierd look as she passed me by.
i never made it to the top. the path sloped downward some 5o metres from the top and i was too lazy to cut through the dense undergrowth. i had almost decided to go back, when the shot rang out. after growing up with heavy doses of hardy boys and the three investigators, it was a moral obligation to investigate. all i found were a few shepherds, their cows and absolutely no trace of any marijuana cultivation. i am reasonably sure that if i had climbed a few more hills, i could have come back with half a bag of farm-fresh stuff.
the trip back didnt take long. downhill never does. i was back in yelagiri before 3 and made jolarpettai before 4. jolarpettai to ambur was another hour from where i got a nice SETC airbus to chennai. the bangalore-chennai highway is one heck of a road and we made good time, despite the rain. they played gilli, the vijay movie and dhol, vikram’s hit, on the bus. i had seen them before, but they seemed a lot funnier in the bus.
i got down at kattipara and took a share auto to anna universty. a 21G dropped me in kotturpuram at 7:55. i was right on time for dinner.
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