A journey to remember,,,!

You think three years is a long time to get used to the fact that you don't have summer holidays anymore… But Alas! These three years have only highlighted those yester years underlining the striking contrast and the melancholic underlying irony…The last trip that Nith and I took is still fresh in my mind…It's one of the last few summers of the late 1900 (!) April 10th and the end of exams…Nith and I board a rather rugged looking bus headed towards Kalpakkam – there is just one bus that heads directly to that place.As usual I take the "window-seat" and Nith starts her excited banter and her elaborate plans that clearly state how she is going to spend every single minute of her time there. As the bus crosses the choked boundaries of Bangalore, the fresh breeze of the country side beckons you to look beyond those dark mystic contours cast by a fantastic camouflage. The little stations bustling with activities dotted with "tea- kadaies" and the huts on the highway still lit with dying oil-lamps through the wee hours of the night and the chanced sighting of a lone glowing bulb amidst the blanket of thick darkness is absolutely fascinating. To cut the free flow of such thoughts that transit you to a poetic land … the human angle encroaches your paradise- loud and noisy. A drunken brawl and a conductor is quite a scene to catch in the middle of the night. The conductor wins the last round of the wrestling match and leaves the two stranded in the middle of no-where.Now Nith who is quite a Betram Wooster with her definition of people adds valuable inputs to her already full guide book. This one she says underlines her betramness in judging people… A person sporting moustache, beard with blood shot eyes is definitely an escaped convict . She thinks she ought to be careful about such people and there is no way she will ever play Pip…( Whose Pip eh? Dickens… Junta!)Amidst this high drama, dark scenic unfathomable depths of country- side scenery the bus trots along, surprisingly fast and reckless towards the destination. Its 4:30 in the morning and the excited banter from the passengers suggested that the destination is close. The very first thing that catches your senses as you reach the outskirts of Kalpakkam is the fresh moist salty sea side air wakening your senses and the sight of the various varieties of palms (sad palm vocab..) swaying in the breeze to the rather pleasing music of the tides. All of them disembark on the outskirts and Nith and I are the only ones to clear the security point. The conductors curiosity is now aroused… He has been driving in the same route for the last 30 yrs and knows everyone and now he wants to know our link to the place. Before I naively start answering the very sleepy Nith is now fully awake.. She gives me a nudge and hands out her rather long convincing story and some part of it goes on to say that we are two budding scientists who lost out on the Nobel prize due to dirty politics!As we clear the last check point to enter the quarters after exactly three jerks over the reinforced steel bars we reach a place that has a board that reads "Bus stand". The bus actually stands there waiting for us to disembark. As soon as we bid adieu to the conductor, out of no- where we hear this hell shaking sound exceeding the decibel levels of the morn by a large margin. We see about 20 of my cousin's friends screaming and waving in a rousing reception. They were all mounted on their bikes (bicycle for the ethereal Junta…) and there were two empty ones for both of us. We put our luggage into some jeep and mounted our bikes and we were on a trail that they called "The muddy trail" for more than one reason… This trial ran along the beach from the bus-stand to my cousin's (whom I will refer to as J) cottage.PART –2 … will continue


PS: part two never got written! This was written abt two yrs back!