Trip to Mahabaleshwar 2

Strawberry Fields is an event held annually in Bangalore for rock enthusiasts that I haven’t missed for the last many years. Simply love going there for the music, the people and the atmosphere. And given the number of strawberries I ate during this trip, and the fact that I will never forget this trip for the music, the people and the atmosphere, I'm almost tempted to label this trip “Strawberry Fields”. Moreover, the entire trip was just like the strawberry itself; bright, cute and very very sweet.

24, January: Rohan asked me off-handedly if I’d be interested in joining him and rest of the Shah’s inter alia for a trip. I replied instantly with the affirmative without even asking where we were headed. And although I decided not to travel too much this year after all the loafing I did last year, I decided to chug along, as the Shah’s always make wonderful company and I hadn’t been on a single trip since I’ve come to Bombay with college friends. Please note ‘college friends’, because I’ve been on more than enough trips otherwise.

25 January: Sapan reminded me about the trip and asked me to stay over at his place in the night, as we would be leaving very early next morning. He also asked me to give my share of the money to Ankit. I had no money and told Ankit that I would pay him later. Just before I bid them adieu, I thought I should find out where we were going!

26 January: I woke up to Sapan shaking me at 4:00 a.m. He told me that the cab would arrive in half an hour. I knew I only needed 5 minutes to get ready. So I told him to call me later and went back to being feed for the umpteen mosquitoes at his place. I let the mosquitoes have their feast, as I really wanted to get some sleep after the drinking session with Bala just before I left to Sapan’s place the previous night.
At 4:30, Sapan woke me up again and I decided to get my butt up this time. Brushed, got ready and waited for the cab which conveniently arrived a whole hour late. Once it came, we threw our bags on top of the cab and got settled. We then headed to the girls hostel where the three ladies stood outside waving India flags as we arrived. That’s when I realized it was Republic Day today. Quickly changed my caller tune to signify the glorious day with a nice AR Rahman number.
There was an issue with the seating arrangement as there were 11 of us excluding the driver. But with a bit of deliberating, MBA style, we figured the best way in for everyone. I was just glad that I got the middle row seat next to the window.
We started off and people were saying Jai Krishna and Jai Hanuman. I added a Jai Hind! Wasn’t all the inappropriate, as it was Republic day after all.
We drove on till we reached a nice restaurant for breakfast. Or so I thought. But it was only a tea break here as our dear friends actually packed food for all of us. So there was no need to eat here and we ate later in the car itself. There were so many interesting things to eat. A dish called ‘thipali’, a sort of chapathi. Probably Gujju style, but tasted amazing. Then there was a smaller, different color version of the thipali that Vidhisha called poori. But I was quite sure poori’s didn’t look green in color! But even this dish tasted gorgeous. Man, I have never been on a trip where people got food along since I was 8 and my mom packed food for us. And this is why I say the Shah’s are good company. They think of everything!
We moved on and by afternoon, reached Mahabaleshwar. We then went hunting for a decent place to stay. And a certain ‘Kedar Hotel’ found approval with the girls. So we guys acquiesced by default.
After settling in and a much needed bath, we left to do what everyone does in a hill station. Visit all the ‘points’. So we went to this point and that point (I’ve stopped memorizing the names of these points, but they would mostly be some English dude of the 19th or 20th century!) and finally finished it off with the sunset point. This was a real spectacle. I have never before seen such a grandiose enthusiasm for the setting sun. There were over a thousand people shoving and pushing, trying to get a glimpse of the sun. I found the scene extremely hilarious. And giving me company were some foreigners who were actually filming the silly Indians instead of the Sun. And who would blame them? These people were indeed making a mockery of themselves. I too did a film on the crowd, and after some time decided to try and get a glimpse of the Sun myself as I wanted to see if there was anything great about it. So found myself a place and watched the Sun go down. Go down all the way till it dissappreared. And it was the same setting Sun that you would see anywhere else. Seriously wonder what the big deal about ‘Sunset point’ was all about! But there was no time to think after the Sun sunk, because the entire junta was headed back and we too had to get to our car, ASAP. It was like a typical rock concert!

Somewhere in between the ‘points’, we even visited a market. Now this was actually a temple I had visited even the last time I was here. But the fact that it is a temple is almost overshadowed by the capacious market that sprung up outside the temple. I was positive that the previous time, there was nothing but a single bhajji-wala from where I had the most number of egg bhajji’s ever as we had skipped lunch and were extremely hungry. And now, in the place of that singular bhajji-wala were vendors selling everything from shirts and figurines, to, of course, strawberries.
The group went about buying stuff and taking loads of pictures of each other. I just killed time taking some interesting snaps and chewing my gum.
Later on in the evening, we went to the Mahabaleshwar lake and once again, there was a huge crowd here. And I was getting quite annoyed with this now. I’ve come all the way from Bombay where you just cant seem to get away from sticky bodies all around you, for a nice vacation, and all you get are more sticky bodies. But this anguish was soon suppressed by the really nice time we had boating in the lake. This was the grand finale and the highlight of the day. It was just so much fun paddling the two boats we hired, crashing into each other, and once again, taking plenty of snaps.
After this, we went hunting for a good place to have dinner. While everyone was out looking for a satisfactory eatery, Aparna and I found ourselves at a taste-and-buy fruit product outlet. We went about tasting all the jams and juices available for sale and finally spent 200 bucks between us on some nice products. We had consumed so much sugar during this process, that we almost lost our appetite. We also ran into a nice restaurant serving continental food and hukka’s. should definitely try dropping in here the next time I come. But on this trip, it was good North Indian food that everyone wanted, and that’s what we got, lots of it. After a very hearty, filling dinner, we hung around the market while Rohan and Arti with Vipul and his intelligent probability calculations tried their hand at games of chance in the stalls of the Mahabaleshwar market. I remember giving this a skip the last time I was here, not because of a lack of interest in the sport of losing money real fast, but because of the bevy of beautiful girls who decided to engulf us that day. I would never foget that time in Mahabaleshwar when Jeetu and Hari went about filming all the girls with my camcorder and now, after 6 months in Bombay, I wonder if I would ever react to a situation like the way we did then.
Well, after Vipul felt he lost enough money, we had some ice cream at another restaurant, and walked back to our hotel after that. I remember changing and telling Sapan that I would join them for a game of cards. The rest was history. I woke up the next day, once again to Sapan shaking me, asking me to get ready for a morning walk.

27 January: what started off as a morning walk, turned out into a quest for finding the sunrise point called Wilsons point in the car. When we got there, I recognized that place as well. I was here the last time too. Only difference was, there were only six of us on Wilsons point waiting for the Sun to surface. There were six of us again this time, but we were accompanied by at least 200 others! And it wasn’t just the people. There were tea vendors, men with horses trying to lure customers into a ride on the studs, or at least getting their photos taken on them, and all sorts of other signs of commercialization. I was really taken aback by the amount of change that affects a tourist spot in a gap of six years. From just a few of us enjoying the Sun rise, to a whole bunch of tourists clapping when the Sun shown from behind the clouds.
More photos later, we got back to our hotel and it was time to check out. We got ready, played some cricket. Sapan made a record 25 at a pitch that didn’t allow the rest of us to score anything more than 5 runs tops. Then, Rohan and I played some catch. We kept playing till we pretty much got into the car and on our way to Panchgani.

En route to Panchgani, we stopped at a place from where we got a clear view of this village called Wai, where movies like Swades was shot. Coincidentally, an article on this village was present in the newspaper the next day and in fact, that was how I even got to know that this village was called Wai.
At this point, we played some games, and Sapan and Vidisha even won biscuits for all of us. We then played some Dumb Charades. And I was completely lost as I had no idea what the Hindi words in the movie names meant. But managed to act one out by breaking the words properly and my extremely intelligent team doing the rest of the job.
We then continued to Panchgani to a place called ‘table land’, which is basically a plateau, about 6 kms in circumference, and it truly looked like a ‘table land’. Here was the highlight of the entire trip. We went parasailing and it was awesome fun. I’ve always wanted to go parasailing and what was offered to us at 300 bucks and negotiated down to 150 was the best fun we all had during the trip. All except Sapan probably, who ended up getting dragged along just before take off which caused quite a bit of injury to his knee. And the poor guy didn’t even have his video taken of his take off, as the camera decided to run out of battery just then.
After the parasailing, we once again watched the Sun set. This time, I really enjoyed it. We sat at a place where there wasn’t any crowd and I watched the Sun go down right in between some mountains. Exactly the way we have drawn the Sun set in our sketch books as kids. The scene was simply breathtaking. I enjoyed every minute of watching the Sun disappear. There haven’t been many other memorable Sun sets as this one. I remember the Sun set in Kumta with my beloved Bosch colleagues and the Sun set on the 30th of December last year in Goa. This one definitely made it to the top. Suddenly, I wasn’t as cynical at the glorious sight of the setting Sun, as I was the previous day at Sunset point.
After this, we headed back to Bombay. We reminisced about our trip and commended everyone on their roles played. We even gave awards like Tarang bagging ‘chief coordinator”, Ankit getting “treasurer”, Vipul “navigator”, Siddharth getting “self obsessed photographer”, Aparna “worst celebrity”, Rohan “best interviewer”, Arti “best wife”, me “best spoken hindi”, Vidisha "ek solo please" and as Mayuri was not awared anything, Rohan suggested we give her Lifetime achievement award!
We drove on to Pune, where we dropped Vipul off, then had dinner and by 3a.m. found ourselves outside college in Bombay. Lots and lots of fun, and really glad I decided to go on this trip. Still owe Ankit a lot of money. But will never forget the 500 odd photos that were taken with all the digicams, the parasailing, and of course, all the strawberries.

Trip to Belgaum: For my migration certificate (January 09, 2007)

I’ve been having a spate of bad luck lately. Just a few days back I missed my flight to Cochin. Then I couldn’t make a clear plan of when to come to Belgaum. And I had so much trouble when I landed in Belgaum as well. Guess there was something wrong with the alignment of the stars in my life right now.

Anyway, I left to Belgaum on January 08, Monday night. The travels guy told me that I would reach Belgaum by 8:30. It was a pretty comfortable Volvo bus, and I slept real well. Slept all the way till 8:30 and when I woke up, we had stopped at this place for breakfast. I recognized the place, I was sure I’ve been there before. But I’ve come to Belgaum only once before this. Could this have been the same place we even stopped the last time? I really couldn’t remember as my previous trip to Belgaum was nearly 9 years back. Anyway, I freshened up really fast for fear of the bus leaving me and going, and the way my luck was lately, anything could happen to me!

Then I got into the bus, and just asked the conductor when we would reach Belgaum, and he tells me that we passed Belgaum some 2 hours back !!! in spite of all my efforts in finding out when the bus would reach, waking up by that time, getting ready really fast so that I don’t miss the bus, fate would still play me. And ensured that the bust got to Belgaum 2 hours before schedule and that I would be fast asleep at that time.

I didn’t say one thing to anybody. There was no need to. This is my bad time going on, and I know no one is to blame. So I just got out of the bus quietly, told the driver I’m off and I walked to the main road. Stood there with my thumb sticking out for nearly 15 minutes, until an auto guy stopped, who was willing to take me to the nearest bus stop at a place called Nipanni from where I could get a bus to Belgaum.

So I reach Nipanni and went running around asking for a bus to Belgaum. Nobody knew where or when it would come. Every bus conductor had a different thing to say. Finally, one old Mulla tells me to take a bus to Nipanni main bus stand and from there I would get lots of buses to Belgaum. So I got into one of the regular buses, and while I was sitting inside, I heard someone shout ‘Belgaum’ from outside. But I wasn’t very sure about what I’d heard. And I just tried looking out of the window. My bus started moving and just then I noticed a bus that had just arrived having a ‘Belgaum’ face plate. I immediately got up and rushed to the driver and asked him to stop as I had to get off. With a lot of grumbling, they opened the door and I rushed to the Belgaum bus. Once inside I asked the conductor when I would reach and he told me 11a.m. well, it was 9a.m. so it was expected. And Tunu had told me to reach VTU where I was going for my migration certificate by 1p.m. itself lest they take till the next day for the certificate.

So I knew I was racing against time. Spent the next 2 hours idling in the bus, talking to the guy next to me, who’s name was ‘Rahul Pujari’ and his brother was ‘Gajanand Pujari’ and his cousin was.. some other Pujari. Man, he was just introducing his whole family, but since I had nothing better to do, I was just lending him a ear. And moreover, he told me that VTU comes on the highway itself, so I had asked him to point it out to me so that I can get off on the way itself, rather than go till Belgaum bus stop and then come back.

He did point out a university to me on the way, but it wasn’t VTU. I realized later that he didn’t really know what VTU, the university to over a 100 engineering colleges in Karnataka was all about. Anyway, he was a nice guy, so I let him be. And after we got off at the bus stop, the first thing I did was book a bus ticket from Belgaum to Bombay for that night. Wanted to confirm my ticket back to Bombay at the earliest.

Then I took an auto to VTU, the guy asked for 150 bucks and I was sure he was fleecing me. But he told me that VTU was really far and it would cost that much with whichever auto I went in. So I didn’t wana argue, plus I was really late. I reached VTU by 12 noon, rushed to the admin office and asked them about my migration certificate.

Thing was, I was one of those unlucky souls who applied for this certificate, but it never reached my new university NMIMS from my old one VTU. There was some problem en route and its my bad time right, so the certificate had to get misplaced somewhere. VTU then tells me that there was nothing wrong from their part and they have already dispatched the migration certificate on the 20^th of June itself, and its been nearly 6 months and my college still hasn’t received it. They gave me a copy of the letter that said the certificate was dispatched. So I took that copy and decided to ask NMIMS what happened.

I left VTU and came back to Belgaum town, figured out on the way that I couldn’t get an earlier bus to Bombay although I had finished my work there as the earliest one was leaving only at 9:30 and I’d booked the ticket for it. So I decided to take a room, but a bottle of beer and just chill out for the afternoon. Just when I was chilling out, my mom called me and asked what I am going to do now. I knew I have to do something. Because the fact of the matter was, the migration certificate still hasn’t reached NMIMS and my marks will be withheld until it get through. So I called Shobhit and asked him to check up from college again whether the certificate was misplaced someplace as VTU is sure they have sent it and I am, in fact, holding the letter stating that same thing. He confirmed and called me back saying they haven’t got it. Then I called VTU and asked them what is to be done now. And they tell me that I have to make an affidavit saying I have lost the original certificate and request for a duplicate from VTU.

Making an affidavit and giving it to VTU with another request form for the migration certificate along with a DD for 250 bucks seemed like a lot of work. It was 1p.m., the VTU office would be open for at least another 4 hours. Shall I give it a shot and try and apply for my duplicate now itself? Well, I was already in Belgaum, I really didn’t want to waste time sipping my beer, although that is what I felt like doing! So I got up against my better judgment and rushed to the court to get my affidavit. The lawyers there tell me to get a Rs 20 Bond paper from a bank. I come outside to see a SBI right opposite the court and was so pleased at its positioning. But when I went there, they tell me that Bond papers are not given here and I will have to go to another bank about 2 kms away. So I take an auto, run till there, and on reaching this bank, I see a long line waiting for this exact bond paper. How many people could really want to make an affidavit exactly when I wanted one??

I asked the auto driver if he could do something and he tried asking some people who were already standing in line to get me a paper, and I gave the money to one of them. It was 2p.m. and the back was to close at 2:30p.m for 45 minutes. I waited and waited and the guy who was to give my application for the paper was just 2 people away from the counter, they shut it down. Dam my bad luck!

So this time, I decided to wait myself in the line till 3:15 when they opened and get my certificate. I tipped the auto driver for anyway helping me out and waiting outside with me. And I stood in the queue now. Thankfully, they openend the counter by 3p.m. itself and I ran to the court with my bond paper. I meet the notary public lawyer there and tells me to get the affidavit typed by the court typist. I meet this typist who is a revolutionary guy. I just tell him about my migration certificate being lost and the names of the 2 universities involved and my own personal information, and this guy types 2 full pages on it. All sorts of things “I solemnly take an oath… my certificate is truly missing… tried my best to find it… will return if I ever find it again… blah blah blah..” but some pretty good and fast blah! And he only charged 20 bucks for it. Then I went back to the lawyer. Now this guy was the only notary public officer at the moment. He had all the control with him. He could charge any amount to sign the affidavit and people would pay it, because whatever affidavit they want signed, can only be done by this one person. So he’s got a lot of power, and mom told me that lawyers would charge around 400-500 bucks. I had a 500 Rupee note ready with me. And after he signs it.. he asked for 20 bucks!! ‘is that like the going rate in the court? Everyone only takes 20 bucks’ I felt really bad and wanted to give him some more cash. So I gave the Rs 500 and asked him to give me whatever change he’s got. Such a sweetheart, he actually gives me Rs 400 back. Man, people in Belgaum are really nice.

Ok, now I had to rush to SBI again to get my DD made. Went there, took the chalan, didn’t know half the stuff to fill in it, but cashier guy was really nice and he only filled it for me and asked me sign at one place. And before reaching the cashier, there was this one guy waiting in line who I had to get past and I told him the story of my life about having come all the way from Bangalore and running around all day for this. So he let me pass and I got my DD pronto.

Then I asked an auto to take me to VTU, but this guy hadn’t heard of the place. I told him that I would find another auto, but he insisted I sit with him. So I just sat inside and we asked our way to VTU. It was 4:15p.m.

We reached VTU by 4:45 and by that time I had asked Sin to find out till when the office would be open and she messaged me saying 5:30, so I did have 45 minutes to do whatever I can right now.

I rushed in, told them I had DD, affidavit, request form and an attested copy of my PDC which I just decided to bring for the ‘in cases’ and asked them for another migration certificate. The lady there was really nice and wrote out my certificate. I confirmed from people in college the exact address to send the certificate to this time as I didn’t want it getting misplaced again. And she takes it to the registrar at 5:15. Would he sign it now?

I just waited outside. And just after 5:30, when most of the staff was beginning to leave, my certificate reached the dispatch section. I was overjoyed. They gave me copy of the certificate and told me that the original would be posted to NMIMS.

I just left the place praying that this time at least the certificate reaches college. On the way back, I was having a nice chat with the auto driver. And I realized I haven’t had anything to eat the whole day. So I asked the auto guy where I could find some Belgaum special food, and like a true muslim, he stops near a biryani joint saying I would get the best Biryani’s here. He was a really nice guy, tipped him 50 bucks more that what he charged. Then bought 2 chicken legs from the joint, went up to my room where my beer from afternoon was waiting for me. Treated myself to some lukewarm beer and tasty chicken, and left at 8:30 for my bus that was leave at 9:30. Was just waiting there and at 9, the guy tells me that the bus has already arrived. Half an hour early? I was beginning to doubt my fate again. Asked a lot of people in the bus if this was really the bus to Bombay, and all of them, who actually looked like runaway convicts, assured me that I would reach Bombay by 8:30 next morning. I kept the alarm for 6a.m. and went to sleep. Really wanted to make sure I’m awake when I enter Bombay this time!

Glad I did that, because I managed to get off at a stop much closer to home by 7:30 itself and got back in time to get ready and leave for my first class of the 3^rd trimester at 9a.m.

Another blast of a trip done.

Trip to Cochin: Almost didn't happened, 2nd time January 03-06, 2007

What is it with me and going to Cochin? This is the second time that my trip there has become such a harrowing episode. The first time I went there, I woke up at 10:30 for a 11:15 flight. All because of an unwarranted booze party the previous night which ended up putting me in a deep slumber till that time when on every other day, I wake up by 6, no matter what. I can never forget that day. I wake up at 10:30, realize I have a flight, threw whatever I could find into my bag, took my cell phone which didn’t have charge (and that was the reason my poor mom couldn’t get through to me to confirm if I’ve woken up and on time for the flight) and was out of the house at 10:32 sharp. I ran outside without realizing I didn’t have any money in my wallet and just jumped into the nearest auto and told him to rush to the airport. All through the journey to the airport, I was almost shivering, worried like hell that I would miss the flight. I was going to Cochin for a very important occasion, it was the house warming of my parents newly constructed house there, and they really wanted me to be a part of it. I wanted to be a part of it! And I knew that there aren’t too many flights from Mumbai to Cochin in one day. And even if I do manage to find another one, it would be way to expensive at this hour. I just had to make it to this one.

The auto guy reaches the airport and makes a wrong turn as I knew KingFisher flies from the old terminal and not the new one. So I jumped off and planned to run the last bit of the journey. It was then I realized I didn’t have any money on me. I just took out whatever change I could find and told the guy to go back to the place he picked me from and my roommates would be pay him as much as he wants, but please let me go just then. I actually didn’t even wait for his approval, just turned around and ran. Ran all the way to the KingFisher counter for the guy to tell me that the counter closes half hour before take off. And the time was 10:55. I missed the deadline by 10 minutes. There was a nice gentleman behind me in the line who tried rooting for me by saying that KindFisher has such a lousy process. You tend to go the new airport first, and on finding it is not there, you come to the old one, and there you have to stand in counter in the ground floor for them to tell you that the boarding is actually in the first floor. I was feeling so bad for this guy who seemed to have gone through a lot of trouble in reaching the same spot I took exactly 25 minutes, from waking up till the front of the counter. But I obviously didn’t stop him. Any help at all to get KingFisher to give me a seat on the flight. But the guy at the counter didn’t budge. He told me a nice sorry with a big smile. I turned around, told the gentlemen thanks and started walking feebly back when someone yells at me from behind. I turn around to see another guy standing with the KingFisher dude and they were calling me back. I was just praying as I went up to them, and yes, they were allowing me on board. I couldn’t believe my luck. And when they asked me, ‘What seat would you prefer?’, I told them ‘Anything’ and thought to myself ‘as long as I’m on that plane’.

That was my adventure the first time. Thankfully I met an uncle in Cochin who put me in a bus to Kottayam where my parents were and even gave me money for the trip, so things were ok after that.

And this time around, being fully aware of my fiasco during the last visit to Cochin, I left home at 4p.m. itself for a 6p.m. flight. Cleaned up everything in the house because I knew no one would be staying here for the next week and wanted to leave the place in a good condition so that it would be a welcome sight when I get back. I packed my bag properly, made sure the ipod and cell phone was fully charged. Ensured I was carrying sufficient cash. And I was all set to make no mistakes this time.

I reach the airport, check in, get my boarding pass, and inside I notice a huge commotion because of a lot of people waiting for their Delhi flights. There was a delay in these flights because of bad weather in Delhi. My flight was at 6 and I was waiting for the sign board of Deccan to change to my flight, but it wasn’t changing. So I went and asked an Air Deccan attendant what time the Cochin flight would be, and she told me its only after 7. I thought the delay was because of this pandemonium regarding the Delhi flights and messaged mom saying I’m going to be late. Then I sat in front of the Deccan counter and in between my 40 winks, I was checking the Deccan sign board, but it never changed even at 7. So I once again go up and ask about the Cochin flight and they tell me this time that the flight has already left, at 6:40 itself. I lost it. I was fuming, yelling at them asking how could they do this. I found the woman who misdirected me and asked her why she had given wrong information, and she says I was asking about the Coimbatore flight and not the Cochin. And as for the Cochin flight, there were a lot of announcements being made as the sign boards weren’t working and it was my fault for not hearing those announcements. Well, I probably was asleep when the announcements were being done and maybe the woman didn’t hear me clearly because of all the noise inside when I asked about the Cochin flight. And the bottom line was, in spite of making absolutely sure that nothing would go wrong during this trip, I still end up missing the flight. I just couldn’t believe my luck.

I just went out and sat after collecting some money back from Deccan and was wondering what to do. Had informed my mom about the mishap and she promptly even cancelled my return ticket from Cochin expecting me not to come there. I was really disappointed with that. Now it didn’t even make any sense to think of an alternative to getting to Cochin. I began thinking of other options, either going to Bangalore, or going to Munda’s place in Bombay itself. I was really at wits ends. That’s when the idea of trying the international flight struck me.

At this junction, I’d like to do another flash back.

During our first ever visit to Bombay as a group, Bala, Muni and I went about hunting for a house, and we had finalized on the one in which I am currently sitting and typing this. Things were pretty rough and we were on each others necks that day. But at least glad we found a place. We were just on our way back, and we realized that there was a problem with the trains that day. There was some renovation work in progress and we were going to take much longer than usual in getting to the airport. We weren’t even aware of this incident at the railways because we spent the whole day running around looking for houses to really be concerned about the news. So we missed our flight and found out that the earliest flight back was the next day on the domestic route and we were planning to go to Munda’s house to spend the night.

That was when Muni came up with the idea of giving the international airlines a shot as they might have a mid night flight from Bombay to Bangalore. Bala was completely against the plan and another big altercation ensued, just carrying on the legacy of the days events. We somehow reached a consensus to just give the international airlines a shot and if it doesn’t work, come back to the domestic, book a flight and spend the night at Munda’s. but at the international airport, we encounter this really nice lady at the Air India office who not only gives us a flight back home leaving in 2 hours, but gives us the ticket at a cost lower than what our original flight tickets back home were.

We were so happy with the turn of events. Booked the tickets and got home that night. A little late, but at least home.

This time around, I knew where the Air India office was. I went there straight wondering if there would even be a flight from Bombay to Cochin. I see that same lady there and when I asked her. She said yes, there is a flight. And only 3700. Once again much lesser than the domestic flights available. I wanted to test my luck and just ask her if there was a flight to Bangalore. And she says yes to that also. Man, this woman was like a fairy godmother to me. This was the second time she was saving me from all sorts of trouble. I chose Cochin as, though mom had cancelled my return ticket from there, I knew my dad was coming back by car and I could come along with him. And more importantly, I wanted to go to Cochin.

So I took the flight, reached Cochin at 3, where my parents picked me up and we drove to Kottayam. I troubled my folks so much that night. They had to wait till 3a.m. for me to reach Cochin when I could have done it by 8p.m. itself. A 7 hour delay and an extra expense of nearly 5000 bucks, just because of a bunch of event going wrong at the airport.

But reaching Cochin was such bliss. It took me some time to get over the way I screwed up and the guilt for putting my parents through so much trouble, but in a while, I was basking in the beauty of the Cochin house.

Its just a beautiful place. I was just relaxing in the balcony and I suddenly see water shooting up. My dad had just turned on the fountain. We had a fountain! Then at night, he shows me the ‘magic painting’ on the ceiling. Basically radium paints of stars to give a look of the night sky from within house. I slept under this vicarious sky in a bed big enough for 10 more of me, ate really nice food my mom made and was thoroughly pampered for the next 3 days there to completely forget my harrowing path to Cochin.

One funny incident that happened when I was at Cochin was this once when my mom and I went for a walk and landed up at this Home for mentally challenged kids. We were just taking a look around when this one kid comes up to us and starts entertaining us with all sorts of stories. He then asks my mom when she would be leaving me there. He basically thought that my mom had come there with me to enroll me also in the Home and this became a big story amongst my relatives where all of them started telling me that if I don’t shave and have unkempt hair, this is what would happen. Well, I’ve heard a lot of this even when I had my really long hair. And its never bothered me. But this time around, I was doing a professional course like an MBA, did I really want to look mentally challenged? Naaa, what’s the hair got to do with it. Absolutely nothing. And I like the unkempt look. Who cares what people think.

I came back to Bombay with a neat hair cut and shave.