I just remembered one of the famous maxim, "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" - Rightly said. After a fatiguing month of work, we guys wanted to have a change, a change that brings entertainment and whence came the thought of a team outing, just to freak out to some place and have fun. It was when Mr.Whatever-I-do-Just-for-kidding asked for suggestions, the places of interest were Mahabalipuram, Tada Falls, Theme Parks and Oh, not to forget Dakshin Chitra. After analyzing factors like distance, cost, fun quotient, global warming, recession, dollar exchange rate, Kashmir issue, blah blah and more blah blah, consensually we agreed upon Mahabalipuram. Tada falls was ruled out just because someone said that the place is frequented by "Ghosts" that which periled the gals.. (ROFL big time). So, Pallava's place it is, decided. When to go, was the next question. Unfortunately the saturday which immediately followed happened to be the "Valentine's day", the day on which they celebrate the beheading of a poor saint who left a piece of paper reading "From your valentine". Well, commemorating that, some of our "Romeos" and "Juliets" had plans for the day, so we had to procrastinate the plan to Feb 21st, the next saturday with loads of expectaions... :)
2009, Feb 21st, Saturday, 06:13 HRS IST:
*Birds chirping - Sun rising up - Pankajam maami next door chanting kandha sashti kavacham - Muthu, the milkman yelling "Amma paaal"*
Followed by muthu's squall, the alarm disturbed my sleep , I just woke up to see if earth is still rotating , and thats when I realized its saturday, the day to execute the mega plan. I hastened and managed to get ready by 0700 HRS. According to the plan, I was supposed to take Mr.Call-me-don-everyone-in-orissa-does with me to Saidapet, where we would be joining the rest of the team. And so, I called him up to check his status quo - no response. Even after a dozen of calls, I got no response. Bloody hell, I immediately called up Mr.Vasoolraja-Kamalahaasan-Lookalike and informed him the situation. He along with Mr. All-in-all-alaguraja-sidekick tried to contact our "No response" guy- No use. I then started to his house with utmost wrath and when I reached there I saw a 3/4th clad typical north Indian guy watching some crappy SRK movie on his desktop. Luckily, he helped me in waking up our bloody defaulter. Soon in minutes we were on our way to join our team. Having informed Mr.Powered-by-muscles-driven-my-martial-arts we joined our team at VGP and our journey commenced.
Well, as was expected, the journey was fun filled, absolutely. It started with the Not-so-fatal beatings to our defaulter for the delay, which was then followed by the usual entertainment activities like singing, dancing, screaming et al. Soon we reached our first place of visit, Mutukadu boat club, which is on the way to Mahabalipuram on the East Coast Road (This place houses one of Tamilnadu's "largest" boating house). We heard a low grunting noise even after the driver had killed the engine, Oh, that was our Mr.I-hate-being-called-a-brother-this-is-outrageous. His tummy rumbled. In fact we all were hungry, So we planned to have our breakfast. Ms.I'm-not-fat-the-word-you-are-looking-for-is-chubby-dammit helped us in getting hot idlies from HSB. After devouring the day's first food, we were all set for the boat ride. To our disappointment, there were no pedaling boats. All we had is that 'Dhurrr-Dhup-Dhup' Motor boat and the 'Aiyelesa' rowing boat, with the helper rowing it. Well, we made groups of four and chose 5 rowing boats and presto, we were on the water, rowing rowing rowing towards the horizon! (Over exaggeration, I agree :D). The ride lasted for about 1800 seconds(sounds so long no? :P) in which we discovered an atoll, took pictures for the orkut part, splashed the contaminated H20 over each other and finally, returned to base. One Mr.I-swear-I-am-as-young-as-you-people-are gasped and reported that the lower atmospheric layer of the Galactic Sector ZZ9 Plural Z Alpha is too hot today and suggested some pesticides to quench our thirst- Righto, Done! What now? Ah yes, a small game of Volley ball in the scorching sun. I remember seeing Ms.Don't-call-me-a-glutton-its-just-a-spoon-extra-that-I-eat! (serving spoon of course) chasing the ball that which rolled on the floor thrice in a minute. Well, what else do you expect from us? We are rookies! :P
Back on the road to Mahabalipuram, Set wet gel in my hair, Strong smell of karvaad rising up through the air.. Oh well, we continued to execute the same old travelling fun algorithm. Soon in 30 minutes we reached the Pallava's place with a nice welcome by the cool sea breeze, greenery et al. I was just thinking, "Oh what a place to live in, no humongous population, no pollution, good". I was proved wrong in a jiffy when I witnessed a crowd of men yelling something, It was apparently a protest. Ah well, It all happens here, Welcome to India.. *sigh*. Since it was half past twelve, we thought we should have our lunch before the adventure and so we went in search of a good eat out. Heck, we walked almost a kilometer to refuel our ships and that food was not too fantastic as such. Well, If you have noticed, we have done nothing so far except the boat ride and its already 2 in the noon :D..
Truth to be told, there aren't many places to be explored in Mahabalipuram except those brilliantly formed lumps of consolidated mineral matter and the scupltures carved out of them. For the next 75 minutes we had an amzing time exploring every nook and corner. Well, If you trace our path travelled, every roundabout way we took was either because of a dead end or a ahem ahem.. (All hail valentines of the 21st century!)... We took pictures of every rock we climbed, every tree we sat under. Myself and Mr.I-am-not-a-manmadhan-it-happens-just-like-that were clearly ahead of the rest, running before them. And thats when I had a chance to experiment Sir Isacc Newton's discovery by slipping off a small rock (Aarva kolaaru, you see :D). When the clock on the wall struck four, we moved towards the shore- yay!
Beach volley ball is a nice game to play, but not with 10 people in a team chasing for the ball, Chaotic you see... We played a small game on the shore with the opponent team winning by a small margin-dammit!.. Soon after the game, we jumped into the sea. Initially some guys hesiatated to come in for no apparent reason, but soon in minutes they joined us (Anyway we would have dragged them in :D). It was just the two females, Ms. Maami and Ms.Pray-silence-for-here-lives-me who remained dry during the end of the day. And oh, speaking of which reminds me about Ms.Love-is-not-the-word-which-plays-in-my-dictionary-and-I-love-it (A.K.A Ms.Rowdy-And-Terror) being threatened by "THE GURU" for some matter of which I shall speak no more ;) .. So, it was seven in the evening when we called it a day and started our journey back home. The travelling fun algorithm was again called for, with the same enthusiasm efficiency, No matter how tired we were. Dancing, yelling, singing - It continued.
Ultimately, if you see, the purpose of our visit was not to explore mahabalipuram or not to learn about the sculptures of the great kings, for that matter. *yawn* ... It was just to have a day out, a day to relax, a day to enjoy with friends, and I must say, It was a wonderful day, totally!! Perhaps, the best day of the year so far :) ... (Oh boy, 2008 was a fiasco, no?) ..
Hoping to have more such nice days in the future..
Yours truly.
