Going up!!!

Three days of non-stop warming the seat of my cushiony-chair-on-wheels, plus a solid two - day weekend!! Somebody up there must really love me..I mean what more could a working guy want (Okie..i realize that I just made a categorical statement there. There definitely is more that a guy would want)? But every cloud, unfortunately, has a silver lining. Ten days from now and I would be working till Kingdom come. For now though, I am just gonna continue warming this seat..

A two day weekend is supposed to be a given..a taken for granted thing..for most people in my company that is..but for some trigonometric (read ‘I-can-never-fathom-why’) reason, I rarely get that privilege. When it comes it’s a weekend in the garfieldian sense.. I generally spend the two days doing what I do best-nothing. And, as most of you would know, doing nothing is supremely satisfying. Nothing quite like it. The last time before this that I had a two day weekend though, I went to Conoor.

Conoor is a hill station at about a two-hour drive from Coimbatore..which is where I am. It’s not very far..and it had been my past one year’s ambition to go to Conoor. Procrastination is one of my redeeming qualities and it saw to it that I never managed to go there till last month. Something always would come in the way –an empty wallet, an irritating throat, a raging-mad stomach, an enticingly dreary Saturday morning-something..anything to keep where I was ..in the plains…but this time..Musafir(M)* came between me and Procrastination. Most of you wouldn’t know Musafir, so this is where you can see more of him. Let me just say that he is a newly found friend who also happens to work with me..though he works at Trivandrum..capital of Coconut land. He had some work here at Coimbatore on Monday. We planned for him to come here on Saturday itself. We would leave on Saturday morning and return by Sunday night.

Of course it didn’t quite happen that way!

By the time M reached Coimbatore it was noon. Why and how that happened is a story in itself which I wouldn’t want to put down here (No its not because of any explicit content..its just ‘coz I wouldn’t want to digress…I am already doing so..i better get out of these brackets) phew!..Let me just say that by the time we actually set out, it was about 3 PM. We stepped out of my room and rain poured down. Bummer!

It wasn’t raining..atleast not in the ‘you get all drenched, cold, clammy and sneezy’ kind..It was the annoying ‘now you see me-now you don’t’ kind. The one where you can actually count the drops..(okie..exaggeration again. You can’t count them)..but it was heavy enough to make you think about your next move. And I don’t like rains that make me think. Neither, I presume, does M. So we stepped out anyway. We were on our way to the bus stand from where we would board a bus to Conoor. A colleague working in the local office here had in fact offered a car for our trip but he said something on these lines “I will send the car and you can take care of the rest”. Economics, an anti-bourgeois mentality (oh yeah!) and the desire for a slow and steady journey prompted us to decline his offer and opt for a bigger set of wheels in the form of Public Transport.

The journey, if nothing else, certainly made economic sense. What would have cost around 800 Rs. by car cost us 50 Rs. by bus. Apart from that we were also lucky enough to get the last couple of seats on the bus..and last would mean the last..the seats we got were in the last row of the bus..plenty of bumps and aching backs guaranteed. It wasn’t all that bad though..there was plenty of catching up to do and when we were not talking we were listening to the radio on M’s mobile phone..After 5 minutes of the local FM though, we had enough of that..As the journey left the plains behind and entered the inclines of the Nilgiris, the journey became progressively slower and more breathtaking. The bus made most of the climb on the second and first gears. There were a lot of hairpin bends which showed you sights worth ‘ooohing and aaahing’ at** I realized why they were called ‘hairpin’ bends. Every now and then we would see a vehicle coming down stopping so that we could pass. Any vantage point along the way was occupied by atleast one private vehicle..people proudly beaming in front of cameras, or seriously studying the sight thru the camera lens. I got to see my first pair of wild elephants that day..two very dusty and brown looking specimens (Ooooooh!!!Aaaaaah!!!) Sadly..the bus driver was not in a mood to stop. If he would have stopped the bus, the bus would have started rolling in the reverse direction..and that didn’t sound very enticing I guess.

We stopped once enroute to Conoor where M and I immediately got off the bus. There were a bunch of colorful shops cluttering the area where we stopped. Shops selling tea, snacks, fruits, flowers and the like..We had a cup of tea and I had my customary cigarette. It is an unwritten rule that when you feel the slightest cold, you got to light up. Of course I don’t do it now, but that day it was a heavenly feeling.(.I wish heaven feels like that now and then..would be interesting). There was something in the air and it wasn’t Love..an odd combination of jackfruit, banana somehow formed part of the atmosphere at that place.wasn’t a bad combo though. But we couldn’t stay long .the bus was soon on it’s way further up the hills…

We had boarded the bus at Coimbatore at 3.15 PM. 5. 45 PM, we set foot on Conoor.

And with that it is me, your host, signing off for the day!!***

Shain

* Musafir is the one who took that snap that you see below in the previous post..that is another reason why that snap looks good..the first reason is ..why..me

** I was talking about the view from the hill tops..now… what on earth were you thinking about???

*** Will continue the story tomorrow. Or maybe the day after..I so absolutely promise you..I am an honest chap, I am!!