At ismail's wedding..

dipsy is dead meat!!!

sufroze

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Coorg

The tri-colour flew high all along the Bangalore-Mysore highway. We stopped at Bidadi for breakfast. Also, witnessed the flag hoisting at the police station there. It felt nice after a long time. The flower petals showering down, the somewhat conscious policemen singing the national anthem is low hustled voices. We payed our respects and continued the drive.
Ismail's driving gave Loco some tense moments. Magane's appetite(for food) seemed to have increased ten fold and bhatta had slimmed down to size zero.
After a tough run through the ghats and the coffee estates we managed to find the place. It was exotic. The river gushing in. And the foot bridge. We chilled out for the next 2 days. A bottle of tequila and 100 pipers. I must thank my mom for the tequila. Not many moms tell you where she's hidden the bottle!
The food and service wasn't all that great but we did eat to the full, played cricket and some catching in the rain. And of course cards.
The next morning we set out for a jog to the nearby town which was the only time we ventured outdoors. We ran (and walked) the 6km mountain terrain. Had a taste of the local food at a small hotel there. I make it a point to taste the local food at small eateries wherever I go. No fancy restaurants all the time.

There was also a serious session on ghostly experiences that night. Isk's account on why you shouldn't venture out in the night after eating non-veg continues to haunt me :(. Its superstition until it happens to you!


Also posted here

'Ayyan' Maiden!!!!!!!!!!

Highlights!
-Symphony: Andy comes in his big car. I make a dashing entry into his car in the traffic and we have hardly moved 100 mts when the car stops. Heart of Bangalore, MG Road- Brigade Road Crossing signal, centre lane!! Everyone's cursing us and we cant move. I summon loco, matter n magane for help. We somehow manage to push the car to the sidelines. After some pumping andy manages to start the car and we are off to palace grounds.
-Those Present:Rampa, matter, sinka, loco, Magane, Andy, Msk and me.
-Big Absentee: Bhatta!!!..we have vowed to kurup him the next time he shows up.
- At the venue. Me and andy were desperate for booze. Sinka was the saviour, knows well the area, he took us to a small wine shop in a rick. Lots of maiden crowd in there dressed in black. Beer sold out. Old monk sold out. Smirnoff sold out. Settled for a quarter of Romanov. Slip into the backyard, gulp two pegs and some free 'kalle poori'. The alcohol wore out soon, thanks again to sinka who took us back walking in a winding route through his school, ground and what not. :)
Inside the arena, chants of Maiden, Maiden came....then Iron Iron...then we start 'Ayyan Ayyan'..
we were engrossed in Andy's talk on pollination, asexual reproduction n jeans? till the show started.
Special thanks to loco's bro who once again managed to smuggle sutta in..:)
I enjoyed 'Fear of the Dark' and 'Run to the hills' the most...these were the only 2 where in i could murmur some lyrics along.. The chick crowd was awesome. Dint get to see much once it was dark though. It was one fun nite.

Down to the waterline!!

It was a much deserved vacation. The pace of Mumbai had got to me in more ways than one. The monotony of work had crept upon me like a “tongue-less ghost of sin”!!! Just as those forwards about the value of a second, minute, hour, day etc go; to know the value of mental refreshment, you only need to ask a bored soul.

Initial plans of flying into Goa were shot down after due consideration when I found the difference in rates between bus and air fares. Plus the horrifying prospect of spending the wee hours of the morning in an airport waiting staring at strangers and being frisked by over worked security staff put me off. I went ahead and bought an overnight passage by Raj National Express. My return though was by the Mandovi express, scheduled to cut through the Konkan heartland at such a time that all the famous scenery would be at its best display.

‘Aadadella Ollite Aaythu’ goes a famous song in Kannada which translates as ‘All that happens is for the best’. I realized the truth in this proverb only when I reached Goa the next day. It so happened that my bus was an hour late, and I kept cursing my luck since the Bangalore and Hyderabad travelers had already had a head start of about a couple of hours over me. It was only when I reached Goa, it hit me that this delay helped me spend lesser time at Panjim bus stand waiting for the delayed Hyderabad ‘Sultans’ and Bangalore ‘Lions’.

Loco and Gandhi did appear about a couple of hours after I had come over and we made our way to Zinho’s, Baga. Some snacks and a couple of beers later, we welcomed the exhausted Bangies and then the fun began….

I can never do justice to describing how much fun we had. Some memories are best expressed in the “modified words” of someone else

“Sweet surrender on the beachside
You remember we used to run and slide
In the land of Goa, we take our own time,
Let’s go walking, down to the waterline”

-- Dire Straits

Beaches, babes, bikes were there in large numbers; but somehow I found greater solace in exhausting myself by playing and sleeping soundly. Drinking too never appealed to me on this trip!!

I was scheduled to leave on Christmas day. It was an early departure from Baga to catch the 10:00 hrs Mandovi express from Madgaon. I loved the early morning chill and the rural side of Goa that I was able to witness courtesy the interior routes that my bus took. My train journey was pretty uneventful and there was some wonderful scenery to take in all along the route.

That’s all there is to it. I disembarked at Dadar, made my way home and focused my mind on the meetings that were scheduled on Tuesday, the 26th December.

Boxing Day cometh!!!!!!!!!!

Go Go Goa!

With Kesh posting the remaining snaps of the goa outing, i guess its time to type in a few words about our goa trip. Well i didnt want to be the first one to write about this trip but since the other outspoken chappars are busy with their personal stuff, and since "something is better than nothing", here goes.

Day 0: Bag..Pack..Go
It all started on 21st December, 2006 when 6 chappars from Bangalore, 2 from Hyderabad and DK from Mumbai started on their journey to the holiday haven, Goa. Sinka was a surprise last minute addition to the list of goa-going chappars in place of the 'injured' MSK.(he he) Poor MSK, i am sure he was very eager to come to goa but thanks to his backpain, he had to drop out in the last minute. It took a lot of persuading to get sinka on board for the goa trip but i dont regret that!!

Day 1: Arrive in Goa
DK was the first one to reach Goa although he was the last one amongst us to get on the bus. Surprisingly, Hyderabadi loafers, the hot favourites for the last spot reached second. The Bangalore gaandus took almost a day to reach from bangalore to goa! Thanks to my bro and his friend, the accomodation was booked in a cosy little guest house right on the brim of Baga Beach. It had everything that a chappar would require in a place like goa! Although the guest house was right next to World famous Pub in Goa, Tito's, we never dared enter it for reasons not disclosed here for security reasons. One Kingfisher had already been 'shot' by the time the bangalore gaandus came to the guest house. But just to welcome them, we had to 'shoot' another Kingfisher! ;-). A quick dash to the restrooms in the guest house and we were off to the baga beach and that too right in time for a refreshing football match with the Beach Volleyball 'Ball'. Then it was time for some jet skiiing on the wavy waters of baga. Being a 'crowd' of 9 people, we managed to clinch a deal with the jet skiing guy for a big round of the beach in the jet skii for half the price originally quoted. I personally feel, he was intimidated by the big bellied bullies amongst us(me, DK, Kesh, "paaapu" ;-), MATTER.) Whatever it is, we enjoyed driving through the waves in the jet skii. Then it was time for the great goan banana ride, in which the "riders" are throwin into the deep waters of the sea!!! Only 4 daring chappars went for this ride, but on their return, from their expression, it was evident that it was one hell of an awesome ride, which was worth getting wet for!! Some Concept Photographs later, it was time for some soothing drinks on one of the shacks. Since the theme for the day was Vodka, we(bhatta, me n gandhi) stuck with Smirnoff while the others stuck with juices/hot-choclates(!!??wtf). The vodka splash continued in another food joint, where we thought we would taste some goan special food. Two more pegs went by and to my surpise, we had already ordered our food and also eaten it!! What the...!!Who ate my food?? Did I??? :O. Anyways to keep up with the theme, we bought a Smirnoff bottle and took it to our guest house. The bottle became almost empty in no time and half of the chappars had retired to bed by then!! The remaining of us made a quick dash to the beach which is hardly 200 meters from the guest house. We slept on the beach for sometime listening to some music in the nearby shack and enjoying the beach breeze. Man it is just awesome. We had already decided the pseudo itenaries for the next day which involved some early morning football provided the most 'sober' amongst us, aka me managed to get up and wake up every single chappar!!!

Day 2: Go North Goa
Surprisingly i woke up at 7 and managed to wake up the remaining chappars without much difficulty. We had an awesome game of football at the beach from 7:30 - 9:30. The exhausted chappars found heaven in the delicious bread omlettes, hot paranthes and the spicy puri bhajis in the guest house which they ate to their heart's content referred to by some chappars as the 'Power Breakfast'. Meanwhile we had made jugaads for 5 bikes on rent for the entire day. 4 Pulsars and 1 Activa. yo baby!!! We were a little late in starting(12:00 P.M!! WTF!!) but we were in time to the Anjuna beach, thanks to some insane driving by Matter, which scared his pillion rider, paaapu to his deepest shits!!! We all stormed the Anjuna beach in search of the famous Anjuna devis, but only to find all the devis hiding their beauties behind the confounded piece of cloth!!! x-( Legends has it that some chappars on their previous trip to goa had the previlege of watching few ladies(came to known later as the Anjuna Devis) playing beach volleyball(!!??) clad in dresses which were uncommon in that part of the globe.;-)I am sure none of those chappars actually remember whether they were playing volleyball or football or whether they were actually playing also or not!!! Anyways our visit to the beach was INDEED worth since we were able to see a couple of absolute beauties sun bathing opposite to a remote shack. And that was to be our adda for the next 1-2 hrs. While matter was fantasizing the probable ways of attacking the lady in red just meters away from us, the other chappars chose to chill out with some beer, which cooled down the frustrated chappars. Bhatta while trying to impress a white skin with his diving abilities hurt himself on the leg by a piece of glass thrown around by some careless ass &#$@@$^&#$&*$#. Sinka and Kesh were busy showing off their talent in Concept Photography, a term which is going to revolutionise photography in days to come. I must say i am truly impressed by their creativity in taking these photographs. Sound of the Waves!! This was one hotel, we didnt want to miss out for sure, so we headed straight for the hotel after matter was satisfied with the mindf$#%ing with the chick. Floydian Music in a hotel like "sound of the waves" in a beach like Anjuna!! What else could we have asked for!!! So we spent the whole evening tasting some different cuisines. Some even tried an Israeli Dish!!!! Bloody hell in a thundering typhoon!!! It was a Israeli version of akki roti and chatni!!! But it was worth the try... Bhatta and Matter tried Lasagnia while DK, Adi and Sinka tried the Pizzas. As the photographs of the sunset at the anjuna beach were being taken, we realised we were supposed to go to Aguada fort as well!!! So were off on the bikes seeking Aguada fort. By the time we reached Aguada fort, it was 7 in the evening and it was dark. We couldnt see anything but the ride to and from Aguada fort in the dark roads was just awesome. Matter and Paaapu supposedly citied a woman in a red saree standing at the side of the road which is believed to be a ghost!!! Matter was brave enough to slow down his bike to wait for the other chappars behind him to come and warn them just in case the woman asked for a lift from bhatta, the lone rider. hehehe... but bhatta never saw any woman and so we reached safely to our guest house after having a lavish dessert party at a cake shop on the way. We were still full from the lunch at the Sound of the waves, so we thought we will go back and take some rest at the guest house. We bought a Stag on our way back from Anjuna and some Goan Wine just to add variety. Since the day was tiring, we thought we will stick with a much lighter theme for the day and it was the goan wine + the remaining vodka from the previous day. This was enough to tighten the spirits of DK who retired to bed almost immediately!!! Other chappars too went to bed after deciding the itenary for the next day.

Day 3: Go South Goa
We were planning to get a Open Maruti gypsey on rent for the day but due to resource constraints we opted for the chauffer driven Toyota Qualis(referred to as Innova Qualis by matter for some unknown reasons!!! This matter is crazy at times! hehehe!)Another Power Breakfast and we started off to the Palolem beach which is actually in the southern most point of Goa. It is around 80kms from our guest house.
We heard some supposed to be famous Iranian songs on our way which was as cryptic as any gujrathi or oriya song!! Anyway we reached palolem beach and we split into two groups. One group went searching one side of the beach and the other in the opposite side, ALL in search of some would-be Palolem Devis. We had clear cut instructions to radio the other party on their mobiles as soon as anyone sees a species of the opposite sex clad in a dress containing no more than a one piece of cloth. But to the utter dismay of the chappars nothin exciting happened and Kesh ended up drinking two bottles of beer in broad daylight just to washout the disappointment!! While the other group caught hold of a shallow place in the beach where they relaxed for the next hour enjoying palolem beach to the fullest. We left palolem beach with clear instructions to the qualis driver to take us to a "famous" beach where we can satisfy our search and quench our thirst. But that $##$#$%#$^$@##@*&$ driver misintrepreted us and took us to a beach called the Colva beach which we ran off in less than 10 minutes!!! The Charminar area in Hyderabad would be less crowded than the colva beach!! ok it was a little more exaagerated. But hell, it was very crowded!!! Since we had a little time, we headed straight for the Aguada fort which we had visited in pitch dark the previous day. Our return journey was quite eventful with Himesh Bhai rocking the shit out of the innocent chappars some of whom managed to sleep inspite of the NOiSY songs(hehehe) of Himesh bhai!! Our dreams of taking DCH style photos came down crashing when we came to know that the fort was closed for the public at 5:30 whereas we reached there at 6:00 P.M. So our ace photographers had to find solace in clicking some art photographs outside the fort itself. Adi was tryin to sneak peek into a lady who was happily reading the history of the Aguada fort, but Sinka and Kesh were quick enough to catch a snap of Adi sneering at the lady reading the history of the fort! hehehe.... With this, we were at the end of the eventful day of 24th Dec. But wait, the thought of kicking loco's ass on his birthday that midnight sparked a glow in the eyes of the GPL stalwarts like Matter, DK etc and the thought sent shivers down the spine of one innocent samaritan Mr. Loco. With these mixed thought, we went back to the guest house, freshened ourselves and had game of cards with LEAST entertaining the chappars for the next hour or two. It was 10:30 and so we thought we will have dinner. Since it was christmas eve, all the hotels were almost full but we managed to find a decent place waiting to be sanctified by their Holiness "The Chappargaandus". Matter ordered a shark and Sinka wondered if anyone ever eats a shark only to be told my the Carnivorous chappars that there are smaller edible breed of sharks available. Just when we finished the dinner, it was time. The time had arrived. It was 11:45 and fifteen minutes later, there was this poor loco waiting to be kicked by his friends. The clock struck twelve even before we made it to the guest house, and the chappars started their onslaught in the middle of the road!!! Matter with his famous bicycle kicks... Bhatta kicking inspite of his leg injury... paaapu's soft kicks.... BLOODY I WILL REMEMBER THESE!!! :-) Once the chappars were convinced that they had kicked enough, i was let go and wished on my birthday by my dearest friends. I must say this is the most memorable birthday i have ever had so far in my life. But more surprise was in my way. I reached the guest house only to be welcomed by a lovely choclate cake brought by the fellow chappars without my remotest knowledge. I must admit, this is the first time in my life, i am cutting a cake on my birthday!!! and i am thankful to the chappars on this!!! Candles were blown, cake was cut, and just when i thought i will eat a piece, people started smearing the cake all over my face. I think i was lucky cos the cream of the cake wasnt sticky enough!!! so i didnt get smeared by the cake that badly!!! hehehe... Just when i thought its over, i got calls from the chappars based in US!!! ISK, Cheetos and Kinley!! I never imagined i would be called from US to be wished on my birthday! hehehe.... Thanks boys... And then came the whiskey which was the theme for the day and after that... dont ask what happened cos i seriously dont remember hic! hic!

Day 4: The Return
This was probably the most uneventful day of the entire trip since nothin much could be done as DK had his train at 10 in the morning and the others were in no mood/time to do/go anything/anywhere. The only notable incidents of the day were paaapu's stint with a little tibetian girl which was so cute that our paaapu started doing "hata" that he wants to take that girl with him to hyderabad and our encounter with the "Seedless" "Tunnappanayaka" Naveen Singh from our college who was more than happy to meet his "partners" Matter and Rampa.

Thus ended our memorable goa trip which we would have enjoyed more if the missing chappars were present. Now that ISK has threatened me, we will have to plan another trip to the north india when ISK returns back to india in April/May time.

So till then, Bye.