The road trip

I went on a road trip from blore to kkumari and boy, it turned out to be more adventurous than I imagined.

The route was roughly like this:-

blore -> hosur -> krishnagiri -> karur -> munnar -> kochi -> tiruvantapuram -> kkumari.

Return:- kkumari -> dindigal -> madurai -> karur -> hosur -> bangalore.

It turned out to be a 4 night and 4 day trip. We left blore on friday about 4.30 and returned back to blore on tuesday at 5.30. The original plan was to return on late night Monday or early morning Tuesday…but it turned out we had something else in store for us.

Originally we were supposed to attend a wedding but as fate would have it we could not. Most of the trip was through Tamil Nadu. Did you know that Tamil Nadu has an equivalent of a dhaba where they serve oily parota(TN style paratha) with kurma(a spicy gravy)? You eat them off banana leaves and do remember to dispose those leaves into the bins otherwise you will earn an angry and sharp instruction to do so from the shopkeeper. This food is very inexpensive and quite tasty to eat once in a while but since it was the only thing I had for lunch and dinner three or four days in a row, I wasnt too impressed by it by the end of the trip. For breakfast it was dosa or omlette or idli. Again at dhaba like places.

We had four wonderful drivers among us and I like to think I contributed by occupying as little space as possible in the back of the car , lol, lol, whoa what a loser am I. I had no clue whatsoever what kind of trip it was. I didnt think it was a road trip. Actually I wasnt even in the plan until one of the five guys who planned the trip decided to not go and these guys asked whether I am interested and I said yes. I just wanted to get out of blore for a while for I had become too much of a blore equivalent of The Manhattan Boy(remember Sex and the City?).  It’s so easy to get into the city life of instant gratification and get addicted to it. Instant sex , instant food and buying stuff that you really dont need, sounds like a dream , but for me it was turning out to be a nightmare. One would realize the gravity of the situation, if he/she becomes so picky that he/she will ”do” a person of a very particular physical appearance and character. It’s a funny thing coz the city is so large, you get exactly what you want inspite of your narrow preferences. And that can be very corrupting. Exactly why your parents tell you to delay gratification when you are a child. And the next thing you know, it is chocolate brownie and cafe mocha all the time. Evolutionary pschychologically speaking I was supposed to be happy. Sex and food is all that is required, right? Clearly that isnt enough. Not nearly enough.

But I digress, the point is instant gratification wasnt working and I desparately wanted to get out of the rut.

Back to the trip, I must say I find travelling in a car on the highways is very scary. At every step there is very much a chance that a huge truck or bus will ram into you. But that is exactly what I wanted—-Stare into the face of potential death.

The munnar stretch was specially nerve wrecking. I was all nerves because it is a hilly route and a little miscalculation or a tiny error on your or some other driver’s part can send you rolling down the hill. I wasnt enjoying it very much.

In kovalam beach which is close tiruvanantpuram I lost my spectacles which were my favourite pair. However I had a spare and thus was spared the agony of squinting to find my way. And now comes the most exciting part. While en route to trunelveli from kkumari my worst nightmare came true. Our car rammed into a careless biker and the dude was propelled into the air by the impact. The side of the front window of the car was shattered. I would say it was fairly serious accident although none of us were hurt. This was it, it has finally happended, something that I knew would happen sometime considering all the statistics I have been going through. I couldnt think at the moment. I was totally blank. Luckily the other guys had more sense than I did. They put him in the car and took him to the nearby hospital. C and I followed the car on the dude’s bike. I was quite amazed by the behaviour displayed by my friends in this situation. They seemed to do the best they could possibly do in such a situation instead of going into a state of emptiness that I was in. I felt nothing but emptyness. Like a huge void, almost like nirvana. These are some pretty awesome guys, I thought. Then the dude was taken to a different hospital for furthur treatment. He wouldnt talk, I wondered how hurt he was. There was no blood or anything thankfully. The sight of blood would have made the matter worse. We went to the nearest police station to report the accident. We did nothing but wait at the police station from about 2.00 in the afternoon till 8.00 in the evening for one of the biker’s relatives to show up. Once they arrived it took only a few minutes to “settle” the matter. The biker wasnt probabaly as badly hurt as it looked. His relatives seemed quite unworried. It did bother me a little bit coz it’s creepy to know that your loved one is hurt and be unworried about.

Anyway we drove back to blore in the wrecked car. I was given the option of going by bus since I would not drive anyway. Now this is a tricky situtaion, I didnt want leave them coz that would imply I abandoned them in a difficult situation. I wasnt very sure why they suggested it. The empty feeling was still there and I didnt know what to say to that, it didnt matter this way or that. Anyway I didnt get the bus ticket so that settled the matter for me. I was to continue driving back with them. The way back was pretty uneventful although it was very stressful. 

So that was the Manhattan Boy’s adventurous trip to wonderland. I am glad about the way it turned out in the end plus I got know some pretty amazing guys. I havent done full justice about my experiences regarding this trip in this blog, I think I am gonna just keep them in my brain for while. Fin.