Trip of a lifetime to Ambur

Trip of a lifetime to Ambur

This is probably not a very good time to write about this. I’m in not the best of my spirits. I sit down to write this wonderful experience I had with my friends at a time when I know that I would be going away from them pretty soon. Read on…

Life has given me many opportunities to enjoy. But I chose to struggle - struggle for my dreams. This made me endure many sacrifices, miss loads of fun with friends. By god’s grace I didn’t miss this one.

Off we went to Ambur

Ambur is Naresh’s hometown. He invited us to his home for the weekend (29th & 30th of March 2008). As usual Prasanna and Naresh had to struggle to convince everyone to come. Some came, some didn’t. But they didn’t have to convince me. For a change I decided that I’d make this trip come what may. We started the trip missing Subha, VB, Kala and Rathinam as they couldn’t make it this time.

The party that went on the trip included the Host Naresh Baby, Manager Prasanna, My Sweety Rathi, Hazera & Senthil, Varadhu, Belly Dancer Arun, Ram and yours truly Sharan. :) (Certain nick names had to be edited due to security reasons. I apologize to Ram for missing his name here in the first version.)

My jobless job gave me loads of time to think about the trip and also about lot many other things enough to break my head. I was eagerly waiting for the day to arrive and was literally counting the days. Finally it arrived. The train was at 6.15am (!) Oh! I had to get up at about 4 o clock in the middle of the night. I had kept an alarm activated on my mobile and also on a clock. I had asked my friends to call me up at 4.30am just in case. Anyway my excitement didn’t let me sleep and I easily got up at 4 o clock.Initially Pras was supposed to pick me up from home but he had to work during the early hours on that very day so I planned to go by bus to central station along with Arun. (Pras had to come to office that day. But he worked early in the morning so that he could make it to the trip.) Later Pras offered me a lift by coming all the way from office to my home. After offering a cup of coffee to Pras, we went together to central station. I had a nice nap on the way.:)

I spent my time squatting mosquitoes till Pras parked his bike. On the way I called up Arun to find out that he had reached the station. One by one all of us gathered near Saravana Bhavan at Central station. Each one bought a different brand of newspaper so that we can spend our travel time intellectually. Ram wanted to have a cup of coffee. Not sure whether he had it. There was a long queue for coffee. As people kept down their luggage I noticed that mine was probably the smallest. No, it was the smallest. Just the size of a college bag, a Motorola bag. The other guys had huge backpacks. Anyways, with Naresh and Pras holding the tickets we went on to board the train.

The Red Train

Wowie! We had a red colour train with Vodafone advertisements, cartoons and other graphics painted on it. Looked kind of cute. :)(Did we take a photo of that train?! Hmmm…) We got into the train to find that the exterior is probably not always indicative of the interior! We didn’t get continuous seats. We were split into two different groups. I got to sit with Rathi, Sharin, Senthil, Pras and Ram. Naresh was shuttling regularly between the two groups.

As time went by each was engaged in activities of his/her own interest. Rathi was reading the newspapers. Ram was showing his photographic skills for quite some time after which he diverted his attention to the calls of gastronomic requirements. He wanted to have breakfast. Senthil, Sharin and Naresh had bread omelet - both separated (!). Ram had dosai with vadai for which Pras gave him company. Rathi and I decided to have breakfast later. I was half asleep when my dear friends had a good time taking advantage of this fact to take funny photographs. An attempt was made to beautifully capture Rathi’s long earrings. With the hunger pangs satisfied, Senthil continued the game of Su-Do-Ku and Ram continued to display his photographic skills. The photograph of the approaching train deserves a special mention here. Rest of us tried to pass time by listening to songs on mobile and continued reading newspapers.

With the aroma of fresh dosai passing by at regular intervals, I too started feeling hungry. Ram ordered a cup of coffee, which came in a punctured cup. After much cajoling that the only way to save the coffee is to drink it, the coffee was consumed. In order to avoid the distraction caused by the dosai and other internal problems, I decided to go to the other side where a section of my friends were seated. Varadhu and Arun were uncomfortably seated opposite three ladies and were engrossed in some seemingly intellectual conversation when I interrupted them. Varadhu was trying to play Cows&Bulls. We played a couple of games in which Varadhu easily won. It was indication that I should withdraw and allow Arun to play instead. Arun was skeptic of his knowledge in the language but he ended up playing better than me at least!

First step at Ambur

After minutes of pointless chat about Jyothika and Laila and a little nap, Naresh waved out to me indicating that we would be reaching our destination in few minutes. I moved on to take my bag. As Ambur was approaching, loads of people were pushing me from the infinite directions that are present and hitting me in places I didn’t need them to. With the help of my dear friends I managed to get down at Ambur without any major damage.

As soon as we got down, Naresh went on to lead us. Another person was waiting for us next to a van. I was hungry and tired, so didn’t even bother to say “hi” to that person. Or did I say? Later I came to know from Rathi that the person is Saravanan Anna, Naresh’s friend. “Don’t u remember him from the photos?” Rathi asked. “Hmm..I remember now”, I said. Excited that finally I was going to have food, I got onto the van.

Having no prior experience of visiting Ambur or any other place in TamilNadu for that matter, I was pleasantly surprised to find the roads to be neat and lovely. Later I came to know this was a national highway leading to Bangalore. Ram resumed his duties as a photographer. Soon, we arrived at a vegetarian hotel, Amrutham. All of us were eager to freshen up at the hotel. Split into two different groups, Rathi, Sharin, Senthil, Varadhu, Arun and I in one table and Naresh, Saravanan Anna, Ram in another. Prasanna didn’t wish to have breakfast as he had consumed one Masala Dosai in the train. The rest of us began our breakfast. Since I had other problems to attend to I stopped with a plate of Idli even though Varadhu almost tempted me into having a Dosai after this. I finished ahead of Rathi J and all of us were waiting for Rathi to finish her Masala Dosai as she tried sincerely to eat the Masala Dosai as fast as possible avoiding the Masala in the Dosai as much as possible. By the way, the Idli tasted better than the Dosai. The guys again had a nice time making most use of the time to take some funny photographs (the one with the small stool).
Now somewhat back to life, I got into the van with sleep alluring me every bit. I noticed no one got into the van. As I was wondering why, Rathi signaled to me asking if I was interested in attending to nature’s call. Hmm…don’t remind me. Naresh’s aunt’s house was nearby and we spent quite some time there. After each person’s job was done, we left the place. (A special thanks to Hazera at this point of time. :P)

Journey to Yelagiri

Now very much back to life that all problems had been attended to, I was able to fight back sleep. Ram occupied the conductor seat J and Pras sat next to me. Songs were played continuously in the DVD player and cassette player alternatively. With the songs playing in the background and some live performance by Pras, I was lost in thoughts and totally consumed by the beauty surrounding me. No, I’m not talking about my friends. I mean the beauty outside the van, the scenery. For quite some time we were passing through the highway which I mentioned earlier. The scenery was beautiful and I couldn’t have blamed Ram for continuously clicking shots. Then arrived the most awaited mountain drive.

Up the Mountain we go

I had been to a couple of mountains - Yercaud and Moonar. But the excitement was still new, although deep inside I was praying that I should not throw up! I had this unique problem of getting sick whenever I was at dizzy heights or when I travel for long distances. This time both the criteria turned out positive, complemented by the fact that I just finished my breakfast. Anyways luckily I didn’t get the slightest feeling of sickness and this allowed me to enjoy the day with a healthy mind and body.

We were moving at a steady pace in a seemingly straight road, after which came the hairpin bends. Each of the bends was named after an eminent personality taken from history or mythology. Pras helped me in reading each one of those names. I still can’t seem to gather why one of the bends was named after a literal Tamil translation of the word ‘shit’!

We spotted some beautiful trees that had leaves in a bright green colour; some trees had flowers in vibrant colours. Also were spotted our evolutionary ancestors, the monkeys. They were in groups, probably families - a mom, dad and two kids :). All this was captured in photographs, thanks to our official photographer Ram. As we went further up, one could see the view of the city from a larger perspective, buildings appeared tinier and vehicles looked like toys. After some time we couldn’t get much of the city as we were covered with lot of greenery on the mountain that we were circumscribing.

We reached a viewpoint from where one could get a closer view of specific places at the ground level using some sort of binoculars. I was happy to note that the tourism department of the Government of TamilNadu maintained the place because all this while I was wondering why this place isn’t as famous as other hill stations and like 99 percent of Indians, I started assuming that the Indian Government has to be blamed for the lack of responsibility. After seeing this place I sheepishly accepted that I was wrong as a) this place was famous; only that I was ignorant about it and b) there were many hotels around that place so it wasn’t neglected of sorts.

We then got back to the van, which then took us to our next stop. There we were, a bunch of people atop a hill for enjoying a ride in a boat at almost exactly at noon when the sun shone strongly over our heads! Meanwhile Ram and Pras took quite a long time in one of the shops along the road. The rest of us were patiently waiting wondering why. While we were waiting, I was having a look at the glass bottles that contained a light brown coloured liquid which were sold in almost all shops in that place. Arun clarified the doubt I had in mind. He told it was honey and not some alcoholic drink as I thought it was :. When Ram and Pras returned, I was delighted to see them holding some guavas and raw mangoes. Yumm…After each person grabbed a piece of his or her own choice, we set out for the boating spot.

After paying the entry fee, we moved inside. With some kind of permutation and combination calculation in place, I got to go with Varadhu and Arun in a pedal boat, happily allowing the gentlemen(?!) to pedal. The happiness was short lived as I learnt that since I was sitting in the rear part of the boat, I had to handle the steering :(. This thing called steering was not like the one I have handled during four wheeler driving classes, where you have to turn right to turn right and turn left to turn left. This boat-wala steering turned right when I turned it to the left and vice versa. Not that I haven’t gone in a pedal boat ever in my life, but just that I didn’t remember at that point of time. So when the guys shouted right, I turned the boat left and so on. Even after futile attempts by Arun to guide me by saying “move to your right, to your left” when things didn’t quite seem to improve, Varadhu lost his patience and held out his long hand to reach the steering and move it himself. Ah! What a relief!

Now I turned my attention to enjoy the scenic beauty around me (again I do not mean my friends). I noticed that Pras, Ram, Sharin and Senthil were in a four-seater pedal boat that was probably moving at a greater speed. Rathi and Naresh were in another boat. All were busy clicking photographs. None of us in our boat had a camera (or I thought so), so we managed to take some snaps in Varadhu’s mobile. When our boat came somewhat close to the four-seater boat, Sharin brought it to my notice that I had a camera inside my handbag :). Then I too took some snaps for a change. There was this tree with violet colour flowers and a bird perched on top of a little rock. I wanted to stand on the boat in order to look over a bridge and I succeeding in doing so with the help of the guys who sat in front of me, scaring them as the boat shook a bit. The duration of the boat ride for which we had paid was fast closing on so we returned back to the shore.

Back on shore, I grabbed the last piece of raw mango that Ram was having not before giving him a portion of it. As I went on munching the mango piece I noticed a very big park that was on the way. It had swings, seesaws and slides where some children and not-so-child-like people were playing. I naturally moved onto that place guessing that we could spend some time there. But my dear friends made some usual fun as if they wouldn’t enter a children’s park after the age of 18 and we ended up not going to the park :(. They also gave some excuses that we were running out of time, so couldn’t spend time in that place any more. We had to see a dam!? :

The Dam(n)

Back to the van again, we started out on yet another exciting expedition - A dam. Hmm... The last time I saw a dam was somewhere in Kerala and that too during that time there wasn’t much water flowing through the dam. So we had contended in taking some photographs. Naturally I was excited about this one wondering if we can have a look at water gushing through the dam. Even just a look at the man made waterfall during that time of the day would have cooled me a lot. With songs again being played in the tape recorder inside the van, we were patiently searching for the dam. Now after an hour right under the glare of the sun, the songs started giving me a headache. Thanks to some wrong directions, after some wavering around in the narrow lanes of Yelagiri, we finally reached the dam after quite sometime. But none of us were interested in even getting out of the van to have a look at the dam. Why? Because we were early by some 2-3 years and had we come some years later we could have seen water flowing through the dam. The damn dam was still under construction so all we got to see was a flat piece of land, which looked like a park (probably it was) and had a Sintex water tank. That was the closest I could get to water in the dam :.

It’s lunchtime

With no one to be blamed for this except our fate, we returned back to find Naresh’s uncle Satish and Saravanan Anna who would, Naresh informed, bring food :):). When we returned to the boating spot, we found them on a bike and they had been patiently waiting for us for over an hour while we were happily exploring all the possible ways that could lead us to the flat dam! They bought in some packets of the famous Ambur Biriyani. The smell of it started making me hungrier. The only three vegetarians amongst us were Ram, Pras and I. So a separate meal was ordered for us, which would be brought by someone else and we had to meet him at the viewpoint. We set out for the viewpoint as it proved to be a comfortable place for seating all of us during lunchtime with the trees providing ample shade from the scorching sun. The only downside was that we had to watch our feet carefully unless we wanted to smear our shoes with fresh dung of cow. Or probably of some other animal! I found a comfortable place that was devoid of this natural manure and promptly squatted on it. Meanwhile there was a hand pump there, so I tried my hand in it with no fruitful results. Probably it wasn’t meant for providing water and was just a showpiece. We guys never waste any piece of material than we can get our hands on. So a couple of photographs again with this dysfunctional hand pump.

Naresh, his uncle Satish and Saravanan Anna were taking turns in calling up the person who was bringing our food and yelling at him as he was getting late. Finally he came with a huge bag containing boiled corn and a bag containing vegetarian food :). As we sat down to have our lunch, the tourism department authorities warned us not to litter the place. Shaking our heads in the affirmative, we began eating; the vegetarians huddled in one corner. The vegetarian food that we got consisted of lentils, carrot curry, the usual sambar, rasam, buttermilk and a huge quantity of rice that would have been sufficient for me for dinner inclusive. I didn’t realize how much hungry I was until I set my hands on food. I didn’t even bother to look anywhere else other than the food I was eating except occasionally at Ram and Pras in order to ask them to pass on some food packet. Only after my hunger pangs were temporarily satisfied that I looked around me to find a dog straying around us; probably sensing the food. Some idiot among us had thrown a bone piece that that he/she was unable to consume in the chicken biriyani, to the dog. So the dog didn’t show any signs of leaving that place. Perturbed by this canine presence, I ate the last course of my three-course meal with assurances from Pras that the dog will come nowhere near me unless I keep looking at it.

Meanwhile we had run out of drinking water. So the same person who brought us lunch, ran down to get a bottle of water and 7up. I feel really thankful to him for helping us have our lunch without any effort on our part. But I felt really bad that Naresh and his friends were verbally abusing him apparently without any reason :(. I guess close friends do so. I love to fight with mine :). So I assume it is their way of showing their love.

Upon reaching a point wherein nothing else could go through my mouth to my stomach, the leftover rice on my packet of food was shared between Ram and Pras. Only then I turned to look at what my other friends were doing. Rathi was trying hard to munch a piece of bone. Arun had been enviously staring at my packet of food even though he had emptied two packets of biriyani! After settling scores with him, I noticed that others were munching on freshly boiled corn. I declined the offer to have one only to take it back after a few minutes as I contend myself with just seeing my friends eating it. Once I started eating it, I made a startling discovery: There is always a place in my stomach for something, irrespective of the quantity or time of descent of food into my stomach; no matter how much satisfied I was after the last meal :). This discovery proved to be true again and again during this trip, not only for me but for my friends also.

We were pretty tired and exhausted even after lunch so I was delighted to know that our next stop would be to Naresh’s home. Ram went with Satish in his bike, so the rest of us climbed into the van. There was some kind of race going on between the van and the bike as Naresh’s uncle Satish was known for his racy driving. We wanted to have a look on Ram’s face when the bike goes fast, so we guys in the van were provoking him to go fast. The bike stopped at regular intervals because it had the photographer on its rear seat. Rathi suddenly realized that it would be very thrilling to be speeding down the slope of a mountain. Now that she couldn’t stop the bike and get on it, she decided to sit on the footboard of the van and take some pleasure in that. By the time all this was realized we had already descended down the mountain so Rathi sheepishly got back to her original seating position.

The van took us back to Ambur where we made yet another stop in order to shop for leather goods. We visited numerous little shops that had shoes, handbags and belts. With little interest in buying any of these I don’t know why I walked in and out of each shop. Finally in the shop that was to be our last stop, I found a comfortable seat and sat down. I was too tired and sleepy to buy anything. Everyone else was buying shoes, belts or wallets. They had a good bargain. Finally, the time for which I had been waiting for, came. Packed in two autos, we proceeded towards Naresh’s home.

The Home is where the Heart is
Naresh accompanied us, the ladies in the auto. His home seemed to be far off from the railway station. But on the way we saw beautiful green fields on either side and it was so pleasing to the eyes. I even mentioned that I’d rather work in these fields than sitting idle at office. Well…not anymore L. Naresh even mentioned that the place is a caste divided region. Hmm…?! Interesting…I had seen such things only in the movies.
Finally we reached Naresh’s home. We met his mom and sister. Then I went straight into the living room, found a comfortable spot and sat down. We were welcomed with bottles of mineral water. God only knows what water we drink back at home in Chennai. We use water cans that contain water collected from various places!! Also I think we were offered something to eat. None of us had the capacity to consume anything as of then. We were yet to meet an important member of the family, Naresh’s niece Darshini a.k.a. Chuchu J. She lit up the whole room with her laughter and innocence. Initially she was quiet when her mother brought her inside the room. But soon she became the star of the evening and apple of everyone’s eyes. But my eyes were on something else.
A beautiful toy of Winnie the Pooh was brought for chuchu. The toy had Winnie rowing on a log of wood, with the Piglet and the Donkey on both side and a flag post behind him. It was a battery-operated toy. When switched on, it sang something like “ting ting ting ting…where are you?” (I must ask Rathi the entire lyrics). Winnie was shaking his head to and fro as he moved on rowing and the flag also turned accordingly. My head also turned wherever the toy went. Everyone in that room except me seemed to know telugu or atleast pretended to know it. I couldn’t do either, so my conversations with chuchu were very limited. In fact, nil L. Rathi was well versed in telugu but was snubbed repeatedly by the little girl. Even then Rathi didn’t seem to give up as she continued to attempt to draw chuchu’s attention towards her. One by one everyone did or tried to do something to attract chuchu. Even people whom I thought didn’t know telugu managed to speak what I think was telugu. I did what I could do best. I kept quiet and was keenly following Winnie wherever he went.
I couldn’t help wishing for a brother or uncle who could bring me toys every time he met me L. But I was quickly reminded of one person, the man I love the most in this world, my dad, who would bring me toys each time he came, even to this day, even though I’m no more in the official age limit for toys :):).
Chuchu is a mischievous and naughty girl. One thing I liked best about her was that she picked up a fight with Ram and hit him :). She could so easily mingle with everyone instantly. Something I can’t manage to do myself. She spoke a lot with her sweet voice, only that I couldn’t understand anything of it. She has two little rice like teeth in the front of her jaw, which she would very willingly flash for a photograph. The cameras kept on clicking and she didn’t seem to mind a little bit.

The Hunk
Once things seemed to settle down, we decided to watch a movie on DVD. But the choice of movie kept on changing and ultimately we ended up seeing nothing. Just then Naresh invited me to have a free ride in his new bike. :)
It was a black colour Hunk, very macho and shining new. I’m usually very apprehensive of sitting on a bike with anyone, whether I’m the one driving or not. The only person with whom I happily drove with full confidence was my sister, not even my father. It is a very uncomfortable place - the rear of a bike and this time it wasn’t a Scooty or a Kinetic Honda, it was a bike! Last time I sat on a bike in my life was with a friend, all the way from college to a cinema theater. It was a ride through the East Coast Road in Chennai and was enough to scare the nuts out of me. As none of my friends were willing to accompany him, I had to go. I managed to save my life that time. But this time, I had asked for it, I don’t know why K. I’m not of the type who has a thrill for speeds, as is evident from my behaviour in all respects. But since I had boldly asked for a ride and since my dear friend very quickly obliged, I had no time to have second thoughts and I went on the hunk.
What I expected was a train like ride around the village so that I could enjoy the scenery around me. But Naresh had other plans! The way things went I didn’t remember which place I was. All I knew was I was on a bike with my friend sitting ahead of me, driving it at just below 80kmph. My Scooty has a maximum scale of 80kmph on its speedometer, which it has never witnessed. I have gone a maximum of 50kmph, that too in very rare cases. I’m a person who requires a one-arm distance from people around to make myself comfortable. But that day I didn’t care. It was a narrow stretch of road with speed breakers at regular intervals, which my friend didn’t go over (Thank god!), we would have jumped and sat on one of the coconut trees on either side of the road if he had. But he very sharply turned to go through the little gap in the road in order to avoid the speed breakers. I did everything I could to save my life. My brain didn’t work and I was thinking that probably I should have bought my helmet from home! My mom, dad and my family members came in front of my eyes and I was making a mental count of the number of people who would cry if I died. I was thinking whether there was any hospital nearby to do post mortem and Oh! I had forgotten to pledge my eyes to Sankara Nethralaya. Wished that my mom would remember to do that. My dad would have to take a flight to reach here. Which is the nearest airport? And what would happen to my MBA seat? Probably the next candidate in the waiting list would get it. How I wished that I died after completing MBA, for all the pains that I took, at least the condolences column in the newspaper would carry my name with B.E, M.B.A J. All this in the less than two minutes that I went on the bike K!
It was time for dinner and we were served delicious vegetable biriyani. The aroma of the biriyani tempted me into having some of it even though it wouldn’t have been possible physically, as there was no empty space inside my stomach, proving my discovery again. Then some lovely looking rasam invited me into having some of it also. I kindly obliged, as I didn’t want to disappoint it J. The rasam was made with pure ghee and tasted so yummy that I would have had some more of it. But finally the physical limitations on the capacity of my stomach were reached. It was actually impossible to put anything into my tummy any more. So I ended my supper.
I usually never remember what happens after food is deposited inside me. My eyes automatically close and I happily doze off to sleep. It didn’t happen this time even after the sumptuous meal. I was initially sleepy and I think I dozed off for sometime. Then it was decided who was to sleep where. It was initially decided that we girls, Sharin, Rathi and I would sleep on the bed and the guys in the next house. As I require greater space for sleeping than is actually required, I decided to sleep comfortably on the floor. But I didn’t have the mood to sleep. It is an unwritten rule that one never sleeps during outings. But here everyone was happily dozing off. Along with Naresh, we girls went to the next house where the guys were sleeping, hoping to wake some of them up. It wasn’t a very comfortable sight to see, so we quickly came out of the room successfully waking up Arun and Senthil. Naresh, Rathi, Arun, Senthil, Sharin and I went to the terrace.

To be continued...