Chapter 2
October 30th. 03.00 hrs
Anna Sandra Palaya, Bangalore
I got up early and woke up Ranjith, the others still enjoying the sleep as they have already taken their bath the day before. We took the bath, woke up the two sleeping idiots and got ready by 04.15 am. Bastian placed his Wooden Holy Cross and the Rosary on the car’s front window. This was the guiding force for us during the entire ride. After some snaps of the Smart guys, the car started rolling around 30 min past 4’o clock. We went straight to Corporation circle, took the flyover to market and we hit the Mysore road in a flash. Cool music was oozing out of FM. Around 06.00 am, we felt a spark in our stomach and stopped in a teashop and had some tea & biscuits. Bastian took a close chance by overtaking a bus. Ranjith also drove for sometime and then we felt a good burning smell of elastomer and experienced some discomfort in riding. I just checked the back tire and it was punctured. There began our first commercial break. I started the video cam recording, one of the most natural videos of the tour and others started the Steppini – Jacky procedure. Only Gijoy and Ranjith could do some sort of trying, Bastian was a mere spectatorJ. In fact none of them succeeded until I found another good spanner. Then we together removed the burned tire and replaced that with the spare. I couldn’t help saying, that was our best video recording, truly natural. Then we soon found out a vulcanizing shop and got one good tube. We resumed our journey by taking the Bye-pass road to Ooty/Madikeri. It went through Hebbal industrial area, where Infosys is situated. We took some time to locate the route and halted for food at a Malayali mess known to me. We took Rice steam cake and peanut (Puttum KadalayumJ). We enquired about Coorg and Madikeri. Coming to know that it’s not our sort of place, all of us decided to go straight to Ooty. Soon we were on the road to Ooty with Gijoy holding the steering. The road was simply amazing, a joy for car drivers. We stopped at a place with banyan trees. We did a Snap and Video session by climbing the trees, hanging on the aerial shoots, sitting in the road and on the bonnet of the moving car. Ranjith took the drivers seat there after. Then we put the English cassette of Bastian, which contains foot-toppers viz. Coco jumbo, Steps, Michael Jackson. We suddenly had a strong urge to sip beer and enjoy. All of us were on a high mood. We paused at Golden bar and bought four beers, but unluckily didn’t get the apt food. We searched for quite long, but got only bread. We were fast reaching the border, Bandipur Sanctuary. The forest was nice, but we (un) luckily we couldn’t spot any animals other than cows. We took a steep short route to Ooty after Bandipur, through Mudumalai Sanctuary. When we entered Mudumalai sanctuary, Tamilnadu police officials stopped us. Ranjith who drove stepped out and went towards the office while one police man came to check. He inspected the water bottles even. We had covered the beer bottles and put the bread packets over it. We were beginning to say that we are carrying beer as it’ll be an issue if they find that. But then the idiot didn’t notice that at all and we left. Hahaha, we fooled the police, hurrayJ !!! We followed a couple in Honda City and it was easier to drive. The route was good, just for the ride. There were no great sceneries except dense forest. We were soon climbing the hill with utmost caution. The fog was increasing and we found it difficult. We stopped at an intermediate place. We had tea, radish and went for a small walk to a cut road and spent sometime enjoying the sceneries. Then we resumed.
Encircling the hairpin bend,
Slow and stylish up us went,
Fog and Mist and chilling wind,
Companying us till the end!!!
Around 1’o clock, we reached our destination. Driving past the tea plantations, through the mist filled roads, it was real enjoyment. And there came, the major turning point in the holidays, Indu Nivas. It was cottages under Hindustan Photo Films HPF. We thought it’ll prove costly. But to our amazement, it worked out real cheap, just 500 bucks. It would have been a great loss if we missed out that cottage. We didn’t think further and took the Cottage No. 5. Some horses were there in front of the cottage to welcome us. It was an awesome cottage and very big. There was a big living room containing big sofas, then two big bedrooms, kitchen, dining room and bathroom with geyser attached. After putting our luggage, we went to buy food along to accompany the Energy drinkJ. We got some real tasty food, Chicken Fry, they said. But anyhow it was not chicken; I hope its Dog meat, manL! I think it was an AlsatianJ. Anyhow we went back to cottage and started our first drinking session along with dog. Most of the beer bottles were shaken and so they frothed out. It was chilling cold and it was difficult even to go to restroom. And we took beer and slept for sometime. At 4’o clock, we went out for sight seeing. We went to Durga restaurant, which afterwards became our exclusive restaurant. The Dosa was delicious and not at alike the usual stuff in other restaurants. We had Dosa and went towards lake. The time was over and we went to Commercial road. Myself and Bastian bought jackets. We also had some Home-made chocolates which is a specialty in Ooty as the climate is best to preserve. Then we went to Blue Hills bar. The video shot there resembles an English film. Bastian and Gijoy took VSOP brandy while Ranjith and I took Director’s Special. It was not so good and we ate Chapatti, Noodles, Chilly chicken and Egg burji along with that. Our first bar session was disappointing and it started raining after that. It’s hectic to have a combination of Fog and RainL. We almost lost in the rain and were roaming around the town for another 10-20 min. We went here and there and it was a sort of adventurous trip. Finally Ranjith called up the cottage and asked for the way. Finally we somehow managed to reach the cottage. One security came and welded usL. Then we chatted for quite a long, mainly about girls (need not mention) and went to bed. We first thought of sleeping two per room but nobody was daring to sleep alone as we started ghost stories. We even couldn’t go to the other rooms for taking things. Finally Bastian, Gijoy and I went to one room and Ranjith told he’ll sleep in the next room. But within a minute he came back to ours and we slept discussing ghost stories, hoping we’ll see the daylight next day :).
