Ooty Tour - Chapter 1

Chapter 1

October 2^nd week

Anna Sandra Palaya, Bangalore

An always impatient Bastian threw an idea that at first seemed to be a time-pass, “Da, Randu divasam engottenkilum tour pokam”. Nobody responded at first and finally Ranjith backed him. Even I did, as I was also longing for a break from the tiresome and boring Office – Room – Keerthi - Surabhi routine and non-coinciding shifts of ours. Gijoy as usual, nodded and nodded. Things took a fast turn as we decided to give it a shot and everyone got a half chance during the last weekend of October. It will be holidays for me, Bastian and Gijoy will adjust the shift and Ranjith will somehow do something J (wait n see to make it happen). We planned for a Goa tour, hiring a car. Later on it was changed to Ooty considering the traveling time and distance. We began searching for a rent-a-car. We enquired and decided to progress in spite of the expense. But we could arrange only Santro petrol and we knew it’ll be expensive. Meanwhile we started planning a family trip with Mr. & Mrs. Sharath, Sreeram and Ratheesh. Even that was not coming alright and both I and Bastian were hopeless and started preparing for a setback, as we were the sole organizers because Gijoy and Ranjith were on evening and night shiftsJ. Added to this was the disk man getting damaged, which put a full stop to our Veer-Zaara mood.

…And the wind blew our direction, when on 27^th October, I got some links from internet and finally strike gold with International Travel house offering Indica A/c diesel at a worthy 100 bucks per day and unlimited mileage. Wasting no time, I and Bastian went that evening and booked it for the weekend. Coming back, we discussed the different strategies for the trip. Finally we decided the Mysore – Coorg – Ooty route. The day following, Gijoy and Bastian made further enquiries, got the camera from Bastian’s friend and on 29^th October 8’o clock, Bastian, Gijoy and Myself were on our way to take the car. Simply professional, I should say, was the attitude of the Travel House authorities. They just blocked 10K payment from my credit card and got themselves my driving license. They fueled the car to full tank and handed over to us at 22.00 hrs.

Bastian took the magic key; we went to Madiwala and fueled ourselves from Mas, caught Ranjith from Koramangala, took cash from Domlur and reached room by 22.30 hrs. Gijoy put his two-wheeler inside the room first. 1000 bucks per head was deposited with the Finance controller i.e. myself. Not even a penny will be spent from others for the whole trip. Putting the beats on, we went ahead with the travel arrangements. It was decided by our travel committee to take three pairs of T-Shirt and Jeans and one pair of semi-formals. We took jackets, towels, cassettes, perfumes, camera, this and that and finally the attraction of the whole trip, Panasonic Handicam. We were even discussing whether anybody will come back or if only one came back, how he will live in that roomJ. And the urge to pack things fast and prepare for the 3 dream days was ultimate.