Kerala Trip

So it finally happened: the much awaited trip to Kerala which also explains my short hiatus. The last time I visited God’s Own Country, I was an 11 year old studying in the sixth standard. So I barely remember anything, except the 44 hour train journey in sleeper class, getting stuck in a shady local hospital on our way to Tekdi and me proudly announcing to my parents how I gained 5 kgs during the trip!

However, this time it was a different story altogether: our gang of 12 people from college (we call ourselves as the ckb group, the apt full form of which is “chaddi ke bahar” implies that we always end up doing things which are slightly ambitious, logistically impossible and financially draining) decided to boldly conquer “God’s Own Country” when we have struggled to put together day trips, dinner plans or even simple chai outings- 12 different people, 12 different opinions, 1000 permutations and combinations: no, it definitely wasn’t easy. But finally we all came together to make it possible and we are all very very grateful to Thomas V George and his sweet sweet family who played the perfect host as we rampaged through their home, emptied their water tanks, dirtied their cutlery, ate some awesome food, wasted some awesome food and in general made a nuisance of ourselves…

The journey began on 27th February from Panvel by Garibrath as we squeezed ourselves in 2 seats (Mumbai local trains revisited): it was a fun ride as we discovered our prowess in all kinds of silly games (Uplaksh Tewary emerged as the undisputed winner, but I repeat, the games were SILLY), tried watching Via Darjeeling (I think I am head over heels in love with K K Menon), drove the other people in the bogie(especially a sweet old couple) nuts with our loudness and I realized why society doesn’t look upon students so kindly- let’s face it, we are a bunch of noisy losers!

We reached Kochi in a little less than 24 hours and attacked Thomas’ aunt’s house with full vengeance for a couple of days. I also discovered that my strength lay in tasting food and not so much in cooking and the only way I could contribute was by washing dishes and making coffee (which I suspect Shrijit didn’t like much). Dinner mostly consisted of Maggie, egg bhujji, some snacks and lots and lots of booze (I was proclaimed a loser in this respect). A visit to the Cherai beach ended up with me spoiling my cell phone and therefore all my contacts, so now every time I get a friendly sms/ call from an unknown number, my reply template is: “Who is this?” which has pissed off a lot of people (including parents)!

Day two began nice and early as we set out for Munnar- a picturesque hill station dotted with tea gardens, lakes and waterfalls as we made numerous unscheduled stops and our photographers (Sama and Thomas) went berserk.

The next day we went to “veega land”, a water theme park near Kochi which was even more fun than it promised to be. While the water rides were a relief, some of the land rides (and I mean space gun) were like flirting with death. I know I want to have two near death experiences, and I think I have successfully had my first!