Caught up in daily routines and professional pressures, there was hardly any opportunity to meet up with friends. The only way to communicate with friends, both near and far, was through the cellular technology. Seems like it was not long back since we passed out from college, but, time is running like there is no tomorrow. The trip to Munnar was a welcome break and a refreshing one at that. I hadn’t met Vindy after coming out of Manipal. It had been close to three months meeting suppy, dangy and nussy as well, so I was really looking forward to this trip down to the God’s own country. A hard-thought out itinerary, bowl full of pranks and a perfect execution is how our vacation in Munnar can be described. The disappointment of missing a reunion at Homecoming in Manipal due to various professional commitments was in a way compensated by this trip, though not completely as some junglees couldn’t make it even this time around.As soon as our program was finalized, I couldn’t wait for 23rd October to come. It was great travelling from the flash of the NE monsoon in Hyderabad to the height of the humid kerala. I arrived in Cochin on the afternoon of 24 th October and was received by Vindy at the railway station. Suppy, nussy and dangy were all waiting at home for me to come, but as always, I reached late for the party. Amidst all these, the most heartening thing was that each of us were as excited to see each other as much as we’ve ever been. We had a quick lunch, and then, we set out for Munnar in a stylish Qualis on the Friday afternoon.
It was a wonderful journey with each of us finding it hard to remain silent. No matter what we talked, we used to invariably end up discussing about "whatchya"There was a lot of singing and leg-pulling [esp. papa’s] on our way upto Munnar. Papa was appointed the Finance manager of the trip. We had a short-break half-way up the hills. It was about 9.30 in the night by the time we reached the guest house on the hills. [by the way, the guest house was sponsored by HDFC]. We started boozing at around 10 pm and continued till 4 am, early morning. We shared our experiences and had dollops of fun during this. We didn’t realise when we slowly slipped into sleep. Next morning, we set out for sight-seeing on the hills. Saw the lush green forest with clouds moving like they do in a movie, and boy, was it beautiful!Then we stopped over at the lake for a boat ride. It was a speed boat and it was a lottov fun. There was a femalus horribulus, who vindy aptly described as "good from far, far from good..!" We also found one for dangy… The boat driver drove the boat with many twists in the water and it was like another exciting water sport.We had lunch in a restaurant which took us just about a coupla’ hours…. and even that was because we had a mallu with us…had it not been for vindy, we probably would have completed our lunch by the dinner time. We then moved on to see the tea estates.
All through Munnar, you drive for miles and miles in any direction and you are guaranteed to be surrounded with tea plantations. You will be amazed at the amount of labour that has gone into building these plantations (and also into destroying the forest). But I have to admit that neatly trimmed tea plants spread like a lawn all over the hills does look really beautiful. We had clicked a few snaps there and then were on our way back to the guest house. A day had passed off, completely unnoticed by us.The next morning, we left for kochi as I had an early train to catch. It seemed as if time was running at the rate of knots. In the afternoon, I was on the train heading back to hyderabad, ending what was a fantastic vacation, even if it was short.Time in kerala moved so swiftly that I hardly realised that it was three days up, and now I’m back to work. That’s for my travelogue….FYKIU guys take care… So, till next time that we meet in papa’s wedding…its me,
Vinay/Kody
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