Magnificent Masinagudi!

The drive started before sunrise. Needless to say, so did the drinking. A drink in your hand and the wind in your hair is an awesome combination, unless you’re behind the wheel of course! (I AM a responsible citizen!) Destination?? Masinagudi – An exotic locale a few kilometers from Ooty. A perfect getaway for the weekend.

We passed by the scenic Bandipur forests and couldn’t help but slow down to enjoy the nature (and some beedis that we traded with cigarettes from an old man on the roadside). After spending some time monkey-gazing, we continued our drive to our final destination. In an hour we were in the middle of the beautiful Masinagudi forest and checking-in to our resort.

Our room was a very cozy bamboo hut, built very strategically on an elevated surface, making it look like a tree house… well almost! We were soon getting ready to go to the river side for lunch.

After a nice, long, sunny lunch (mouth-watering Biriyani which was specially delivered to us on the river-side) we headed back to our resort to catch up with some friends. The rest of the evening was spent talking and hanging around a camp-fire and drinking. Thanks to Sujay (my amazingly talented story-teller friend)and Sagar (my amazingly hilarious friend). With them, you never notice how time just flies by. Before we knew it, it was almost mid-night. And time for the mid-night safari!
Woohoo! What a safari THAT was! We were three in an open jeep along with a driver who was so over dramatic, we almost felt like we were a part of an over-the-top Rajnikanth movie. Man! His filmy dialogues and his action-hero like driving was too much too handle… especially when your drunk and there’s a Tusker almost spitting on your face. Some ride that was!

We spotted loads of animals! Bison, Bears, Deer, Antelopes, Tuskers and more Tuskers! They were literally in-our-faces! It was like they were just posing for us on the side of the road, like as if they were expecting us! Like a friggin parade it was! A whole two hours in the wild! What a rush!! Phew!
And then we were back to our resort! All excited and pumped up, and narrating the whole experience to the rest of the gang who were in another jeep. Sadly, they hadn’t seen a thing, except for rabbits (like that counts!) We gloated and gloated and finally when we had pissed them off enough we decided to head back to our rooms! It was 3.30 am by now and time to crash… well almost!

It was a beautiful night we couldn’t resist! We sat in our balcony for a while and did quite a bit of animated chit chat about all our previous jungli experiences. We were still not over the amazing safari of course. And then we realized how exhausted we were and finally decided to call it a night! Needless to say, I dreamt about a mammoth that night! And not a cute, talking one like in Ice Age!

The next day was meant to chill out for a while and head back. And that’s exactly what we did! Woke up late, had a lazy brunch and started our drive back home! I am a big sucker for drives and loved this one too. The wind in our hair and … you know the drill! :)

Oh … K!

I recently watched this movie called “Wake Up Sid”. (yeah yeah its been a while since its release, I know!) It was a fun, light-hearted story about a young boy, transitioning from an immature, shallow, spoilt brat, who can’t care less about his exams, to an endearing and sensitive young man.

The protagonist in the movie - Sid reminded me of one of my best friends from college – Kartik aka K. He, like Sid was utterly spoilt, so shallow (I’ve had baths that are deeper) couldn’t care less about the world (leave alone his exams), but thought he was perfection personified.

He hated home food. His mom would pack curd rice for him every other day, which he very conveniently donated to the needy and lived on burgers and fries almost every lunch break. (very generous!) His sense of humor drove me crazy! He called me Bhains (buffalo) when I would come back after every vacation putting on a little holiday weight. His sense of humor was mean and insensitive, and he laughed his ass off for his own jokes, (but I must admit, he was funny as hell).

I always acted like the grown up among the two of us and would constantly nag him saying that he was too immature for me and would declare that nothing would ever happen between us. He would vehemently deny ever having had that idea.
But we were buddies. From the first year to the fifth. We had absolutely nothing in common, but did everything together, we fought like hell, but we were inseparable.

He is now in San Francisco, living by himself, washing his own clothes, earning his own living and cooking his own food (Indian food mind you– he now has a fierce aversion towards burgers and fries). That’s some transformation for you!
So now I am happy to declare that K... has finally woken up!