Weekend at Surabhi's

Two years ago, just around the same time, five really crazy nuts decided to take off to some forlorn island in the south of france to which for years, the postman was the only human link from the mainland. And for five days, they booked a cottage on top of the hill facing the ocean, travelled far and wide in their gaudy red hyundai around the circumference of the island; doing among other things - scuba diving, beach volleyball, lots of ogling and swimming training. Rumours still do the rounds in some houses in fontainebleau that one of them took off his oxygen mask while in the bottom of the Atlantic and had a close brush with death. Two years later, even now, that trip is one of the best ever trips for (at least) four out of five of those crazy nuts.

It was during that trip that for the first time I felt the utmost contentment of having lived life completely when slumping down in the bed at the end of the day. A sense of suspending reality, letting the world wait till this moment's over; A sense of recklessness beyond fear where any situation can be managed; And an insatiable urge to feel it over and over again ... that's been burning for a long time - seven months to be precise (after we were left freezing at -27 degrees on top of Switzerland). This trip to bandipur that happened over the weekend was hence long due.

Bandipur is a forest area situated in the borders of Tamil nadu, karnataka and kerala which housed among wild animals and trees, a petty thief with a lot of wilderness on his face. It's about five and a half hours drive from bangalore. We, six able young men and a lady, set out with our bags, knives and air guns to set up a tent in the middle of the forest and do some quality trekking and tiger-spotting. Well, things didn't exactly happen the way we wanted. But we still truck loads of fun. Here are a few highlights

1. Walked up a five kilometer uphill stretch to a temple in Gopalaswamipeta very close to bandipur. The temple right on top of the hill, literally amidst the clouds and the stretching to eternity silence is divine.
   
2. Finally went into one of those open jeep rides through the ragged paths in the forest with a digital handi-cam searching (in vain, unfortunately) for animals behind bushes and trees.
3. Shot a whole documentary which includes a news report at the end of the day (like in those news channels. just that ours is more interesting ;)), a live commentary of the trip and of all the antics we did, and lots of deers, peacocks and monkeys.
4. This probably sounds very childlike - but I have always wanted to sneak out of the open window of a moving car (tavera in our case), climb onto the top of the car and look around from there rather than sitting like a bored duck inside the car. Managed to do that finally in this one :) (though the driver was not too happy about it!)

And so many more that cannot be numbered and put into a list (the songs, jokes and the gaffes and guffaws) but still were what made the trip most memorable. There aren't too many snaps because all we spieldbergs were busy with the digicam. (We are planning to release a VCD of our documentary though :)). However, I shall upload all the snaps we have very soon.

Chalo. Let me get back to work now.

PS: The title is a dedication to the mallu restaurant that gave us some really good fish fries and chicken curries at really throw-away rates.