manipal 2008

What you've done becomes the judge of what you're going to do - especially in other people's minds. When you're traveling, you are what you are right there and then. People don't have your past to hold against you. No yesterdays on the road. ~William Least Heat Moon, Blue Highways

it all started around a month before the real showdown. sometimes ticket were not available on the others something crap happened. karen was in a little distress when i told me i cant wait any longer. i wanted to leave that particular day itself but wasnt able to get tickets. eventually i got tickets for 26th of march. she booked room for me for next 3days. she was so sweet and silly at the same time even though she booked the hotel she had no idea of how much the rent was. i will love her forever for this. isnt she a masterpiece . i had plans to return on 29th but the bus was too early at 7:45pm. being a creature of night i thought it will be such a waste of time, we wont be able to do anything. so i booked tickets for 30th

its march the 26th, i m waiting for my bus at the travel agents office...i came in here pretty early as it was going to rain soon....and in bangalore it doesnt rains actually, it pours so to avoid any last moment dramas which do happen to me quite often i hv reached here an hour prior to my scheduled departure. After a wait long enough to put me on snooze my bus was there, it read "manjunath road lines 2+1 sleeper and seater". As i entered i found yet another marvel of innovation, the floor of bus was lined up with push back chairs and above them were bunk beds sort of sleeping areas, i said to myself this is bangalore and technology is the life blood here... mine was a sleeper seat and i grabbed it without loosing a moment.it was quite comfortable and i soon fell asleep. i woke up at around 5:30 in the morning and i found my self in a place all green and foggy. it seemed as if it had rained heavily a little while ago. i was not able to figure out what place it was coz all the sign boards were scribbled in KANNADA a language still foreign to me. i was not much bothered as i knew mine was the last stop and the bus was still moving so i concluded my destination was not yet reached. A little while later i found me in front of st. alouysious college the mascot of education scenario of mangalore..and that made me realise that i was still 60kms away from karen,bk and ofcourse manipal.

day1
As i hv mentioned earlier if its me its gotta be trouble, the bus dropped me an entirely alien spot and not at TIGER CIRCLE which is the epicenter of activity at manipal, i walked all the way in search of familiar buildings like the manipal library( how can i forget to mention its asia's biggest library) or the KMC but i ended up amongst some faculty quaters and some unknown hostel buildings... there i saw a sign board pointing MIT in the forward direction and my steps picked up pace as my hotel was jst opposite MIT.i called bharat(who will be reffered as bk hereafter) who was a lil busy downloading watever he hogged on last night but he managed to give me a tip "go to the hotel and make urself comfortable there." since the room was booked in my name i needed no escort.

as soon as i got into the room the first thing i needed to have was a bath. in a couple of moments i was all ready to greet bk. in a while three of us were giggling, teasing and talking abt everything under the sun..i felt as if i was alive again... soon it was time for lunch and we headed for "snack shack" to grab something to munch.
soon it was evening and karen had to leave for some urgent work when me and bk decided to grab a beer down the lane.. the later part of the evening was a lil boring untill we went to CHINA VALLEY..

china valley, as the name suggest was a decent chinese restaurant but wat we were intrested in was the flavoured HOOKAH they serve...even though i am a smoker i had no experience of a hookah so i was more than excited...a couple of moments later an apple flavoured hookah was smoking next to our table...
initially i had a tough time smoking it as i was not able to hold the smoke in my mouth and ended up swollowing all the smoke....i was wondering from which hole will it make an exit as it never came out from my mouth....while i was pondering over all the possible exits bk was smoking like a pro and sometime he resembled a charging bull as i see them in cartoons very often. meanwhile karen had to leave as her perm was about to get over...soon we were back to our hookah sessions and were enjoying it to such an extent that we lost appetite and told them to pack the food rather serving on table.
by 11 we were in my hotel room hogging on the most amazing chinese food i ever tasted. bk left in a while as we called it a day.but i was all restless and excited, no sleep in my eyes so i came down to the street. it was 1 am and still i could find guys and galz of MIT making out on their bikes. that is manipal hot and happening.

day2
i was all set to go to bekal fort when i got the news that one of their mates was not feeling fine so we need to shun that idea. and plan B was to go to Kapu a nearby beach. i was more than happy as i love beaches. in around half an hour we were at kapu it was almost noon and sea was on a high. we spent a couple of hrs in the sand playing around with the waves. then we went to a shack to grab something to eat. what started off as a lunch soon ended up in binge drinking. after taking in something more than 2 liters of beer i was on a high. i still remember we washed our hairs with beer and it really made them softer.when i regained from the higher state of consciousness i found myself on the ledge of the light house standing alteast 10 stories high over the sea..i looked around to find bk resting in karen's lap and i was glad to see both of them were well in their senses, it was jst me feeling the buzz. i puked from that place itself and got it registered in my memory as the highest point i ever went to puke. i felt better but still i was feeling asleep. so we all rushed down the light house and back to our hotel room....all this while what i remember was karen helping me to walk and bk searching for autos and buses... finally we reached my hotel room and i slopped. i hope u people never did anything nasty to me when i was sloshed....i gained consciousness at around 4 in the morning and the first thing i did was had a bath as it was all sand in my clothes and beer in my hair. and then i never got asleep.

day3
i was in no mood to go anywhere that day as i was feeling something churning in my stomach and moreover bk had some work to sort so me and karen ended up watching some movies on her lappy. later we went for lunch and finally we went to watch RACE in MOVIE DOME...i guess the director of the movie was studying permutation and combination and had tried every possible combination of actors in the movie..and in the evening we went to endpoint..a place which has gradually converted into a sports complex with a huge football ground, a cricket stadium, a jogging track with pictures views of ridges and a river flowing down under...and many things still under construction...

day4
i checked out of my room and was homeless. i submitted my baggage at the reception and told to collect it later in the evening
me and karen were wondering wat to do as bk was busy with some work....finally we ended up sitting in ccd right next to my hotel.. we exchanged words over different things we faced till now in our lives and quite a lot of other things then she rang up adi to give us a lead abt any place nearby... in no time adi was there..and i figured out him to be a nice guy to hang around with and why she adores him so much. while we were disucssing abt various options we saw bk. and now the clan was complete and the plan was to go to valley view to eat.
valley view, the hotel in which these guys practice and bang their heads during OJTs(on job trainings)... bk called out for chotu one of his junior performing his OJT at that moment...i had a shock of life time when i saw chotu standing right next to me....a six feet something giant with weight atleast 3 times that of mine and i made myself learn a lesson never presume things in life.after eating and sipping some beer we decided to go to ozone for bowling
ozone, a disc cum pool parlour cum bowling alley was not very big but was big enough for us to enjoy.. i tried my hands at bowling and ended up securing second rank among 3 of us. later adi and bk went to play pool and i didnt joined them as my palms sweat like hell and i had a fear what if the cue slips from my hands and gets shoved in someones ass....its always better to be safe than sorry.....instead i joined karen who was still in the bowling lounge...once they were done with their game we went for karting...its fun, a 200 cc car with a brake and throttle and a steering that churns ur body with equal force as it turns the car...first four laps were fun with every disaster happening...carts stalling, hitting against walls and saftey tyres scattered all the way....soon we called for round two and i made a mistake by not trusting the cart i was driving and switching to a new one....as soon i pressed the throttle i realised that it is jammed and there was no option other than running on full throttle but i was still happy as i had only one control(brakes) to handle..... i felt a mix of emotions thrill, fear and fun.....
it was around 4 when we headed back to hotel to get my bag and after relaxing for some time we went to endpoint again on the way anja joined us for a stroll....soon it was 7 and we were in a mad rush to get back to TIGER CIRCLE as the bus was scheduled at 7:45....we walked as fast as we could and found the bus waiting at the stop....after a short session of hugs and bakar i was on my chair moving past the guys waving at me with the well timed statement from adi still echoing in my mind "BANGALORE PAHUCH KAR CHITTHI LIKHNA "

thats it one more trip comes to end....i really miss those days...thats life its all abt frnds fun and moving on with a heavy heart
while i wrote this post i relived those days each and every moment passed infront of my eyes as i was watching a movie i guess u ppl will feel the same while reading it...