Good Friday

It was a superb Friday, if you ask me. Almost two years out of Engineering college, and many of us had not met each other since leaving college. Vineeth, as usual, brought up the idea of a one-day trip over the long weekend. Almost 14 of us had tentatively agreed, but till late at night on thursday, things looked doubtful. Some of us, infact, thought that the trip was cancelled.. 😀 . The onus of arranging the vehicle fell to me, and though I raked up many contacts, was unable to find a suitable vehicle. You see, other people were much more calculated than us when it came to planning trips over the long weekend. Dad watched amusedly as I tried in vain to find a Tempo Traveller. And after I had almost given up on finding one, he stepped in and effortlessly arranged one for us. And that too, at a much lesser tariff than normal. Phew.

I paid the advance and checked about hundred times with the driver whether there were good seats and a music system. If not seats atleast the music system, I told him. I stopped only when he started giving me dirty threatening looks. I had planned to leave home by 6:30 am and pick people up along the way, picking the last group at Maruti mandir, Vijayanagar. Since I had heard a lot about how drivers turn up late for trips, I asked for the vehicle to report at my house by 5:30 am, and silently chuckled to myself, hair bristling with pride at how I would, after all, manage to leave at 6:30 am, even if the vehicle was late. I had grossly miscalculated – the vehicle reached home at 5:30 am, honking me out of deep dreams. Now I had to contend with the driver’s scowls each time I looked out of the window 😀 .

Finally, with a backpack full of snacks and some clothes to change into, I started from home at 6:30 am sharp. Picked up varsha at Malleshwaram at 7 am. Went to pick up Bindu and Chaitra near Soumya Paradise. Varsha had a tough time waking up Bindu and convincing her that the trip was on, after all 😀 . After an excrutiatingly long 😉 wait, we finally went off towards Vijayanagar. Met Vamsi on the way, to collect a volleyball. Meeting him for the first time since college, exchanged pleasantries. He asked me where we were going, and I responded that we were yet to decide. I turned back to see horrified expressions on the faces of the girls and the driver. With a fake reassuring smile, I got into the vehicle. Picked up Vin, Mohs, Prats, Neha, Sapna, Pooja and Anu at Vijayanagar. The driver aked me where we wanted to go. I pointed vaguely in the direction of Mysore, and we were off. Amidst the chatter and excitement, managed to take some snaps. Soon, we were discussing about breakfast. Everybody voted for the thatte idlis near the Bidadi bridge, but then decided to stop near a small village hotel when we saw one.

Had nice idlis with sambar, chutney and bondas. We all trooped back to the vehicle, but vin and mohs had disappeared. They came back with some toxic-looking holi powder. At any slight provocation, vin would point to the holi powder, and I would shut up, because I was wearing a yellow t-shirt. Finally, we decided to go to the Himavad Gopalaswamy Hills just out of Gundlupet. The weather was pleasant, with just a little part of the sun peeking out of the cloud cover. We crossed Nanjangud without incident, but encountered a huge traffic-pile up just before Gundlupet. Some election campaigning on the road saw us spend almost half an hour in the traffic, and finally, around 1 pm, we reached the Gopalaswamy hills, which is well into the Bandipur forest area.

The change in weather and temperature was dramatic – the temperature dropped suddenly and the sky was overcast. We ventured out behind the temple into the shrubland, but were forbidden by the forest guards to go any further as it could rain at any moment. While we were still standing around, we heard the distant roar of the rain, and by the time we reached the temple, we were all drenched to the skin!!

With nothing else to do, we went into the temple, and discovered why the temple was named so – there is snow inside the sanctum sanctorum every day of the year(Hima means snow). The priest gave us a quick historical insight into the temple’s past, and then did a puja for us. It was still raining when we came out, but stopped in a few minutes. The scene at the temple-top was beyond description, what with the mist and greenery all around us. It was difficult to even believe that it was so bright and sunny in Gundlupet, a few km away. After the rain had subsided completely, we trooped back into the vehicle and returned to Gundlupet, where we had lunch. Since it was already late, we decided to return to Bangalore.

We reached Mysore late in the evening, and Neha, Prats and me decided to show(off) everybody the Infosys campus(though nobody else looked so enthusiastic :D). I had driven to Infosys a couple of times during my training days, but so much had changed in a year – I lost my way, and directed the driver onto a wrong turn 😦 . Further on, we spied a group of people, who Prats insisted were Infy interns, and we proceeded there to ask for directions. They were a large group of foreign interns, and Infosys had arranged a Holi extravaganza right outside their guest house. While Prats and me asked for directions, the rest of the group silently trooped out of the vehicle and joined the revellers!! What followed was a half hour of enthusiastic singing and dancing 😀 . As it was getting late, much against our wishes, we bid farewell to the Infoscions and started towards Bangalore.

After a short coffee break at Maddur, we reached Bangalore around 9 pm. Yes, it was a gooooood Friday!!