Time to hit the blog again. It's been really long and I've got a fantastic reason to be back here! Late b'coz of tight schedules, nevertheless I wanted to put it down in writing.
This year I was very insistent that we have to do something special for new years. I kept a tab on the progress of the plans. Finally, a plan worked out, we are going to Chikkamagalur! Heard that a gang of 14-15 are going to be there for new year’s eve, I was all thrilled! :-). For me, it doesn’t matter if I know people or I don’t, but I definitely know to make “friends” with people around me and have fun. Swaroop-Joe’s engagement and wedding had given us an introduction to many of their friends’ circle.
This week in office was terrible, couldn’t wait for the New Year’s bash! Swaroop-the planner of the group passed on the orders that we have to meet up at 5.30 am on friday morning in North B ‘lore . Pradeep-my deary, said that we have to get up @ 3.30 am!!!! The last time I got up @ this time was on my wedding day :P. Anyways, with no complaints we got up that early, and left our house at sharp 5 and reached Swaroop’s house @ 5.30 am. There on, we switched cars and started off to a common meeting point-Peenya, with the first bunch of people - Joe, Swaroop, Pradeep, me, Mr & Mrs Balaji, Pranav, Pragna, Santosh, Pooja and Thressy; group departure @ 5.45 am @ 7350km. Three cars, 11 people, another car had to join us, but we were told that they were running late.
It was a “foggy friday”, taking pictures all the way; also captured the beautiful sunrise. We stopped for breakfast @ 8.10 am @ Mayura restaurant @ Belur cross – idli vadas, chow chow bhath, dosa’s on the table with coffee and tea to kick start the day. The hot discussion was “road kill”. I had killed a monkey, Swaroop- a crow, someone killed a cat I guess, please update me on this one guys J. It was a nice start for the day; we left Mayura @ 8.45 am. The roads ahead were very patchy, me and Joe were panicking sitting at the back seat with Swaroop driving @ 90/100km/hr :-) (he did drive very well - fyi). Reached Hassan @ 9.45 am @ 7545 km and Chikkamagalur @ 11.00 am @ 7585 km; din’t expect Chikkamagalur to be so hot! Enquiring about our “jungle greens”, we finally reached the destination @ 12.30 pm @ 7606 km. Wow! It was such a thrilling drive in deep forest, rough roads, also absolutely with no network, which I loved! Sometimes you just have to be away from the regular routine of life, especially phones! The nature took care of that! 
Jungle greens – beautiful place, beautiful location with a small water body by the side, moreover very green all over! All of us taking a chill pill, it was lunch time, all set for the food, the swifts arrived one after the other. After lunch, as we relaxed for a while, a small bunch of people headed to the city probably in search for a surprise cake for Swaroop’s birthday if am not wrong. While I was just trying taking a short nap, the music and the noise outside woke me up. I see few of them playing cricket. I was contemplating whether to play or not. I joined the crowd; it went on to be interesting! Everyone enjoyed their turns, nice bowling and not so nice bowling J, but for batting: Rohit tried to shift stumps while playing to get his chance and Swaroop justified his best to come back after every batsman : D, it was too good to see! Few of us maintained our batting and bowling order J. Krithika, however waited with patience, but then, she got rid of the whole nuisance happening and came up with a list to follow the game in order; well done Krithika J. The girls did a good job @ bowling, am confident, haha! We bowled over a few interesting ones ;). The most interesting one was when “Pooja bowled Swaroop”, poor boy he was speechless!! :D. Good cricket it was I must say!
Next, we tried our hands at cards, 5’s. The least total number you have, you win. Everyone was playing fairly good. Slowly, I started adding more points under my name, and thought I’ll get better next time. While most of them put up points like 15 or 20, I threw down only 30’s and 35’s or more. It was too late to realise, my luck was running out with only big cards in hand, uff!! Instead, Pragna sitting next to me had to get only small cards, not once, in every other game; I gave up finally. I don’t know who the winner was, I was a big loser in this game! I had close to 200 points in no time.
Dumb charades was next. Making up new movies, tough acting, difficult answers. I was all dumb struck with no acting skills! :(..One of them was "Jajantaram mamantaram", I couldn't do well..Its difficult! Yet, it was good fun!!!
Never mind, the musical chair was in store for us, hoping this would change my fortunesJ. PP, our DJ for the night, played some real good numbers – Tamil hot shots, Munni, Sheila and more. Cheating was on the roar, yet one by one was moved out. Now, a handful left, probably people moved inch by inch, but Rohit (they called him the ‘cheater’) had his chair in hand, turned around at his convenience without a hitch. Hmm. I got out in the last 5’s. Huh! Never mind the last ones were terrible to watch, forget conducting the game! They had their own chairs! Santosh and Rohit, the final two, had their chairs carrying with them and settled down happily. Heheheh. Now, however, with or without cheating am not sure, the winner was ‘Mr. Rohit’. Aww! This game was amazing!! Actually, I had planned to organise a couple of games, which I couldn’t, and so had brought ‘Naturo’ bars for the winners, which was all distributed albeit not conducting any. Next time, I’ll make sure to keep up my word.
“Shawn” – the guy who kept us waiting for the whole evening, arrived with lots-a-goodies for all of us, thanks to him. JD’s, (the king of all, that certainly blew the guys away!), the labels, KF’s, breezers (Jamaican passion - my favourite) and many of them. All of us got down to the mood and yeah, CHEERS!! Santosh poured the JD’s equally in those glasses. I tried to taste it, but it was horrible. Well, a campfire, a glass in your hand, good music, good people around, dance and funny talks, a great evening it was! As the intake of the “hard drink” went up, all of us went crazy. We got together for ‘tribal dance’, lead dancers being PP, Rohit and Balaji dancing for Ammmbbbbbbbbb, remember? J. Props missing were just the sticks and the leaves J, and not to miss the kerchief dance performed by Balaji and Rohit. Pradeep and I enjoyed the Sheila’s jawani effect too..;)
Well, it arrived. The clock struck 12, it wasn’t just the New Year, but Swaroop’s birthday too. We were struggling to arrange one cake for his birthday, all of a sudden we had four on the table, the much awaited cake cutting ceremony happened. I had kept Diwali crackers for 2011 opening ceremony, which served the best. Wow! Those were super-duper ones! The newlyweds lit up crackers together and began the New year with a bang! Back to our seats now, some music directors were busy composing songs – tan tan tan- Swaroop which tune is that? Idu maga – It’s my life!! LOL!! I hope the real composer had consulted him for he made it that easy, hahahahha! The best tune ever!! I can’t stop laughing... Likewise, the ‘dum maro dum bum’ song composed by Rohit was a hit too!! :D It was fun!Goodnight time, the watchman wanted to close the gate, but we told him that a couple have gone for ‘nature walk ! J. Now, why are you all smiling? J. Ok, it was time for some good sleep.
1st January 2011, a sober morning, everybody were in the after effects mood of what all happened last night. POA for the day was to laze around and play cricket. We made a quick visit to our friend Shawn’s house and an immediate plan to visit to Mullayangiri hills, the highest peak in Karnataka. The drive was crazy up the hill, and reached there to see a real good view of nature. Thressy was very interested climbing up the hill, and she did it within a very short while, while we climbed the adjacent one. It was a nice visit and we rushed back to the home stay. Meanwhile, the rest of the group had stepped out on a short drive into Muthodi forests. Whilst we had plans to go to the sunset point, it was too late and we decided to pass and started with some more cards and dumb charades.
‘Change your name’ was the game. Only some of them were interested in this game. I remember Pradeep escaped silently out of this game J. Well, the guys had their cameras with them to enjoy the session. The game started off low, but ended with pain in our stomachs laughing! Thanks to Thressy.
Next in line was dumb charades. Teams were made into 1’s and 2’s, purely splitting Rohit and PP in different teams. My team (active) members were – myself, Pradeep, PP (highly talented), Thressy, Krithika, (Santosh and Swaroop in silent mode); the other team – Joe, Pranav, Pooja, Rohit (equally talented) and Pragna (Mr & Mrs. B in silent mode). I had geared up my acting skills by now, :P. Highlight of the game was tooti hui pistol, Casablanca (I don’t know which one J) and the chudail act did not go unnoticed I guess ;). Best of the best games that entertained all of us!! Three cheers to all of you!!
Jan 2nd, the day of departure, wanted to make the best of it; some of us went out for bird watching and photography, a nice small trek indeed. Nature’s best oxygen was inhaled and we were refreshed! Breakfast was omelettes and idli sambar, last one in the trip. Well, loaded the cars with our baggage, posed for some pictures, bid goodbye to ‘jungle greens’. While on our way back, we had coconut water, that was yum, cold and sweet; also had a pit-stop in the market to shop coffee powder and tati ningus. We stopped at Hassan for lunch, had a good meal @ Kadambas and drove till B’lore nonstop.
Time well spent in carving new bonds of friendship and deepening existing relations, it was 'worthwhile'. The best New year I had till date!
Wish you all a great year ahead!
Cheers!
J
