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Thursday, September 24, 2009

My Experiences with Kaveri

I had been looking forward to meeting her for a long time. I had seen her for 4 years when i was in my college . Many times i had gone to her place but still i couldnt meet her. But this time i was hell bent on meeting her.

My trip started on saturday early morning at 6. We set out in 2 cars to trichy. The pretext was attending our managers wedding. But all of us had other plans in mind. The journey was very interesting. The very start was on a humorous note. We all arrived at one of our team mates house to pick him up. I had woken him up at around 5:45 and he told me he is ready and kicking. But we were in for a surprise when we went to his house. He was still in bed and had not even brushed his teeth. We were furious and he got a nice firing from us. He readied himself up in record time and we started from his house with full enthusiasm. But alas!! the railway guys had other plans for us. They had put down the railway gates and we had to wait patiently for aroung 20 minutes for the gates to be opened. Finally our journey started for real this time and within an hour we were well on our way to trichy.

After an hours journey we stopped at a posh eatery along the highway. The entrance was superb with a big arch welcoming us and both sides of the road lined by green trees which led to a garden. The ambience was perfect for a breakfast refreshment. But all good things came to an end with that. The hotel inside was a big hall with just 3 people catering to us. We spent just 2 mins deciding on what to eat since whatever we ordered he said they dont have. Finally we settled for some idli and dosas. Just one bite and we knew this hotel provided us with the worst quality of food ever possible. With heavy hearts and a near empty stomach we resumed our journey.

We were zooming at around 140 kmph and at this rate my mind was racing ahead with calculations and i concluded that we will reach trichy by noon if not earlier. Our car was way ahead of the other one and we decided to stop midway for some drinks. Unfortunately for us that place was such that they never knew the concept of cool drinks. Whatever they had was out of the refrigerator since they never had one. We resumed our jouney remembering to stop at d nearest town and surprise surprise, the other car was waiting in d middle of the road with everyone looking at the tyres. We pulled over there and went to investigate the problem. Murphy had indeed given us good company all through with the hotel and cool drinks and this was his best handiwork. It was a flat tyre and so good was it that had we proceeded any further it would have literally burst. I had never ever seen a tyre so brutally damaged. We made them wait in the hot sun and took the other car and a spare tyre in search of a puncture shop. We travelled around 2 kms to find one and boy-o-boy that person was very busy. We had to wait for an hour for him to fix our tyre. In the mean time 2 guys bought the drinks that they were looking for so long and they got us 2 bottles. Man it was really refreshing. It took another 15-20 minutes for the tires to be fitted in the car. We continued our journey and neared Trichy. That was when i saw her at her marvelling best. The Srirangam Temple Tower on one side and the Rockfort on the other.

We entered trichy on a humorous note. One of our friends was so deep in sleep that when we alighted for our lunch, he woke up with a startle and asked "Where am I??" :) :). We couldnt stop laughing and laughed our hearts out. We stopped at a pretty decent hotel and had a filling lunch and proceeded to our hosts house. It was a wonderful place with lots of greenery. There was a small garden nearby with ducks swimming in a pond and lots of shade. Finding such a place in the hustle and bustle of a town was a rarity these days. We then planned to play cards to while away time. The person who had the cards had gone to get it and he took some time to come. He was in for a surprise as most of them had slept by then. My friend and i decided to go to some nearby shop to buy a pair of briefs for us. We kept walking for about half an hour when we reached the central shopping area in search of a shop to buy our stuff. Can you believe it we entered and exited about 3-4 shops and none of them had it. When we enquired with a nearby travels driver he told us to board a bus and go to a place that was about 10 km from here and buy there. Imagine a town where we had to travel 10km by bus just to buy a pair of Jockeys....uhh. Thankfully we didnt go that far since we found it ironically in a Ladies Apparel shop (Of all d places for mens wear). We returned just in time to wake our guys and we proceeded to Kaveri in my friends open jeep.

There was an added thrill for me since i was looking forward to my rendevous with Kaveri after nearly 6 years. We crossed the bridge and proceeded towards Srirangam to the bathing ghat. There she was...at her majestic best...flowing as free and fast as can ever be. Three of us got into the water and wow..it was super. I had expected freezing water since it was well past sunset. Instead the water was very warm and the fast current made it soothing. Seeing us having a whale of a time three more got into the water. They had said they will never get into the water and voila they were already in. We spent about 45 minutes there and it was very good. It was a very refreshing experience. They say that Kaveri waters had healing powers. I dont know how much of that is true..but one thing was for sure...those waters did have some power in them. Usually whenever i come out of a river or falls i usually come out sneezing or having a nasty cold. But kaveri was different. I didnt have a small sneeze also leave alone the cough. People may have lots of experiences that they say is the best feeling ever, but as fas as i am concerned nothing can beat the experience i had - a refreshing bath and then immediately after that have a hot coffee. We then proceeded back home and all of us were pretty tired out. We had a simple dinner and retired for the night.

My next day started really early. I woke up at 4:15 (can you believe it) since 3 of us had planned to go to the Srirangam Temple (something thats been eluding me for my past 2 Trichy visits). I had marvelled at its Rajagopuram everytime i saw it from my train and this time i was hellbent on visiting it and my wish was gonna come true. We saw the early morning sunrise (been days since i've seen it) and started for the temple at 5:00. The climate was great. It had rained the previous night and the subsequent morning was cool with a mild breeze and the early morning sun shine. It was one of those mornings when you feel both the chill and the heat of the sun together, feelings best felt that cant be described. We entered the temple complex around 5:20 and it was absolutely humongous. The temple complex consisted of 3 tier levels. Each containing a tower entrance. We parked at the innermost tier and entered the temple. Entering the temple itself felt divine. All the statues were king size. We entered the sanctum santorium around 5:40 and had to wait for the Gho-pooja, Ghaja-pooja and Ashwa-pooja to complete.Wow...what an auspicious starting to the day - Early morning sunrise and now this pooja. After the pooja was over we entered the main sanctum sanctorium where we could see Lord Vishnu in his majestic resting pose. Sadly for us we landed on the wrong month since this month the idol is covered by drapes. Nontheless it was a divine sight and we proceeded to the Andal temple. On our way we saw the idol of Garuda. I have never ever in my life seen a Garuda so big. It was huge, easily 3 storeys high. At the andal temple we saw her at her beautiful best. Covered fully in sandal wood and golden ornaments, she radiated divineness. We then proceeded to explore the temple and its greatness. We were so engrossed in marvelling the temple when we were brought back to reality by a phone call we got from our guys back home that they were ready. It was only then we realised the whole purpose of our visit to trichy. it was for the marriage of our manager. We rushed back to the car and returned home to find everyone ready waiting for us.

We then boarded the cars and proceeded towards the marriage hall and reached just in time for the muhurtham. We were in for the shock of our lives when we found that we hadnt brought out gift money. It was left in a purse which was inturn kept safely inside a bag back home. Thank god one of our friends had enogh money in his account that we withdrew from a nearby ATM and proceeded to the hall. There we had lots of fun teasing our manager who had finally become committed. Gone were his bachelor days and we bachelors were happily enjoying. We spent around 1 and half hours there and had our breakfast and left back home. All of us were tired and we slept off instantly.

We woke up at around 11:45 and got ready for our lunch. It was supposed to be at a place where they served the best biryanis in Trichy. We took the jeep and left for the place. It was an half hour drive from our place and it looked like a small roadside eatery. But only when i entered inside that i found it was a very famous place around going by the crowd waiting there. We bought 4 packs and proceeded to the hosts farm nearby. We spent about half an hour searching for the farm and we finally found it. We settled near a small dilapidated building under a tree and an unused well for lunch. It was very tasty and we quaffed it within 10 mins given our hunger. Then we spent some time chatting and there we had this amazing comedy. Two of our guys climed up the building and were striking a pose when one of the guys sitting down threw the masala sambhar packet at the building. The cover tore and splashed accross the wall and also on those two. We couldnt control our laugh and those two were livid with anger. They rushed down and were ready to beat the thrower black and blue , but the mess they were in was too stenchy and both went about cleaning it under a hand pump. It was a funny sight with both of them taking turns sitting under the hand pump while i pumped the water.

We then left the place and proceeded back home. On the way we stopped to have some icecream and ice-beeda. Both were perfect desserts to our heavy lunch. We reached home around 4:00 and packed our luggage and left Trichy by 4:30. I bade farewell to the mysterious Kaveri as she was flowing as brisk as ever. Given a chance we would have had another bath. but it was getting late and so we carried on with our journey. It was a pretty uneventful return back to chennai barring the odd comedies where one of our friends almost strangled himself trying to put on the seat belt :) :).

I reached home at around 9:30 thoroughly tired. I kept reminiscing about the 2 eventful days spent and still couldnt forget my dream fulfilled of bathing in the Kaveri. Now that this wish had been satisfied my next one is to go to the place where she originates i.e. Thalacauvery.

2 comments:

Muthukumar said...

Grt Blog....Still u can improve in ur writing to portray the humourous incidents more creatively:)

Swe said...

hey awesome blog, keep the good work coming :)
Swetha

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