Sept'08....Boyz day Out

After long had a very relaxed weekend, relaxed because I was in Kerala with people very close and dear, it was a boyz gettogether. We knew each other before, here we created a new relationship, we created legendary memories for ourselves in a short duration of 3 days and 2 nights.

Vivek from Banglore, Jagan and Venkat from Hyderabad, Me from Bombay and Ashish from all of these. Gajraj could not make it because of.......meeting to attend in Delhi or was it Mumbai, somebody being unwell, meeting his creative team before the shoot, preproduction work, like him even Iam confused what held him from coming as soon as i get to know shall edit this and put the right reason, but he kept our hope alive till we reached mumbai. Alok from Delhi could not make it trust he too had reasons and shall re-edit when its confirmed.

It all started with our host, who became our warden the moment we all landed in Kerala, from different places different time. The creator of this impromptu trip was Ashish , he was the pied piper and we all followed. He has cracked this formula of being happy and making others happy. Being selfish and selfless at the same time.

Ashish spoke to Seema, my wife, before discussing it with me and she consented very eagerly and happily, such moments of me not being around 24*7 were very rare in her life in the last 15 years of our togetherness. With dawn on thursday she smelled liberation... though short but welcomed.

Our host turned warden, was performing in a theatre festival at Ernakullam. The play's name was OTTAYAM, wherein he plays the central character and is also the director of this play. He loves to share his life with people in his life and this time the outcome was my kerala trip.He invited few of us to be with him to spend some wonderful moments... moments of fun, camraderie... how selfless and... he also gets to dominate us all at one time one place, a personal achievement and satisfaction... very selfish.

On friday morning as I reached Kochi there was a taxi waiting to pick me up to my new home for the next 3 days.Enroute the first thing that attracted my attention was a smart traffic police constable, later I observed them intentionally and found that the police in Kerala are minus the paunch, unlike their counter parts in Mumbai.

The guest house where we were staying was a hub of VVIP activities. Chief Minister, Home Minister, bureaucrats were staying with us without any noise no check ups, no sniffer dogs, no traffic diversion, they were in their world and left me in my own. Wow!!! The room had panoramic view of the Kochi Port. Here I had my break fast, the first great meal and I anticipitated that I shall return home putting on few extra pounds.

Jagan and Venkat's flight got delayed and with that our lunch too got delayed. After waiting for them for a while we left without them and asked them to meet us at The Grand, here we had our lunch. The food here is too good and I found another reason to over eat. A friend in Mumbai had cautioned not to indulge, but I did... indulge in food.

After lunch we all went for a boat ride to Fort kochi, in between we saw some amazing resorts and honey moon cottages. Our boat operator informed us that these are available for 7000 rupees, we all looked towards our host... after visiting Fort Kochi and Mattan Cherry,a colonial street with beautiful architecture and artefacts, we headed to our rooms.

Later in the evening me and Ashish went to see a play, while rest of the gang bonded over drinks and we joined them after the play. It was here that our host turned warden and didn't let us enjoy the evening as he had to report for rehearals at 7 next morning. He lives simple and makes sure that others too live simple... high thinking. All of us were brought to the guest house, Jagan wanted to break free but could not, as our driver took instructions only from the host. When in room we watched television for a while, the channels were selected by the host and went to sleep in our respective beds that was assigned to us by the host.

Next morning I woke up in a room inundated with water, it rained heavily and from some part water seeped inside our room. Ashish left for rehearsal and from there he made sure that we all were ready to leave for back water boat ride by 8 am.. getting ready at 8!!! and I thought we were vacationing, but our schedule had been decided,restaurant where we were to have breakfast was decided, what we will eat was decided., he was not with us but was with us every moment.

We reached Alappuzha by 11, a boat was waiting for us to take us for a memorable trip of back waters of Kerala, why its called Gods own country I sensed it here. In every boat that passed us from every direction everyone was enjoying and drinking but we had no drinks, someone was calling us every 5 minutes to enjoy this state of ours. Jagan and Venkat got adventurous and organised some todi and tapioka but as we were to have it Ashish called and we just looked at the unfinished bottle in rest of our boat ride. We picked up some fresh prawns in between and were served a very traditional kerala meal. I cannot describe this back water ride as I do not have words in my limited vocabulary but will suggest everyone to take this ride in their life time. It is experiential.

In the evening we headed for Ashish's play, for which we all had got together. He performed in front of 800-900 people and everyone had a memorable evening. It was a moment of pride for me as he was being appreciated and praised. Good show, see if you can catch him performing it some place.

Dinner was again at The Grand, last round of over eating in kerala for me.

Next morning Ashish went for his press conference and made sure that our itinerary was fixed before he left us and made sure we did exactly that till we reached home.

Kerala was a memorable and fulfilling trip for me, got in touch with the humanity of wonderful people from this region though we all met Anand and Krishna, reporters of The Hindu, for the first time but not once they made us feel strangers in their home town. Their hospitality was impeccable and they made sure that we did every thing that our host, Ashish, wanted us to do. Again Anand and Krishna's warmth and love are to be experienced and cannot be described. Will wait eagerly to host them in Mumbai.

This trip will also be remembered by me because I noticed something very unusual, in the time when consumerism has swayed us, I observed this region to be simple, didnot notice any major malls, not every other car was a sedan, the natives here wear simple clothes ,they do not fashion parade in colleges, offices. One thing they consume a plenty is fish curry rice and they have been blessed with it. I found them to be happy in simplicity or are they enlightened in the land of God.

Last sunday evening I returned home and Seema's vacation got over.