It happened to me-1.

Last day, while I was watching yet another nameless, lousy movie on the tube, I felt disgusted. Disgusted with errr..well, I-dunno-wot ! It's a syndrome where you get disgusted with something. But you don't understand what exactly is that 'something' that you're disgusted with. And that disgusts you even more. Now that I've mentioned it, I've become even more disgusted.

As is usual with me, I started thinking about the positive things in my life. For me, positive means funny. I thought about blogging on some remotely funny incidents that've spiced up my short and uneventful life of 22 years till now. So here I go:

Well, I'm quite forgetful. I've forgotten nearly half the good things. Let me make up with the ones randomly springing about in my memory.
( well, reader discretion is advised. Comedy is subjective. You could be left crying or bad-mouthing me after some of them. But who cares? It's MySpace , haha ! )

Okay..here's one. This happened while I was in school (5th or 6th std.) :
One fine day, I called up my friend Varun's number and asked , " Hello, varun undo ?"
This, in mallu, means "Is Varun there?" .But the lady at the other end heard it as "varunundo" which translates to "are u coming?". It was the wrong number; and needless to say, the stranger lady was outraged. Sorry Ma'am. Wherever you are.

That one was feeble.
This is a more recent one. 24th December 2008, to be exact.

I was at Palghat railway station, about to board a train to Trivandrum ( from Chennai). I was on my way from Hyderabad. I had landed at Coimbatore airport, got a lift in a friend's car till Palghat from where I hoped to catch a bus that would get me home by X'mas morning. There was a riot-like situation at the bus stand and I decided to go by train. My friend and I reached the station just on time. He announced that the Tvm-Chennai express was due at 00:45 hours. I took the ticket hurriedly and started waiting at the right platform and in the right direction, that my friend, so thankfully, had pointed out. I hopped onto a very empty-looking general compartment when the train arrived. I was confronted by a gang of armed men. Holy hell, this must be bandits in Palghat. The Hindi-speaking bandits asked me to get out of the coach as it was reserved for militarymen. Military or militia, I wanted to ask. I set foot on the most crowded general compartment I had seen till then.
I could barely manage to sit on top of my heavy bag. I was perched in this precarious position for close to 1 hour when I began noticing Tamil ad hoardings outside. Plus the people in that compartment definitely didn't seem mallu. The train passed a major station, which I guessed to be Trichur judging by the time elapsed, from which a large group of people got in. All were speaking Tamil. Palghat is really having a greater number of people speaking Tamil than I've ever imagined, I thought. A few minutes later, I noticed ad hoardings about shops in Coimbatore, by the well-lit road outside ( Thank god for the lighting).
Hell, this can't be happening to me. Oh My God. Could this really be possible? If it is, then it's the biggest blunder done on X'mas eve by any living person that day. I felt like going weak in my knees for a moment. I felt numb all over.
Reality sank in. I had touched down in Coimbatore a few hours back, went by road to Palghat, caught a train from Palghat only to reach Coimbatore again and with no hopes of reaching Trivandrum by morning. Hell, I was getting closer to Chennai every minute. I needed to act but I could just see wilderness outside. I thought about getting a flight from Chennai, or may be a taxi from whichever place I could get down at the earliest, to rush me down to Trivandrum ( like in the movies :) ). I asked a person who was standing nearby to confirm the great news. He didn't know English, Hindi or Malayalam. This man, looking like a Gounder, was amused. I used all of my Dumb C skills and zero knowledge of Tamil to make him understand my plight. He got the gist and started abusing me verbally for my ignorance. Or so I think. Thankfully a mallu guy was there next to me who assured me that the train would stop at Tirupur railway station around 3 am and that there would be a Kerala-bound train around then. I got down at Tirupur, crossed the bridge and saw a train leaving from the other platform. I took a ticket and started waiting for my saviour train. I had seen it moving away right before my own eyes and still nothing registered in my over-worked brain. I waited, waited and waited....till I found out that it had already left. Wow..what a plight. I inquired about the next train, which was the Kerala Express from New Delhi. The bloody train was a few hours late and ultimately, I could board it at 5:30 in the morning. The general compartment was even more crowded than the previous one's. Till date, this has been the most eventful and horrendous journey of my life.
Hyderabad-Coimbatore-Palghat-(via Coimbatore)-Tirupur-Trivandrum. Phew, it was one hell of a journey. I set foot in 3 states in a matter of few hours. That was Some speed !!

Hmm, that was a long one. It appeared funny,that's why I put it here. I can't type any more.
I will keep updating this post in parts.

A Trip !!

Here I'm ...fighting against the tide..quite literally! Boy, that was tough!

Well, I went to Mankayam again last week :) . It's funny, it was never meant to be, but it still happened. There's something about me and the place. To me it's the most astoundingly spectacular, awesomely wonderful waterfall in the world. That is, I haven't seen all the others.
But then, this is one which I know every nook and cranny of. I know the dangerous parts as well as the safer ones. Waterfalls and pools are risky business. A bit of a strong current, potentially life-sucking pits, slippery rocks..you never know how it can happen.

This place has two or three stages. I would count only two of them; so you get two stages of waterfalls. One is big enough but the pool at the bottom is shallow. Swimming is strictly okay here. The other fall is further up and way bigger than this one. People have died here. Or so I have been made to believe. It's every bit possible. There's a bit of a channel connecting both the falls- an intermediate one cut in the rock face and having a short but powerful fall in between. Enter it and you are gone. It's good only for a photoshoot. The authorities, wherever they are, have done a good job of keeping it off the ordinary traveller by means of rails. Normal souls can rest in peace.

The other fall- I guess it's the one known by the name of Kalakkayam- is the real deal at this place. A fall from a height of 30 metres or so, an outstanding pool of water at the base-pure and unspoiled water- and a relatively safe dive and swim make this one a class apart from other 'dangerous' falls. Haha, this one's no better. I had seen her only during the summer. Last week, I got to see her in full splendour during the monsoons. Majestic. And every bit as dangerous as a snake queen.

The pool, when I had gone there in the past, was relatively shallow. At some places, it was more than 6 feet deep. That was the story a year and a summer back. Now it's all different. It is more than the depth of 2 full grown men or quite near. I didn't want to risk going near the bottom. I care for my safety goddammit!! The current was swift and all the sand at the base of the pool had been washed or eroded away by the swirling waters from high up the hillock. The bed of rock, which was covered by sand when I saw it last time, was devoid of any layer of sand at most places. I got to know of the effects of erosion first-hand, long since I learned about it in my Geography textbook at school !

Last time, I had ventured into the well-like pit at the base of the falls. The force was quite okay then as was the depth. I could slide into the pit from the top of a rock; the rock surface was flat,sloping and slippery. No friction. The feeling of sliding into the pit along with the gush of current was akin to that rush of adrenaline which you get when on a particularly exciting water slide at an amusement park. It was unbridled fun, by the truckloads. The pit was about 10-15 feet deep back then. With the force of the water, one would go deep down and also come up without any particular effort, all in a matter of a few seconds.

Now,I didn't venture that far. The force of the fall was thundering. With the thunderous fall and all the erosion, I shudder to think what could be the depth of that pit or the chances of anyone getting out of that one alive. To think all this lay in front of you, just a few feet away, is mortally scary!!

Hmm.. That's all about it I guess. The trip was good, planned and executed by a few stoned minds on a lazy monsoon afternoon. The tapioca and beef we had for lunch atop the rocks was sumptuous. More so because of the state of hunger that everyone had been in since morning. It was a great experience. There would be no cloudbursts or flash-floods as I had feared. All the strategies that we had discussed if, a flashflood came rolling down, were unutilized thankfully. I have lived to tell the tale. Okay, this is a strange post. I didn't know what exactly I wanted to write in the first place. Strange are the ramblings of a sleep-deprived mind. Yeah, I'm one. It's obviously because I sleep very less.

Fantastic!

There is a pleasure in the pathless woods,
There is a rapture on the lonely shore;
There is society, where none intrudes,
By the deep sea, and music in its roar:
I love not man the less, but Nature more...
- Lord Byron

This , very eerily, resembles my thoughts. Fantastic piece of verse!