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So we went on this lil trip to my friend Suyog's grandmas' houses in their village near Udupi last weekend & what a weekend it turned out to be! I thought of many ways of capturing or describing this trip in words & then decided to just put down in words a few pictures in my mind which captured the essence & all the fun we had.

- The history: 1 month before the trip
- Close to 200 emails
- 1 weekend, Suyog will play host
- 15 people on board

- Day 0: Friday
- I rush back from office, pack my bags, gobble dinner & say goodbye to my folks at home
- Its drizzling in Majestic, Ravi's firefighting issues at work on the phone, the rest of us are sipping LMN, waiting for the rest.
- Manju's arrived but none of us realize she's Manju.
- Priya, Jag & Mesh make it just in time.
- Call from work telling me I haven't done a good enough job at work. I wanna kick myself. Will I ever be different?
- Snuggle under the blankets in the Volvo.

- Day 1:
- I wake up to find that we have reached NIT Suratkal.
- We get off at Dekkatte to get into our Red Bull TT which takes us through Neverland to lil Ajji's house
- Viggi is confused - should he stay back with the girls & miss out on all the fun with the guys? Or vice versa? Vik & Jag don't have a choice.
- We get off at Dodda's house. It takes my breath away, I've never seen anything like it. The huge shady courtyard, the wooden trunkfuls of rice, the plethora of vessels of different sizes for measuring rice, the antlers, the sautekaayi's hanging from the ceiling, the sun swept backyard with the well, the cats lazing around nonchalantly, Suyog's tales of his childhood antics, the attic... I can go on & on.
- Krishnan & me try to get to Kavi while he's .... Funny!
- We fret & fumble over the wooden locks/latches on the main door. That was really neat!
- A mountain of heavenly Idlis & Neer dosas vanish within moments as Granny gasps with surprise.
- Its DC all the way to Murudeshwara. Pati Fauj mein... being the highlight.
- The Shiva statue & the chariot of the Sun God are by far the most imposing structures I've seen besides Gomateshwara & South Block. They exude power of the kind I crave for.
- It's burning hot & we are all sweating in bucketfuls. We run to the Kamat hotel nearby where we find an AC room. God bless the inventors of the AC, I experienced relief of this kind only once later on this trip.
- The Someshwara beach(I think) looks really inviting, I wanna go & play ball all evening. We go crazy in the water & then play 3 games of some very competitive volleyball followed by some mindless giggling & running on the beach. Jayaraman is cramped & Raghuram goes "Koi veterinary padha hai kya yahan pe?".

The worst part about playing in the sea is the phase after you get out of it. Sand gets lodged in places it shouldnt & the salt & the dampness make sure its just the right amount of stickiness to get to your nerves.

- I run for a quick bath the minute we touch base. The relief after getting rid of the salt & the sand is what I was talking about earlier in this post. All the mattresses are laid out on the floor & its sooo warm n cozy! We then lay out all the food, finish dinner & then off we go on a late night hike through the village. It's fun to see even Krishnan a bit petrified of the darkness & the wilderness. Suyog cooks up this wonderful Koggiraja story & the Human-shaped tree. Ooooo I just love it! Just the feeling of being up with friends all night & sharing stories, experiences. esp scary ones is so much fun! Krishnan & I try to watch at leat 5 movies one after the another but we just cant seem to get though even one for more than 10 minutes, so we decide to go to sleep in the wee hours of the morning. He's changed a bit now, in a good way. Life's funny that way, eventually gets to you.

-Day 2:

- I wake up to find some awake, most still fast asleep & Mesh prancing around feeling very proud of something only she knows. I've seen her getting into this mood a few times before, so I know that asking her would be spoiling it, so I just let her be, watch her & smile to myself. She seems almost oblivious of us, like in a trance or something. Something tells me its gonna stay this way all day.

- After lazing around on the bed, many glasses of tea, a lot of chatting & many photos, we head for breakfast to the other house. Ive never believed in ice-breakers. I mean how can just a line, a remark or a question break the ice bet'n 2 strangers? It takes time & effort for that to happen. But I'm proved wrong here. Just the one remark from Vikesh made Pi a part of the group in a way that nothing else could have. I'm very grateful... for all this.. everything. Touchwood.

- After Udupi, we head out to St Mary's island. Pleasant, serene, peaceful.

- On the way back home in the bus. I wanna chat all night again but this time sleep gets the better of me & I just can't keep my eyes open after some time. Mesh goes "Esh..... Esh.... Utho Esh" but in vain.

Thanks Suyog! I don't think Im gonna forget this for a while.