Let me tell you a secret. You know why sun-sets are more popular than sunrises.
For the simple reason that for watching a sunrise you need to put in a lot of effort. I realised this when I was at Kanyakumari and had to get up at 5 or something to see the rising red sun. I mean the colour looks different but isn't it the same sun why bother seeing it rising and setting again and again? Anyway people told me sunrise at Kanyakumari is special so I thought it would be worth witnessing.
More on Kanyakumari trip.
Sunday, November 16, 2008
A weekend adventure
Sometimes you fail to pen things as they happen, especially if you are as disorganized as I am.
But I think it is worth to wait a few weeks before you blog an event, sure you miss the small things but I guess what you remember is what matters the most.
One weekend I was invited to attend a friend's wedding, in a small town in another state. The guy, an NRI, was flying down to India just to get married. He sent an email to invite all the friends, I never noticed he didn't mention the exact venue he was getting married, all he mentioned was the town.
Four days ahead of the weekend when I tried to contact him to get the exact address, he had left for India. And anyone who knows how Indian wedding happen will understand that 4 days before the wedding groom can't respond to e-mails.
Anyways, I thought it could be a good adventure to go for a trip to this unknown town and figure out where this guy is getting married and surprise him by attending his wedding. Meanwhile I got an invitation from another friend who was also getting married the same day in a rural setting near the town. Atleast this one had a address and being a non-NRI he can be reached on his phone. Nothing to loose, let's go! I thought not knowing what lies ahead!!
An overnight train journey would take me to the town. I spend most of the night calling friends of friend to see if they had a clue about the the wedding venue. Most of them came to know from me about the marriage.
Next morning as I went to cyber cafe on the railway station and tried to test couple of my hypothesis:
1. Given an NRI banker status, he must be staying in the posh most (3-star, as this place did not have any 5-stars) hotel
2. He must be getting married in a marriage hall listed somewhere on the internet.
The first one did not lead to any clue, but the second one worked bang on.
I called and someone who couldn't understand english/hindi picked up. When I told him the names he said yes in one go. I was confused that he might have misunderstood me as someone calling to get the hall booked for a function.
I took calculated risk and went ahead in pouring rain to reach this place. After a couple of hours I could finally confirm that this was the place where the marriage is scheduled but that was supposed to happen next day latenight and there were many adventures awaiting me before that:
The weekend when:
I got locked out and had to yell hard for help!: Given that it was raining heavily outside I just asked the caretaker if I can wait for a couple of hours in the marriage hall and then leave. There were some rooms on the terrace for guests, I settled for one of them and went to take a shower in another one which had a working geyser. While I was taking a shower some one came for cleaning and locked all rooms except for the one in which my bag was kept. As I got out and realised the situation, I screamed for someone to come and open the door. But the rain and 4th floor location damped the voice from reaching ground floor. I also tried my hands at breaking the door, no luck though. I explored all options including the bathroom ventilator in the next half hour, all in vain. Then I threw some water out of the rear window and screamed at top of my voice. Luckily someone heard and rescued me!
I lost my wallet with all cards : Given an adventure trip, I thought this time I should not carry Jeans and rather feel comfortable in track pants. Later as I set for a bus trip to the other friend's wedding venue. Half way through the journey I realised that my wallet was missing. Frantic search for the wallet through the bag did not yield any fruit. The old man next to me seemed too old for the trick. Nothing beneath the seat. Search through the aisle and asking the conductor did not get any positive response as well. Just when I was thinking what to do next, a gentleman asked me what happened and I told him the story. He took out a wallet and asked "is this it?". I was relived to see my wallet and then he explained how he found it at the beginning of the journey and asked people around and also tried calling my old number scribbled on my visiting card. I thanked him for saving me and thought 'no more track pants in the next adventure trip.'
I dropped my camera with lens open: At the end of bus journey, I had a round of Chess games with the kids in the house and went to the room booked for us and slept peacefully through the night. The next day morning I was supposed to attend this rural wedding and evening the NRI wedding and leave back at night. As I was taking some snaps of my friend in the morning a push came from back and I dropped my camera on the concrete floor with lens open. The lens assembly got distorted and stuck out. It could only be repaired after I had come back and left a hole in my pocket.
After all this maneuvers, I spent rest of the day site seeing with some friends I met and made at the morning wedding, where after I headed back for the 'NRI wedding'. The wedding had a pompous show befitting for an NRI wedding. Then followed a long wait for the Groom and Photo sessions and blessings of elders and politicians before I could climb up the stage. My friend was truly surprised to see me and after a brief chat I had to rush back to catch my train in time.
On my way back among other things I thought this truly was an adventurous weekend!
But I think it is worth to wait a few weeks before you blog an event, sure you miss the small things but I guess what you remember is what matters the most.
One weekend I was invited to attend a friend's wedding, in a small town in another state. The guy, an NRI, was flying down to India just to get married. He sent an email to invite all the friends, I never noticed he didn't mention the exact venue he was getting married, all he mentioned was the town.
Four days ahead of the weekend when I tried to contact him to get the exact address, he had left for India. And anyone who knows how Indian wedding happen will understand that 4 days before the wedding groom can't respond to e-mails.
Anyways, I thought it could be a good adventure to go for a trip to this unknown town and figure out where this guy is getting married and surprise him by attending his wedding. Meanwhile I got an invitation from another friend who was also getting married the same day in a rural setting near the town. Atleast this one had a address and being a non-NRI he can be reached on his phone. Nothing to loose, let's go! I thought not knowing what lies ahead!!
An overnight train journey would take me to the town. I spend most of the night calling friends of friend to see if they had a clue about the the wedding venue. Most of them came to know from me about the marriage.
Next morning as I went to cyber cafe on the railway station and tried to test couple of my hypothesis:
1. Given an NRI banker status, he must be staying in the posh most (3-star, as this place did not have any 5-stars) hotel
2. He must be getting married in a marriage hall listed somewhere on the internet.
The first one did not lead to any clue, but the second one worked bang on.
I called and someone who couldn't understand english/hindi picked up. When I told him the names he said yes in one go. I was confused that he might have misunderstood me as someone calling to get the hall booked for a function.
I took calculated risk and went ahead in pouring rain to reach this place. After a couple of hours I could finally confirm that this was the place where the marriage is scheduled but that was supposed to happen next day latenight and there were many adventures awaiting me before that:
The weekend when:
I got locked out and had to yell hard for help!: Given that it was raining heavily outside I just asked the caretaker if I can wait for a couple of hours in the marriage hall and then leave. There were some rooms on the terrace for guests, I settled for one of them and went to take a shower in another one which had a working geyser. While I was taking a shower some one came for cleaning and locked all rooms except for the one in which my bag was kept. As I got out and realised the situation, I screamed for someone to come and open the door. But the rain and 4th floor location damped the voice from reaching ground floor. I also tried my hands at breaking the door, no luck though. I explored all options including the bathroom ventilator in the next half hour, all in vain. Then I threw some water out of the rear window and screamed at top of my voice. Luckily someone heard and rescued me!
I lost my wallet with all cards : Given an adventure trip, I thought this time I should not carry Jeans and rather feel comfortable in track pants. Later as I set for a bus trip to the other friend's wedding venue. Half way through the journey I realised that my wallet was missing. Frantic search for the wallet through the bag did not yield any fruit. The old man next to me seemed too old for the trick. Nothing beneath the seat. Search through the aisle and asking the conductor did not get any positive response as well. Just when I was thinking what to do next, a gentleman asked me what happened and I told him the story. He took out a wallet and asked "is this it?". I was relived to see my wallet and then he explained how he found it at the beginning of the journey and asked people around and also tried calling my old number scribbled on my visiting card. I thanked him for saving me and thought 'no more track pants in the next adventure trip.'
I dropped my camera with lens open: At the end of bus journey, I had a round of Chess games with the kids in the house and went to the room booked for us and slept peacefully through the night. The next day morning I was supposed to attend this rural wedding and evening the NRI wedding and leave back at night. As I was taking some snaps of my friend in the morning a push came from back and I dropped my camera on the concrete floor with lens open. The lens assembly got distorted and stuck out. It could only be repaired after I had come back and left a hole in my pocket.
After all this maneuvers, I spent rest of the day site seeing with some friends I met and made at the morning wedding, where after I headed back for the 'NRI wedding'. The wedding had a pompous show befitting for an NRI wedding. Then followed a long wait for the Groom and Photo sessions and blessings of elders and politicians before I could climb up the stage. My friend was truly surprised to see me and after a brief chat I had to rush back to catch my train in time.
On my way back among other things I thought this truly was an adventurous weekend!
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