The Pondicherry trip

It was the beginning of IVth semester. Our act at Bessie had already put up a crazy image in class. The person who was missing out most of the popularity was Japesh. As far as i know him, he would do anything to gain attention and popularity in class. This is one of the reasons he holds on to one of the most over-streched and uninteresting gossip in class. Anyways, I'll come back to that in future posts of my blog. So this was the guy who missed the Bessie incident the most. (And that just gave us an excuse to repeat it.) The thinking behind this is, he sees college life as something he could boast about to his children in future that how much he enjoyed it. Anyways, the five of us were together and proposterous ideas started to build up. But the most practical one was going to Mochas in Nungambakkam. We had my bike and we lended Mani's TVS50. Mani gave his scooty for Nungambakkam, but he was unaware where our thought were already riding it.

So, Mochas it was. We ordered the usual Hookah (Green Apple flavor) with some Ice creams and the gossip was always there. It was a gradual process but Jagan finally reached the destination. "Its getting boring in the hostel. Lets just go somewhere." he said. our thoughts started racing off to various destinations we could land onto. and Nilangarai it was. It was a small beach in ECR road.I was pretty tired, so i tried to give one last call. But all the four pairs of eyes were already on the journey.

So we put 50 bucks of petrol each and headed towards the east coast road. Behind me was Jagan and Japesh; and bri and bigb were on the tvs50. I came across an interesting phrase in a book, 'A brave person without a plan is the most dangerous persn in the whole world.' On the way, i saw a board reading, Pondicherry straight 180 Kms. I showed it to Jagan and it was like his adventure hungry eyes instantly understood. We stopped the bike and shouted at them, 'Pondy chalen bol?'. Japesh just wanted to do something crazy with us. So he agreed right away. Bigb was like, ' Lets just go to Nilangarai. Thats what we came for. We dont even have money or petrol etc etc. Bri was already calculating the positives, negatives risks etc involved. And everything happened in a span of 2 minutes.

We were going to Pondicherry. Bigb had no other option but to give up as he was a loner and he couldnt convince anyone. Plan was made and the aim was shifted in an instant. The aim was to view the sunrise at Pondy beach and come back. Our first main hurdle was to clear the toll gate. Since it was triples in my bike, we decided to let japesh walk and we were gonna bluff that we were meeting up with some friend in AMET marine engineering in ECR. The Police stopped us as expected and we were ready. To our luck, they were in a good mood. There were problems regarding NOC papers in my bike but it got solved by a mere 30 rupee bribe. we couldnt believe it. It was 2 am and the policemen just settled for 30 ruppees. So, happy and excited we continued the journey.

Throughout the first half, I was worried about 2 things, the little 50 ruppee petrol in my bike and the tvs50 that could break down any moment. But the latter never happened. Yes, it was the petrol in my bike. It gave jerks and finally came to a halt. It was the middle of nowhere. We didnt know how further the tvs50 could run. The was no vehicle or person or petrol bunk around. The sound of waves from the sea made it even more creepy. And in the middle of all of this, all we could think of was dancing. Yes, we just danced our hell out in the middle of the road to some music from Japesh's phone. That went on for half an hour. Then we got back our senses and started analysing the problem. First of all, to hide ourselves from the highway patrol, we hid the bikes behind the bushes. Then we walked to a nearby villiage asking for petrol. Their sleepy voices told us that the nearest petrol bunk is 20 Kms away. So we were left with 2 options, either we take the TVS 50 or we take a lift.

Me and Jagan had a long time ambition of going in a real truck on a lift. It happened to me when i was in Pondy with gul, dhaval, bri and arvind on a 'mummy daddy trip' in II sem. A 'mummy daddy trip' is a trip where everything is planned, all the problems are analysed and all the things that can go wrong are initially dealt with. We visit the place, see all the tourist spots and come back safely. So while coming back, me and arvind tried to take a lift but couldnt cuz it was a mummy daddy and u cant make any sudden plans.

Anyways, so this was our chance to try out the truck ride. There are 58 things in my life that I did and have no possible explanation for. And this was one of them. When everyone was busy thinking, I got on my bike, prayed to god, kick started it, put the gear and rode away alone! I had no clue what i was doing. it was as if the bike was taking me on its own. It suddenly got a boost of energy and clocked 100Kmhr. All of them thought that the bike had tricked them. But i didnt care. I just wanted to go on. But the last drop of petrol was sucked up. It started choking and jerking and finally gave up after a kilometer. It was all quiet now. the inertial motion was running the bike. You cannot trust noblest of people but you can always trust my bike. It came to a halt near a milk booth with a truck parked aside. It was as if the bike wanted to lead me here to that shop, just like they show in cinemas. So i enquired about petrol from them and they agreed to drop me near a petrol bunk. But i had to leave my bike all alone in the road. It couldnt have been more dramatic. Bigb and japesh came searching for me on the tvs50. So bigB was to take care of the bikes and me along with japesh were to get petrol. We texted bri and jagan to walk the Km while we get petrol. After around half an hour, we reached the bunk and filled up 2 litres of petrol in a bottle they gave us. I was kinda guilty that Jagan couldnt ride the truck as he was as mad about the truck as me. so i messaged him to ride towards the bunk on the tvs. On our way back, we got on to this huge truck which stopped in the bunk for gas. we met Jagan on the way and he and japesh exchanged places. 

So everything was good and we readied our bikes with fresh petrol. We rode off to that bunk, returned him the bottle and put 300 ruppees of extra petrol. And then our journey resumed with shouts and songs. We stopped by a tea shop as a checkpoint.

 The show off part of our brains started to work and we did what we did last time. we messaged everyone we knew what was going on. We were careful not to message Mani until we get back (if at all we get back that is). this continue with a few more checkpoints and switch of places. I was careful not to give away the drivers' seat to anyone. niether me nor my bike trusted anyone else except each other. and finally we reached Pondy at around 6 in the morning and waited for the sun to rise.

But to our luck, it was clouded in the morning. The sun delayed its appearence by a couple of hours on the rocky beach of Pondy. And then the star showed up. We stood there and witnessed the glorious sun shining brightly as ever. 

But that was just a moment of glory. after a while the rays started penetrating our heads and it started paining due to lack of night's sleep. We planned to have breakfast and head back as soon as possible. The Poori masala in some Veg restaurant was like food from heaven and we hogged ourselves with it. Big B took too much of it and took his time in the restaurant toilet. We went to the Ganesha temple after that. I was getting pretty familiar with pondy as i went there 3 times already, mummy daddy , one with family, and one with the whole class in III sem.

The return journey was the worst ever. I was trying hard not to sleep, but the Sun and ECR soil set up a magnificent mirage. I dozed off a couple of times but got up in seconds. No harm done!

Like every journey this journey had a dramatic ending. As we managed to reach the chennai toll gate, jagan broke out 'Hey guys, the results are out'. III sem wasnt one of my greatest semesters academically and didnt expect much. But we were so used to fake rumours that we were sure it was a hoax call. There was gossip aroud that Japesh had got a perfect 10 which was kinda unbelievable (thats what he said). So then we picked up speed and darted to our college notice board.  As i saw a crowd around, my heartbeat rose. 

It was nice to see almost everyone including the five of us forgot about the journey as we reached college. The results must have much more importance than these stupid stuff. Maybe thats what college is all about. You can do whatever you want, but when it comes to results, you see every enrolled soul present there. Bri was so tired, he decided to suspend the results and went to sleep. I joined kicking and pushing the crowd seeking roll no. 20062709