The weekend getaway to Yelagiri !!

Well, it was the time for the much awaited weekend getaway, a trip to the local hillstation..."Yelagiri".. Well to those of you who dont know much about this place, here's a little background. Yelagiri is a small hill station right after Vellore and is around 235 kms from Chennai. The place is so poised that its almost a bike drive from Bangalore... well as all of my other trips, this trip too had its own share of confusions and questions lingering around all over it, as to whether it would happen or not.. but then again, I was determined to see that this does happen and thanks to Rose and his co-operation in sharing the same determination it finally happened.
So it was Saturday morning and I heard the distant voices of a familiar voice which whispered.."Kanna get up, its 6 in the morning, you were supposed to be getting up..".. yup after a few repeated calls, I realised it to be the much familiar voice of my in house emperor Mr. mahadevan, my father.. !
As always I tried convincing myself that I ought to get out of bed and start getting ready.. and finally by around 7.30 AM I was all set to leave from home. I was to drive down to Rose's house in Anna Nagar (its around 20+ kms from my place) and I was looking forward to this drive for a couple of reasons, the biggest of them being I would get to drive the "Trail Blazer"... (hold on, I can see you scratching your head pondering over the fact as to what the heck is this trail blazer.. well its my new Suzuki access 125 cc). So I switched on the "Kung Fu Panda".. (lol, there you go again scratching your head.. relax.. KungFu Panda is the name I gave to my mp3 player, coz trust me or not, it still makes me believe, that there is no special ingredient in life.. now dont ask me what does that mean... its a feel good factor man.. duh !!)
So as I literally swayed to to Greese is the word and literally did some head movements as MJ sung Smooth criminal, I was zooming past the lazy morning traffic of chennai. I had messaged rose that I would reach his home in an hour and guess what.. I managed to live up to the timings... and I reached his area by around 8.30. It was time for a quick cancer stick break and while I enjoyed the first puffs, I called up Rose to get directions to his home.. I was actually standing a couple of buildings away from his home. So after the fags, I reached Rose's place.. Gosh! his house was a real big one and there I could see the mean beast of the roads.. his brand new Skoda Laura, waiting to greet me and I could even hear it say.. "So mate.. you all set for the cruise.. you have no idea as to how royally I can treat you..." !! Yippie.. I was literally jumping around at the mere thought of hitting the Bangalore highways, in this "Smooth Criminal".. (hehehehe... you guessed it right.. thats the name I gave to his car.. coz its damn smooth and it can be a real bad guy on the roads..) Rose greeted me at the doors wearing half trousers.. lol.. yeah it was the first time I was seeing him in the non professional attire.. (I am so used to seeing rose dressed up all like the perfect professional, that it took me time to adjust to this scene...)
The doctor in the house.. (yup... thats Mrs. Rose) treated me with a fabulous cup of a strong tea and while I sipped it enjoying the taste, Rose got ready and so was the lil P.C Shriram.. yeah that would be bittu as he is so profoundly called at home.. Ryan.. Rose's son..) So after all the tata bye byes send off ceremony we finally hit the road at around 9 AM.. and soon we hit the highways.. I was still exploring the luxuries of his car, coz trust me, it had so many things in it and his car managed to keep me dumbstruck and filled with awe almost throughout the journey..
Well the drive was the part that was filled with ecstacy to me atleast... Bittu was busy giving directions to his dad and hand picking cars on the road, which he wanted to be overtaken by Rose.. and I sat and watched this Ferrari race driver team, zoom past those vehicles with ease.. Bittu I figured, was a lot more educated about cars than me.. even though I was close to almost 5 times his age, I knew barely anything on cars.. He could identify any brand of cars that he saw and was discussing about BMWs while I was with great difficulty busy trying to keep up to speed with these guys... and while we discussed about a lot of things at work, about music, about politics and what not, before we realised we had reached Vellore, our first pit stop.. not for a break but to pick up a very close school mate of Rose... the one and only Balaji... I was actually happy for the fact that despite these guys being only school friends, these guys were making it a point to meet up after such a long time, which I thought was very unique...
Soon we picked up Balaji and after the initial hesitations, Balaji and me were chatting away to all glory.. Balaji knew a lot about music, atleast a lot more than me and he and rose were discussing the technical nuiances while the skoda was playing the ever green kamal hassan hits composed by the one and only.. the great maestro Ilayaraja himself...
Bittu was getting all worked up coz he was looking forward to the hair pin drive that Yelagiri hills had to offer and we still werent getting there.. Finally we started our journey upward towards the Yelagiri hills and we hit the first hair pin bend.. unlike the other hair pin bends (the only other hill station i have visited was Yercaud and my comparisons are only with respect to that place..) here they had named each and every hair pin bend after a famous tamil poet.. so we were crossing the kambar bend and then the thiruvalluvar bend and then the bharathiyar bend and so on.. there were 14 bends of them in total and as well ascended up the hill, the view was simply fantastic.. and to add to it, we would bump into a pack of monkeys along with their families and the little ones playing around.. Bittu was all excited...
We reached the Yelagiri hill tops by around 2.30 I guess and went straight to the lodging we had booked.. which was Golden Nest.. it seemed pretty new and even though it was extremely hot outside, it was really cool inside the rooms. We were given this one big room with 4 cots and bittu jumped in to reserve his bed.. a pretty decent lodging I thought.. we were told that they would provide dinner based on orders but didnt have anything to offer for lunch.. So we decided to walk to the nearby hotel.. Hotel yelagiri.. the place was a down to earth place, but the full meals.. (yup unlimited full meals) was damn good especially the "meen kuzhambu" and the "chicken kuzhambu".. surprisingly rose announced that he was going to be a strict veggie and stuck to the veggie version of it, while me and Balaji had a go at the omlettes and the fish frys.. and even lil bittu had a go at 'em as well.
After lunch it was a siesta time, and before I realised I was snoring away to all glory.. while Rose and Balaji were busy catching up of all the latest and greatest in their lives..I woke up around 5 PM and the first thing Balaji told me was.. "You were snoring a lot man".. lol.. I was a bit embarrassed and immediately asked Rose.. "Rose how do I fix this snoring to which Rose calmly replied.. reduce weight..." and that was the end of my quest in curbing the snoring.. lol ! That was quick wastnt it.. !
Well in the evening Bittu was all ready to go and take the boat rides and we made it to the lake by around 5.30 only to be told that the boat ride was closed for the day, because of the lack of boatsmen (there was just one guy who was frantically doing trips and the guys at the counter decided to give the boatsman a break...) Bittu was disappointed and so were we, but then again the sight at the lake shores lightened me up.. hehehehe.. yup.."Ladies.. Ladies..".. lots of 'em.. good looking.. so it was time for the only bachelor in the group.. (Bittu aint eligible you know, coz of his age factor.. hehehehehe) to do some "Sight Seeing...". So I told Rose to take Bittu around the park, and Balaji agreed to accompany his pal, while I was busy looking around... lol.. But the view at the lake was simply amazing.. even though its a very small lake, the waters were doing their magic to me.. and I soon was lost in their tiny waves, cherishing every moment of silence and peace that they had to offer me, and before I realised I was in a trance kinda mental state.. It actually took the giggles and sweet voices of a very pretty lady to shake me out of it.. lol.. yup.. there was a couple.. and the lady was extremely pretty... it reminded me of the famous Onida TV's ad.. "Neighbours envy, owner's pride.." and I could see it in the guy.. that was the first time, wherein I also for a split second felt.. "Marriage is good..." lol...
Well it was getting dark, so I decided to move on (even though I didnt want to.. for various obvious reasons ofcourse) and so we headed back to the hotel, even as Bittu was still running around all over the place, grinding his father with rapid fire questions and Rose, as patiently as he always is.. was answering him. The scene reminded me of my good old days of train travel, wherein through out the night, I would sit with my father and keep asking him a zillion questions while he patiently replied to all of it.. I guess when it comes to their children all fathers are like that.. which also made me sad.. coz these days I never seemed to show the same patience when he asks me a question... I had to be a lot more patient with my father I thought... lol, look at how many thoughts I already managed to stir up....
We reached the hotel, and Rose went on to remind those guys about the dinner.. (We had already given our menu to those guys in the noon itself and it was time for reminder 1). Rose had to go meet his another school mate's folks who were living in yelagiri.. (infact it was them who helped in arranging for the accomodation and all that).. while I chose to stay back at the hotel, coz I needed to stretch my legs.. so I was busy watching TV and they were playing this movie.. "Never been kissed" on STAR Movies..
Close to around 8 Rose came back from the visit and Bittu had almost gone to bed, even while he was walking back.. food was still not ready and for the first time in all these 7 years, I saw something that I never had seen before.. "Rose was worked up and was yelling at those people for not preparing atleast that one dosa which bittu wanted to eat".. Finally food did arrive by around 8.30 but by then the lil master was fast asleep.
We all had our dinner and after talking for almost close to 4 hours we finally fell asleep... the climate had become extremely pleasant and there was a tint of chillness in the air even..
Sunday morning Bittu I guess was the first to wake up, and I woke up after Rose.. Balaji was the last to greet the morning sunshine..
We all had our coffees, and ordered for the breakfast.. (this time those guys were really on the alert and brought everything 10 mins ahead of the time they had promised.. lol.. that's what an active vocal customer can do to speed up things I thought..)..Rose was busy getting lil bittu all set for the day.. and while Rose was having his bath, I casually decided to strike a conversation with Bittu... I asked him.. "Hey why did you not wake up yesterday night despite your father waking you up so many times..".. to which he replied in a typical tamil hero accent.."I was tired you know".. then I asked him, so all set for the boating today..to which he replied..."Boating and all next, first thing.. visit to Church.. its Sunday remember.. first you have to go church, all other things only after that..".. I was like shocked.. whoa !! this lil guy was all devotional at this tender age...
Rose came out, got ready and the father son pair drove off to the church while me and Balaji lazied around in the room talking about music and all other stuff...Finally we got ready.. and by then Rose had also returned.. We checked out of the hotel and then went over to the same lake, for the boating trip.. Bittu was all energetic and was jumping all over the place in excitement.. now here's the confession part.. I was the only chicken in the group, who was shit scared about boating.. I tried expressing it in a subtle manner.. but only later realised that the fear was like written all over my face.. and was so evident that Balaji casually turned to me and asked.." Boss are you scared of water..." lol...
Our boatsman we learnt, was a kid doing his plus one, who was being responsible to his family and doing this as a part time job.. for whatever reasons of his.. ! He with great expertise rowed us into the lake and then told us something which got me so scared, i even refused to move a muscle..Rose was the culprit here, coz he was the one who asked this question to that guy.. Rose asked him.. "Thambi, how deep is this lake.." to which he casually replied.. "Only 40 feet sir..".. that was enough to literally cling to Balaji.. Bittu on the other hand was so busy playing in the boat, he had his hands in the water and was busy picking leaves from the water, while i was like stuck to the boat and frantically praying that this boating trip be over... I had made one point clear to rose.. he was to snap pics of me, as many as possible, all with my coolers on.. lol !! Yeah yeah, I can hear you say... "Why advertisement!!".. hehehehe
Finally it ended, after the boatsman giving me a heart attack when he literally rammed into another boat and these two boatsman were involved in a friendly debate about some stuff, while I was desperately trying to tell them.. "Guys, whatever be your indifferences, can we please settle it on the shores".. to which the other guy replied.. "No sir.. it has to be settled right here in the middle of the lake.." So saying he gave a tug at our boat, which sent it jostling.. and i was like literally holding balaji's hands tightly... Am sure Balaji must have thought, look at this guy, he looks like a big donkey and still is so scared about just a boat ride.. !!  (Rose, find out if that was the case and let me know will you... so that I can cook up a good excuse to present before balaji the next time I bump into him...lol..
We then headed back to a restaurant.. Hotel Surabi, had our lunch and then started the descend from the Yelagiri hills...while rose drove the car, bittu was enjoying the view from the top of the car..I was busy capturing all the visuals into Rose's camera... During our drive back, it was time to put on some real dhin chak music, so I hooked on the KungFu Panda onto the Smooth Criminal's auxillary input.. (better remember who is KungFu Panda and who is Smooth Criminal..else am gonna have to make u read this all over again... understood ???? ).. First on the cards was "Hakuna Matata..." from the Lion King.. that was for lil bittu.. followed by "I Like to Move it Move it.." from Madagascar.. (thanks to Arvind for introducing me to this song..).. after that followed some scores by Abba, and then Greese title song, MJ's all time hits viz., Beat it, Dangerous, They dont care about us, Smooth Criminal.. followed by a whole bunch of only English songs... yup.. only englipikeesh songs.. you know.. lol !!
We dropped off Balaji in his home at Vellore and then headed home, with a big smile on our faces, coz it was a great weekend.. but also with a small frown.. damn we were returning back to the hustles and buzzes of Chennai...

There you have it folks.. that was my weekend getaway to a small hill station.. yelagiri.. !!!

Enough of reading, now get back to work will you.. lol... !! Just Kidding.. :p