Unplanned Trip To Nowhere

Last weekend was a lot of fun. We had planned to celebrate a friend’s birthday, and that was to be immediately followed up with a bachelor party!

Birthday celebration was accomplished by having an amazing dinner. As usual we guys sang ‘Happy Birthday’ in the most awful way possible, and we did not let this guy cut his cake until we finished the song - which of course, was lengthened to unbelievable proportions! Somehow, we forgot the birthday speech thing!

Anyhow, next up was the bachelor party – which meant a night out in the birthday boy’s place. Imagine twelve guys in one room. And now imagine ten of them really drunk! The poor groom-to-be was ragged even before the alcohol had kicked in! And that is about all I am allowed to write here about what happened to him! These guys drank from about 11:00 in the night till about 3:00 in the morning. And it was then a few of them started crashing.

Including me, there were five of us who were not willing to hit the sack. And so, we decided to go for a drive! We thought we would go for a couple of hours before we got back, but the host was kind enough to let us know that he would lock the door once we leave, and not open it until about 10:00 in the morning! So for revenge, we stole the remainder of his birthday cake on our way out!

Now, we first decided to drive to the airport, but then decided to drive towards Kolar and halt at a ‘Coffee Day’, which was supposed to be some thirty kilometres outside the city! (Frankly, I don’t understand why the choices are always airport or Coffee Day’!) Anyway, we started off on our journey! I was the obvious choice for taking the driver’s seat, for the fact that I was the only one who was not drunk. (I am sure each one in the car would have claimed that he was not drunk!) The early morning drive was simply superb! All guys were singing songs on top of their voices and added to this, was the music being played in almost full volume!

Well, we did thirty kilometres, but there was still no trace of ‘Coffee Day’. We collectively agreed that it could be a little ahead, and continued driving. We briefly stopped for a pee-break, and then we gorged on the stolen birthday cake! Also, we screamed and jumped up and down, while throwing our arms up, like little excited kids (actually, more like twisted lunatics), as each vehicle drove by us! And for some strange reason, all of us seemed pretty amused at the cloud formation in the morning sky! Soon, we were back on the road.

However, we stopped again just a few kilometres ahead to take a few pictures of, believe it or not, the clouds once again! And we guys noticed that there was a hill not too far off from where we had parked. I don’t know who suggested that we climb that hill, but the moment it was said, three guys were already on their way! I thought I did not want to be a part of that stupidity, so I stayed back with the remaining guy. We soon realised that these guys would not be returning anytime soon, and so we decided to join them!

Next minute, we were walking across someone’s field and headed to the hills. It was quite a walk to reach the base of the hill itself. It was definitely much farther away from the road than it initially seemed. It must have been just under a kilometre, just to reach the base! We posed for some photographs with a few bulls that we met on the way! Hell, we even posed for snaps in the graveyard we came across! In fact, we were standing on somebody’s tomb, and asking for directions – of course, from the guys who had started off before us, and not from the owner of the grave!

A few minutes, and a few cuts and bruises later, we finally caught up with the rest of the gang. And we got back on our expedition! We did not know where we were going; we just went on till we could go no more! The view from the top was truly amazing. I had never done anything this stupid, rather this cool, before - and I totally loved it! It was definitely better than it would have been, if we were drinking coffee in ‘Coffee Day’.

We just sat there discussing random, weird things like – ah, never mind! I wish we had carried paint with us, so that we could have left a little message to anyone who would visit that place later! Something like, ‘ASHWIN WAS HERE’! Okay, let me not be selfish, it could have been ‘WE WERE HERE’! But see, it does not sound as cool! We had to literally abuse ourselves to get off the hill. Two guys even posed with a chameleon they met on their way down!

After a while, we were back in the car. And oh, here is one other thing we did before resuming our drive. We actually lied down, in the middle of the road and got ourselves photographed! To make it more fun, we waited for the vehicles to approach us before doing this! Now that; was cool! Finally, a farmer dude chased us off! (Funny thing is, you can not see the vehicles approaching in the photograph!)

And no, we did not head back - we still had to find this ‘Coffee Day’! We drove ahead for some more time. When we still did not find it, we convinced ourselves that they have closed down the place due to the road widening work that was happening. And so, it was time to head back home. On the way back, we realised that we had overshot the ‘Coffee Day’ by some fifteen kilometres!

We had quite a story to tell to the guys when we got back. Oh I am sure all those guys were very envious of us! Come to think about it, each of us hikers had more fun than the birthday guy, and the groom-to-be, combined! And oh, did I mention we actually drove the groom-to-be’s car, and we made a total mess of it?!

Thank you guys, for the amazing time!

PS: I am so hooked on to this cloud watching thing though. I spent quite some time yesterday sitting on my terrace and watching the clouds move by! And hell, I was even looking at it while I went for a little ride in the evening!