It was finally decided, one very fine night at cnot during yet another birthday celeberation. It was Ro’s bday – n we had a sexy sexy eggless apple cake.. (it sure is becoming increasingly tough for me to not deviate from the main line to the innumerable nice moments through the semester.)
Well, after lots of contemplation – we finally settled for the plan as such. “2 days – 3 nights – rishikesh,dehradoon,mussourie” – 19 ppl – 2 qualis – 1 innova! 23rd night till 26th morning! The only highly surprising detail was that despite jus 5 guys and 14 GIRLS on the trip, not once did we run late on schedule! So all of u who usually complain about the girls n mirrors factor – stop now. ;)
We guys left campus at 11.30 P.M on 23rd in the 3 cars. The only mildly sad n inevitable incident was that apart from the 12 ppl who were he quails goers during the on going journey, who were blessed with music systems – the ones in innova had the troubled pleasure of listening to the SWAMINATHAN SISTERS sing all along!
Also, (no modesty) the SS (I shall refer t the swaminathan sisters as SS henceforth) widened their interest from singing to also catering services! Yup, while we stopped at some dhaba, enroute for the drivers to have the “elixir” that would save us our lives (am jus talking abt a cup of chaai to keep em awake) – the SS managed to use the available time to make delicious American breakfast ! :P
Apart from fellow ragamalikans who couldn’t wait for a second slice, there were also Mr.brown dog n Mr.black dog who had 3 slices of the same. =)) (this is when, subha ka helped us around with serving! )
In the meanwhile koushik, manojh, nandy, shanky and rammi ka purchased a funky version of a traditional percussion instrument and provided some entertainment for the passers by. Probably they didn’t hear, but some people like yb n soumi made plans of collecting sponsorship for sangamam from such unofficial concerts outside a dhaba in the middle of the road as early as 6 in the morning! ;)Following this, we manages to reach rishikesh without much difficulty and also located the ashram were we had plans of staying – it was called the kovilnoor ashram. It indeed was impossible for us to stop from throwin wide grins at eachother lookin at the name being written in tamizh on the ashram gates. The grin only grew infinitely wider as we met one Mrs.Visaalakshmi who was the owner of the ashram. We took 3 rooms “37,38 n 39” on the second floor of the third block – really decent ones with lots of space.
Somehow, it was a very warm n cozy feeling from then on – the usual sense that surges into ones on trip with jus friends. The sense of responsibility, concern , care – all of that. I can probably never get the right word to explain the feeling that felt like family. :)
All of freshened up and before having lunch walked close to 3 Kms up n down to take a look at the suspension bridges – Ram Jula. It was a long, slightly tiring walk… n that is when some of decided to teach the guys the ‘hippidi hop’ . am sure koushik is tryin it out in his wing corridor as he is reading this! :P
After the bridge visit – with the civilites ramana n shyamala givin us some expert knowledge :P we walked to have a gen look at the temple there was,.. and then took the boat ride across the ganges to retrace the path we had walked on the bridge to the other end of the road.
Oh ! the boat was too much fun – with songs like ‘nilaa adhu vaanathu mela’ to suit the situation! ;) . When we got back to the ashram, it was jus the right time for lunch. There was an annadhaanam for small kids that was going on and it felt good to be there to serve them :) later, we were done with a sumptuous meal – some spinach after a long long time! N had close to an hr to spare before rafting. Once again, stickin to time schedules was never a problem – time n again – it surprised us I guess. Atleast I was!
Rafting: 
This was one hell of a lifetime experience. Initially, however the thought of wearing helmets in yellow n blue and life jackets in colours that even telugu film industry would have rejected was a lil embarrassing. But it always happens dusnt it? when u are not the only one who is looking funny ?
We trekked down a slightly rugged path to witness something that heaven. (don ask me if I ve been to heaven – this is jus an expression!) but seriously, jus dark blue for as long as the eye can reach, and sand that glitters silver under the sun and pebbles in so many marvelous colours and a cliff interspersed with brown n green to border the waters on one side was just more than the eyes could yearn for. A sight that I will never forget. It was AWESOME!
After some traditional psentification like “2003 batch snap” n “yo 2004”’s we were finally split into 2 teams for rafting – the SANJAY team n the RAVI team. Through the rafting process which was a lil strenuous for some of us – and jus unbearable torture for a few others, we were thought some poems like “yo baby! YO baby! YO BABY! YO HO!” by our raft captain – which is jus a remix version of our very own “eh lelo ilasa! “ :P
We raced. We were thrown into water. We made circles under water. Some shivered. Many screamed. We clicked pictures. We jumped over the cliff, (initiation credit goes to SWETHA RAO! (yo baby! ) ) 25ft down into the water which was 64 ft deep. And later paddled on to race, only a lot more tired n feeling extremely cold but triumphant at the same time. The whole “dip” n “row” strategy did work through a very major lap of the travel I suppose! :) it was memorable! Truly memorable!
Dinner:
Got back to the rooms, changed n got down for dinner – which somehow was so much more worse than mess ka Sunday dinner. So some of us managed to walk out and grab some bakery biscuits, fruits, n other such food items – jus in case ppl were hungry.
Plan for the next day was to leave as early as 6 and reach sahastradhara. Get done with the usual foto business and proceed to robbers cave at doon n then lunch at pizza hut n then mussourie. Plan worked.. jus as perfect but due to the unexpected swapping of cars, the SS musical productions was taken over by a very very bad music system in one of the other cars. The journey was terribly interesting with dumb charades played from the rear of one quails with the ppl in the car that followed. Awesome fun! All of it!
On reaching sahastradhara, which wasn’t all too great for all that we expected, we still took a zillion pictures in a million combinations and danced a lil while we had ordered for bfast. Subha crack scene! Ever since the midways trip she s been giving us sweet shocks with her effortless excellent dancing skills! Yo subha!
Aprom, we guys moved t robbers cave. Now this is one place which all of us should go – only with friends. Of course there were some extremely testing moments with ppl like jupup n subha who jus refused to trust either themselves or the ones who were trying to help em with the rock climbing. Nevertheless – the chill water that constantly trickled beneath n the trickling sunlight thru the split in the caves, slippery rocks, vaguely defined paths, added to the excitement and adventure. It sure was risky and each of us thanked our lucky stars a million times once we were out of the caves, assuring ourselves we still were alive with head n toes in place!
After a mini voting session on whether or not to 
go to pizza hut, we finally did go. A really fulfilling lunch for Rs1861/- in all, samisena n jupup thought the rest of the gang the rules of holding the fork n knife n eating like a pro! However most of us decided to give a lot more respect to hunger that otherwise killed n used our hands instead. :P spicy Indian, veggie crunch, mustard sauce, garlic bread, pepsi, ivory n ebony and a cute looking waiter! – worth the money or what?
Well, a lot later after the “duties” that follow a HEAVY n SPICY meal, we proceeded to mussourie. The usual haults with screams saying “ulti – water – stop – chocolates – somebody help! “ were lesser in frequency. Having decided we would have no more of water or getting wet for that matter, the 19 of us split into 2 crowds. 
One completely girls gang that preferred to spend dad’s money on roadside items and the others who took the winch to climb the mountain, wore mussourian clothes n took pictures with swords, pots, turbans and a lot of other grand looking items!
With that, the trip was almost over. We were just left with a long journey back to the most dreaded place on earth. However, the lull suddenly was wiped by a slight comedy thanks to koushik n the driver of the innova. Mr. koushik apparently was also suffering from the sickness that troubles during downhill travel, n was comfortable with a plastic bag. However the poor driver had one look at it .. n the car breaks went screeching to a halt – cos he felt like puking! =)) was super hilarious!
Anyways, after safely reaching down hill.. we stopped at a very nice dhaba. Had superb dinner n crashed mostly until we reached pilani at 8 next morning. Within minutes, it seemed like all was over too soon. My batch especially – it felt very very psenti – and at this point when am gonna conclude this blog. It still feels gaja psenti for it was our last trip together. Arjun u were missed during the trip. A LOT. N take our word for that. The max most of us can manage is another trip which is gonna be “Seperately together” mebbe that’s a bful feeling too. We will know soon. Take care all of u. : ) ( I feel like saying amen! ) :P
Woah – am fmished! Really – its 4 page long. Somebody treat me for this!
