“Kehte hain agar kisi cheez ko dil se chaho to saari kayanath tumhe usse milane ki koshish me lag jaati hai..”, we all are familiar with this famous dialogue from the superhit SRK movie Om Shanti Om. But this time it spelled its magic on me by granting me the wish of landing in God’s own country-Kerela. Till 13th of this month, it was just an unfulfilled dream of mine residing in a corner of my brain. It slowly started developing wings when my EMC best friend Mr. Tousif Ameer created a Whatsapp group with all the potential travellers(Fahad, Shimsha, Kapil, Priyanka, Chris, Tousif & me) by the name ‘Kerela troopers'(which is still active by the way). Then began the never-ending discussions of hotels, places to cover,budget and all. I was not much into the discussions cause I didn’t have to bother for leaves any more nor I had any issues with the budget stuff plus every place would have been new to me. After little bit of survey by the prestigious group members it was decided to cover Munnar and Cochin in 3 days from 15th to 19th. But who could forecast the ‘twist-in-the-tale’ awaiting for us in the form of Kapil’s dance audition for EMC Employees’ Day supposedly to be happened on 18th i.e Monday. It was already such a huge group(sarcastic tone) and loosing 2 more people would have been horrifying. We almost lost hope for this trip when suddenly the super brain of Fahad lighted up for a rescuer. He suggested a little change in the plan by pulling it to 14th and ending it by 18th morning so that Kapil can attend his life saving audition. This again ignited a chain of comments and posts which ended up in a 90% ‘YES’ from Kapil. By the way for reader’s information, it was already early morning of 13th. Somehow Mr.Ameer managed to book all the necessary things like cab,train,cottage etc. Everything was planned and we all were super excited. Unfortunately at the 11th hour we lost one more of our member in the trip-Chris due to some unavoidable reasons by Wednesday evening. Apart from all these plan fluctuations we managed to board the train on time on Thursday which was supposed to drop us at Ernakulum junction station by 6 in the 15th morning. We all cheered as it marked the onset of a highly uncertain trip followed by a short introduction for those who were new to each other. Its always exciting to have new people on board as it increases your FB friend list and of course you get to hear tonnes of exhilarating stories ;). Train journey is undoubtedly one of the best journeys provided you have a good company around you and I was lucky in that sense. We gossiped, hogged and clicked pictures. Then finally we decided to pass the rest of the night before sleep entrapped us in its lap by playing Dum Charades. Each of us got up on his feet to show his acting prowess. The best was of course our half Nigerian friend Kapil who also needed a small session for the meaning of the Hindi words.The battle was full on until an annoyed passenger came and threatened us of bad consequences if we not lower our voice. Without much argument we all went to our respective berths as we knew a hectic day was awaiting us.
As per the plan a white coloured Tavera came to receive us in the station and we decided the places to cover on the way to Munnar. By the way, we all were stunned to witness an utterly clean and disciplined Ernakulum railway station. Cochin seemed to be one of the modern and busy cities of Kerela with showrooms of almost all car manufacturers present on either side of the road. So, now our first stop was Athirapally water falls which was not on the way to Munnar but 130 kms off the route. It was on the highly demanded list of the ladies in the trip so we eventually succeeded in convincing the guys to shell out few extra notes from their pockets.When we got down at Athirapally, it was a little treacherous journey to reach the actual spot but it was worth the extra money. It was a very beautiful and grand waterfall often compared to the great Niagara falls. The hissing sound of the water falling down a cliff spreading thousands of tiny water droplets in the air making it a pristine white floating blanket is worth a view. It was scorching hot in Cochin and we had to again define a journey of infinite steps with our panting breaths. As soon as we reached our car, we switched on the AC and put on some soothing songs so that we could get the leftover sleeps of train. It was almost 4 hours journey to reach the spectacular hill station of Munnar. A drastic temperature change was awaiting for our bodies to cope up with. We were all eagerly awaiting to jump off in the cosy beds of our cottage and counting the minutes to start off the camp-fire and our very own barbecue. Just then we got the ultimate shock of our lives when the driver told just few minutes before entering the region that the next day is a full day Munnar strike. We were at loss, totally numb. We didn’t know whether we should leisurely spend one whole day amidst the hills and woods or go back to Cochin to do some sightseeing. Well, for that you guys need to check this very same blog tomorrow for the rest of the story. Stay tuned!!!. 🙂 🙂 🙂
melody strings 