The trip down south – To Cochin, not Australia

Well the day had finally come. I was going to meet my cousins after 15 years. That’s a god damn long time I know. So I had a flight on 20th December for Cochin at 10 in the morning. We reached Cochin at around 12, I think, don’t remember exactly. Everyone was astonished to see “such a small airport”, that too international. But it was still big enough for me. Hey, you look at the Pune airport and then tell me what you think. We met Ayush at the airport. I had last seen him when he was I think 3 years old. And damn he looked thin as compared to the pictures I had seen earlier. Of course he had to, he had to clear the NDA medical test. Later got to know that he lost 16 kgs. in a MONTH!!!!! Damn!!!! Amazing.

So en route to the house, we picked up Dolly chachi from the office. She looked the same; didn’t change a bit in the last 15 years. At home, I knew Aneesha (my cousin sister) and aunty (Dolly chachi’s mom). But I didn’t know how Ramesh uncle (Dolly chachi’s husband) would react. I had no clue what would be the scene at the house.

When we reached home, everything turned out to be just fine. It was just like a family reunion, which literally was if you come to think of it. Everyone settled down and had a nice chat. We were yapping happily till around 3-4. Aneesha had to go for her tution, and the ladies (Dolly chachi and my maa) decided to go off to the beach. The rest of us were just loitering around in front of the TV. Later on, I also wen to the beach with Ayush. Ayush went back and the 3 of us (Dolly chachi, Maa and moi) were roaming about. Well the beach wasn’t exactly the Juhu beach or the Marina beach or even the Kovalam beach that one would expect. It seemed that the tsunami had wiped out most of the beach and the water had covered most of the coast. Then later we headed to Kashi Art Café. It was the in place to be in at Fort Kochi. You can say that it was the Cochin counterpart of German Bakery here in Pune. Nice cozy place where you can just lay back and relax the whole day. And cheap too; well for a person who digs the coffee at Barista, it sure was cheap. Later in the night, we ended up in the Cochin Club. It’s a nice comfortable place in front of the beach. All exclusive and peaceful. Really invigorating.

The next day we set off to a place. I forgot the name of the place. We were supposed to be boating over there. It was a houseboat where we had coffee and lunch. Really nice. Damn expensive!!!! It appeared hiring a houseboat with 2 AC rooms over there cost 25000 bucks a night. DAMN!!!!!!!!! It wasn’t exactly staying at the New York’s Ritz. But we didn’t pay, at least I didn’t. Later we headed off to Munnar. Munnar is a hill station around 6 hours from Cochin, mainly famous for the tea estates. We already had the cottage there where we were to stay for a couple of days. The good thing was that it was a independent cottage and not a resort cottage. So complete privacy and seclusion. By the time we reached Munnar, the sun had set. And the cottage was on the outskirts, off the highway. We knew which resort was nearby and we eventually reached there. From the resort we called up the caretaker of the cottage and confirmed the directions for the cottage and decided to move off. BIG MISTAKE!!!!! Bad roads, no lights, deep cliffs, and wow, night time too. How interesting. The freaking car almost dropped off!!!! Finally we reached the cottage, thanking our stars we were still alive.

The next couple of days, we were just going around the place. Usual time pass and shit. The usual sights that you from a hill station. But there was a first. 12000 acres of tea estates, called the Kanan Devan Hills Plantation. Tea estates as far as the eye could see. I was just wondering that if thus place has so much tea, and not many people know about this place; then what be the scene in Darjeeling, and Assam. WOW!!!!!! That was some spectacular sight. A couple of days there was all a person would want to refresh himself from his tired schedule.

Next stop, back home in Cochin. It was Christmas eve. We had a simple evening at the house. Nothing much jing-bang. Next day we had been invited to the Lobo’s residence for Christmas lunch. Dolly chachi and the Lobos are really good friends. They had a huge house on the waterfront. It wasn’t a house, it was a palace. Lovely place that was.

The next few days in Cochin just passed by lazily, as everyone would expect. Of course, there was nothing much to see there and you were on a holiday. What else would one expect to do. On 28th, my parents left for Delhi and Ayush left for Pune to report for NDA. An even better opportunity for me to get bored. But it wasn’t as bad as it seemed. Thankfully I had just bought Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle Earth 2. So completed the whole campaign, and a couple of rounds of “war of the ring” (I’ll write the preview later on). Other than that I found a better past time for myself – teaching Aneesha science and maths for her 10th CBSE boards. How wonderful!!!! So now the routine was so set that she would solve a maths sample paper in the morning while I was sleeping, then we would clear off her doubts in the paper and then start off with science. Then one fine day, probably it was the worse day for Aneesha, I saw her solving one of the sums. And I decided to check her complete paper. Atrocious. Such stupid mistakes. I believe that instead of telling a person directly where they have gone wrong, let them find out what they have done wrong and how to go about solving it. And it was 3 days of mathematical nightmares for both of us. GOD!!!!! Madness. The two of us were solving one of her papers till 7 on New Year’s Eve. I had lectured the poor girl so much that she almost forgot what day it was.

New Year’s Eve was celebrated at Taj Malabar. They had a Moulin Rouge show over there. But what was more attracting was the 42 non-veg. dishes and 42- veg. dishes of different cuisines. And of course, the unlimited hard drinks. What else could you want. Approaching midnight, everyone was now on the dance floor. There was this amazingly hot chic there, but alas, married. Who gives a damn!!!!! HOT and seductive. WOW!!!!!!! I assumed probably of Latino origin. The whole night I was staring at her, and her perfect ass. NOW I knew I was in heaven. Midnight struck. Happy new year!!!! We popped a bottle of champagne, and continued to mingle around till 3, when everything finally got over. So a nice start to the new year. Lets see how it goes.

The next day was again, dull and boring. I had my flight back to Bombay on 2nd at 7 in the morning. Worse flight of my life. Indian airlines, couldn’t expect anything better. Reached Bombay and caught a bus for Pune. Reached Pune at around 4, completely pooped. And there, back to square one.

Now just waiting to go to Delhi for my project with Carin Energy.