Wise men say “Life is a Journey”. Isn’t that true? It’s a remarkable journey where we all know the final destination (Death!) but are clueless about the route. It’s a journey that we as humans undertake with others. – Together. And it is this togetherness that makes life so exciting to live.. For this week’s topic, I will talk about a journey, that I undertook with my “then newly acquired” husband. It was through this first journey, we took together, that we learned, that as long as we were together…. nothing else mattered – the luxuries, worldly comforts, could all be forsaken happily, when we were together. Together we created fun, together we created our own security, together we created our own world and while we were in it, nothing could harm us!
- We booked a sleeper class ticket for S to reach Banglore on the day my assignment finished
- We booked a return ticket from Cochin for both of us for a day, 25 days later from his date of arrival (sleeper class again). And..
- We indulged and bought a second hand copy of “Lonely Planet“
- The day we reached “Jog falls” after 10 hours of bone breaking bus ride to realize that the falls were completely covered by fog and hadn’t been properly visible since 5 days. Disappointed we sat at a wayside joint sipping tea. We could hear the loud thunder the water made as it fell from the cliff and had resigned ourselves to not seeing the famous falls. Just as we were to leave. I closed my eyes and fervently prayed to God. Suddenly, almost magically , the fog disappeared. And there right in front of our eager eyes was the most amazing sight of the highest waterfall in India
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- Or the time at Kovalam.. when we found ourselves on the wrong side of a gun! Earlier that day we had alighted at the local bus stand. A skinny guy had offered to show us a good “cottage”. The cottage was beautiful and located right on the sea and surprisingly well within our budget. After settling in we went, hand in hand for a walk by the deserted seaside. On return we found this huge man standing outside our cottage, gun flailing in his hand, making threatening gestures at us and speaking a strange tongue. In an unknown land, surrounded on one side by the desolate sea and on the other by a group of threatening villagers who seemed bent upon using that gun, as complete darkness enveloped us, we were terrified. we told each other what we imagined were our final words. At the last minute a “kashmiri” (Kashmiri in Kovalam!.. Life is strange) came and rescued us. As he spoke to the angry group we sensed the tension lower, the anger lessen and the nozzle of the gun lowered to a point on the floor…rather than us! When he spoke to us in his broken hindi we understood, that the guy who had rented us the flat was a local “Afeemkhor” (Drug addict) . The cottage that he had so magnanimously rented to us wasn’t his, and the money we had trustingly paid him , hadn’t reached the owner . The huge angry man determined to “teach us a lesson” Assumed, we had broken into his “cottage”. unknown to us, the “kashmiri’ had seen the transaction and vouched for us. We stayed in that cottage still feeling vulnerable. But in morning, the angry man with the gun, became a friend and we ended up staying in his cottage for four days.
- Or the day we felt hugely homesick. Tired of eating coarse rice, sambhar, tomato dosas at small wayside eateries. Sitting in a small dhaba! A group of young men occupied the table near ours. When one of them approached us asking if were from IHM, we weren’t sure how to respond. S was wearing the IHM T-shirt and it seemed pointless to deny. A bit hesitatingly we accepted that he was an IHM, Bombay graduate.It turned out the boys were studying at the local branch of IHM. Backs were slapped, hands were shaken. And just like that we were surrounded by friends. They invited us over for lunch to their college the following day. We were served north indian food, family histories were exchanged, college stories were told and we were homesick no more!
- A couple of years before this trip the movie “Roja” had been released. Besides liking the movie immensely , my imagination was completely captivated by the round basket boat ride so beautifully captured in the movie. I just had to do it! But no one we met or asked knew anything concrete about it. The Lonely planet had one short line on it being available in a place called “Hogenakkal”.
- Or the night when dead tired and in the mood to sleep in a proper bed we approached hotels after hotels in Salem. But none would give us a room. Dog tired and frustrated, when the next guy refused. I demanded to be told why we were not getting a room? Red faced he said because we didn’t look married and he didn’t want any trouble by shielding “runaways”. We showed him a wedding photograph (That someone had smartly advised us to carry!). Convinced , we got our room and slept like never before.
I have mapped the journey we undertook here
The original post was written by me some time back and has been published at @indiauntraveled: 14 years ago, a journey with no destination – ow.ly/azECz
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Wow, makes me miss my husband. Actually yes, it is saver to travel with him 😀
🙂 safer and the companionship!
it is always nice to have company one enjoys being with on a trip. Glad u stopped by!
What a fantastic story! Thanks for the pingback and for stopping by my blog. 😉
you are welcome! I enjoyed reading it
thanks for the pingback!
What a beautiful and heartwarming cache of memories….treasure them…they are often the mainstays of life and help steer us through less blessed times…
Am enjoying going through your writings…
God bless…
thank you! you’re right they are the mainstays of ones life, when troubled times come, and they come often enough, a memory like that tides you over 🙂