InteRestinG TiMeS...

So day started out for us with the promise to turn into one of the memorable days of our lives. The scene was set in Varkala, during phase 2 of our 'Life to the waters of Kerala' project. Each of us from the group is entitiled to our fixed quota of mandatharams during the course of the day. Mine was the first one, with me mistaking the starting point of our survey, up by one point and making the group walk an extra 2 kms through beautiful country territory in the 'starting to get hot' sun. So this stretch too had its amusing moments with Chala and Mag carrying a "thengum thadi" to try cross one of those irrigation canal networks we found ourselves in with no way out. Finally they understood that their quota of mandatharams were used up too and decided to take the help of a local woman and taking her advice, worked our way back up around the field (I still regret having been slow in taking out the camera and having missed the wonderful shots).

So we entered our target area promptly at 11:15 and started out with the socio-economic survey(includes the details of the family members: name, age, occupation, education etc ; and some details like where they get their water and what they do with their sewage). The houses were almost invariably mud houses, some with bricks and everyone of them thatched, and many of them single roomed. The people were exceptionally friendly and welcoming, and we recieved several invitations to a glass of lime and even vellam from the neighbouring shop. The work was mostly done by Chala and Mag because most of the houses had only women in them and they were comfortable with the gals asking them the questions. But me and Maneesh did our part too, taking the survey of a few houses. So by 1 we had our lunch on the compacted mud verandah of a survey subject house and had a chit chat with the occupants who brought out water and mats for us to sit on. By 2 we were completely bushed and me and Chala had enough, deciding to skip the return trip survey on the other bank and stroll back to the starting point. The day ended after a trip for two glasses of ice cold lime water and snacks at my aunt's place and a fairly uneventful trip back to Trivandrum.

Back in Trivandrum phase two of the day was about to start. The plan initially was to go to the beach with 15 bikes and recapture the old glory. The events veered into its new path with everyone crashing in at Jojy's( Rajan) place and opening up their bottles of beer. Me being a considerable noobie in this area made do with a couple of sips from the beer bottle. A full bottle of brandy was sitting there almost over, so I could guess the state of my buddies who were already there (not that drunk, cos there were 14 of us there). So we set out to the beach on 4 bikes and 1 amby car ( total 14 of us). JJ and biji showed there style, getting another full bottle going in front of a long que in front of the "kilivathil" at the civil supplies store. Then we were off to the beach with biji sitting behind me and screaming at everyone most of the time and sometimes doing rough road rash impersonations against the amby by trying to kick the car off track and understandably failing in his task and fairly unnerving me. When finally on the beach, it got more interesting than it has ever got on a beach trip, mostly since everyone, even though not actually drunk, wanted to act drunk and were on hyper drive. Everyone in a 50 m radius of our group slowly took their leave and I could completely sympathise with them. After a while the situation reverted to throwing sand at each other and flying through the air and crashing into each other and falling onto the sand, kicking and fighting. So after almost getting into a fight with another considerably drunk(er) bunch of guys (I was impressed to see the guys quitely turn away unnoticed and remove their watches and mobiles and consolidate all the rocks in the vicinity with their toes for the eventuality , without even one word being spoken). After getting back, the full became not so full quite rapidly and became an empty eventually. So JJ went out an got two more pints, and work began on emptying them too. So now one by one the guys began to get wasted, and things began to get quite funny with suni hugging and kissing everyone and professing his undying love for each of us. And we went out to East Fort( buhari hotel -24 hours) and had second dinner at 2 am, and JJ got quite loud and slurred in his observations about his life and his accession towards the 'clay' of his region. JJ and biji, both were quite wonderstruck at how they were teleported from the house to buhari and back so quickly. Biji had got over his incessant sobing, thinking about Ajmal and how he had hurt him. JJ crashed and burned out as soon as we got back home and I began to try my hand for the first time on the drinks. But I was quite disappointed with the lack of effect after 4 glasses and I finally stopped, dejected. We hung around the large first Laurie Baker designed house till 4:30 a.m. and then crashed down onto the bed.

P.S: Damn.. I had thought my first foray into the world of alcohol would make for a little more interesting story. And I did not even have a hang over. Woke up at 10 and came home. Blogging by 11.