The Trip of a Lifetime

Mahabalipuram or Mamalapuram is a small seaside town located some 50 kms from Chennai. Not a lot unless one wanted to cover the entire distance two-n-fro on a bicycle, like we did. We accomplished it on the Sunday of 13^th January 2008 which also happened to be my laptop’s first birthday. There were 7 of us on the journey, all from the mighty Tamraparani hostel. We left for Mahabs at around 4:30 A.M. It was pitch black, the moon was nowhere to be seen. We somehow got onto the East Coast Road, hereafter referred to as the ECR. I felt the pain of cycling in the first 30 minutes itself, my butt was aching like anything because of the stupid seat. Anyhow we cycled on and on often losing sight of others and finding them again at the side of the road waiting for us.

On our way we overtook two runners on their way to Mahabalipuram, thinking that we will leave them in the dust. I had the first breakdown (infact I had all the breakdowns) when my chain came loose. Fearing for the worst I told our captain Ritu that the chain was broken, he stopped and shouted “We are doomed for all our lives, our journey ends here. Our skeleton will forever lie here, touched only by the monsoon and the sea breeze. Far from humanity, far from civilization we the brave men of Tamraparani lay our lives here with pride and glory.” (Suitable exaggerations added).Fortunately, the chain was not broken and our captain Ritu had the expertise to fix it real fast. We continued on cautiously (ok, only me) the next stretch of the journey was from the Toll booth to Kovalam. By this time the runners had overtaken us and in a few minutes we overtook them again. It was still dark the sun was some hours away, we depended more on guess and good luck hoping that we wouldn’t get into an accident or go over a sudden speed bump. I almost crashed into a crazy old man who was sitting at the end of a bridge fagging his way to ecstasy.

We stopped for a morning tea at a tea shop in Kovalam at around 6:00 a.m. We ordered our tea and sat by the road to take some much needed rest for our legs and sore buttocks. It took the chap about 3o mins to make 7 teas and by the time we got it the runners had overtaken us again. The tea tasted awful, leading to a conspiracy on the origin of the milk. Few of the guys said it was buffalo’s milk, I thought it was Goat’s milk but it was Snake’s suggestion that left us in disgust (can’t really put it here). We had by the time covered around 30 kilometres from the insti, and we decided to cover the next 20 kms non-stop. As usual Arbit (Shivraj Negi – dunno his real name) was on a roll and left us in a desperate attempt to keep up. The morning sun had just started to come out. It was a beautiful sight to see the morning sun and the sea from the elevated road. We passed the Crocodile Bank, deciding we will pay a visit to the crocs while coming back. Soon, the sign read single digits and we started to close in on Mahabs. Then all of the sudden two Hyundai Accent police cars screeched past us, followed minutes later by His Excellency M.Karunanidhi’s motorcade of about 20 cars. He would have probably laughed at our pathetic situation, who knows.

By this time our rivals (I haven’t mentioned about them because they weren’t that significant’ and hmm... also, we lost because of the stupid chaiwala) had reached Mahabalipuram and were having their morning grub. Then, in all the pain and suffering, just like an oasis stood the sign board “MAMALLAPURAM”. Just then my cycle broke down again, the chain came of loose. It was Ritu to the rescue once more but this time it wasn’t that serious. We got back on our bikes and headed for the town looking for a restaurant called the ‘Moon Rakers’ that our dearest friend Sutta (Nikhil) had recommended to us. By good luck (as we later found out) the restaurant wasn’t open, so we went to the ‘Blue Elephant’ (Hmm.... Wonder where the people get the names from). We had toast in some form or the other and sat on the comfy chairs extending our legs. We had done it, we did the unthinkable and it was time that we make calls to some of our pessimistic friends.

After the delicious breakfast (more so because we were starving by the time we reached there) we went to see the Krishna’s butterball and took some pics. It was really boring, there is nothing to describe except that it looks surreal. We met up with guys who arrived by bus and they looked even more tired than us. Some chaps wanted to go to the five rathas and four of us (me, Ritu, Snake and Kutti) decided to go to the beach and rest. We got to this seaside restaurant/shack and sat there for about 2 hours gen, peacefully wasting time. We did go to the shore temple. It was 10 bucks for entry for Indians and 250 for the foreigners which I thought was really unfair besides it creates an impression that we are really despos. Unfortunately, my friends didn’t share the same views as me. We went around exploring the temple really quickly, discovering that they had done a good job of renovating the structure and then it was time for lunch.

Taking Sutta’ recommendation into consideration we went to the restaurant called ‘Moon Rakers’. For 90 rupees I had the costliest and by far the worst chicken Biriyani I have ever had in my life. The tomato soup tasted like barf, only the shrimp was good. They had posters on all walls saying "NO LIQUOR" but they openly served beer to the white folks (not being racist here). We left the Rakers broke and headed for the sea. Few of us got excited and started playing in the water and some of us just sat around the beach and later went hunting for seashells (we did get quite a few good ones). The waves were really powerful, pounding against the rocks. Some guys thought it would be even better if they were even more broke and took a ride on a boat to see the six temples near or under the sea. According to me, they were really taken for a ride, wasting 75 rupees for 5 minute boat ride.

We left Mahabs at around 3:30 pm (there was nothing else to do) and continued our journey back. We stopped at the Crocodile bank. It was good to see reptiles and snakes (my fav kinda animals) but there was no venom extracting show by the Irulas which me (stupid grammar check wants to replace me with I) and my friend Kutti were looking forward to. It was our juniors (AC/DC, Kinky and Arbit) that really inspired us to go there. I must say the crocs looked a bit lethargic and bored probably from so much attention that they get. We had covered the park in record time and joined the guys waiting outside to resume our journey. The police stationed there were really helpful, at first they managed to get ourselves exempted from the parking fees and later they literally stopped the traffic on the road to let us crocs. The next stretch was the longest and the best we reached the Toll Booth in record time. After which things got boring, except few guys waved at us and some took pics and videos and my cycle chain came loose again..... The last stretch was through the suburbs and Tiruvanmiyur, which was the worst and the hardest part of the trip and on top of that the traffic had to be stopped to let our honourable Chief Minishter Karunanidhi go back to his office. We were praying for our lives while we were cycling, it was like the chaos theory on wheels around us. Somehow we made it back to the insti, we were too tired to even rejoice at our achievement.

The trip was more about achieving something rather visiting Mahabalipuram. We were determined to prove our critics wrong. Although we were tired, exhausted and our buttocks numb there was always something that kept us going. It was not only a sense of achievement or victory but also the spirit of human endeavour and the willingness to challenge our limits which have made us, the humans the dominant race on the Earth. Men come and go and achieve things, but it is those who go that extra bit to achieve something even higher that makes them special. We have done exactly that on our trip to Mahabs, we may not be remembered by anybody years from now nor we intend to be, but we have succeeded at least in inspiring ourselves or even a few around us with it. Ok, I should stop being preachy now. And to sum it all up a few last words to two guys really close to us - $%#$ #@# Sutta, #$## @&* Mika.

P.S: The author has no political affliation. The author has high regard for Karunanidhi and doesn’t intend to hurt the political sensibilities of the DMK supporters.