The road to paradise!

Well, had a great trip to Mahabs (thts Mahabalipuram for short!) yesterday! A great day for an outing, what with the rains n all!

Ghone comes to my room at 1546 hrs.,

"Let's go on a drive to Mahabs!"

Rocked out of my siesta, I am like...."What!??"

Dada tells me, "We'll get some hot bhajjis and tea!"

Still in a daze, I tell him this is not the Hindi movies, no one in Chennai will be out in the rains!!!

The fellas say, "U r coming!" Hmm...have no choice....but hey, what the heck, its a glorious day, fit for an outing!!!

So off we trudge along, first to get the bikes and then off we are, with Chu to complete the quatret!!

And then begins a trip to paradise...have seen many sights on a beautiful day, but this really was gorgeous! Maybe more so coz there's nothin' else to do in Chennai!!

The ECR (that's East Coast Road!! ) is as beautiful as ever, and the beaches on the side looks so beautiful! Wish I had a videocam, this was one scene worth capturing...the beaches as we zipped along the bike!

There's something about the virgin beaches in the South! They invoke the deepest emotions, the passion in any normal person!

Lost in the mundane rituals, you forget your desires, you forget the 'connect' with nature, you forget that you are a product of nature first before anything else!!! You need to get back to nature, sometime at least, to realize where you belong!

But human nature is such, your stomach brings you back to reality very soon! So we hungry souls search for a place where we would get hot bhajjis! Find a shack (it was touted as some restaurant...was more of a rundown shack! ) where the fellow's from Orissa and speaks Hindi!! He agrees to make some bhajjis, but has no tea!!! Ah! What luck! But something at least! Order for some plates and then move to another store where we have some packaged stuff that Capitalism dumps upon us!

Must mention the bhajjis and the omlettes that we had! First, we are damn hungry, and then this beautiful weather..... makes even the most mundane of dishes taste like nectar! The food cost us a royal 200 bucks! 20 bucks for 5 pieces of potatoes and onions dipped in some batter! And the fellow says he gave us a discount!! Dada tells me onions are costly nowadays!! Buffoon! Not so costly!!!! Anyways, it was worth the experience! ('n we had no choice but to pay!!! )

Next, we decide to move to the beach. "Its getting late", says Abhi! Forget it man! We are already moving towards the beach! The path is a marshland! Water here and water there! Add to that some big holes in the ground, even saw a snake go into one o' them! Wow!

And then some shrubs growing all along the sand.... some thorny shrub... 'n Ghone and me are the beneficiaries of its bite!!!! Finally we reach the beach front! What a view...it is beyond my meagre vocabulary to describe that sight! The swirling wind, the dark clouds waiting to pour, and the crashing waves.... as if to remind humanity, in a small way perhaps, of a force beyond, a force that we may least comprehend!!!

As Frost says,

" Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference"

It really paid to visit that gorgeous beach, the one less visited, but that had so much to offer! 'twas getting dark and the journey back to the road was a journey in itself! Chu shows a tree as a landmark! We find that the beach is lined up with such trees! Anyway, we somehow find a way back, a way that will lead us back to our lives, back to reality!

We stop by on our way to have tea....a beautiful creation of man..this tea! Ah! Having tea on a cold, rainy day! Must say, is an awesome experience in itself! And then the rains began! Not that it was raining before, but this was HEAVY!!!! And to add to it, Dada's bike giving some problems!! And the rain makes visibility almost zero!!! And the drops falling like pins on our faces!!!

Completely drenched and with no place to stop, we decide to drive on..... till we reach home...IITM!

I decide to write my blog, but nah! It was too good a day and all I wanted was to sleep! And that I did!

I'll end with Frost again!

"Now let the night be dark for all of me.
Let the night be too dark for me to see
(I've enjoyed my day.....)
Into the future. Let what will be, be."