PART II
DAY 2—27 OCTOBER
A long break between the two parts… hmmm… couldn’t have helped it, just got busy with the last ODD -END SEM exams in the college.
Well, starting from the point I left. So, after a true trip cum trek day out, here comes the night… a long one, a cold one, a non-sleepy night. Having given my jacket to GOGO, who had nothing to put on to protect himself from the punishing cold, I had to share a thin blanket with Mr. 6’2”,Alok, which I think I got so conscious of to not to pull from him that throughout the night I only didn’t get anything over me.
Anyways and SOMEHOW the darkness gave way to the sunlight, people woke up, all in the same tone,
“I couldn’t sleep at all yaar, it was so damn cold”. Also, now the much famous (actually infamous and dreaded) Bansal’s loud exclamations of deep sleep getting proper words.
The morning was lovely pink cold with bright yellow sunlight bathing the green slopes. Wohh…!!!! somewhere one would like to stay and spend his life, a beautiful experience, clicked..!!!
A little yes-no but finally we stuffed our breakfast, though I gave it a miss to avoid any of the nature’s call later going down the slopes, u gotta take care of these things :P. Careful and cautious, as we were, we descended the slope in an hour and half, the same slope we took 3.5 hours to climb.
At the base, Santosh Hotel, our lunch was ready. An early lunch was followed by an awesome mimic session with the stylish cat-walks of Tripathi, Shiva, Gaurav, Shenoy and others getting showcased, people getting swiped by a cow and some playing around. This small stoppage gave me a little time with Ro’s pod, a short lone walk with some soul cleansing, and high volume music under the slopes which pumped some serious thoughts in my mind :).
Now was the turn of the most dangerous part of our trek, the one to the Arashinagundi Falls. We had already booked for a guide to help us through the jungle, which I am so glad we did. Through the jungle with regiments of leeches, rubbery slopes and a superfast team of the identical twins, ’guide and Deba’, it was tough to be on the way. So many times it felt like a trek can never get any tougher than this. I kept on wondering how some souls of our class were able to walk through all this. The only one who gave up was, VARUN SHENOY , and it was hell of a task to pull him all through the trek, Sandy did an excellent job in being with him and helping him transverse the miles. Some tense moments with GOGO getting irked with repetitive calls of moving fast, Shenoy’s red, sweaty face and body which looked like dropping any moment. Well, these later gave way to Macha’s OOLA-LALA-LA-LE- O, our anthem for the later stages of the trek. This was real fun with Macha singing his piece and the ones walking ahead putting up a proper response to it. A special mention and thanks must be given to Tripathi for his ‘unintentional and asked ‘ help to ‘just the other gal, Christina’. :P
A few more minutes of rough trekking and we were at the much awaited, rather much wanted falls. Whohh, nice pearly water falling from the top reflecting sunlight and refracting some to form small rainbows. An apt destination of the tiredly and sweat sapping trek. Relaxing by the side of the cold water, resting our heels. A nice little closed photogenic place the shuttermen exploited fully. Though most of us enjoyed the water keeping out of it, but some did get in and took full quota of their fun.
After about two hours of masti at the falls it was time to pull up our socks and start back. The guide left us at the juncture where the track to the gate starts and we started the long 6 km straight walk. This particular stretch was just too much for so many of us to handle, with most of them already tired at the falls, they dejectedly walked the distance. The journey where even GOGO got restless, Shenoy took an oath of never going for a trek in future. The look on their face on finally reaching the gate will be the last thing I’ll forget of the trip.
This brought us to the end of the most grueling, most funfilled trip we can ever go to.
Hope, we can pull off something similar in the next sem.
SHINING STARS of the trip:
FLYING DEBA, DEEPTI ‘the WONDER GAL’, DARSHANJI ‘the PATH SHOWER’, GOGO ‘the gravity defying heavyweight’, TRIPATHI n CHRISTIE ’the unbreakable pair’, DD ‘the JOINT convener’, MACHA ‘the OOLA-LALA-LA-LE- O man’, GAURAV ‘the MULTI-WOMAN man’, SHIVA ‘Mr. CHEMICAL trip’
DOOMING STAR of the trip:
VARUN SHENOY, VARUN SHENOY AND ONLY VARUN SHENOY , “ cramps”, “this is highly impossible”, “my body can’t take it”, “I can’t climb this”, “I am very upset with my physique” etc. etc. etc.etc.
