A Journey to visit the Clouds

It was the 13th of June 2015. Dantis had sent a message that he had boarded the train from Kanhangad. It was late in the afternoon. The summer heat was sucking me dry. The refrigerator and the air conditioner were my constant companions. Nithya had called me for her birthday party in the night and I had to go to the church before the party. The heat was making me lazy and I dozed off on the sofa with a glass of cold Frooti on the table and a book in hand.

An hour later I woke up with a jerk, and realized that it was time to go to church. I rushed off to the bathroom, took a bath and few minutes later I was riding my trusty Thunderbird towards the church. I parked the bike outside the church and walked. Just then Nithya came out of the church and asked if I could give a ride to her home as dinner had arrived. We towed the hot box into the kitchen, opened it, and inspected its contents. It looked and smelled great. We want back to the church and the priest was still droning on. I thought to myself, "My vacuum cleaner would sound more interesting."

I went back home and waited for my dad to return from office. We freshened up a bit and marched 

off to Nithya's home. The party started at around nine. The cake was cut, songs were sung, food was served, and the alcohol flowed. Felix and myself helped ourselves to a few glasses of whiskey and lots of fried chicken. We decided to leave early as I had to pick up Dantis at the station. I plodded back home and crawled into my bed. I was dead tired and I drifted off to sleep wondering if I would wake up in the morning.

14 June, 2015 - Fortunately I had set an alarm for five in the morning. I woke up with a slight throbbing pain at the back of my head. I went online and checked if the train was running on time, and it was. Of all the days, the train had to come on time only today. After a lot of swearing and muttering, I went down, grabbed my car keys and sped off to Katpadi at top speed with the song 'Highway to Hell' blaring out.

The train arrived right on dot and I thought to myself, "Why doesn't this ever happen to me?" Dantis looked a little tired, but he was in good spirits. We hopped into the car and sped off home. We freshened up a bit and we were off to church. We literally slept through the mass as the priest went on droning. My vaccum cleaner would have sounded more interesting. The mass eventually got over and we had a late breakfast.

A little later in the morning we decided to go to Vellore. But, before that I had to go Nithya's home. She wanted to have a go at my Thunderbird. She vroomed around like the 'Bandit Queen.'We moved on to Vellore, went to the fort and visited the museums. To my surprise, Nithya was also there. We went around the museum passing snide remarks about the artifacts. We went back home and Dantis was literally fried. The heat and the sun didn't agree with him. Skin started peeling off his body. It reminded of Rango when he was first exposed to the desert heat. It was a rather bad experience for Dantis.

15 June 2015 - We had planned to leave early in the morning. We were up by five in the morning and reached the bus stop at six. The bus was late and there was quite a crowd. The bus finally arrived at six thirty and the whole crowd ran toward it, like children running toward a candy shop. After a few minutes of mad running we managed to get a seat in the bus. We reached Santhome at around eleven and had a late breakfast. We lazed around the YCS office till around two and we trooped off to Santhome Basilica. After about half an hour we were on our way to Express Avenue to cool our heads off from the excessive heat. We reached back at around seven and went out for dinner. Everybody had their usual round of parottas and Dantis had a podi dosa. The podi dosa needs special mention here as it had a lot of significance for Dantis throughout the journey. We left for the station at nine thirty. Leo and Sam too came to the station. The train left on time.

16, 17 June 2015 - The next two days were spent inside the train with Dantis visiting the toilet very often. The podi dosa didn't agree with him and his stomach went for a toss. The air conditioner in the next coach conked out and all the passengers went berserk. They pulled the chain and didn't allow the train to move till it was fixed. Finally they were given a new compartment at the next stop. Meanwhile Dantis swore that this would be the last time he travelled by train to North India. The train was a mini marketplace of sorts. You could buy almost anything from samosas to sarees.

Dantis had an unforgettable experience during the train journey. He had finished lunch and there was quite a lot of leftover that he couldn't consume because of his bad stomach. A young boy no more than ten years of age neatly packed the leftovers from his plate and took it off. That was an incident which made him realize the severity of poverty among many other things. Most of never realize the value of food, unless it is scarce.

18 June 2015 - We reached Guwhati at five in the morning and we were dog tired. We had covered about 3000 km by train. We hired a cab and after about two hours we reached Shillong at around seven thirty. We crashed into our room, freshened up a bit and we were off exploring the town. Our first stop was the Don Bosco museum. The museum consists of seven floor. The museum is dedicated to showcasing the indigenous cultures of the North East and the development of the tribes. The icing on the cake was the skywalk on top of the museum which gave us a breathtaking view of the whole town. We met Fr. Jerish and we spoke for a while about the museum. We walked back to out room, had lunch on the way and we decided retire to our room for the reminder of the day. Alfreeda called at around five in the evening and we went out to meet her.

19 June 2015 - Sunrise is quite early. Five in the morning seems like seven thirty. We couldn't sleep after six. We decided to walk around a bit and explore the town. We left at around nine and walked up to a place called third mile. We turned back went towards Shillong Golf Course. The Golf Course didn't seem to be a very exciting place. Vagamon Meadows seemed more exciting. In the evening we went to Ward's Lake to meet Dantis' friend. The rain was incessant and we decided to move to CCD. And true to CCD's tagline 'A lot can happen over a coffee', we talked for quite sometime. We left CCD at around five and went back to our room.

20 June 2015 - It was by far the best day of journey. We hired a cab and went to Chirapunji and several other places. The drive to Chirapunji was beautiful. It was during the drive I realized as to why the North East is referred to as the 'Scotland of the East'. The landscape cannot be described using words. It was beauty beyond compare. We passed through the clouds and every turn on the road was filled with surprises. The mountains were covered with clouds and every time the clouds cleared, there was always a waterfall or a valley hidden within the clouds. Some of the views reminded me of the movie Avatar.

21 June 2015 - We had to check out of the hotel before twelve in the afternoon. The bills were settled by eleven thirty and we had taken a cab by twelve. We reached Guwhati by two and we started hunting for a room to stay. We found a lodge in front of the railway station. A cheap little place to stay just for the night. It was too hot and Dantis was drinking water in bucketfuls.

22 June 2015 - That's today. We had woken up at five in the morning and we were out of the lodge by six. The station was filthy and stinking at six in the morning. The train started a few minutes late and we are headed home. If the train is on time we should reach home on the morning of the 24th. And thus, ends our tryst with the land of clouds.