The Vizag Trip

Following write up is one of my first works. It is in its crude form without any modification. It was written during my Engineering days (year 2000-2001).

Before getting into the bus from house I was very eager but was frightened when I got to the station. I had a feeling that after we return some one would be crying and some sad while some annoyed (I would be thinking – I expected).

After the train started moving, for around 30 min nothing happened. Swathi was the first to tell the fact, “You guys are boring” and I thought – I expected.

But things changed, we played dumb shards for an hour. Than we had a party for Shanti – it was nice. Next we played anthyakshari for an hour. After that we had dinner (I had every one’s share). Now I felt very relaxed and resumed completely to my usual self. That is until now I was skeptical about the success of the trip. Now I am starting to have high hopes and I am eagerly looking forward to the coming days.

20^th: We reached Vizag by 6:45 am. I had to wake each one at 5:00 am. I enjoyed waking them up, as no one liked though they had to – I was being a sadist. We went to YMCA and did nothing till 10:15 am (of course few bathed and had breakfast & few vice versa).

We went to the harbour first, then to Daspalla hotel for lunch, then went to browse. By the time we returned it was 12:00 am and I literally fell on the bed – tired – and slept.

A knock on the door woke me up in the morning at 5:20 am. We had to reach the station (to leave to Araku) atleast by 6:15 am. At this moment I was Skeptical not about the mood of the guys but about our times.

Train towards Araku was at 7:45 am; the 6:15 am story was only to boot us up. The train journey was amazing. I have seen hills from the bottom but now traveling on top of them gave a different thrill in me. There were more than 20 tunnels on the way. All the girls were shouting, screaming and yelling while passing through the tunnels. It was nothing but fun.

We reached Borra caves at 11:00 am. We hired two Jeeps and went to the caves from the station. Few of the girls decided to have some adventure while their parents were not around. So they climbed an elevation, from where it was difficult to get down – unless of course they would use the same path downwards but that wouldn’t be adventure, right? It took more than 30 min for 5 girls to descend a height less than 6 mts.

We had lunch at the Jeep driver’s place. It was very nice – a hut with wooden tables and chairs and spicy food.

Driving towards Araku was harsh and rough (Jeep) – I was scared. Rooms were cheap in an uncompleted hotel (construction – rooms were neat though). We put our luggage there and went to see Padmapuram garden. I was interested in the Camphor tree (long like Christmas tree) and Silver Oak tree (similar and also found in Hyderabad).

In movies, ordinary places are shown as heaven. We went to Chaparayi Konda, where a movie was shot and it was shown as heaven. It is not, in reality, instead it was an ordinary place with a river flowing between rocks – that’s it.

Experience at Araku pushed me one step closer to nature (especially in the train journey). After that having dinner we all enjoyed around a Bonfire for an hour by playing Thambola.

Though we decided to sleep atleast till 10:00 am the next morning, every one woke up and got ready by 9:00 am. For break fast we had bread, jam and omelet. Half an hour passed as we waited for a RTC bus to Vizag. Bus journey was much better than Jeep as it was much comfortable and safer. It was around 3:30 pm when we reached Vizag and immediately we went to Dhwaraka inn – Uday Kiran, the movie actor was in the same hotel – to have lunch.

So until now did people cry and become sad? Yes, they did but things revived very soon.

As it was Rajgopal’s birthday the next day, we all wanted to give him a surprise party. Each one of us was being very meticulous (especially few) and made the party a grand success.

4:45 am was the scheduled time for waking up but it was 1:30 am by the time we slept.

Unusual things happen rarely in our lives. A man whom we met a few days ago came to YMCA (were we stayed – throughout) in the morning by 6:00 am. He helped us decide the day’s schedule. We booked 2 taxis and decided to travel in 7s and 8s. The stranger (I should say so because no one knew him though we did meet him for 30 min, 2 days ago) booked another taxi and agreed to accompany us for the first two sites. This made us travel comfortably (atleast for some time).

It was “Thrikoti Ekadasi” day. Thus the temple – Simhachalam, where we went to see first – was jam packed with people. It could have easily taken more than 4 hrs for us to come out through usual channels but took less than an hour with the help of this stranger (whom by this time few of us had called an Angel).

Though this man was doing all good, we all were (especially the girls) skeptical at his magnanimity. Our doubts on this person grew stronger when he refused to pose for a photograph. He left us in the afternoon and appeared again in the evening at YMCA. By this time all of us (especially the boys) were furious to let loose our wrath on him, but nothing happened as he left when we ignored him. Rajgopal was lucky though, as he vomited all his loath onto the angel (or lunatic – the name that we gave him by now) through phone when he called to enquire our plans for the coming days.

All this did not suppress anyone’s moods. We had gone to Rishikonda beach – where we played a lot – and to Kailash Giri and saw the entire city from an eagle’s view. The city lights (it was dark by now) were glowing like stars in the sky.

24^th was the final day of the trip – in Vizag. Though our plan was to leave early (by 6:00 am) for site seeing, we all strolled our way out of rooms by 10:00 am (train was by 4:10 pm). Though we had planned many things, we ended up playing few games in the beach (our’s was the only beach YMCA in India). We had lunch in Dolphins – a 5 star hotel – and reached station by 3:40 pm.

After boarding the train we all were very happy – though we should have been sad, as our tour was ending – because the trip was a grand success.

Now at this moment we are still looking forward to make the journey even more memorable by doing something nice in the train. {You will notice that there is a shift in the style of narration – I was using more “Is” but now I am using “Wes”. This is what the trip gave us: as “we”, an “oneness”.

Most of us were awake up to 2:00 am. We played many games and laughed like hell on the jokes cracked. Some of us were awake up to 3:30 am. We spoke a lot about each other and understood each other better.

I woke up at 5:20 am and could not sleep again. By 6:45 am every one had waken up and few of us wanted to play again but we were too tired. We reached Secunderabad at 7:10 am. Every one was happy until this moment but became sad that it all has come to an end.

We all departed promising ourselves that we would continue our 4-2 semester in the similar mood of joy and happiness.

I joined this trip expecting something out of it and it did turn out to be successful one as it has given me (in fact everyone) more than what I had expected

Quotable Quote: Don’t cry because it is over, smile because it happened.

I would like to thank AMK Raju for creating a motive in me to write this piece of memory the details of which would have gone forgotten if not preserved like this. I also want all the reader to forgive me for all the misplacement of the words and for creating a major fault in the tenses.