Friday, October 10, 2008

...ICED TEA...

It was a Thursday morning.. Jagan Chetaa, the Prince of Vellakovil, woke me up with something between a snarl and a glare. I’d slept a good 2 hours before him the previous night and here I was, sleeping through the day.. well after he got up..

“Hungry da. Kelambu va.. Pongal polaam,,” (Hungry da.. Come on start.. Let’s go to Pongal (a ‘mess’y hotel near our house)). Started lazily and reached pongal by 11. Called up Munish, the one guy who can give Mr.Bean a run for his money, and asked him to come over. The Self proclaimed Don (that’s Muni) said he had to get up yet, and he would make it by 12.30 or 1.00.. Hmm.. How to waste time till that? (This was a day we’d sworn not to utilize. Like every other.) “Iced tea?”, I asked Jagan, after eating our breakfast.

“Deal.”

We had to go to the ATM to re-fill our wallets.. And sadly, almost 3 ATMs on the Outer ring road were out of order. Finally, one worked, and by that time, we were already a good 3 kilometres from our house…

“Dei.. Boring da? Shall we go on a li’l further? Just a drive..”, Jagan said, patting Arvind’s Pulsar.

“Deal.”

11.20 Vrrooom.. I remember seeing KR puram bridge about 5 minutes from then, the railway station seconds later, and Kammanahalli, my old fortress, in another 5 minutes. Soon, we were near Lumbini Park, the boat house, which was just across my old workplace, Manyata. I asked Jagan if we were going to go in, and he said, “Let’s think about that on our way back.. You forgot our Iced tea!”




And then, we continued zooming past a lot of interesting advertisement hoardings, The Parsee Tower of Silence, about which I got to read, and a Gandhi Vigyan Kendra (I don’t think I got the name right..).. I was mindlessly clicking a lot of small hills around, that made good scenery. Minutes later, I looked at the time on my mobile..11.50.. I looked up.. The Bangalore International Airport!

Jagan said, “Solavae illa????”

Nobody told us it was a matter of half an hour to reach BIA from Marathalli! We thought it’d take more than an hour… The Pulsar showed we’d travelled 48 km.




Trust me, if anyone takes a pic there and claims he went to Heathrow, you wouldn’t get a doubt. The Place was so beautiful., so was the road leading up to it. We clicked a few pics and decided to try and get inside. Initially, we thought we’d look odd going into an airport without a single bag. But then, most of the people we saw there were there for a .. er.. picnic perhaps? Gosh, and not to forget the couples, who finally found a place where their parents or relatives won’t spot them!





Amidst all this, we made it to the entrance, and suddenly, Jagan said, “Look!!!”

There, An outlet of Kaati Zone. Which could mean only one thing.

Iced Tea!!! :)


---------------------
1. 00 PM : Marathalli
---------------------

Munish was walking towards the place from where we said we’d pick him up. And we were right there, waiting for him. And the three of us rode back home.

“What were you guys doing till now? You came from the other side of Marathalli..”, he asked..

“Hmm, yes.. We went to get a cup of Iced tea…”