Around 70 people from MMRT 42 (23 tablers, 22 circlers, 5 sq legs and their wives and a whole load of twinklers) embarked on a historic fellowship trip from Chennai to Ooty on June 17, 2010. The party began right at Central Station where we waylaid the TTR on the platform and enlightened him about the “aims and objects” of tabling!!!!! Adequate publicity about the round table movement was also given to the other passengers on Niligiri Express and many expressed their interest in joining the fellowship!!
On reaching Mettupalayam at 6 am on June 18, we headed to a resort called “Black Thunder” for breakfast and ablutions. Our ever resourceful tabler Suman had organized a fantastic breakfast which we hungrily gobbled to get over our hangover. After popping some few strips of Avomine to ward of mountain sickness, the group set out to conquer the hills. The drive to ooty took us about 3 hours including 4 masala tea breaks, 7 puke breaks and infinite breaks to relieve bladder pressure! On reaching ooty, our driver informed us that our resort was 35 kms away from ooty in a place called Avalanche and we had to drive for another hour through mostly pot holed roads and then some mud lanes with craters. Finally we arrived at the resort….. no…. wait…it apparently was only the car park of the resort. The resort was 2 kms away deep in the hills and the only way to get there (as there were no roads) was by an off-road military truck. The 2 km ride seemed like 20 kms and all tablers now know what it feels like to be an ingredient in a tossed salad!
The ride was certainly worth it as the resort was simply breathtaking. 25 log cabins overlooking the valley with clean and comfortable rooms. We were completely cut off from the rest of the world as there were no telephones, television or internet in the resort and the only activities were farming, horse riding, milking the cows and fishing. To catch a cell phone signal, you had to climb up a mountain and sit with the bears. The Management of the resort gave us an orientation program wherein they informed us that the resort did not encourage smoking, drinking at places other than the bar and loud music as the resort was in the middle of a reserve forest. Then Prasad Sr. showed them his biceps and gave them an orientation on what he came there to do. Immediately a deal was struck and we managed to get certain concessions. It certainly helped that we had booked the entire resort. In hindsight, even if there were other guests at the resort, I am certain they would have trekked back to ooty through the jungle after seeing our group! The wild animals in the forest are like kittens when compared to our tablers.
Once we settled in and the twinklers ran around the resort playing with the horses and the ducks, the party started with a few beverages from the UB group and a late lunch. While most of us crashed after lunch, Suman, Sai and Katty went all the way back to ooty to get certain other beverages from Scotland and Russia. Kudos to them and to their never-say-die spirit! Katty, in honour of having put one leg into the grave, sponsored most of the refreshments while Sai (who also has one leg in the grave) sponsored the rest. Mahesh Sr. immediately contacted his man-friday in ooty, Mr. Lawrence and asked him to come to the resort with curry leaf powder which he liked to mix with his curd rice. Lawrence (soon nicknamed Lawrence of Arabia) trekked all the way from ooty (35 kms across the hills) and arrived with only half of the ordered supplies. We suspect he stopped along the way and ate a few rounds of curd rice himself!!! Hmmmm!!!
The party that evening began at 7 pm and started getting wild around 11 pm. We were booted out of the dinning room and found our way to the deck outside Sai’s room. We started playing dumb charades and soon discovered the wild side of Amrit and Pavitra. The movies that they were suggesting had failed to clear US Censor Board and were made straight for the internet! Finally the curtain came down on charades, when Venky mimed the movie “sin city”. The way he mimed the word “sin” to his team, Meghna got scared and ran away but Kala got very excited and dragged him to their room immediately!
Day 2 began bright and early with one gang going on a 3 km “short trek” and one gang going for a 7 km “long trek”. I went for 2 short treks – one from my room to the loo and the other to the breakfast table! At 11 am, all the twinklers set out on a fishing expedition and the only kid to catch a fish was Prasanna’s son who is a vegetarian. Sandeep Mall with all his Bengali instincts could only catch his pants which were slipping in the mud!!! After fishing, one big gang went on an agricultural tour around the resort. Arjun successfully got the names of all the herbs wrong except lavender. Soumya promptly stated that she never uses lavender talc, soap or perfume. Must be the TTR on the Trichi train then, with whom Arjun has been spending 2 nights every week! After the agricultural tour, we joined the guys from the long trek (except Prasanna who managed to climb the hills but fell into the gutter adjoining the resort) and sat down for some beers and melodious singing by Soumya. However, once Chetan started singing, the beer turned flat and we were forced to have lunch. In the evening, we got a bonfire going overlooking the valley coupled with a nice barbecue dinner. The girls soon started dancing and continued their party till dawn!
After breakfast on day 3, we packed our bags and left destiny. On reaching ooty, we stopped for lunch at King’s Cliff. After a nice leisurely lunch with loads of beer, we descended the hills. On the return journey, the revelry continued with Suman getting us some fantastic food from Coimbatore. I can safely say that the entire gang had a blast and it was one hell of a trip. Every one from the youngest member of the trip (Atharva – 7 months) to the oldest Sai (45 years) had a good time. In fact, Atharva and Sai did the exact same thing during the trip – drank a lot, smiled at all the women and slept on their backside!!!!
I am sure the tablers are ready for another trip to destiny. I am not sure how the resort management would react to it though. Last we heard, the kitchen staff have gone on a strike, the horses have bolted, the ducks have flown the coop, the fishes have choked on the bait, the bar tender has a fractured elbow and Bhaskar, the trek guide has amputated his legs!
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Disclaimer: The contents of this report are solely for the members of MMRT 42. If the report does fall into the hands of any other person including NEX, AEX, politically motivated tablers, tablers with a particular agenda, Shard Jalan, Manish Bhanusali, RPF, Railway Authorities, Ooty Municipality, Forest Authorities etc., the contents of this report are purely fictional. Any resemblance to any real person is purely coincidental (except for Lawrence of Arabia who is an MLA in Ooty).
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