Wayanad Diary

I have been part of in numerous trips in my short life-span. All of them have involved ladders in one form or the other. On that front, this was very very different. For the team of bevdaas to embark on a trip and return without some bloodshed is quite unheard of.

"Spendthrifts". Wondering why I highlighted that, because that's what we are. The whole bunch of 934's :). When I started the discussion about the trip, lot of insights came from everyone.

"This is recession time. We shouldn't be spending much. Lets us stay in a lodge. It will cost us around 1000/head etc......"

When we boarded the Qualis at 11.45pm, a room worth 15ooo was booked at a premium resort in wayanad and "budget" was the last thing on our minds and by the time the trip concluded budget per person had gone up to 4k. Well so much for planning :)

The team :

1. Uncle a.k.a Jihad
2. Mr I
3. Mr I2
4. Youth
5. Soban
6. Gibu Raj
7. Machan
8. Kapil Bhai

Have you heard of the term "Enlightenment"? If you have not, then I suggest that you meet up with Mr I a.k.a Pranthan a.ka. Anil from 934. The drive from "Gundalpet" to "Wayanad" was one filled with enlightenment's. Mr I was in his elements. Having woken up from a deep slumber he was hell bent on imparting his infamous thoughts on us. The topic was "Maya", "Karmic connection", "cosmic connection" etc.

"Pappa" what is that you desire most asked Mr I...

Now one thing about Mr I is that he is damn serious while imparting these valuable infomations. So I replied in a grim tone "Well I would love to have a big mansion, girl friends, flashy cars etc'.

'Pappa, you should not crave for these meaningless things in life, because eventually this is all a maya. There is no mansion, gf's or flashy cars. Its all got to do with cosmic connections.

Well if you are reading this and wondering what this is all about, then we are on the same level :)

I forgot to mention another highlight of this trip. Traitor a.k.a jaydev had pulled out of the trip citing very valid reasons. It seems that IBM India doesn’t allow employees to take leave on Saturdays and Sundays.

Anyway that problem was handled very professionally by me. Nixon Fernandez had landed from Dubai and came over to hand me a package (No points for guessing what that is) and I convinced him to join us on this trip.

So while Mr I was rambling on about his thoughts on "Cosmic Connections", I saw Nix watching quite intently. Now Nix is someone who can be classified as an I :). Lets us refer to him as I2
The I Brothers

Youth and Uncle were closely following the conversation between me and Mr I. They were probably intrigued by the idea that all their personal concerns and worries would be washed away by following I's advise. As per his words "Ellam maya aanu suhurtukkale"

We had breakfast from Sultan Battery, with Youth organising everything pretty well. I had made an advance payment for our resort and was a bit apprehensive about how it will turn out to be.

The resort was 3kms from the highway and the road was pretty treacherous. By the time I had my first glimpse of the resort all my concerns were washed away. It was an ideal setting for a romantic getaway.

Well from this point Youth took over. The logic behind the decision to portray him as the "All-in-all" was pretty simple. In the event of an "Ladder" happening, we can project him to the hotel authorities. Seeing him their anger is bound to subside. I am not sure whether Youth knew of this plan of mine upfront :)

Well the agenda for today was to visit "Kuruva Island" and come back and DRINK.

Wayanad is really a very beautiful place. You can view nature at its best. This is my 6th trip to Wayanad and each visit brings new experiences to me(Not ladders).

Mr I was giving a sermon on trees and cosmic connection, but everyone was engrossed by the raw beauty of nature. We reached Kuruva Island around 1pm. Youth had arranged for a lunch nearby and it was pretty scrumptious

Drinking had started en-route to K Island and all of us were pretty high by the time we started the trek. The first casualty was Jihad. He fell down flat while crossing kuruva island and though that’s of very little consequence, the fact that his mobile phone worth 10k got drenched caused a bit of worry. I don’t know who gave him the idea of carrying his phone to the "Water-filled" Kuruva Island. Well he had company as Youth and Gibu Rajan got drenched soon and were looking at their mobiles as if they(mobiles) had come to the island on their own will. :)

So put together 50000 went down the drain, since Gibu has an aversion for cheap mobiles.

Uncle had refrained from drinking till that point. But loosing that mobile made him pretty sad. I really don’t know why(never seen a gal calling him in that mobile).

Well we returned home in high spirits and I mean that. Our vehicle was laden with bottles :)

Now there is a quite guy amongst us by the name of Kapil. I never know how he came into our cirlce, that too through the acquaintance of Jihad. Anyway some people's fate are decided earlier.

Being quite doesnt mean this guy is not observant or without opinions. As the spirit flowed people started to open up.

Jihad made a proclamation that he will honour us by breaking his so called resolve and have a drink with us.

Machan, Mr I and Mr I2 were trying to put a ladder from our cottage to the next(where a bunch of poor north Indian guys were staying).

I saw a light in the North Indian guy’s room around 8pm. I am cent percent sure that they were debating whether or not to come out of their room for dinner and face a group of drunk mallu MCP's or find a back door and start running to the nearest Bus Stand.

Well by around 9pm they came out. Guess hunger played a major part in that decision. The expression on their faces matched that of a young Indian Bride awaiting their first night with a older man.

"Enatha nokkunnne"..."*^*^T%^*&" etc etc was thrown at them. Luckily an interesting topic started by Nix diverted attention from them.

The topic was about "Aghora Swamis". Both Mr I and I2 had different views on the topic and by the time the discussion came to an end all of us were aware about the life style of aghoris, their rituals, their ideologies and even the brand of their inner wear.

Chettan a.k.a Quotation had joined us around this time (11pm). Without waiting for a round of introductions he poured a peg for himself and started drinking. Now that’s a responsible drinker :)

Chettan

A lot more happened after that. Alcohols limits my recollections but the dinner was eventful. I made a mistake of suggesting to Chettan that they may charge for his dinner since we had booked for 8 people. Eventually they didn’t bill us, but chettan made sure that they would do so in the future by almost emptying their vessels (It was a buffet, mind you)

Got up at 7am the next day, thanks to Mr Machan. He was pulling at our sheets as early as 6.45am. Well that resulted in us visiting the natural pool at the resort. It was pretty good as it eased my hangover. Uncle who had made a proclamation that he would be swimming 10 laps the next day was seen popping around in the pool like a fully-laden frog.

We had plans to go to "Sujipara" water falls. But heeding chettans advice we stayed back and thanks to that we were able to take some beautiful pics.

The fog "Koda manju" descended upon us like an angel trying to protect its loved one, only in this case it was a bunch of drunken MCP's.

After around 3 rounds of drinks somebody suggested that we should streak and this wat happened after that. I dont know why completely sane, mature and responsible people behave like irresponsible teenagers. I think it is in the genes. Especially MALAYALEE GENES.

This is out of context, but I want to share my thoughts here. I am pretty sure the racial slur going on in Australia was started by mallus.

"Ladder eduthu sayinpinde njenjathottu vechu kanum :) Orappa "

Well we bid goodbye to wayanad and chettan after lunch(From a toddy shop). I was thanking gods for making this a "ladderless" tour when Uncle suddenly put his hand out of the window and showed a "Fuck U" symbol to the car following us.

Oh God here it comes....I glanced around and my worst fears were confirmed. A car full of young men. They overtook us and reciprocated the symbol. I had almost resigned myself to the impending fight when somebody suggested that our "Alcohol reserve" is diminishing. Everyone sprang to attention. Fondness to alcohol overcame fondness for ladders and I heaved a sigh of relief.

Swami Vivekanada would have been proud of Mr I2, if he had been with us for the fag end of the tour. Such were the discourses from Nix, varying from politics to sex to lust. :)

Anyway all is well that ends well. Thank God.

It was a really good trip :)

Mr Kapil - The Silent Assasin

Bevdaas at the Le Meridien

Srihari a.k.a Kona had recently shifted jobs, with a significant rise in pay and decided to celebrate it in style... Blessed with a cunning intellect, he decided to take the most safest route while arriving upon a venue. So here we are, the whole 934 guzzler group, at the Le meridian for their dinner buffet(with unlimited alcohol).

We went in a taxi. Any other mode of transport would have resulted in grave injuries - self inflicted or otherwise.

The party started out well; the intent was to make the Le Meridian management realise their folly in allowing a team like Bevdaas to go on a drinking spree. The bevdaas has already created history by running up a bill for Rs 25000 in another hotel named "Bon South". Last that I heard, that was the end of that offer - not surprised considering, I had witnessed a tear in the owners eyes while saying thank you to us. Guess it was not from gratitude :)

           Anyway Le Meridian is a 5 star hotel, and the 3 musketeers(Gibu Rajan, Hari and JD) had already teamed up on one side of table. I smelled a mutiny. Rajan was in his elements from dawn and I was awaiting an outburst from somewhere. 

Now Jd, has this uncanny knack of making foes with the most pleasing of all peoples. Some guys never learn from mistakes and he is undoubtedly the leader of that pack. Once you get acquainted with JD, it is easy to predict his transition to a "Kachada". You can derive it from his eyes :)

What fools we were to imagine, that he had undergone a definitive change, once he had celebrated the prior new year with a bloodbath. That time, he made the mistake of catching a ladder with the senior most JD in a scenic, and serene apartment in remote Ooty.. Guess that treatment stands forgotten, for he was almost begging everyone to give him a dose of that yesterday; luckily for him - none obliged. 

                      There is a self proclaimed intellectual amongst us named "Pranthan". As usual, he was trying the futile exercise of imparting his vast knowledge on the guzzler group while they went about going their usual job - guzzle drinks. Below is a snapshot of him.

Other than that everything went as per script, with Jihad exploring all of the 100  dishes served for the buffet, JD trying to irritate the hell out of the well behaved 'malayalee' waiters.

Jihad is really on a fascinating transformation journey. I am still confused about what has bought about this change in the alpha male, but he never ceases to maze me, by refusing drinks, going to the mosque without fail and staying out of trouble a.k.a "ladders". I am now on the verge on believing that we are actually in the kali-yuga.

Well Jd tried hard to break jihad's resolve yesterday but he being a seasoned warrior(has seen through umpteen no of ladders) stayed put :)

When you have unlimited drinks at your disposal, and a team of bevdaas what is the logical conclusion... You get a team of drunkards...Well, what happened after 10pm is still quite hazy for me to recollect. The next pic shows me unbuttoning my shirt and that implies I am drunk/sloshed.

Well by the time we bid farewell to the not too enthusiastic Le Meridian staff, ladders were on the rise. This pic was taken at the Le meridian entrance, actually the car parking lot

Guess the staff at Le meridian would remember us for a very long time.

Well when I woke up today morning I heard that some ladders had occurred at our place. Anyway no one is hurt and guess all is well that ends well...

Some pics from the celebration

Shootout at the Bevdaas haven

Why do people seek solace in alcohol? Now that's something that needs immediate attention mind you. With India having a very young population, some study or research(there are researches for the type of underwear people prefer nowadays) should be done as to why today's Youth is so addicted to liquor. Now that's from a social perspective

I am writing this, lying on my bed after refusing offers from 2 roomies to start the battle with drinks. Time is just 1pm. I have been in bangalore for almost 5 years now and have traversed across the length and breadth of this city, visited all the pubs, hangouts etc. There is nothing left to do,nothing that captures your imagination and I think it is this solitude that diverts the younger generation to the brink of being alcoholics.

I made a decision on Jan 1st to quit smoking and am happy with that decision. Maybe itz time for me to have second thoughts about alcohol too. Well not this week anyway :)

Got up early today. I don't know why, but I always wake up early on Saturdays and Sundays. Call it the weekend syndrome :)
Srihari, my roomie had bought a new digital camera and I was just playing around with it:)
I am blessed with friends who are always willing to strike a pose
Some samples attached :)
Happy weekend

Confessions of a confused mind....

/*Very very confused -------------

How can a Tall Dark Handsome stud like me still be single at 29? Now that's not a paradox mind u :)
Well, I was pondering over this with my roomie, Jihad. He is a likeminded individual who believes he is the reincarnation of the legendary Genghis Khan. I am blessed with a plethora of MCP's as roommates.
Now when I discuss girls or marriage with Jihad, there is always bound to be a bit of incongruity. We have totally different perceptions of the female sex.
We would juxtapose in front of the mirror in our clustered room and then spend an hour debating over how to win over the opposite sex. This was also getting too redundant nowadays.

Let's try hitting on someone at the Gym, said Jihad.

This is something that we have been planning for some time now, but when it comes down to execution, the plan always falters. The main reason is that to hit on a girl, she has at least got to glance at you for a second. No one would spare us that favor :).
It is said that every dog has a day. I have been waiting for that day to come for a very long time. Hope some angel comes and saves me from this dilemma.

The reason I am writing this: Jihad was telling me, Y not become GAY..God help me !!!

Jihad for u - What a man!!!!

The Golden Era - KSU at Cusat - Part 2

The Idea: -

Many would find it hard to believe that the IDEA to start a KSU unit at Cusat came from the mouth of Rajesh Sivanandan a.k.a Lolan (He was also the founder of ABVP in Cusat, but that’s altogether a different story and we will come to that later)

Rajesh, Vinod and Thomas and myself hail from the same place (kollam) .We had studied together from LKG and here we are in CUSAT, in the same class studying Btech(IT). Imagine that...now thats what I call FATE. In spite of all this we were put up at different places in CUSAT. Vinu and tom were put up in a lodge near kalamassery. I was residing with four other newly aquired friends at a rented house inside cusat. Rajesh was staying as a paying guest.

First year at college is always exciting. You are in unknown territory, new friends, hot babes, career opportunities..blah blah blah. Adrenaline flows like anything. The fight with the seniors was settled and we had progressed to other areas, which beckon a youth’s interest (Sports, films, babes). Well sports and films to be precise. I put 'babes' just for the sake of it :)

The first thing you notice about Rajesh is his moustache (a Georgian one) and the next is the speed of his walk. All of us were sitting on the balcony of my house one day and sipping tea when we saw lolan walking at full speed towards our house. He came in, climbed up to the balcony and lighted a cigarette (One of the new pleasures that you get accustomed to in college).

"Eda I had a talk with some of the super seniors today, and they have invited us to have a drink with them".

All of looked at him with awe.

"Super seniors? asked tom. How do you know them?

We had barely completed 1 month in college and this guy was telling us that we were invited to a party with the super seniors. We looked at him with a hinge of trepidation.

"Eda is there some other hidden agenda behind this. Is this just a facade to rag us? I asked

No replied Rajesh in the affirmative. I know them very well and they would like to discuss some politics with us.

Now that got us thinking. "Super seniors discussing politics with us". Man, there is something wrong here.

No da, I am there na, said lolan with an air of supreme confidence. Just trust me.

Eda we do need some support of the seniors at college. We had already displeased a faction of the seniors.

This would come out good. Believe me said lolan.

Well the part about needing support from seniors was true and we agreed to go to the party on Friday.

When seniors invite you for a party in Cusat it means that you have to buy the alcohol and food and then once they are drunk, hear out all their absurd comments and then ensure that they reach home safely.

Well, that particular session with the seniors turned out to be ok. In fact we enjoyed it thoroughly.

They subtly put it across that they were planning to open a KSU unit in Cusat and would like us to play a major part in it. I quiet liked the idea. Starting a new political outfit in college and then rallying students behind us was going to be one hell of a task and I relished that challenge. It would also give us the chance to interact with a lot of students and also the opportunity to do something good for the student community during our tenure here.

Well we left there in a drunken stupor but also with a IDEA of starting the KSU unit strongly entrenched in our minds.

The BUILD UP - to be continued

The Golden Era - KSU at cusat - Part 1

An insight into me : -
I am a techie by profession and reside at Bangalore. I was the KSU president during my term at CUSAT as an engineering student. There was a core group of us who were involved in replenishing the morale of the party and bringing it back to power during our tenure there.

KSU at CUSAT:-

When I joined Cusat in 1998, KSU was defunct. I come from a family with strong congress ties, and it was a natural progression for me to join the KSU brigade at CUSAT- I was taken aback on hearing that KSU ceased to exist there. This blog entry is about a group of us who played a pivotal role in the revival of KSU at Cusat and also about the internal politics and ruthlessness of the SFI and start of the ABVP in Cusat. I am also putting up a short biography on some of the Key persons who were instrumental in the revival of our party.

It is bound to capture your interest ...read on

The Beginning:-

It all started with a fight with our seniors. When a bunch of hardcore MCP's(Yes, you guessed right - MALE CHAUVINIST PIGS) is confronted by like aged seniors on the pretext of ragging, sparks are bound to fly and fly it did on that particular day. All of us were involved in it (Vinod, Rajesh, Thomas, Anoop). Hailing from Kollam, there was this close bonding between us, and we would stand behind each other at all times. Kanyal, Manu Bhadran, JB were some of the seniors with whom we had picked up an argument. Now when a fresher challenges a senior, there is bound to be insecurity all around and being the bunch of cowards they were, they went and complained to the big shots in our college, mainly egoistic assholes belonging to the SFI.

Around lunchtime, the next day we had a surprise, a rather nasty one. I was sitting in the front bench and aping at the girls walking outside when I saw Roji(A SFI leader) outside my class, glaring at me. Now I can always smell trouble, at least I thought so until I met Sabin and he made that notion disappear from my head pretty fast. That guy could smell trouble from a very very long distance :)

One look at Rojis face and I knew that this lunch break would be an interesting one.

I glared back at him, with the typical mallu braveness. That act of bravado didn't last though. Out of nowhere, some 20 bikes full of seniors arrived. They assembled outside our class and was peeking in through the windows. I looked back to see Vinod and Thomas in a similar pensive mood. Now the interesting part about this fight with our seniors was that an SFI aspirant was part of it. As soon as the teacher left the class, they swarmed into the classroom. I had already resigned myself to fate at that time. The questions began

"So you will rebel against the seniors," asked Roji. We didn't say anything. Just listened to all the abuses with a self-pitying expression on our faces.

Man, some assholes were having the time of their lives. They started by abusing me, then progressed to my family members, stopped with my grandfather. I watched one guy hurling abuses at Vinod while our female counterparts looked on with a bemused expression. His name was Prashant P C. Then 2 heavyweights stepped onto the screen. "Gundu" and "Anuj."

Now both were legends in college. There was a saying in college."You fight with GUNDU, and one of these is bound to happen

• You end up with broken bones


• You won't be allowed to study further in CUSAT :)

Luckily for us, both of them were in a good mood, and they made us do some situps, and after some more abuses, we were asked to report to the SFI meeting room at 4pm.

Sabin Thomas, a close associate of Gundu, contacts us around this time and reveals this disturbing piece of information. "Eda compromise talks at the SFI union room ideally means that you guys are going to get beaten up by them."

Can you help us, we asked. Well there is one way around. Just stay silent and assure them you would work for the SFI party from now on. Now that really irritated me.

I strongly dissaprove of hegemony in all forms. I glanced at Thomas and Vinod and one look at his face confirmed the fact that we were thinking on the same lines. We didnt say anything to Sabin and moved on towards the SFI Union room. The next 1 hr was horrible. They abused us left and right and if it was not for the timely intervention by Saifil( SFI gen sec) as well our school mate in kollam we would probably have got beaten up too.

The SFI propoganda at Cusat is very simple. They instill fear in the minds of students and the send someone of thier own party to meet the students in person and educate them that "SFI" is doing all this for the betterment of the student community. That strategy works though !!!!

Anyhow, we came out of that meeting unscathed and with a firm resolution in our mind. "We are not going to have anything to do with this party"


The Idea -  to be continued

From Bad to Good

I am a avid movie watcher...I have always been a ardent fan of good movies(being lucky to be born in an era comprising the legendary Padmarajan and the stoic Hariharan and the masterful Maniratnam). There have been no dearth of good directors in the malayalam industry. 

Post School, I had graduated to watching the masala tamil movies and the hyped up Bollywood stuff too. Malayalam movies still remained my fav, maybe cause of the realities of the common mans life portrayed in many movies. 

                 Of late(post 2006), I have limited my theatre visits to suit my friends compulsions. Watching the 2 best actors I have seen(Mamooty and Mohanlal) stooping to low standards and taking on the role of the omnipotent has been fairly difficult to digest. Though being a self declared MohanLal fan, I was get pretty frustrated at seeing the new generation Malayalam movies

       A majority of the keralites were awaiting the rise of a new Star.  The latest one on the block was Pritviraj. Boasting the genes of the late Superstar Sukumaran and heroine XXX, peoples expectations were huge. Well, he didn't disappoint and embarked on the journey of challenging the long reigning superstars of the Malayalam Industry. The irony of the challenge struck him late and he was sidelined to playing the choco boy movies for a long period. 

        Sept 10th 2008 was definitely a good day for Malayalam Cinema. Me and Vinod were just roaming around in Kollam planning on watching any of the new Onam releases. I saw the movie 'Thalappavu' playing in Grand theatre and compelled Vinu to watch it with me. Though a bit apprehensive at first he agreed and we took the tickets. 

           Well it happened to be the best 150 minutes we had spend in a very long time. It was the directorial  venture of MadhuPal and I must say he has done a extremely good job. I am sure this will be a trademark movie in Malayalam. Though the plot is evident from the beginning the movies captures your imagination and leaves you pondering about the messages conveyed. It is definitely a thought provoking movie. Lal, playing the role of a good hearted but socially unaware policeman has displayed his best acting skills to date. Pritvi playes the role of a hot blooded naxal. The ideologies of the naxalites have been well portrayed. 

            We(ma and vinod) out of the theatre feeling really good. We had been subject to watching a plethora of loathable movies, courtesy CHAX the master brain behind that. 

       Chennai 6000028 was  a trendsetter in the tamil industry and as soon as I heard that the same actors have teamed up for a new film I immediately called up vinu and we decided to watch the movie yesterday. Well though it didnt match up to chennai 28, the movie wa s hilarious and we went into unlimited bouts of laughter:)

    Well maybe the SouthIndian movie industry was improving compared to the hyped up Bollywood. Well that opinion changed today as I finished watching 'A Wednesday'. 2 legends Nasarudeen Shah and Anupam Kher has performed so well  that it inspired me to write this blogs. 

Let creativists emerge, let fresh talents emerge, lets welcome the new ERA of Indian cinema...