The Goodness Package named "Kodai"!

It’s not in the years that you have experiences, but in those single moments where you live into the moment and dive deep into your soul and make those emotions, feelings resurface which have been trapped inside you. In this fast past of the world, where we are becoming adept at multi-tasking, cutting out friends to focus on our career, becoming robots at following instructions, manipulating nature to meet our desires, sometimes it becomes so important to just lie back and observe. It becomes so important to laugh like an innocent child; to smile like there is no tomorrow; to live like it’s the best day and to mingle among people and experience the true purpose of us being in this world. Words are less to describe that sheer joy, the smile of contentment, the peaceful sleep and those moments of tranquility and serenity.

Rushing ahead in collecting feathers into the bag and trying to complete our journey in college, sometimes we do become tired, we do crave for a day of rest and relaxation. It’s those moments of taking a pause and falling back that we feel despondent and it is that moment when we realize that there is a bigger world around us than running like the mice behind the Piper.

It was a normal Monday, when I got to know about an Industrial Visit to Kodaikanal in the coming weekend from the college. Despondent that I was, though I badly wanted to go and take a break: I did have double-thoughts and all kinds of if’s and buts’ regarding that. I asked my parents and was given permission. My friends persuaded me to take a break and go but the real game was yet to begin. The next day, all gay and happy with a slight nagging in my head I attended my personal “Horror” subject and Lo and Behold! The teacher snatched my happiness as the burglar snatches the keys. The continuous mental torment and the endless protocols that he asked me to follow forced me to cancel my going for the IV for the betterment of all. But, as they say: Even if it is bad, it’s for the good and due to the same teacher’s laziness I was able to go.

A hectic day and a more hectic night: We were merely 19 students and we hardly knew each other. Filled with intense trepidation and anguish and a peeking excitement we boarded the bus at night. Soon, it was a different atmosphere. The stress seemed to subside, the assignments, projects seemed to loosen their grip and it seemed we were freed and inhaling fresh air. Singing songs and playing DumbC, our bus rushed into the night making us the happiest souls on this earth. We drifted between sleep and wakefulness and in no time: it was morning. Those first-hand witnesses of seeing each other sleep in typically weird and funny ways did give a head-start to our day. We reached Kodaikanal at about 11 and after an awesome lunch at no other than the Punjabi Dhaba went off to explore the local sites. We were all mesmerized by the beauty of the place and needless to say: photos were taken now and then. We went towards the star-shaped man-made Kodaikanal Lake and had an awesome time while waiting for boating. The shops, the scenes, the people, the air and the clouds all made us completely forget that only yesterday we were running hither-thither to climb one more step in our academic ladder. It was drizzling and then it was raining and then it was the clouds passing through us and we all started to know each other. When it stopped, I feel good to say that I never thought boating could be that fun. Having travelled quite a number of places, I was personally bored of boating but these people: they gave a whole new meaning to it. We all have heard of tripling in bikes: who among you has heard of tripling in boating? Yes, that was what we did: all the three boats pedaled together giving a feeling of sheer joy and togetherness. We went to Croaker’s Walk thereafter, walking uphill and absorbing a scene of total fog, admiring flowers, trees and local specialties. The diversity of chocolates we tasted that day will easily outnumber the total variety of chocolates we had till then. We held hands and ran downhill and let the air beat our cheeks. Happiness is raw: I experienced that day and it’s the rawness we love not the coating. My friends went cycling and covered a trail of about 5 km and then after a quick visit to our hotel we had our dinner. But the real fun was yet to begin. We played cards through the night, many of them for the first time, sang songs, made funny weird lame jokes on each other, got to know each other and most important got that rare chance to evolve as a person and introspect.

Traverse Afar for the Eye has Read What the Heart Wants to See;
Enjoy to the Fullest for the Smile Wants to Exercise!!!

The next day, The Pine Forest stole our attention with its enormous trees and ever-awing scenery. The cold damp soil, the straight trees, the fresh air and that happy bunch of people gave a perfect start to our second day there. We roamed about in the forest, thinking of nothing but peace with nothing but smiles on our face. Moir point, Pillar rocks gave us the feel of a zero visibility zone and we were surrounded by mist totally. But the highlights were yet to come. After a short rest at the hotel, we went to the Ice Skating Café! Initially, we were a bit hesitant on not going to it for the obvious reason that none of us knew how to skate: we finally did go and that, dear readers: proved to be an added gift on the package. We tripped, fell, bounced, skidded and skated to our hearts content. Our joints did pain but it was the joy which was bigger than every pain that reflect on our faces. We again had dinner at the Punjabi Dhaba and came to the hotel. We decided on not going to sleep that night and started playing cards and then Chinese Whisper. We were soon trying to control ourselves from laughter to the lame jokes made while playing Statue when the lady professor accompanying us was at the door. Shameless and engrossed in the game as we were: we continued to play. Only after a minute or two did we think of dispersing. We went off to a deep slumber and it was a hard ordeal trying to wake up at 5 the next day.

The final day had arrived and happy and contented as we were, a slight sadness started to grip us. We visited the silver falls, had nutrela-breads for breakfast and reached the Kodai Cheese Factory. We got a firsthand experience of how cheese is processed, how ‘paneer’ is different from cheese and got to taste many varieties of cheese. After an awesome lunch, we headed towards our college. But wait: the movie is not yet over. We started playing DumbC and the first movie given was Grandmasti to ‘Silent_Laughter’. Apparently, it seemed to be his first ever hand at this game and he started to enact the scenes which made us laugh and grin the broadest grins. We had some awesome moments at the game with everyone cracking their minds on how to beat the others. But the ribbon was yet left to be done on the goodness package. Our male friends started dancing to Hindi dance numbers with the most epic expressions and it was then we finally bade adieu to this goodness package.

Every moment is worth cherishing, every action worth replaying again and again:
From epic trolss by “Horror” for “Monkey” to Grandmasti Dances by Silent_Laughter;
From the cold chilly weather to the warm sun;
From the Bluff’s to the Statues;
From the Punjabi Dhaba to the Nutrela-Breads;
From “ek pic toh banti hai” to “yaar, ab aise photo khichte hai”;
From Dancing to “didi tera…” to “batameez dil”;
From Ice Skating to Tripling in Boating;
From Photo-Bombing to running downhill;
From DumbC to Chinese Whisper;
From Chocolates to Cheese;
And from Strangers to Friends…”

The list is endless and the memories hard to forget. It’s seldom that the social animal gets a chance to loosen himself so why not grab the rare chances and dance to the your hearts tunes! Spend time with yourself, rediscover yourself and find those glitches in your life and fix them. We shall traverse afar, run along, swiftly pass by; but these moments, that smile, this new found bond and everything that came in this package will be remembered along after and bring a grin on our faces! J