I had an overwhelming sense of dejavu when I set my foot in Cochin. Four years in Cochin, I had seen it all…well, almost all. This leg of the trip was not only a travel across space, but also a travel back in time. This leg of the trip was not for the vagabond, this was more for me and the engg college days. On my way to Hotel Grand, in spite of the heavy rains, I couldn’t help peeping out of the rickshaw to check if all the familiar landmarks were there. On seeing Ceylon bake house, the memories of one of our tragic New Year celebrations came to my mind. I couldn’t help smiling…..Kuttan Chettan’s workshop was still a bike connoisseur’s paradise. Though I m not one, I remembered the first and last time I was on a Hayabusa n R1. I remembered the umpteen times I accompanied VJ to the workshop n was bored to death when we sat there, for what seemed like an eternity, seeing his Bullet transform into a Mini Harley.
Meeting a couple of close friends from the college, after quite a gap, was the main item on the agenda. May be it was destiny that Hotel Grand was chosen to be the meeting place for the time travel, for I inadvertently bumped into one of my school friends and travelled further back in time. It was an absolutely pleasant surprise to meet her in the most unexpected of circumstances. To add to the surprise, one of my juniors – the most gorgeous girl in our campus during those times – was also in the same place. The world is indeed a small place!!!
After finishing our customary quota from Grand, Gundachi, the Kochiites n I drove to Renaissance (This was not the vagabond’s trip…I was shuttling across star hotels!!!) to finish our customary quota with the Valakuzhys; one of the three day-scholar families which used to complement our hostel fraternity. We talked and drove the night away…
Instead of lying idly on the bed on the Sunday morning, I persuaded my friends, those who were not sloshed, in going for a breakfast buffet (Guys/Gals, a jog followed by a three course breakfast buffet from a nice hotel is the best start for any day, I swear… ). When I saw a lady, probably a middle level manager who was once an MBA grad, pulling out a lap top and working on it in the middle of the breakfast, I felt a little odd. The paradox is that I felt a little odd because I found it quite a normal thing to do…I realised how integral lappy had become to my MBA life. Probably I see the lappy more than I see my roomie.
We thought of going for “Shaapping” ( For the uninitiated, a “shaap” is a place where u get “toddy”, a local liquor and the best possible side dish or “touchings” as it is popularly known – exotic n original seafood like prawns, lobsters, mussels etc ) to our favourite Nettoor shaap, a shaap surrounded on three sides by backwaters. But unfortunately, because of the rains, we couldn’t.
After spending some more time in Cochin, I decided to board the general compartment of the inter-city express, back to Kozhikode it was. May be because I was travelling in a general compartment after a long time, may be I never used to bother before, may be I was ignorant…Anyway what I saw was once again ingenious marketing right before my eyes.
Meeting a couple of close friends from the college, after quite a gap, was the main item on the agenda. May be it was destiny that Hotel Grand was chosen to be the meeting place for the time travel, for I inadvertently bumped into one of my school friends and travelled further back in time. It was an absolutely pleasant surprise to meet her in the most unexpected of circumstances. To add to the surprise, one of my juniors – the most gorgeous girl in our campus during those times – was also in the same place. The world is indeed a small place!!!
After finishing our customary quota from Grand, Gundachi, the Kochiites n I drove to Renaissance (This was not the vagabond’s trip…I was shuttling across star hotels!!!) to finish our customary quota with the Valakuzhys; one of the three day-scholar families which used to complement our hostel fraternity. We talked and drove the night away…
Instead of lying idly on the bed on the Sunday morning, I persuaded my friends, those who were not sloshed, in going for a breakfast buffet (Guys/Gals, a jog followed by a three course breakfast buffet from a nice hotel is the best start for any day, I swear… ). When I saw a lady, probably a middle level manager who was once an MBA grad, pulling out a lap top and working on it in the middle of the breakfast, I felt a little odd. The paradox is that I felt a little odd because I found it quite a normal thing to do…I realised how integral lappy had become to my MBA life. Probably I see the lappy more than I see my roomie.
We thought of going for “Shaapping” ( For the uninitiated, a “shaap” is a place where u get “toddy”, a local liquor and the best possible side dish or “touchings” as it is popularly known – exotic n original seafood like prawns, lobsters, mussels etc ) to our favourite Nettoor shaap, a shaap surrounded on three sides by backwaters. But unfortunately, because of the rains, we couldn’t.
After spending some more time in Cochin, I decided to board the general compartment of the inter-city express, back to Kozhikode it was. May be because I was travelling in a general compartment after a long time, may be I never used to bother before, may be I was ignorant…Anyway what I saw was once again ingenious marketing right before my eyes.
No wonder, Lalu is giving Gyan at premier management institutes!!!
As I re-entered the hallowed portals of K after a two day hiatus, like a convict back in the jail after a parole , I could see my classmates scurry like crazy to complete the numerous project submissions, assignments and quizzes lined up for the next day. I smiled at no one, shifted the wonderful memories of two days to the back of my mind, laid the vagabond to rest in peace for two weeks and prepared to become comfortably disoriented to merge with the K crowd and do another night out…….
The end.
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