I’ve been slacking with completing my blogs. I apologize, life kinda took over for a bit. But let us get on with college life.
College was getting more interesting in the second year now that I had my group of established friends. I was happier being back home even with the occasional outbursts between my parents and me. My brother and I still fought like we when we were kids, but the love was very much there. Mom was busy with her real estate work and I would occasionally go and help her out after college.
Sometime during our second year there was a trekking trip to Kemungundi. I used to go there with my grandfather and the family. I don’t think we ever trekked though. We got there late evening and quite a few of us were crammed into a room. Freezing, we huddled together and dozed off. I woke up to a few huge bugs dead near me which freaked me out, and I think this is when my aversion for the creepy crawlies begun.
We did our first trek that morning and it sucked. We ended up in a leech infested area, and I was one of the lucky ones not to get any on myself, except for when I was outside the room. Z-point was beautiful, and the climb up the mountain was a lot of fun. That evening the girls thought it would be fun to lock me out of the room and left me standing in the rain with the darn leeches. I was going bat crazy when they finally opened the door and had arranged candy with candles and sang “Happy Birthday” to me. It was one of the best birthdays in a long time. The next day I chickened out and left the camp in the morning as I didn’t think I would last 5 more days. Luckily I was not the only one who wanted to leave 🙂 The other trek that I thoroughly enjoyed was at Bannerghatta National Park because they served the best bisi bele bath(breakfast food) there, and it was also another spot my grandpa would take us to get behind the scene encounters with the animals.
Our final year trip was the most memorable one of our college life, at least it was for me. We went to Kodaikanal-a small town in the hills. Again quite a few of us were put up in a room which we did not mind. There was a lot of singing, dancing and drinking (on the sly) among us crazy girls. I got to taste rum for the first time, and it was gross. We took bike rides around the lake, we posed and took a lot of pictures. It was pure fun and we were enjoying our last year together, not knowing which direction our lives were going to take us.
From Kodai we went to Madurai. What a beautiful temple we got to visit The Meenakshi Temple-I highly recommend a visit if in the area. There is a sign that says “Non-Hindus not permitted beyond this point”, that is the area of the idols. I consider myself an Indian and this was the first time I realized I was different and it hurt. I had always been to temples, churches, & mosques, and found them to be peaceful so when I couldn’t go beyond a point I was hurt. The drama that followed was interesting and scary. One of the girls decided to tell the priest that I had entered to do Darshan(offer prayers) and apparently they came looking for me. Some other girls got me out of there and we went into the saree shops. Till date I have no idea who the snitch was and am still disgusted by that behavior.
Getting back to Bangalore after the trip left us wanting more getaways, but it was back to reality. On the personal front, things were getting interesting between him and me, and I knew he was who I wanted to spend my life with, but I had known him only a few months. Let’s see where this takes us……
americabydefault 