May 8, 2008

Getaway!

Now that me hating my work is stale news, it obviously is no surprise that I don't work at all. And so I don't know whether I would qualify as one who requires a 'break', 'vacation' or a 'stress-relieving outing'. But I still feel I deserve it. Because I'm like a bird in a cage, stuck where I don't wanna be and that's as stressful as it can get. Ok, that's like heavy logic and all, so I'm gonna skip that. But, I'm glad that I went on a recent trip to Pondicherry that my sister made me go to. (made => forced, threatened, black-mailed).

Planning for vacations is one of the most important pastimes for my family and friends. It's like building castles in the air. In the midst of a conversation, someone would get a brainwave and say,"Hey! How about we all go to Pondy next week? Ok, we'll call so and so. We could take this car and that. And we could stay here and..........". The next time another one would break out,"Hey!How about we all go to Goa next week?Ok, we'll call so and so. We could take this car and that. And we could stay here and.........". The next time it would be Coorg, Ooty, Kodai - you see we were never short of ideas. We'd plan and plan and plan. We'd laugh about how much of fun it 'would' be and what all we 'could' do.We'd even crack the jokes we 'would' crack and crack over them way in advance like cracks. But on the trip we would never go.

This one, though, was different. It wasn't a family trip (Dad & Mum weren't there) and it wasn't with my friends. It was just the 5 of us -Me, Dolz, Harsh and his 2 best friends (it was one of their b'days on the 4th). I felt like the 5th wheel, the wet blanket, the kebab mein haddi -you get it. My Dad and Mum were insistent I shouldn't go, like I was flying in the air for going on a trip with a mushy couple and unknown guys. Dolly felt otherwise. She felt she would be alone amongst her man and his buddies and she needed me along. Like that stuffed teddy for security.


And go I did. Surprisingly, I had a super-awesome time. Doing nothing much but just lazing around. We started from Chennai by car at around 1 pm. It was like freaking hot and half the trip went by cursing the weather. By the time we reached, it was like 4. We stayed at this really nice resort - 10 km or so from Pondy itself. I LOVED the place. A nice, ancient recluse kinds.

We got to our rooms to change into more comfortable, summer clothes. Now, we sisters aren't swimmers, thanks to Dad being hydrophobic, so we just sat around by the pool sipping cold orange Breezers and watching 3 grown up men act (as nutty as) 3 year olds in the pool. After a while, it got really boring and we decided to get into the pool and just wade around.

We got out at around 8, went up and changed and headed down for dinner. The restaurant was beautiful. French style architecture et al. (It also had a very 'natural' setting, like, we had insects exercising their natural right and flying about unattended) Harsh then came up with a brilliant idea of going down to the beach for a walk. I'm a total dark-o-phobic and I pretty much walked the way with my eyes shut. Thankfully though, the 'men' ran back once they heard a couple of wild dogs howling somewhere in the distance!


My Darling bro-in-law is really smart and his next idea was to talk about, what else at 11.30 pm, but ghost stories. I was mad as hell, I mean, he knowsssss I'm really, really scared! I let him go ahead with it only because I knew how to get my revenge- I would sleep with the lights on and not let him sleep the entire night! Buhahahaha! [Unfortunately a combination of Bacardi and Vodka turned out to be a potent sleeping pill and he was in Dreamland the second his head hit the pillow].

Anyway, we headed back to the room for a drink-and-music session. Harsh was the man of the day. He was in some mood, trust me. Usually the un-romantic types, he seemed bent upon singing only 'romantic' songs (which was the only reason my sis didn't mind the sharp increase in his alcohol intake). Kishore Kumar was everyone's favourite and each one of his songs was brutally rendered by us 4 vocally-challenged people (minus my sis, who's is an awesome singer). Oh, I even played hip-hop tutor for a while. Public demand, you know, tsk tsk. It was hilarious to see them trying out the steps, especially when they were high :D

Finally by 3:30, we retired tired to bed. I couldn't sleep till like 5 am and I woke up by 9 because I vaguely heard that the 'complimentary' breakfast table would close down by 10.15! Once again, the men decided to get sun-bathed in the pool and me and Dolz, for fear of skin-cancer, stayed back. We cut a cake for the birthday boy, had lunch and headed back to Chennai.

Short vacation but high on rejuvenation. I somehow didn't wanna get back. I guess a vacation always does that. It is true, y'know- the lesser expectations you have, the more satisfied you would be. Because I went thinking I'm gonna have a miserable time, but I ended up having a fantastic time.

37 comments:

--xh-- said...

short getaways r always fun..espacilaly whn u r with frndz.. pondy.. wnat to go there once. awsome food, i hv heard...

the 'trip planning' happends every where - among us friends too, it happens quiet often...
so you all murderd kishore da? he he he... man, it was a fun trip :-D

S said...

Vacations are meant to be fun. One always ends up having a good time :)

Keshi said...

mini escapades r THE best!

I hv realised that when we plan breaks, it hardly turns out being genuinely refreshing. but when I dun plan, it's always superb! :)

Pics r great!

I love the way u look in the last pic WOW!

Keshi.

The Maverick Blog said...

Wow... Awesome.. I m looking forward for my vacation too (23-25th!).. Yippeeee...

Anonymous said...

hey P3,planned trips never work out indha maadri suddenaa pora trips thaan super fun,as u told no expectations only enjoyment...nice pics hope none of the culture police in TN caught u in dat shorts hahahahaha......

Anonymous said...

I saw the pics before reading the blog. When i saw the pics, I was about to comment- Rendu ponnuyun engyoo patha mari irukku.

Then I read the blog. Now, free. :p

SK said...

Hey nice!!
Getaways are always fun especially amidst a stressful time, any kind of stress ;--))
Nice pics!

V said...

it's good you escaped the grind for a while. it always helps.

pondy brings back some memories. pleasant and unpleasant. :P

auroville, i hope i got the spelling right, that's where we stayed, the place was amazing, so was everything else until we got robbed and i was left with Rs. 10 in my wallet. i've been trying hard to meet that thief just to ask him why he left me 10 bucks?

PS: did you that only we southies use 'pondy' when we talk about pondicherry... northies use it when they talk about porn... never really got that. porn is porn.. porn cannot be pondy. period.

Arun Sundar said...

Wouldn't it get darker when one closes their eyes out of 'darkophobia'?

Anonymous said...

Pondy is just yay, no? :)

-chutney

Anonymous said...

Pondy is such a pretty place...love those streets with their well aligned grid pattern.

lovely pics! :)

Pranay said...

Wow....enjoyed reading it...seems like u had agreat time...these short getaways have that magic in them...especially if u go with fun loving people...

Narendra shenoy said...

You seem to have had a blast. Good for you!

BTW, what's a good resort to stay in Pondy? Something architecturally satisfying? Just in case I think of dragging the missus for an impromptu vacation?

busy-writer said...

vocally-challenged!? lol. sweet post, great that you had a blast!

:)

lol at arun's comment. :D

Winds of Change said...

hey!! nice pics!!!

glad 2 kno u had such an awesum time....yeah such breaks r definately cool....as i tld u...this shrt trip dat i went wit my family....wuz soooo much fun!! my gmum had cme along too so dat made it amazing...infact v wanted to take her out so dat shell njoi the change! but v REALLY REALLY 'HAVE' to go on a trip.....4 sure...

lotsa luv
u kno who

Vinesh said...

How do people EVER manage spontaneous, unplanned trips!? Beats me! :-)

badshah khan said...

yeps seems like some funtime ......and some cool pics as well

Guru said...

Just stumbled into here ..

Nice blog..

Small suggestion, you should try changing your template colors, dark text on light BG is way better that this (IMO). Cos' reading long posts with the current color scheme becomes very difficult. Just a suggestion ..

Cheers

rantravereflect/ jane said...

awesum pictures first n foremost [:)] love the legs in the last one..

really glad ya FINALLY went on a vacation, it jus helps ya laze around, n spike n numb your senses at the same time..

neva been to pondi on tour, but have gone tehre on work, me n ma saddddddd-arse job!
n yeh jus like ya said, i think we'll always crack the jokes we'd be makin on the way to goa, n neva really find ourselves there :(:(

guys doing dumb n funny lil' things to entertain themselves wen on their home-turf(i.e. with their jattti buddies)..they are entertaining to watch nevertheless..

as far as the pool goes, haaaaa, even i know not how 2 swim, but i do love to float n stay put in the water :)

ghost stories- haaaaaaaa..i can imagine how bummed out ya would've been- three cheers to harsh 4 tat ;);)
n ya cudn't even get bak at him, cs he slept off.. haaaaaaa- deeee ya'd have had tat pathetic lil' baby-smile frm tat bulb.. heee pathetic--> read darn cute

hate it wen they end, but like ya said, tatz the whole point, it makes ya want more of them
:)
love ya tonssss
n letzz do te trip to goa, sometime soon
puhleeeeeeeeeeeeeze..
jj

Preeti said...

@xh: U must go to pondy, really nice place...Kishore da must be turning in his grave now! ;)

@Swetha: Yea, seriously, now I know never to expect!

@Keshi: Yea, we planned like forver and nothing happened! N there u got my blushing again on the compliment :") Tee hee!

@Maverick: Yea???! GO have a greattttt time! :)

@Kumar: Idhu varaikum no problem ;) hahahaha!

@Adi: Enaku puriyila...Enna?

@SK: How i wish i could vacation in Instanbul though! :) n thnx!

@V: Pondy is porn..?! Where the hell did tat come from!? Pondy is Pondicherry is Pondy! Sheesh! Anyway, u got robbed at Aurovillee?!??? I've actually heard of such stray incident occuring and esp firangs being the perpetrators...Never knew it actualy happened! And maybe the thief guy was decent, felt pity n kept 10 bucks for u...Awww! ;) :D

@Arun: Hahahahahahahahahahaha! Pointtt but ok, maybe i shudv said i have dark-la-ghosts & monsters-o-phobia! Cuz I'm reallyyyyy scared of the dark cuz of what's IN the dark or rather what 'maybe' in the dark! And so closing eyes helps so i dont have to look around :D

@Chutney: Yup, Pondy is just super-yay!

Preeti said...

@Wicked: Thanks :) Yea, love the streets too, but i feel the city in itself is like realllyyyy tiny :) thirumbi thirumbi adey streets :D

@Pranay: Yea! luckily they really were fun people and we had a really nice time... :)

@Shenoy: We stayed at Kailash resorts...It's around 10-15km from Pondy towards Cuddalore... Beautiful place...I think it was like awesome...Not some hi funda 5-starish place but just perfect! I'm sure the missus would love it!

@Busygurl: Yea Arun's comment was total lol-able..Check reply to him :P

@Ruby: Come let's PLAN it out :P

@Vinesh: Always my question...Which is why i din't plan this...someone else did ;) and welcome welcome! :)

@Badshah: Thanks :)

@Guru: Thanks and welcome here :) And about the colours, I've had a lotta people temme that, but stubborn me, i don't know why i feel the black background brings out the best in me....But i definitely will consider a change..gimme sometime :)

@Panni: We have to go di...We have to! As i told ruby, come let's plan ;) :P

Nirmal said...

nice to hear that u had fun.......

he he gals r fun....b4 marriage they r afraid of ghosts...and after marriage they gets converted in2 one...lolss

Preeti said...

@Nirmal: Hahahaha! Naughty boy! We women don't become ghosts, it's just that men differ in their perception after marriage and thatz their fault!!! :P

Nirmal said...

ok that means b4 marriage its sweety and darling..
and after marriage its ghost...lolss..

tell me its guys fault or gals..

and in both ways ghost has nothing to loose..its only humans....right..lolss

Varsha said...

Yup, been there, done that. Great minds think alike. :)
And vacations.... well we are meant to have a good time and we do.

Varsha said...

And I have put up my picture. the baby one.

Preeti said...

@Nirmal: That's what only guyz keep saying it, so they r the ones who change...weird ppl! :P

Preeti said...

@Varsha: Baby picture???

*trips over and falls over the table while RUSHING to see!*

Haha!

cm chap said...

Had fun huh..... Now its time to wrk....

Anonymous said...

bed wetting.. hehe.. gud read

Preeti said...

@Cm-chap: Yea down to work :( :( :(

@Chriz: :)

Nirmal said...

ha ha then may ur guy call u ghost in the first meeting itself...lol

Preeti said...

@Nirmal: I'll wish him the same :D

M said...

Hmm .. Pondy trip … Am sure you must have enjoyed..
Keep doing so.. for life s just beautiful ..

Preeti said...

@meenu: Thanx gurl :) Thatz really sweet :)

Confounded-Lady said...

Sometimes plans we dont properly plan out end up being the best ones of the lot.
This one sounds like good testimony to that. I'm sure you d have regretted missing this trip:)

k10 said...

Hey,
Which place in Pondy? Sounds like a real good get away place for 4-5 days..