I finally agreed to go to my friend Thiru's home in Pollachi last weekend. Actually, I accepted it willingly as it was another chance to avoid the same boredom in Bangalore. Journey to Pollachi itself was a different experience for me (not for Thiru though, who does it every week these days :-o). We first got a bus to Hosur on the friday evening. We had dinner there and fortunately got bus to Tirupur (saved us from going to Salem and then Tirupur). Usually, I do not get sleep travelling in bus. It was made worse by 2 movies being played and rough roads. With no other choice, I watched the movies, which wasn't boring thanks to wonderful songs from our great Illayaraja :). And Lakes shining in the moonlight along our way had a pleasing effect. Somewhere between Dharmapuri and Bhavani, the bus briefly took the mountain roads - gave us a beautiful glimpse of dazzling lights of village/town below. The cauvery river in Bhavani brought back some college memories(Me and my friends had come for IPT during 2nd yr). Around 6AM, we reached Thiru's rented house in Pollachi. (It had taken roughly 12 hrs from Bangalore)
We had breakfast (ofcourse puries, idlies and dosas :P) and went to see Thiru's own house which is under construction. It was amazing to see Thiru explaining nook and corner details of the house as I was taking snaps. We then went to "town" for some purchases and came back around lunch time. Needless to say, I was very sleepy after the insomnia-like 1hr sleep during the journey. Evening was spent on preparing for next day's "engagement" (Thattu Maathu) of Thiru's sister. Thiru again amazed me with his rangoli skills. With good old tamil songs in the back-ground and myself engaged in taking snaps of the rangoli, it is a day I would rather like to remember. We had a walk under the moon-light and believe me, it was absolutely fantastic... How many of you have walked in absolutely calm place(except for the chirping of nocturnal insects) surrounded by lots of trees and a wonderful large & bright moon for the company? If you haven't, you have missed a good experience...
We got up early on Sunday morning to make everything ready before the relatives arrive. Presently, one of Thiru's relatives came along with his grandson. With nothing to do, I engaged myself in watching a black caterpillar roaming about near the rangoli. It's legs got colored when it crawled across one of the rangoli.It looked as though its legs rotate 360 degrees like those of war tankers when it crawls! The grandson too got interested in its movements when his grandpa warned that it would bite him. I couldn't believe what happened next! The grandson took a slipper to kill the caterpillar and innocently claimed that it will not be able to bite now! :-o
One by one, the other relatives too came and finally the would-be-bridegroom arrived with his relatives in a big van. The function began & I resumed my post as photographer :P. I was finding it difficult to take snaps in the crowd, when one of the kids offered to take the snaps! And, much to my surprise, he did a fab job in understanding the controls and taking snaps! After the function, we went about serving lunch to the guests. It seemed a never ending process to serve around 70-80 people gathered there.
After the guests had left, I took leave from Thiru and reached Coimbatore around 7:30pm. I had dinner with my friend Vivek living there and embarked on another laboured sleep in bus to Bangalore. When I look back at the trip, I know I made the right decision.
