Travel bugged

Looks like, this year, brought with itself an agenda to make us travel. Not that we are complaining. Me and family are ever-ready. But a slight hitch. After trips in US, we kind of underestimate the 'work' that goes into planning a vacation here, in India. Another US hangover is the mode of transport. Trains, buses are counted out. Cars are voted for. I don't know, how many more trips, it will take us to realize, that roads ARE BAD. No, it was not just the stretch here and there, through out, the roads are.......well. Infact, in patches they are good. But the freedom of stopping for coconut water, highway-cafe coffee days, singing - along with 'tere bina'(Guru)........are still winning.

So after the wonderful short trip to Belur-Halebid, in Jan and the long drawn relaxed trip to Ooty in feb and the pilgrimage to Tirupathi in March, we were not done. We drove to Coorg in May, with my family and then to Kodaikanal in June, with in-laws.

Coorg we stayed in a bungalow, amidst a coffee plantation. The drive was enjoyable. Of course, we were blissfully ignorant of what awaited us. The mud/stones/rocks path, (hence forth will be refered to as THE PATH)that lead the Qualis from the main road to the actual house that was half way down a mountain,was steep in the steepest sense (I don't know what that means? But understood, right?).We endured The PATH cheerfully. But when we saw the Bhoot Bangla, we were so ready to return. But we are a brave pack, not ones to turn tail on the money already spent (it was not cheap, mind you). So we stayed. The best part was we were enough people. We were 9 of us, and and we kind of managed to occupy a large part of the large house. We endured power-cuts, defunct generator, a scary looking care-taker (really!) and a cook who did not understand any of the languages we spoke ( between us we have a collection of 11 languages, including German which my appa speak)s. We soon realised that THE PATH was the only path to food(restaurants) AND sight seeing. There was no other way. Of course we could have sat in that beautiful garden, cooked in the farmhouse-ish kitchen and returned. But as I said we are a brave pack and maybe a little lazy to cook on a vacation...maybe. And as I also said already, were enough people and we were just family. So we cracked scary jokes about the house, ganged up to get the generator working, sight-saw and had a giddy,gaudy good time.

Then we went to Kodai, and pushed our luck, that little much, too much. We ended up watching a combination of mist, fog, drizzle and downpour. To be honest, the sun used to be bright till 10:30 in the morning. But by the time we overcame our we-will-not-be-hurried-on-a-vaction indignation, and cooked for my Tambram son, we had lost the sunny window. But again, it was just us, just family, and we laughed at our inertia, fumed at the weather, realised we were morons for planning this at the beginning of a never-fails-to-stick-to-it's-timing rainy season. And cycled. Rented cycles, in all colour, size and shapes were available in plenty (Maybe because all the smart people had vacationed and left, already).

We returned a week later than my son's school re-opening. It is a small, kind KG school. Secretly, for me, till he went there, he would be a 'baby'. Left to me, I would send him to school at the ripe old age of 6. Directly to class 1. But, I have succumbed to his need for interaction with his friends in his 'office'. (That's what he calls it). But being the only kid in class? Yep. We realised, that all his nursery classmates had moved on to the big schools, and he was the only child, in his class. Suddenly my idyllic theories seemed stupid. It was time to take stock and charge. Take charge, I mean. Fortunately, we got admission in the oldest, established school in our Layout. He has to wear uniform. Tough on me, but he has already become school-proud and uniform-proud. My small doubts of whether my baby has been shoved into boy-hood before he is ready for it is dispelled by him, constantly. "Ma,see, I can switch on the fan!! I don't even have to stand on my toes!!!! Look!!!!! I am now a big man!" . Hey ! hold on there..not so fast.