A Week on the Coast

The Plan

This was a break I was desperately waiting for. I booked the train tickets to Vishakapatnam almost 20 days early. My cousin Deepa, my sister and I were the ones planning out the trip for a good break from the daily routine. Most of my previous visits to Vishakapatnam were mildly frustrating because it was just a few hours' visit and an intermediate resting place before going to the real destination, Jagdalpur. And unfortunately they were not always pleasure trips. But this time was different. It was a 4 day fun-promising trip and we were looking forward to it like nothing else in life. 21 August to 25 August was the plan and we already made up our minds about where to go on what day at the mercy of the Rain-Gods.

The Trip

We started our Vizag foray with a good lunch and finished the evening with a stroll around Tenneti park and a nice long drive on the beach road. I volunteered to drive and truly enjoyed the experience. The nearly empty and smooth roads adding to the scenic locations were fun to drive on. The saddest, sickest part was that I didn't have a camera with me. This was the first trip in 4-5 years that I went out without a camera, and I cursed myself for it and the stupid reason why I didn't have it. It was left with my Dad's Friend's Friend at a painting institute and it's not yet back home.

The next day being Ganesh's Festival, we were forced to stay indoors and perform all the pooja and eat all the 'delicacies' prepared. The whole day progressed slowly with a very late lunch and weird music from a nearby pandal. I expected devotional songs and ended up listening to hit tracks from the latest Magadheera that were repeated atleast 500 times in those 4 days (I know them by-heart now though I never watched the movie). On a weirder note, I also happened to catch songs from artists like Blue, BackStreet Boys, etc and the soundtrack from Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift. Now why these tracks were played on a 'Devotional' occasion is an answer only the Men-of-God, the Priests of the pandal can give. Occasional rain sent our evening plans down the drain but the sight outside the balcony was breathless. A long line of the West-side hills were visible and the rain clouds slowly progressed their way past the tips. One could actually watch the rain advancing towards the city and the rain clouds would eventually cover up so thickly that the hills became temporarily invisible. I cursed myself for not having a camera so many times that it surpassed the number of times Magadheera songs were repeated.

Monday was the longest and the most fun-filled day of the trip. Early in the morning, we rushed to Rushikonda Beach in the hope that the sun wouldn't tan us black. Instead the weather was so pleasant, we stayed there till past 10:30. The swim in the misty beach and a small boat ride directly into waves was beyond thrilling. I grabbed another chance to curse my Camera-less pockets. After a moody breakfast (Moody because my cousin's phone ended up spoilt because of a single wave that crashed onto the boat), we went back home. I took over the wheel on the drive back and enjoyed the drive thoroughly. 80 KMPH and the cool, misty, wet wind slapping my face was the true pleasure I experienced. We went out in the evening again for dinner at RR Grand Bay and later managed to hit a local pub, Chrome (that was totally empty except us). While the rest made their way to the floor, I happily sat sipping a Vodka-based drink and watching Hitman on the flat screen (Who would dance to those weird BPM-altered Bollywood-Tollywood songs that were simply mixed on top of an unchanging non-stop rhythm??). When asked for Rock, the DJ played a song by Pink and I had to shut my ears out for sometime. The poor bartenders were also heavily engrossed in the movie, apparently bored that nobody was willing to have a second drink. My cousins wanted to go to another pub, but 2 others were closed and we returned back home past midnight.

25th was the day to leave. I wished to stay on but I reminded myself that the tickets were booked 20 days back and there was no point cancelling them now. We just went out for lunch and did some small shopping with me behind the wheel again. Driving in the peak hours of Vizag was like driving at around the most non-peak, traffic-free hour of Hyderabad.

There was but one problem on the Vizag Roads: The Pedestrians. The sleepiest, laziest and least-alert people I ever saw. Slam the horn 20 times and they turn around in surprise as if they just noticed a car behind them, and the expression on their face, "Just go your way, I'll go mine". 2 wheelers driving like maniacs is a usual sight even in Hyd, so nothing new there. No dividers anywhere and vehicles from the opposite lane coolly drop by on the oncoming lane scaring the wits out of motorists. I actually did 2-3 swerves on the road to keep the new Alto scratch/damage free.

The way back

Finally we got onto the train that would take us back home, and before we even started there was a minor incident. A man was beaten up badly, allegedly for stealing or something and also managed to crash his way into my cousin looking for an escape route. That left us shaken and we took some time to get out of that trauma, when we were left sleepless by another weird man. This guy who was having the lower berth, just didn't sleep or allow us to sleep. He was simply standing in the darkness between the 2 rows of berths and it looked like he was looking at us. It was scary beyond the scariest movies that I ever watched. He was unable to stand straight, was visibly sleepy but was simply refusing to sleep. His head was lolling around under the night-lamp and he was suddenly jerking back to life, shaking his head wildly. He kept massaging his stomach and I guessed this guy might be hungry. My blood began boiling now. He was beyond nuisance now and was getting on my nerves. Yet I managed to ask him politely what the problem was. He said he was hungry. At that exact moment we were stopped at the Vijayawada station. Even a 5 year old kid would have known that we "get food in a station". He didn't realise that silly fact till we actually mentioned it to him. He stepped down, bought some stuff and went into deep sleep never disturbing us again. It was past 2 AM and I was cursing him for ruining 3 hours of valuable sleep.

When I finally reached home I was pleased. Familiar Territory. My place. I had good fun for a whole week, and it was back to business as usual. It was back to being me. Couch Potato. Lazy-Bones. Whatever... Me.

PS: I was in for a shock that I least expected. Coming in the next post...