It’s a Saturday, so…😍
This is about a momentous recall from down
memory lane that merits a wondrous, descriptive detailing of sorts, quite over
and over again, for the lovely, enriching life-lessons they gave us!
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| Auroville, Puducherry |
And what memories it gave us!
And I bet, it real will
remain etched in our hearts and minds for years and years and years to come!
But first things first -
Yes! Let me first give a kutty
prelude to the event for y’all -
Some of us, colleagues and friends, are usually
wont to go on those occasional weekend jaunts to places far and near, on those
memorable adventure trips, which, by default, almost always double up as arattai trips of the highest order!
Some
high-intensity ‘conferences’ or ‘seminars’ were those sweet little excuses for
us all to go on such high-octane driving and hikings!
What with two amongst us having just gotten for
themselves, brand new cars! One a Maruti Swift, and another, a Hyundai i10 –
Ganesh Sir’s, and this blogger’s! ;-)
Gives us all the more reasons to take to the
roads on adventure mode, alley?
So it was, that we’d all decided, in one
harmonious accord, to take out our brand new cars, that were radiating a
lustrous shine and sheen on their Teflon-coated bodies, on a one-day jaunt, through the amazing,
beach-way also called the ECR scenic highway on East Coast Road towards
Auroville, Pondicherry.
Eight of us in number we were!
The much awaited red-letter day dawned, and on two newy, brighty, ‘brand
newy’ cars in tow, we were all up and sprightly, spruced up, and all geared up
in all vibrancy and enthu, for the gala trip that was waiting in the loop
exclusively for us all!
Well, this one-day trip, we should acknowledge,
became a reality, thanks to a cordial invite from a lovely past student of ours,
from Pondicherry, Mr. Dhanasekar, (who’s
been asking us all along, this long, to pay a visit to his house, for i guess,
well over two years now!) who took the necessary strain and pain to make
meticulous arrangements for each and every mile of our travel down the scenic
highway to Pondicherry, what with intermittent fun stopovers, all along, at
least every ten or twenty kilometers, heartily sipping away at a cuppa, doing
boatrides, trying to taste the salt from off the salt pans that were piled up
by the mounds all along the seaways, enjoying the sea breeze, soaking ourselves
in the waves, enjoying the mamallapuram caves, et al et al et al!
No wonder then, that a ride to Auroville, that
would have been – on ‘normal mode’ - done in three hours, had now taken us a
whopping five and a half hours to finish!
The serene, calm, and delightful place
– Auroville - has its own endearing, enigmatic appeal and its charm! Foreigners
from all walks of life make a beeline to this mystic delight - Auroville, and
camp here for months together in a row, just to breathe the therapeutic air and
the mystic aura that permeates and populates the environs in this sylvan,
peaceful abode!
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| At Auroville |
Now, at Auroville, we walked down this long
pathway, through its meandering ways and labyrinthine paths, through its rich
red, fertile soil, over spirited discussions, lively conversations, happy
jokes, impish pranks what with an amiable weather to cap it all up, we were all
walking happily all along our amble, up the green corridors of Auroville!
Me now cutting short on many other eventful
incidents that happened on our sojourn, (perchance up for grabs on a different
post altogether) we headed next, after our Auroville delight, to Pondicherry
University, and after meeting up with a few good ol’ friends there, we next drove
down to the beach, where we had our share of hilarity and fun unlimited, until
sunset signaled to us all, to take to the wheel again back to namma Chennai, on our return journey!
[Well, let me add on an aside, that, we used to
have an amazing Ahuja mike with a Stranger (speaker) always handy in our car,
to facilitate impulsive antaksharis
(singing sessions) on the go!]
That said, Mr. Dhanasekar from thence on, took gracious charge over the hospitality part, and invited us all to his house!
En
route, Dhanasekar, out of sheer concern and courtesy,
asked us if we could fill fuel for our tanks at a fuel dispensing bunk quite
well-known to them, in the immediate vicinity!
So we obliged, yielding to his call!
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| Dr. Ganesh, snapped on the occasion |
Dr. Ganesh, and myself, the two ‘drivers’ of our
respective vahanas, now halted our
cars, at a fuel dispensing bunk, each! Dhanasekar further added, ‘Sir, you may
fill your tanks to the full, as fuel here is quite cheaper compared to the
prices in other places!’
We doubly obliged!
Ganesh Sir was the first to take to the call,
and fill up his brand new car’s fuel tank at this outlet! I was at the other
end, equally busy filling fuel to the brim!
Then, it was, that, all of a sudden, I, happened
to look up, quite nonchalantly, at the price meter, to check on the price of
the fuel at this particular fuel dispenser!
‘It looks so damn cheap! So amazingly damn cheap
the fuel here is,’ I said to myself! ‘Cheaper by more than twenty rupees!’
But the very next instant, sensing something
grossly amiss, I popped my doubt straight to the operator, “Is petrol this damn
cheap here at Pondicherry, Sir?”
The operator gave back an equally casual,
nonchalant reply saying, “But this ain’t petrol, sirrr! this is Diesel! Diesel!
Diesel, as you know, is always a tad cheaper than petrol, ain’t it?”
‘Deivameyyyy! STOPPPPPP!!!’ I shouted. ‘Stop
dispensing the diesel! Ours is a petrol tank!’
He stopped, full well shell-shocked, right there
on his tracks, in a fit of a stupor at that!
I quickly turned off the engine on my car, got
down and lunged as quick a manoeuvre as I possibly could, towards Ganesh Sir’s
car, and shouted out, ‘Sir, quick! turn off the engine. Quick! Stop the fuel!
He’s filling up diesel! Ours is a petrol car!!!!’
But by then, quite sadly at that, the damage had
been done in both the cars! Both our brand new cars! And almost completely at
that!
‘Total damage,’ as they say!
With eight of us staring our blank stares at
each other, at a time when the sun had almost set, and the owls were peeking
out of their treehives, and here we were, out in the lurch, not knowing what to
do next, looking so blank a gaze - first heavenward, - then earthwards, - then
upwards, - then downwards, then sidewards, - then finally towards our pavapetta, amiable host of the day, Mr.
Dhanasekar!
Little would he have expected, this debacle to
fall on us, his teachers, at this time of the night! Neither did we!
Then the bunk operators very quickly took
control of the situation, and pacified us, asking us not to worry a wee bit
about it at all!
But it was no easy joke to say the least!
Two brand new cars! Two brand new fuel tanks on
two equally brand new engines have been heavily affected because of the wrong
fuel that’s gone down the engines, corrupting their efficiency in toto, as they’ve been filled to the brim with diesel!
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| Prof. David Albert |
Brand new cars that were meant for petrol and
petrol alone, were here languishing because of a wrong dose, and an overdose at
that!
It was then that we decided to take graciously
to our bestest vajrayutha!
That
joyous dominant rasa! Yesss! Unending
humour and amazing laughter followed in quick succession! Literally laughter
from all quarters! We indulged in those pranky leg pullings with such suave
gusto and humour!
Dhanasekar then decided to take us home in
another vehicle!
There his whole family was waiting to warmly welcome us all!
His parents and his siblings were so overjoyed to see us all, and what a warm,
unforgettable, lovable hospitality they gave us!
Taking along our Ahuja mike and speaker, we eagerly
wound our way up the stairs, straight to the cool, open terrace!
And with the
beautiful moon shining up above and giving us the added momentum and the enthu,
we started on our next antakshari for
the night, completely oblivious to the precarious predicament that had befallen
both our brand newy cars!
Ganesh Sir being the seniormost of our lot,
started off with his favvy Kannadasan number, to shouts and claps and plaudits
and smiles and laughter, and then Prof. David continued from there on, and we
all took each our turns, at singing!
Almost the entire neighbourhood amongst
the village folk had by then gathered around us, bemused in toto, on seeing our
pranks, our arattais and aaravaarams for the night, watching as
some of them did from their respective terraces too!
Then Ganesh Sir, as usual,
went on an emotional high when he started talking on Nadigar Thilagam Sivaji
Ganesan! All of us were quite absorbed listening in rapt attention to him all
through!
Mid way through our arattais, and galattas, came
paniyarams, appams, vadas, bondas, bajjis, murukkus, seedais, and many
other eats for the special, memorable evening!
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| antakshari time |
By then, we - all of us - had so blissfully
forgotten on our ‘huge debacle’, when Mr. Dhanasekar came up the terrace with
happy news that both our cars had been perfectly set right!
(Well, the cars had
gone up and up on those huge hydraulic jacks and levers for well over six feet
in height, for the tanks to be removed and cleaned up!)
Only when Mr.
Dhanasekar came up and announced the news did we really even bother to look up
our watches, and, hey presto! to our surprise, it was almost half past eleven
on our watches!
Ende
deivameyyy! Rakshikanameyyy!
Even at this juncture, Ganesh sir, quipped one
of his spontaneous humourous dose from up his sleeve,
‘We are so happy that the cars
have at least come down, Dhana! It was so paavam
to see them at such a height, all alone, without us!’
Then we all, ambled up towards our respective
cars, thanks to Mr. Dhanasekar, and by the time we took to the wheels, it was almost twelve in the night!
With all vibrancy and gusto before we could all hop
into our cars, Ganesh Sir walks up to me and tells me,
‘Rufus, make sure you stop at the next available
coffee shop! We need to celebrate this memorable event with a cuppa hot chaai, you see!’ ;-)
“Okay Sir! Done! I guess, it’s just half a
kilometer away, Sir,” I tell him.
‘Apdiya?
Appo stop there!’ he beams his
radiant hearty smile.
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| Our Maruti Swift and Hyundai i10 on that memorable day! |
Now, even as our friends were busy getting into
our cars, to start soon on our homeward-bound journey, one of Mr. Dhanasekar’s
neighbours, so curious at that, ask him,
‘Why are they leaving this late into
the night. They could have stayed back for the night, ain’t they?’
Mr. Dhanasekar tells that elderly gentleman,
‘Actually both their cars were filled up with the wrong fuel, and so they had
to linger on for a few more hours, for the cars to be set right and made
functional back again!’
Now his neighbor quips, from within our hearing
distance, to our audibility,
‘And in spite of all this, they all were making
such wondrous laughter, fun and frolic, all along, till late into the night?’ albeit
in a tone of surprise and astonishment writ large on his face!
Well, those words from that lovely gentleman,
sums up in all its bonhomie, the sheer sense of joie de vivre and sweet abandon we all had, on that memorable
night, in spite of the seemingly ‘perplexing’ occasion and ‘visibly’ upsetting
situation!
Looking back, none of us could come up with a
spontaneous reflective thought back then, on that particular occasion!
Per
chance, it was because we mighta impulsively practiced, carpe diem, not
allowing anxiety or nervousness to play spoilsport on such a wondrous
opportunity, an excellent opportunity, an amazing opportunity for that added
fun and frolic!
Now, years later, on reflection, looking back
down memory lane, I could now recall and reflect on a wonderful quote by G K
Chesterton that merits the occasion to a tee!
It’s from his delightful essay
titled, ‘On Running After One’s Hat,’ and it goes thus –
‘An
adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is only
an adventure wrongly considered.’
For once, I could feel the liberating power
innate within these mighty lines of Chesterton cruising its way straight from
the legendary Chesterton’s heart to mine!
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