“A true traveller has no destination.” Excerpts
from an anon source and modified by me. Smart effects of 30 I think…
It was a random mention by Abeer about adding
Gokarna to our travel. By now he and I had ‘travelled’ many exotic locations in
conversations over Starbucks offerings and some of our delectable meals over
the many metro adventures we had traversed post-work. I wanted the Kerala
experience with the backwaters and the romance in the air with tropical
sunsets, dewy mornings, golden skin and bare minimum clothing. Yep I did. I
needed more than a single tree and a pavement and unwelcome stares at my higher
hemmed skirt. Gokarna - which until now was a familiar sounding town in my
basic geography- landed on my holiday trail as the biggest tourist
destination.
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| Curly and packed up Kat |
I read up n researched it like my beau does about things. I grew more and more fascinated. I worked feverishly through my whole work quota well before time and managed somehow to finish 3 weeks’ worth of work in 1 week. Behaved like a million dollars lay at the end of this trip. For me this was more than a trip. It was time away. Away from the city and gadgets and comforts and all that was familiar. It was uncorrupted organic time with Abeer which would involve looking at each other instead of phone screens and sharing real emotions instead of expressing them through startlingly and readily available smileys on EVERY social medium. It was important to me. Our 1st trip away. Esp. with the jolt of dealing with unplanned or cancelled trips in the recent past.
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| My love |
I agreed to go rustic and backpack – live like how
he did. I wasn’t afraid to explore cuz I had the best guide who had literally
been-there-done-that. His experience and “who
plans!?!” attitude appealed to me. We
were perfect. I planned and cribbed and called and informed ahead. He just trudged
along and made decisions that lay enroute. I was afraid that if I didn’t bring
up the trip once in a while or discuss or plan it, it would cease to exist save
for a few notes in my calendar. That’s why when Abeer’s office folks granted
him the leaves; even courtesy checking with me for the EXACT dates, I was
floored. J
As tradition goes, we fought before the trip. Actually,
we don’t fight anymore. We have maun
vratts (silent treatment) followed by exchange of caustic to citrusy
dialogues. Until one of us adds some much needed sugar to balance the flavours and
bring back the love. Yep… we are pastry. Since Abeer is the natural chef
between us… he usually adds the sugar and I am more than happy to be dusted
with all that icing. So we made up a day before the trip, packed a few hours
before the trip, had a squabble and make up enroute to the 1st leg
of the trip and then settled in as us. We were kids. I wanted JUST that. Thus began
our train diaries on the Ltt-Mangalore Matsyagandha Express. Until the train didn’t
jolt its start from the station, I ceased to believe that the journey had begun
indeed.
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| Sunset from the door of the Matsyagandha Express |
Here on I looked forward to some LSD between Abeer
and moi. I realized I should’ve carried my Nikon camera cuz the perils of
clicking from your phone is that you spend the next hour instagramming it,
checking for likes and comments, grumbling and fumbling for network and then
needlessly ignoring the REAL picture – us. I didn’t care for any squabbles. I
wanted to be loved up and wanted to do the same to my man. Over the next 10
days <3
Gokarna – Mangalore – Kerala – Goa – Whatever randomness
that lay ahead.
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