OUR GRIT

yaaAAAWWNNN!.. Good Morning !

Morning

Sorry for the late morning. After a day long drive, we both slept sound and cosy. We both decided to halt for a couple of days in our aunt’s house. Woke up by bird chirpings and a dust-off cleaning he sat on the balcony to record the morning and it was such a bliss. Before the coffee ran cold, he gulped it and had his breakfast. I had no idea what we were going to do after a couple of days. I just looked at his face and even he expressed the same. After catching up with cousins and aunt after a long time, he packed up homemade chocolates and varkis for his family and friends and we just started to move on the road. He just turned me left into a small branch of road that leads nowhere and stopped.

Yea I know why.. Because we both had no idea where to go next 😬. Halting for about a couple of minutes we considered each and every possible way of a destination in order to make our ride day longer. Options poured in a lot.

Think Think Think……

So, he decided to meet up with our friends, have some good food, play some FIFA and we did all the above. On that night he came up to me smiling…. OMG, that’s the face he shows everytime he wants to do something involving only both of us. He had decided a trip to the God’s Own Country Kerala. He had always shared about his first long ride in his life which was to fort Kochi via valparai, athirapally falls. This time he decided to take me through this trail.

“Going there was like reopening my favorite gift”

Leaving early in the morning, at reaching the outskirts he had this nostalgic reading poking through him which made him to do stops at all where had halted during his trip.

Entering into Aliyar point of view, couldn’t stop there for much long ‘coz our monkey friends started to trouble us since they wouldn’t Leaving early in the morning, at reaching the outskirts he had this nostalgic reading poking through him which made him to do stops at all where had halted during his trip.

To begin with something, when we both just started to feel that mountains became too mainstream for us, Valparai welcomed us with all Bells & Whistles. This welcome lifted our spirits and we decided a non-stop ride till my home. I know this sounds crazy as we got 900 odd kilometres to get on our beds. We wanted to push ourselves.

Welcome Amby

We started to hustle a little bit to reach athirapally as we won’t get an entry into the woods after dusk. As soon as we entered into the outskirts, I could literally enjoy the smell the woods and plantations along us. We just Tamilnadu and entered into the Ente Keralam. As usual had to visit the outpost. The guy who enquired us lectured us on rules to be followed through the woods. That guy questioned him “Why travel single all the way from Chennai?’’. He just smiled. When I was just quenching by my happiness, one khaki came and touched my ego. Yes, that guy told him “No one will help you if this breakdowns in the middle of the forest. Seriously? I wanted to show him that I owned these woods” I literally sneezed all my black smoke on him on take-off and hustled along.  Our Getaway started to get more adventurous as heavy rain started to pour on us making our path difficult. As per that outpost, we had 2 hours to cross the woods nowhere to stop whatever happens. Fearing of Bisons and Elephants, we silently moved from that place and reached a small river cross bridge where I hardly squeezed through it without any scratches.

As usual heavy pours started and we were chugging along were we had to face a scary shit in front of me. Some genius thought it would be wise to complete his work the next day leaving a half-constructed culvert. We both knew we wouldn’t fit in it unless I’m a two-legged one. No one warned us not to take this road. We were calm and idle thinking what to do. We weren’t worried about going back and taking the highway which would cost us more juice and time. We were afraid that on turning back, our lifted spirits would go off and we will lose our perseverance which we both had never excelled in before.

“Fear! We both decided to run towards it and trample beneath our foot. Coz’ that’s the only way to thrive forward”

Do or Die, he decided to move over that culvert. Practically stupid as we had an unmeasurable depth of valley to the left, But I’m there for him serving as his faith and he knows perfectly how will I react to any situation, so he pressed the pedal to the metal and I started to roar. I first laid my leg on the right hump of soil which started to suck inside as it was loose and he suddenly raised my accelerator which powered me to bash the soil and cross and my left hind leg was on air. I didn’t have any of those electronic gimmicks which kids these days have to electronically tackle the slipperiness, but still I rely on his skills and he rely on me, so we finally succeeded that genius-made-half-baked-culvert after a high roar haul. He got down in that rain to check on me whether I had any scratches on my belly.

All Good

“Without labor nothing prospers”

Sophocles

All check done, I was perfect looked back at the culvert, smiled and moved on. We both felt happy not turning back which would have costed our perseverance.

I knew he wasn’t smiling, scared for a moment, but somehow I could sense his lukewarm feel through his nerves which is like “When you’re on a stage well prepped to shake a leg but starting with a fear and half-way through you just forget everything around you and just owning that stage with you all over on it ended with a high cheered applause” That’s the way I put it. The applause was not just for the performance, but also for the perseverance you followed which bashed all hinderance focussing only on mastering that dance. It was exactly like that. I had to make sure I safeguarded his perseverance so that he doesn’t give up half-way or change to other plans like a monkey as he all evolved from one. Yea, you humans are all still carrying that monkey attitude which jumps from here and there without a path.

Halted for a cup of chai, this sudden gust of wind carried all the mist laid over us and went. On the go, a grandfather hopped on with us and enjoyed the ride till the town centre.

My chai and my Mist

We both had a nice chat sharing about what we had faced a moment ago. Town wasn’t far as we reached his stop. Sweet chap offered us hospitality in his house but we had to hustle so we just waved him goodbye.

A Town… Not a Mainstream One!

Not yet over….. See ya!

“Miles to Go”

Somewhere on the Road

……Gulping some water after those cusses, we moved on without any karaoke session towards my destination. This time the journey was so silent… he didn’t sing, stereo was switched off and the noon even bored us both a little.

At evening, he pulled me over a chai wala dukaan for a quick energy boost nearby Annoor. We thought we would spend just 10 min max and then proceed further. But, the chai wala👴 at his fifty’s seemed to be a humble host and he placed himself and his boilers amidst all greeneries one must wish to see and god the gust of wind! I definitely didn’t expect that place to be a paradise. We both were in the task of stretching our limbs and just chilling ourselves with the wind. Our 10 stretched to 30 mins, and realised we have to move on.

While he went to waive off the good chap, he wanted to know about me. He came near me and touched my nose and asked him “Na chinna vayasula oru kalyanathuku ambassador la poirukan, aproma ipo than intha car paakran… ulara ukandhu paakalama? (I have travelled in this car for a marriage trip in my childhood and after that now only I’m seeing this car. Can I sit inside?…)

He asked where do you wanna sit, front or back? The kid inside him blushed front😬. This chap sat on the front seat and kept his hands on the dashboard like a kid. His bright eyes and smile on his face defined that moment. After getting down from me, he praised him for maintaining me till date and told “Seat nalla jammunu sofa mathiri irukupa ”( seat is like a cushion). Finally we bid adieu to the good chap and started to slide onto the road to catch up the time.
We both felt good for spending those 30 mins there. The positive vibes we got from that place cannot be conveyed with the vocabulary we know. One must experience that. With all the josh, we were nearing Mettupalayam which marks the start of western ghats and its sunset. We were gliding on the road with coconut fields and paddy fields on both sides and OMG! This idiot suddenly swerved me to the left shoulder of the road and I was shocked why would he do this all of a sudden?

He silently got down from me came in front of me and started to click the views. His ass was blocking the view for me and seconds later he moved on and gave my view back.

WOW! The high beam of the sunset was puncturing through the clouds and enlightened the “Queen of Hills” lying beneath it.

Queen of Hills

Not much time to spend there, we entered into mettupalayam and had to crawl through the traffic and after sometime we started to move up the gradient and he rolled down all his windows to feel the air outside. It was almost 6 in the evening when we met the first hair-pin bend ,still 13 more to go… FUN HAD STARTED Yes, we started to race through the ghats, things inside me started to move here and there and all his namkeen packets and water bottles started to fly here and there due to my body roll. Still who cares when we were having fun?

No, the policemen cares.

One policeman stopped us and came towards us. He was looking at me like I was from another world and he asked him where are you from? Where you headed all blah blah and blahblah…Basic stuff and he was actually surprised we both were travelling alone all the way from Chennai and he asked weren’t you bored?. With no time to explain the khaki we just smiled at him and started from that checkpost.

Ek second!

From morning I was just enjoying the ride without knowing where this guy is taking me. I just started to brush up my memory when was the last time he rode me on this road, Coz’ his dad had ridden me on this road ‘n’ times during his days. Yes, got it! We are going to our Chittu Aunt’s in Coonoor. It’s his favourite home to stay and mine too. Our aunt is known for her hospitality and kindness. We were crawling up the gradient besides Sim’s park that’s where she is. Yesssss, there she stands near the gate to welcome us with our cousin. He parked me in a comfy spot and started to unload himself from me and went inside the cottage.

Let me flaunt a little bit! I just got more attention from them than him as usual😜. Gotta sleep after a long drive. See you in the morning.

zzzzzZZZZZ …..

“Look through the windshield and not through the rear view always”

Why it always need to be a bearded guy or a nerdy girl to write something? This time it’s gonna be me…yup I’m an Ambassador …I’m a car. My job is to transport….errr rather I picked up travel in this era! Yes I love travelling coz’ who doesn’t right? What makes my rev noticeable from other cars…I do have a character. I’m an emotional piece of metal assembled as a car. Since ’88, I’m being driven around places and still not tired about it. One thing I am proud of is I’m not just transporting my family…I’m travelling along with them and enjoying a bit more since I have the upper hand of enjoying the nature before they do. For all those thinking about the year, yes I’m running young with a mileage of 31 years. For that dork who droves me these days is thinking that he had found love for travel from his heart. But let me hush you the secret that him watching me standing on my four rubber legs under the shed without even a shower for days made him to freshen me up and roar again! and start to TRAVEL. So we started early in the morning and tried to haul through early traffic and this dork just messed up by not filling me up with my juice the before night. I was in the brink of going dry and fortunately we found a flammable juice corner to fill and pamper me up a little and yes we started……………….Wait , why the hell is this guy taking this route which prolongs our journey more unnecessarily? It seems that he was going dry getting famished and just because to eat in that hotel where they serve idiyappam and paya early for breakfast he took this long route Sigh! Alright let’s really go this time and after crossing some Kms, all of a sudden out of nowhere suddenly he thought himself as P.C Sreeram and took his camera to click photos along the journey. Like all those so called camera freaks, even he started to take the Cliché Macro flower shots or the sky.. I was like SERIOUSLY? …… And there comes the noon we decided to skip the “filling up session” as we both had good meal in the morning and started to roar further. We went crazy where he started to sing by catching up the shruthi from my metal heart beat noise which was tolerable for both of us only for a while. We sometimes raced govt buses with pedal to the metal like a rabbit and mowed like a tortoise near these latest kids. While this game was going on, all of a sudden there came a guy to spoil our travel mood in an intersection with his moped where I had to screech all my legs to halt and not hit his ass.. With all the cuss words to share, we moved further

Drive.

THE END……??

Introduce Yourself (Example Post)

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