A trip....

There was this marriage function of one of my manager which we had planned to attend. The marriage was to be held in Chennai on Sunday 19th Feb. As usual as the day came near, most of them dropped out... and finally we were left with 3 ppl. So we decided to go by car to Chennai.
We had planned to start on Saturday morning. Office on Friday was normal till noon. Then suddenly nothing seemed to work! Something had to be finished urgently and everything is going wrong!! We decided to stay back a bit late and finish it off.. We kept on working till 10.. 11... 12.. 1... 2.... 3 Never realized the time!!!! Suddenly we think oh ho.. too late.. my home is 30 kms from office.. So thought its not a gr8 idea to be traveling back home at 3! So decided to stay back for 3 more hrs and start in the early morning.. We did some work till 4:30.. and tried to sleep but couldn't! Left office at 7(some work in morn also ;)) and then reached home at 8.

Tried to sleep but again phone calls started coming... Had to organize the trip also rite!! So we 3 decided to start by 12:30 or so.. I left home at 12... and by the time we all got into the car it was 2 PM. We were goin in my architects car.
It was a pleasant journey.. except for one occasion when Jaggi(team architect) was ripping at 140 kmph and he had break suddenly... car skid for 250 mts.. and still after tht we were doing 70-80 kmph!!!! phew..

After 180 kms, I took control of the wheel and as you would have guessed, the journey couldnt have been smoother :D But nearer to Chennai. no direction boards... and too many ppl coming in wrong way without headlights!! (Yeah it was dark.. 6-7 PM). One is lucky if tht person is wearing white clothing! or else u cant see at all!!! Reached Chennai city at 7:30.. peak time.. so got stuck in few traffic jams.. but never stopped for long.. traffic always moves in Chennai!! never stops!!!
Reached the hotel in which Sriram(manager who was getting married) was supposed to have booked room for us. The manager there denied any such thing :). And moreover Sriram was not picking up the phone!! So we decided to hunt down the marriage hall ourselves. We came to know tht it was quite close by to the hotel and decided to walk till there. We found the hall and met Sriram also.. who was abt to have dinner with his would-be wife :D.We joined him for dinner there and came back and got the room booked and went off to sleep at 11:30..

We had decided to get up early in the morning(5:30 AM) and go to the Marina beach which was close by. But unfortunately we couldn't get up so early and only managed to get up by 6:30! Still we decided to go to the beach,, we spent some 45 mins there and came back. We got ready by 9:15 and went to the marriage hall. The function had started and we arrived just in time. The function went on till 11:30.. then we had food.. wished the bridegroom and the bride and started from there at 12. Reached back to hotel at 12:30.. The other 2 were making plans for the return journey.. Me had planned to stay back on sunday and monday and start only on monday evening.. I had friends to meet :)

After leaving hotel, I went to meet my friends for lunch... had lunch there and then 3 of us went to Spencers. Its huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge. Roamed arnd there for some 90 mins.. and then one friend left.. two of us went to Elliots beach.. there we were supposed to meet another friend. Met them and then sat and talked on the beach... after tht had dinner and retured to hotel at 10:30 PM. Slept at 12:30...

Next day got up at 7AM.. got ready and had breakfast in the hotel.. Went to meet two more of my friends in a TCS office. Met them... again, talk and then went for lunch. From there again one friend left back to office and the other accompanied me to another TCS branch where I met another friend. This was in Tidel Part.. its like ITPL.. but bigger I guess.. but was a neat place.. After tht went back to hotel, packed up and collected bus tickets... and then went to drop my friend to her hostel.. was there for some 1 hour (did some shopping also).. and then started in a taxi for the busstand. The private busstand is pretty big and well organized compared to Bangalore! I reached there in time and got into the bus... it was pretty hot and humid.. but once the bus started to move, it was ok... Reached Bangalore by 5:30 AM and reached home at 6:30.. slept for a while.. and started to office by 10:30!! was there in office tht day also till 10:45 PM (back to normal routine ;))

Few stand out points of the trip...

*Drive was awesome...
*Tamil Nadu is full of rash drivers!!! beware!.
*Roads are pretty wide in Chennai.
*There are traffic pile ups.. but it never stops.. however slowly it keeps moving.
*Most of the roads are in decent shape.
*Didnt see parked vehicles occupying most of the roads!

**You cant explain the feeling one when someone feels real bad when u are saying bye to them and when someone feels so great and excited to know tht u are going to meet them :)
Friendship, is such a powerful thing.. no bondage, yet so strong.. Strongest of the relationships :)