A trip to Todupuza

It all started when this tall dude from B'lore called me one day and said "Lets drive to Todupuzha." Apparently, this dude's sister was getting married, and he had invited us, not for the wedding mind you, but to watch him wear a semi-translucent mundu for the occasion. I have to admit, I had seen a lot of worse things in my short life span, but this would top it all. Also, it has been a long time since I had seen my old friends(with or without mundu) and I have always fancied long drives. And so off we went in Amol's car, the three of us, Amol, Bachchan and myself.



The idea was, as usual, start early - drive slowly - stop at as many chaya kadas (those small places with boards that say "Hotel Teashop") as you can - and arrive in time for lunch. And as usual, things did not go as planned. We started our journey quite late. There always seem to be these last minute technical problems, like the alarm magically fails, careless parent forgets to wake up responsible child on time, you know, stuff like that.
Anyways, by about half past eight, we are on the road and cruising to todupuzha. Amol was in his customary T-shirt and jeans, while Bachchan was sporting a bright red shirt and long curly hair kept barely in place by copious amout on some gel which, quite strangely, reminded me of Venus Williams during Wimbledon press conference.


Half an hour drive through the beautiful country side and we stopped for our first cup of tea. I have always found chaya kadas to be very interesting places. They are usually small, filled with the local crowd busy with discussions on a wide range of topics from "Why did Baiju cross the road.." to "Was Leader Karunakaran really double crossed." Chaya kadaas are also a good place to savor typical kerala snacks like bonda, pazham pori, and parippu vada. Usually, there will be a common menu card on the wall that lists these items and their prices:


We sat there for some time, enjoying the tea and reading the local newspaper.


Bachchan took over the wheel from here and we started on our way to Todupuzha. Nothing much happened during that drive. We were just enjoying our own company, cracking jokes, with Bachchan trying to improvise on them until it made us sick and we asked him to pull over.

We reached todupuzha by noon and soon joined the rest of the gang from Blore. Boy, nothing had changed, except of course the bellies. It was time for the muhurtham now, and so off we went. The marriage function was according to the custom hindu rituals. We upheld the name of ABBAS by sitting in the back row yet again.



What followed was the much awaited sadya. And how we ate. We had to sit for an extra five minutes for the food to settle down, so as to get up to wash our hands. When the wedding photographer came over to our side, I forced him to take another photo cause I had payasam all over my beard.

As there was some more time for the B'lore dudes to board the bus, we decided to take a dip in the river. It was there that Rafeeq actually swam a few micrometers. The water was green, cool and very refreshing. I took some pictures of the river and also of BNDs (Butt Naked Dudes) in it. However, I am forced not to post those pics in order to protect the identities of all those pot-bellies.

Everything that has a begining, has an end. Finally it was time for all of us to leave. The Good byes were quick but they contained a lot more than words. Afterall, time was never on our side. Just a few years back, all of us shared the same life, shared the same account in Asi's bakery, shared the same "Aanamayakki" for breakfast on Sundays. Now we have to negotiate day-offs and semester holidays from all kinds of bosses and workaholic professors just to be with each other.


I guess the beauty of seperation lies in looking forward to being together again.