The Bangalore Escapade

I have some quirks that might prompt you to cock that double barrel shotgun and fire away at me; examples include my hate for anything that is made out of chocolate(except bars) and my dislike for little kids. I had sensed the risk and taken care of few of them; instances include not throwing away the chicken skin from KFC and finally watching Pulp Fiction. If we're talking about places people have been to, and if we take only resident Indians into consideration and probably every outsider who visits this country, then there is one city that should be in the top 3 of that of list : Bangalore. A list that I failed to satisfy. yep, I had never been to that place despite being a college student just 10 hours away for 4 consecutive years. But you can keep your trigger fingers away, for I finally managed to squeeze a trip to the city into a weekend of my life, which otherwise would have been utterly wasted by me anyway.

Word was that there was an unofficial and unplanned get-together of friends at Bangalore and I was sorely tempted to join. And join, I did. The multi-axle air-conditioned bus was nice enough not to make me remember the details of the 10-hour long journey as I arrived at the capital of Karnataka at 7 in the morning, which by the way was the time for the weather to be freezing cold leaving me shivering all over(learn, Kochi, learn!). Shortly rescued by suthin, we headed to his brother's place which was to be my place of residence for the day. Not long after, the size of the gang increased with the addition of calvin, monisha, merin and jazim...kudos to one of them for the increase in 'size'. Despite that, the 6 of us successfully stuffed ourself into an Alto as jazim chauffeured us around some of the prime spots of Bangalore. First stop was for lunch, and we destroyed our starvation at Cafe Masala on a buffet...an expensive buffet.

Right after that, we headed out to Guzzler's Pub for a game of billiards and a brief meeting with our old buddies zubair and ridhi. Stuffed with food and something else, we decided to retire for the day. Initially annoyed that Bangalore wasn't living upto my expectations, a game of God of War 3 on a Playstation 3 displayed brilliantly by a high definition 32" TV while i was swamped on a huge bean bag made me forget about everything else in life. Sigh...I love that bean bag. That's what souls use in heaven, I'm sure.

Soon, the two smallest people of the group bid their goodbyes as the rest of us joined by the residents of the flat headed to Taco Bell for dinner where I had the best damn slush drink on the planet with some quessadilla, a word that monisha failed to pronounce correctly leading to a class of jokes on her that deviated from the usual 'fat' category. The night ended with the obvious, of course. The tall one had the pleasure of sleeping over the bean bag.

Sunday started late thanks to somebody suffering from an hangover...proof that capacity is not directly proportional to height. The two of us headed out to meet zubair at his place from where he took us to Cafe Thulp where calvin and I enjoyed the biggest beef burger I've ever laid my fingers on. Aptly titled 'Moo's your daddy', it was deliciously and lusciously scrumptious. Bless zubair for his awesome lunch choice. Next, we headed to one of the hotspots in Bangalore : Forum mall. Did nothing except pick up a Batman poster for myself and that paved the way for an evening walk to the place that I had been waiting to go for a long time...Purple Haze. The ambience couldn't be better as it lifted us higher with the help of some classic rock music played in the background. Joined by monisha and suthin, it provided an evening to remember. The highlight was undoubtedly my embarrassing moment when I was forced to sip a drink on fire through a bloody straw because I let it heat up too much. Yes I know...amateur.

There was no choice but to crash at zubair's place for the night...and crash we did. Heavily. The tall one again had the privilege of sleeping all over the bean bag HERE. The hangover on Monday was visibly deeper, but we managed to get our asses to the primary place of residence and my Bangalore trip finally culminated in some heavy duty God-slaying, kudos to the PS3 and the bean bag and the 32" TV. Oh boy, it felt good.

suthin and I returned that night to arrive at a comparatively dull and boring Kochi the next morning, only for us to get together the next sunday with Kochiites susan and irene at Panampally Nagar. I guess this gives testament to the fact that when it comes to friends...maybe the place doesn't matter, only the people do. And of course bean bags and playstations and high definition televisions and gigantic burgers and....well...you get the drift.

This is vysh...signing out.