The Dare

Note: What i've written here is not fictitious; it's an actual incident that had happened to rohin. what happens in the end will not be revealed, you can ask rohin yourself.

The exact date is unknown, but the location is a private hostel where rohin stays near his university. Time is past midnight.

Another unknown fact is the precise layout of this particular hostel. But it is known that during that time, the building was undergoing some sort of renovation, and that the students were pushed to one half of the hostel as the other half was kept unoccupied owing to the re-construction work.

At the particular hour when the incident had occurred, one half of the hostel was flooded with lights that always remain turned on despite the time...typical in a boy's hostel. The other half was filled with darkness. Pitch black it might not be, but it was dark enough to make it look sinister. The light from the occupied rooms never really reached this section....it seemed as if there was something holding it back...something that was very stubborn to let go of the darkness. The presence of this lightless section in their hostel is what ultimately led to the dare...which resulted in the incident that happened to rohin.

During the usual gathering of friends, the idea of a dare was brought. The voluntary victim will have to walk into the other half of the hostel and enter a particularly intriguing room at the very end of the corridor. The voluntary victim was rohin, and there was a reason to the nature of this challenge. Unknown how many years ago, a student used to stay in this very building. His name, place or any other detail is irrelevant. But the only fact that's significant is that he had committed suicide. The reason might be pressure of exams or some personal reason...we may never know. He had ended his life....and he had done it in the very room rohin had dared to enter.

Rohin left the occupied rooms behind and started venturing out into the darkness. The moment the halfway point was crossed, he felt a stir in the air...something was very different here. But no feeling of dread settled in him, and he walked on.

Eventually, he noticed that the corridor seemed to be much longer than he had ever imagined. He kept his eyes straight ahead though, never faltering, although a small urge to turn back tried to take over him. The darkness seemed to press around as the light from the other half of the building seemed evanescent. He turned back to look at the rooms he had just left. They seemed so far away that he was shocked by the distance he had walked. So friendly and inviting, it looked like a small window into heaven. He shuddered at the metaphor, and walked on till he finally reached the door. A feeling of dread tried to overwhelm him...nevertheless he turned the door knob of the unlocked door.

His eyes already adjusted to the darkness, he could make out the inside of the room, helped by some light coming through the window from outside. It couldn't look more ordinary, with the ancient looking cot and the shelf. The thick air started to suffocate him, he wanted to get out as soon as possible. Rohin half-expected a shadow to move across the empty room but having done the dare, he found no more reason to stay. He turned back, this time a feeling of triumph almost started settling in.

Just as he stepped out of the room, something tugged at his sleeve.

-Vysakh

yes, long time no see indeed...

mind you, perhaps our blogging has been inactive for the past many weeks, but 207 had been having its usual round of "reunions" and the 4 core members had been occupied with our everyday routines...which were more busy than boring...and thus the reason why this page was left to rot for a while.

to relate out in detail the 2 get-togethers we had since the bday bash would be close to impossible...owing to the fact that ive got an exam this wednesday and also coz i'm being harassed by body pain at the moment :( but noteworthy points have to be....well...noted. the first trip was the one to telicherry(the 2nd one for the 207 members), but this was different coz this time, we had our beloved sreeja, susan, irene, rohin and jency with us. camping at rohin's flat for the night and the deliciously mouth-watering lunch AND dinner prepared by zubin's family were the highlights of the trip. plus, the refrigerator made its debut at 207 the day we reached home ;) ;) that being jazim's contribution.

the 2nd one occured more recently....and this was even sweeter coz we were accompanied by the one who was missing the telicherry trip.....our very own midget merin ;) believe me, that hotel at fortkochi aint ever getting louder than that night! a tiny tour of fortkochi the next day and a hangout at bay pride mall were the events that ended that get-together.

and of course, these 2 happenings sandwiched another event. the following were the chief features of that journey:

destination: CHENNAI!

mission: surprise the heck out of the annachis calvin and jamie!

travellers: restricted to 207 members only!

positives: highly entertaining weekend, invading the classy spots of chennai and making the best use of the restaurants!

negatives: HEAT HEAT HEAT HEAT HEAT!!!!

mission status: successful, but many places in chennai still left to be explored. a sequel to be made!

well there you go......this is whats "hot and happening" at 207 recently.....now its that time of the year again where zubin, jazim and i sink our heads into our text books again and suthin....well....its gonna be torture for him as well, for what fun can he have when the 3 of us are busy fixing dates with the demons that represent the exams ;)

this is vysh signing out...

The Birthday Cruise

3 weeks have passed since our foraging into the forest...and yet we meet....AGAIN.

but this time, the occasion was different...this was no mere get-together, but rather the celebration of several 207 members' birthdays and their pending treats...namely, jency, jazim, irene, myself and zubin. and so we decided to mark the day we became legal for anything and everything with a grand houseboat trip. plus, this time we had the company of the goan-turned-tamil calvin....our (young) guest-star.

so that was day 1....the first highlight was predictably the cutting of the cake; a birthday tradition that we decided to follow. i had to hear several curses, for it was my hate for chocolate cake that prompted suthin to get us a fig&honey cake instead....but it looked chocolat-y in my eyes and my tongue nevertheless. however, we enjoyed it. and this paved the way eventually to the next birthday tradition....opening of the presents.

it was suthin's (evil) genius idea of giving a PAIR of presents to each of us...one is a practical gift, and the other a mocking funny one. i'm not gonna name the gifts that were handed out, but i can tell you that the practical gifts represented zubin's loyalty to the communists, handed jency a tool to look prettier and irene something "fluffy and cute" and myself a reason to say "why so serious?".

and on to the funny gifts...ahem. jency received something to remind her exactly how "tall" she is, jazim was mocked with his craziness for t-shirts with one that i'm sure he's never gonna wear, irene got a portrait of someone that was "close to her heart"(kudos to merin for her brilliant idea) and zubin was gifted with something that proved a physical trait not usually found in men. and i....sigh....was reminded of a small incident way back towards the end of school in which i did somethin inappropriate and girly.

having done that, we proceeded to fun activities....ass-charades,rounds of poker, a weird ass brain twisting game called ping-pong introduced by the NIT-ian jency and...........blindfold. yes, we played blindfold on a houseboat. and yes, we played it at night. and YES, someone DID fall off into the water.

the victim was none other than the daredevil monisha. as the blindfolded jazim pursued his targets near the edge of the boat, after a confusing series of shoving among ourselves, it was monisha who toppled off backwards into the dark abyss. it was grace from above that the boat wasnt moving and that she fell near land, where the depth wasn't too great. although completely submerged, she rose triumphantly with help and simply marvelled at her close shave with death("it was awesome!! simply awesome!!"). the rest of us were, understandably, much more closer towards a state of self induced coma than she was.

unanimously, we decided : no more games except a nice round of poker accompanied by some drinks. and thats how that unusual night ended. and oh did i not mention.......the big poker winner of the night was me ;)

by morning of day 2, the houseboat was vacated and we travelled to my family house to stay over....minus dilu and jersen and plus the one and only sreeja. she sure did bring my house down with that banshee laughter of hers that ran for hours and hours. fooling around was no.1 priority for us there, and we did that to the max.

the departing began by end of day 2 as zubin and jency left. morning of day 3 marked merin's departure and the rest 8 of us left for ekm town to explore more opportunites of fun....mainly gi joe and a heavy meal which poor fasting jazim couldn't savour except for his own watering mouth. during some barista, more departed and they were left to miss what rohin, suthin, monisha and i experienced at night : loungevity!

monisha's exit marked the end of this remarkable weekend. we celebrated turning 21 in style and are now left pondering just how many more "reunions" may be in store for us....only god knows, but boy they're something worth waiting for! ;)

vysh....signing out

The weekend's round-up

just thought i'll chip in a little but about recent happenings at 207. it's been a little quiet with the brothers gone home, but new activities are keeping myself, suthin and rohin very busy....namely the birthday present hunt.

the highly anticipated kumaragom reunion(i mean, union) has been spiced up by these presents for the 5 bday boys/girls, ie jazim, jency, irene, zubin and myself....but the hunting hasnt been a fun ride. all the same, the 3 of us have been well entertained at the mall on friday by sreeja, and by susan on saturday. kudos to them for that ;)

so far we have acquired quite some decent presents....ahem, of course the identity of mine remains top secret unless one of the others spills his/her big mouth. whatever the case, the upcoming weekend is one to wait for...at the moment however, suthin and i got exams to tackle. so i guess it's time i get over that hilarious memory of the teddy bears falling on sreeja, as well as get rid of this small emptiness left in my heart as a result of susan's departure to UAE......sigh, both these precious things are gonna be missed!

this is vysakh....signing out.

207's Jungle Riot

and riot we did.

day 1: after months of planning, we were finally ready to kickstart the much awaited trip to nelliyampathy forest. college hours down, the only thing left was to receive the guests at our humble abode 207. to make a long story short, the presence of nosy locals forced us to move our base of operations to hotel highway garden(a familiar place for most of us). maybe not the start we were hoping for, but it was fun nevertheless....shuttling between the 3 different rooms that we took for the night, repeatedly banging on the door of a particular room whose 2 residents just refused to grant entry,sreeja the ultimate producer of quality laughing gas(mainly for herself),group dinner and exclusively for 4 of us....tickets to mexico. amid the chaos, the camera did the talking as well. only the lord knows when exactly we hit the bed.

day 2: the tempo arrives. guys take their baths and get ready. women on the other hand...well, they did a lot more than just that, obviously.

the ride to nelliyampathy was long, but never boring...thats a word you dont come across in our dictionary. the music and the presence of loudmouth suthin just added to the lively atmosphere. but lets cut to the core of this story.

the tempo's final destination was the beginning of the journey for us. we teamed up with the tour organisers and made pairs within ourselves.and we did something else that seems so f***ing laughable to me at this point....apply anti-leech cream on ourselves.

and thus, the trekking began. jazim and doctor irene leading the bunch, followed by myself and monisha, then rohin and doctor susan(the docs were given high priority,but ultimately they turned out to be useless),suthin and the dwarf merin with zubin and jency completing the line-up. sreeja.....erm.....guess no "buddy" could satisfy her, so she varied her positions constantly.

during the start, we might have followed a path, but after a while the guides led us straight into the freaking jungle, where we werent following any bloody path but just cutting and slicing through branches and bushes! well...this is trekking...and it was fun ;) we climbed hills, got washed down by rain, spotted a deer, walked and walked and walked....for apparently a total of 10 km. it was an achievement by the end of it.....we had entered the jungle and come out of it unscathed...................................or so we hoped.

during the early preparations for this trip, we thought that the greatest fear that we might encounter in the forest could be a tiger or some similar beast. but we had tossed aside what we'd considered to be a minor threat, but turned out to be the greatest : leeches.

oh yes ladies and gentlemen, leeches. those bloody GoodKnight anti leech creams were to leeches as a safety pin to a hungry lion. the bloodsuckers bit and tore at every one of us. they penetrated through our shoes AND our socks. they climbed up our legs and sucked on happily. i was unfortunate enough have 2 of them settle between my toes!! they grew from the size of a grain of rice to a small rock. apparently, leeches release some substance that prevents the host from feeling its presence! moreover, they also release an anti-coagulant that prevents clotting of blood....which explained why our bleeding persisted throughout the day! and i thought mosquitos were the worst creations by god.....

but how can u define a worthy experience without a few obstacles?? and experience it was nonetheless, to come out of the jungle not-so-unscathed but with each of us writhing, trying to get rid of the little monsters(except for the fisherwoman, she deserves a medal for having warded off every leech attack....or perhaps they found no satisfactory amount of blood in her to suck away). feeling exhilarated, that phase of the trip ended with a ride to our accommodation.

after another walk(mercifully not INTO any forest) and a sight of the "booth bungalow", the night partying began. maybe the bonfire wasnt so big, but it was grand enough to gather around and make a toast to ourselves, and definitely big enough to heat a chicken ;) getting wasted was our next priority!! but the night wasnt over, not without THE night safari!!! allrite....i dont have any right to boast here, having slept off an hour into the safari, but it was a "wooohooooo" experience all the same.

after our return, i recall falling flat on the bed....and nothing more ;) ;)

day 3: woke up to discussions about the previous day...the hot topic was about one particularly wasted lady. my hats off to her for being such a great source of entertainment! the fun that was shared during that time just cant be typed down or told, but gotta be experienced with your own physical presence right there ;)

the guides had thankfully decided that we've had enough leech bites to last a lifetime, so they led us through relatively less leech-infected areas and onto the top of a HIGH mountain. and oh boy, it was beautiful. it was the perfect way to end our last trekking session...on the top of the world with the varying breeze against us accompanied by the breathtaking view.....the camera was out to do the talking again at this point ;) we had our own share of talking and endless laughter there....the feeling was bliss!

and thus, we returned, packed and got ready for the trip back home. it was a tiring weekend but thats the only negative aspect i can honestly point out. nelliyampathy offered itself to us and we exploited it to enjoy the hell out! but the icing on the cake was once again...the little things : suthin's loud ass humour, jazim's tendency to bring the group 2gether for his crazy snaps, irene's dumb jokes, jency's stern stare, susan's care and sweetness, rohin's "wazzzaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa", merin's constant reminder that "big things come in small packages", monisha's thurst for getting high and those freaking blue fingernails, zubin's never ending showing off and rolling up of sleeves and last but never least....the life of the party: sreeja and her gales of laughter that just never shuts up.

welcome to our life.

yours

vysh

207 tenants attacked by 'lisa'

Cochin : Approximately around noon on thursday, 4th june 2009, the original tenants of 207, messrs suthin, vysakh and jazim were attacked by a strange creature that was hiding in the bookshelf residing in the bedroom. Suthin was the first victim to notice it's presence while studying, and informed vysakh who had to be brought back from slumberland and eventually did the same to jazim as well, who woke up the moment the news was known to him. this is reportedly the first time jazim had woken up from his sleep in a matter of mere seconds.

the creature looked like a cross between a snake and a lizard(hence the name 'lisa', devised by suthin). it had a long smooth body resembling a snake with feet that looked like it belonged to a lizard. this creature, that was black and brown in colour, was extremely fast and agile...one of the reasons that contributed to the utter fear the 3 tenants were experiencing.

hidden behind the books, the tenants resorted to removing the books one by one holding tools to defend themselves should the creature attack, namely suthin's sweeper, jazim's broom and vysakh's deodrant. sources suggest that vysakh perhaps intended to spray the deodrant into the eyes of the animal and distort its vision, but his true intentions in his weird choice for a weapon remain unclear.

after a long and gruelling process, the tenants managed to isolate lisa to one corner where it hid behind a single book. as the 3 tried to lure it away from that book, the creature ran to the other end of the shelf where, forgotten by the tenants, laid ANOTHER book and hid behind this. eventually the shelf was emptied and the floor cleared to give the animal space to move, while the clearly larger and more dangerous tenants shook in fear and contemplated their next move. smashing and splattering it all over was suthin's idea, but jazim and vysakh weren't in favour of cleaning carcass off the floor. thus they waited till lisa got out of the shelf. its sudden movement across the floor prompted suthin to recoil, vysakh to jump backwards on the bed and spray the deodrant blindly into the air and more hilariously, caused jazim to fly back so much that he clung onto the window grills like a monkey.

lisa neared the hole on the floor(which was suspected as the entry point), but paused at that point for several minutes as the tenants held their breath for its next move. it seemed as if to turn back and bid goodbye; but fortunately for them, it crawled through the hole. the hole is at present blocked with tape.

since this incident, lisa has become an instant hit. the tenants are however aware that this is just the first of many threats that they could face in the coming months as the rain pours down and dark creatures that are messengers of fear and despair, some even of death, seek shelter at 207. maybe they also have heard of the fun the humans were enjoying here, and wanted to be part of it.

this is vysakh reporting for 207 news.

Telicherry Traverse

Its that time of the year again, folks...when the exams are over(at least the regular exams) and we are left longing to just get home and fall flat on the bed to get some well-deserved rest. the past month was very gruelling, especially for myself and jazim who had to painfully stay overnight many times for the sake of 45 marks on our papers. zubin on the other hand, did work hard here and there, but took the exams very coolly alltogether. but thats zubin for you.

but that blissful moment of ultimate sleep never came...but not for a bad reason though. zubin and jazim, our 207 telicherry tenants(or in the mallu style,thalassery) had invited myself, suthin and 3 of our college mates,namely shaheer, ali and libin, to come home, explore their "tharavaads" and have their deliciously cooked food. it seemed like a good opportunity and thus, we took it.

personally,it was my first time in 9 years i took a long distance trip on a train. and it was the first time ever i travelled in a packed general compartment(yeah yeah, i admit i was a virgin to all this,but not anymore!!). horrible experience at first, but at the end, it seemed like it was worth it. 6 hours, most of which i spent lying on the floor with my head on top of suthin, with his head on top of zubin, whose head was around shaheer's arm, who was leaning side by side with ali, whose feet were being used for support by jazim...(libin got in from another stop, and luckily for him, he got a proper seat!). give it some time, u can construct this picture in ur head. it wasnt very comfortable. but it was an experience to remember.

6 hours over and i took my first step in thalessery. not a very happpening place, not as advanced as cochi. nothing at all spectacularly amazing actually...at least until jazim, who was leading the pack, took a sudden left turn from the road and a HUGE house blocked our entire vision. that was jazim's mom's "tharavaad"(im sorry calvin, couldnt find an english word for it). and believe you me, it was huge. i mean...ive seen such houses, even bigger...but to have a friend who actually lives here and to be taken there...well, that was something exhilarating. there we were treated to a wonderful breakfast and a mind-blasting lunch by jazim's relatives. to quote russel peters, it was "tooooooooo good!" i could actually write another post entirely dedicated to just how tasty thalassery food is. for now, you guys can use just one word to describe it  : majestic.

after that it was tour time. we were taken around to meet up with more of jazim's relatives, followed by a trip to his own house. (all transportations owed to the santro belonging to his cousin) and then the spotlight was shifted to zubin, as we met up with his relatives, worthy of mention is his grandmom, apparently the only educated, english speaking woman in kerala of her age, an amazing 80. and of course, a visit to his dad's tharavaad was inevitable. and BELIEVE YOU ME, this was bigger.

u guys must have seen family trees, i suppose? u know how they are usually pretty long, right? well guess what, no exagerration intended, zubin's entire family tree was in that house. every room(lost count of the number of rooms) had a family alloted to it, and each of them had their own history. it took us approximately 20 minutes when we left the place, having traversed just half of it!! it was something to think about for me, especially, not being a big family person myself...but its worth checking our for anyone. truly fantastic.

a trip to tipu sultan's fort awaited, plus....errr....i forgot the name of this place, but it was basically rocks overlooking the sea....yet it was serene and beautiful. especially coz we arrived there some time before sunset. the day climaxed with a marvellous dinner at zubin's cousin's place as we took a bus(thank god!) back home....with a refrigerator in tow.(yes ppl, we have a fridge now at 207). jaz stayed back in thalassery for few more days.

after we reached back at 5 30 in the morning, i finally got that well deserved sleep i had talked about. perhaps it came a day later, but it came at the price of having witnessed the history and unity of a family and having to eat the best food in all of kerala. i guess i can live with that.   :)

vysh