Many The Miles.

Day 11- 21^st September, 2011.

Long time, hey. It’s been a busy, busy, busy week last week. I mentioned going to Ooty and Masinagudi for a school trip, right? Yeah, it was fun. Lots of fun. Of course I’m going to go into the details; I want you to know that I don’t have a very boring life after all.

We had a long way to go.

So we left on Tuesday, the umm...13^th I think. My mother went to Mumbai to see my dad while I was away, so I went to Aku’s after school, and we went to the railway station together. We reached the station at 8 on the dot, and for once our train was not delayed. But it was too early to make assumptions, keeping in mind the efficiency of our brilliant railway system.

Our train departed for Coimbatore at 9 in the night, and at 9:30, we stopped at Thiruvallur station like we did at every other station that came in our way. We were all super excited, so no one realized that we were going to be at the station for the next 6 hours. 6 hours. Not a joke. Apparently, there had been a rain accident where two trains collided and got derailed about 2 stations away from where we were. Yes, 10 kilometers. It’s not even funny.

And the reason? The brilliant train driver was oh-so-busy talking on the phone. No, totally justified. A phone call is definitely more important than 150 passengers on the train, no? He missed the signal, and when he realized that it was too late, he jumped out of the train with amazing grace. This calls for a round of applause, everyone. 15 dead, 70 injured. And apart from that, we were stuck for just 6 hours. Only.

We reached Coimbs (sounds pretty funky, na?) next day at 7 in the evening instead of 4 in the morning, running about half a day behind schedule. We went to this kind of posh hotel called Aloft, owned by one of my classmates. The rooms were pretty cool. Actually anything would have felt better after that disgusting, cockroach infested, 24 hour train journey. So yeah, Aloft gave me some hopes of our trip getting better. I tagged along with Anju, Esha and Aku into room no. 217. As soon as we entered, everyone took a bath to get rid of the stink. That train journey was good enough to give me a good night sleep.

The next day we proceeded to Destiny Farm in Ooty. The BEST part of our entire journey. The rooms, the view, the people, the social night! But all good things come to an end too soon. So instead of staying there for two days, we stayed there only for one, and then left for Masinagudi. We stayed in Casa Deep Woods, one of the best (apparently) over there. It was okay-ish. After experiencing Club Mahindra in Munnar and Kodai, Masinagudi was kind of a disappointment. But it’s okay, as long as you know how to have fun, right?

The last day, we left for Mysore. We were 12 girls and 8 guys in one bus. Good fun. Except the part where I had to sit in the last row. My back still aches. Ouch.

All in all, good or bad, it was an experience. The last one.