Through hairpins and speed breakers

If I would have titled this blog post 'Through hairpins' .. first impression would have been 'this person must have struggled to get through some girl's lousy hair while sitting in a park'
Hence the word speed breakers..any seasoned driver who has driven on ghats or any kid , boy, manwho has played Need for Speed in his life would know I am talking abt a road trip.
Road trip with hairpins and speed breakers which would better qualify as car breakers .
This was a trip to SriSailam which was a last gasp attempt to save us from a boring weekend at Hyderabad. We called the resort at Suryalanka..was fully booked..so SriSailam it was .. full n final... leave in morning.. come bk the same day.
one of our frnds decided to sleep.... so dint come...7 in the morning 4 of us were standing besides an old Toyota Qualis, with only Telugu songs casettes in it,
We got a battery operated speaker, and the only option was my iPod which had nothing but Hard Rock music in it..... decided to play it neways...
frnds always hate me for the kind of music I listen to..if only they can listen to the music as I do..understand it the way I understand.. minutely noticing the drum beats, the bass guitar giving the background effect, leads combined with rythm and distortion.. u will love rock music if u notice these complex and very intense combinations that make the adrenaline pump faster...

so neways..the trip started off slowly... with a lot of traffic.. we came out of Hyd...
One thing I have noticed about Andhra Pradesh is.. it is a highly underdeveloped state... with the exception of the exorbitant Hyderabad... and to and extent.. let me emphasize.. only to an extent.. Vizag andVijaywada.. . No decent road, small villages with kaccha rastas , no decent place to eat for 300 KM...youcan easily see why the suicide rate of farmers is highest in AP.... it is really in a bad state...

Other thing you can notice is that if at a village in AP. you scream LAXMIII... 7 out of 10 girls would looktowards you...this input was courtesy of my Uncle ..Kirit !! .. just in case you thought I
actually screamed Laxmiii at Village....maybe he did !!

So there we were in the Qualis... out came the playing cards.. where every time we hit a bump all our cardswere exposed.... was fun though.. playin cards... not the bumping part

We were not able to believe that there was no decent or even an average place to eat all along the way...nd we were hungry... so we stopped in a small room sized Udipi where we had some hopeless brkfast.. we were better off hungry is what we realized.

Yes ..third thing you would notice about AP. Every village has a place called Udipi hotel.

Then came the Jungle....the SriSailam Tiger Reserve.. only animal we saw except ourselves were cows..
We reached the Dam... decent water level and very funny circular boats..lot of weird music being played..

4th thinkg you will notice about AP ... mind blowing music..( and I mean mind blowing in a negative connotation)... on top of that.. grown men in questionable clothing dancing as if they are having a seizure.

and the round around the dam is actually crazy.... nothing but hairpin curves..you contantly keep going up the hill along the hairpins..and I was really takin pity on the driver..witha car like an old battered Qualis with no power steering.. it was like a gym session for him..

15 hairpins atleast.. I am not exaggerating.

The temple was nice.. I came to know that it is a Shiv Mandir which is regarded as one of the 12 'JyotHirlingams' , the crowd was not massive ..

Observation number 5...South Indians will never improve....I mean.. 'JyoTHI' and 'teek hai bai' ... they have a serious problem with the alphabet H .

I came back from a mahabaleshwar trip yesterday ..visited the famous temple over there too....and the same though came into my mind ..same one which came to my mind in SriSailam.. which is ..what to say.when you are in a temple...I mean.. yeah keep me family same and dont destroy the world in 2012 !! this is what I say usually.. not sure what people do stading there for 20 mins...
For those of you who know me...I am not the most religious guys.. an atheist who likes visiting peacefulplaces of worship be it a Church, Temple, Dargah or a Gurdwara....
People behave so formally in temples.. they r like in their best manners.. being quite.. aware of the crowdaround..a bit weird .. I just dont feel comfortable in a crowded temple...

Darshan over.. time to freak out... every taxi driver and rickshaw wala would point you towards Apurva hotel..the only place where u get decent food in SriSailam.. had some good Andhra thalis.. lots of sambar andoh yes an awesome matka kulfi.. I mean the packing as well as taste was awesome.. I really wanted to carrythe littke kullad/matka home with me to have tea in the mitti ka bartan.. but couldnt carry it all throughout the journey.

neways,..next was a cool ropeway ride into the lake and boat trip till near the dam... it was awesome..theview from the ropeway and feeling the cool winds while in the boat... u can actually book a speed board for500 Rs. and go for a very fast ride !!

Time to go back.. the resort looked good and a couple of us really wanted to stay back and leave the next day.. but the others wanted to go back home to their Momma... so had to leave...
my friends grabbed a bunch of beers and had a talkitive journey back to Hyd... went to a frnds place.. hadsome awesome home made Rajma.... and crashed .......

What a Gr8 Saturday. Got a traveler's soul... but not the best company when it comes to going out andenjoying.. everyone wants to sleep...

You get one shot at life.. why waste it by sleeping !!

Bhavin

Got Skinnnedd !!!

8th Nov 2009 .


It all started with a surprise visit frm my frnd Talli who is a lousy guy and does nt
take his frnds outside ( this is in case hez readin it ) at the guest house in Hyderabad whr I was
or rather..as I am writing this blog.. I am staying right now....


so we decided to go out to the much hyped GVK mall with a cpl of more frnds with us...


The mall was gr8, big and if u r in a mood for shopping for some branded stuff u'll almost get all
the major ones there....




We got out at 7 and came to a conclusion that this is way to early even for a early dinner.
and for a cpl of people lke us even dinner at 10:30 would hv been classified as early...


so after 15 minutes of immobility in front of City centre mall, DeepTHI realized she wants to buy some dress for fashion show it was I guess...so we parked the car..nd while DeepTHI and Himesh went to chk out the dress , me and Suhit loitered around and found this neat Tattoo parlour...


Now I've been pushin people to find out a tattoo parl. frm where I can get a temporary tattoo lasting 2-3 months...
but I was told there is no temp tattoo which would last more than 7 days....


and I was also told that removal of a permanent tattoo is very expensive and even more painful than getting one done....


so my plan of getting 3 or 4 tattoos b4 getin a permanent one was tossed away..
so the artist showed me some pics frm where I got an idea of getting a tattoo on my thumb...


well I decided to give it a shot.. asked him to google the Rockstar game logo..and lay it down on
my left hand thumb...


Was the perfect setting..Black Viking metal T-shirt , BLue Jeans and dishevelled hair..the way I usually am


so he did some printout business and made an imprint on my thumb..now the scary part


he produced a motor..mini sewing machine like instrument and a biig needle..


then he started wearing gloves as if he was gonna do a surgery...


got dettol and a lot of cotton..


in the meanwhile my other frnds had returned empty handed..Talli got them in to see the show


also in the meanwhile I would have asked the artist 20 times as to how painful its gonna be


" It'll be a bit more painful on the thumb"


next 10 minutes I was wondering what is the level of pain 'bit more painful' is supposed to represent


I mean if he said painful..it would hv scared me enuf..given the rate at which he was producing sharp instruments...


but was it really necessary to say bit more painful...


DeepTHI had already uttered 3 times "ohh my god I cannot watch this" and Himesh was ready with his mobile video cam 10 mins b4 that...


so he was ready..I tightened my thumbs...tightened everything I could infact... and till the moment he was to put the needle
on my thumb..I was like dont..dont do it...dont do it.. no.. why am I doing this..?? why the thumb..


how would I hide my thumb at a business meeting, I'll hv to shake hands using my right had.. will I be able to eat dinner after this


I couldnt believe at one point that I was actaully gonna get a permanent tattoo in my life
while these questions flashed thru my mind very fast..


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7L3JsuC44IA

my skin felt the needle..oh yes what a pinch..its like how Earth would feel when someone takes a flag and tries to drive it into the ground..


the motor was running... I tried not to scream.. just made some funny faces...the needle mkes its presence felt, goes in and out of ur skin at an inclredible speed...


after maybe 15 seconds..I was like..thts not too bad.. and I was sitting normally throughout..,


we were chatting something thru out the operation..yeah I would inded call it an operation..


there it was...................the R and a star..lookin incredible..awesome...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vr-7oF4QbLA


I was given some tips as to hw shd I tk care of it


apply vaseline on the tattoo for 6-7 times for a week..moisturize it regularly..dont keep it too wet..etc..


Paid the 2500 bill at the counter to a cute sort of girl.. who asked me a few questions abt my tattoo..


I would hv surely managed to prolong the convo and atleast managed to get her phone number if I was in Pune..
but hell who wants to put in an effort in Hyderabad... I m leavin in the next 3 days..


was a good opportunity though..


anyways.........


thanks to my tattoo it was 8:30 and everyone was hungry... we had an ordeal to find where tried to find Sardar ka Dhaba at LakdikaPul and never found it...


got 25 minutes waiting at Sahib Singh Sultan and decided to move onto to a Chinese restro..


had some exotic chinese food at Aromas of China...


went home slept..


was so happy tht I had got a permanent tattoo...


so m not boasting here.. it needs guts.. till the moment u get it done..it takes guts to sit thru this...


few of my frnds are shocked that I can actually get this thing done.. they hv been thinkin of me as seedha bacha..which I am.. no debates around that


few of my frnds back at Pune are waiting to see the tattoo and are saying how proud they r gonna feel to say to others that one of their friends got a permanent tattoo..hving seeing it only on TV before they see mine....guys get it done urself..really !!


few of you are waiting for me to publish this blog..


and when you do read this guys....m sorry to hv kept u waiting..I wanted to get back to Pune, before I published this


this has been drafted as of today....30th November...


Guys... get a tattoo in ur life.. u r definitely missing an experience..


and for those of u who are still wondering why did I give the title " Got Skinned" to this post...


the organic ink of this tattoo is supposed to fill into the second layer of ur skin...epidermis..


so that tattoo eventually develops as a part of ur skin...


so when I ask u how it looks..say it looks good.. cos if u say u dont like it ,
it will be an insult to my skin !


Signing off with one of my fav. youtube vids.. 6 yr old Kid playing one of the
most awesome songs in Rock music history !!

I love it when he says Ay Ay Ay


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKYAhVSBxsQ




Cheers !!


Bhavin