Travel Moments Turning Memoirs Part 1: Girls Day Out

In a time where all you constantly hear about a girl being raped, no age limit, it is risky to set out on your own without a plan in a new place, just for your love of travelling, exploring and returning wiser. The recent trip I took to South India gave me a glimpse of what could happen to you, if you are really naive, if you act like a tourist more than a traveller.

I do not know what incidence to start from so let me introduce you the characters- Prerna, Sonia and Radhika. 3 girls, who had to take to alternative identities so that they didn’t fall prey to any wrongdoings. How much ever we talk of being progressive, you still call for ‘ALL eyes on you’ when you wear something that shows off a bit off your skin, when you laugh out loud in the local surroundings or just pose for a picture.

South- We didn’t know the language (broken Hindi rarely worked, thank God for common hand gestures), the food we were pretty sure would taste nice, the place was of course to be discovered but the road signs didn’t quiet help. From the look of t-shirt and jeans you categorised into the ‘newcomer’ or sadly a tourist! To give you a rough idea of what happens when you’re a tourist will share some incidences... good, pleasant and worse!

Incidence 1: Prerna, Sonia and Radhika planned to do local sightseeing in Ooty. They booked a cab which would take them to all the main spots and the day would be occupied. The driver, Antony was supposed to be their guide. Being used to strike up conversations with the taxi guys in Mumbai, it wouldn’t have been that difficult to talk to the cab driver, except, the driver didn’t respond! We asked a sort of questions- the weather in general, the usual sightseeing spot distances, what’s more to do in Ooty? But he seemed oblivion. He just smiled and it got a little creepy after a point. We made him talk in the broken language of English and Hindi that he could fathom.

The only thing that commonly sort of kept us happy was his choice of South Indian music playing in the car, which we took fancy to too! Gotta admit, their beats are crazy.

It was time for lunch and Antony apparently knew a very good restaurant on the way. We trusted him and got served a very tasteless biryani and chicken masala with green peas in it! I felt cheated as it was priced high and bro who puts green peas and vegetables in chicken masala?? But then morsels down, we just wanted to leave.

Again as much as progressive they turn- girls are not supposed to drink alcohol. Forget going to the store and asking for a bottle. Fun fact: The alcohol shops here look like jails, small cramped up place with metal bars on it. There is a window where you stand in line as if you’re buying a ticket (of course the line is much shorter for tickets) then when your turn comes, you pass your money and they give you the stuff. Forget getting alcohol here. 

So we tried and asked Antony for a wine shop and he pointed at these jails and gave the smile again. We seriously missed having one guy at least with us. He was basically useless, we just paid him the amount and left to our hotel room.

Incidence 2: The same day, after having that lunch, we sure needed a good dinner. But it was just 5o’clock in the evening. We didn’t want to bore ourselves in the hotel room. We thought of going out on our own. All 3 freshened up and thought of just looking around the place. When Radhika suggests going to a place which is not exactly close to walk but good enough to take a bus to. What did we have to do anyway? So we took a local bus, the ticket cost about Rs. 5 and the conductor would tell when the stop arrived. All 3 were observing the localities around. 
Fun Fact: There’s an unsaid rule that school children who travel by bus just give their school bags to the ones who are sitting and they’ve to take care of it. We should totally do this in Mumbai but then trust and theft issues! Never mind.

So when I just had a bag dropped on my lap I was too dumbstruck. The girl just walked in front and I was asking these 2, what do I do with this. What if I had to get down before her? I hadn’t even seen the girl’s face.  It was weird for a while but the journey continued through the mountains. As I peered out the window, the bus-stop had the name of the stop where we had to get down. I told Radhika and Prerna to get down. Quite a few people got down, by the way, the girl also got down here so the bag worry was sorted. Coming back, the conductor told Radhika, that’s not the stop, but we had already got down. The lane being too narrow the bus had to move and the people inside were annoyed by these 3 giggling girls. We just thought of getting down and turned around to see such scenic beauty but no roof or person in sight. What to do next? 

In front of us, was a good jungle of tall pine trees. It looked so beautiful so we just went up there. We clicked some pictures again, stared above at the tall companions and wondered where the fuck we were. When we heard a train whistle!!

Found ourselves stranded here

Hello Savior!

On the other side was the Ooty- Coonoor toy train track. We rushed down from this small hill and ran towards the train. We saw the station in distance and were pretty sure we won’t get the train back anyway. But it slowed down, we kept our pace. We thought why not try and catch it. Running the entire platform we managed to take the tickets and also catch the train. All this while we made the ‘mad girls’ sight for the other passengers. The train chugged, the journey back was delightful and by the way it was just 7 o’clock.

In those two hours, we had taken a local bus, got down at the wrong bus-stop kms away, wandered in a jungle, took a train back and reached the bus-stop back. It was total adrenaline rush to think of. We were happy with the turns Radhika’s idea had taken. As we looked about for a place to have dinner, we were Being Followed. PLOT TWIST.

But that shall come in the next post, wait for it!