Chunnu aur Munni ko gussa kyon aata hai?
Quite often in life, as in cinema, it is the major actors who get all the limelight & the supporting cast is relegated to a small corner behind the dustiest shelf in our memories. Hoping to correct this anomaly, let me relate our Pondicherry adventures... giving due credence to our new friends Chunnu & Munni.
Chunnu & Munni live in a big car - spending most of the time hanging to the rear window, within kicking distance of each other. They started their lives in Archies Gallery, where our friends Shikhin & Namrata saw them & decided to adopt them. So, Chunnu & Munni became permanent occupants of their big car - a silver coloured Ford Ikon, deciding to share it with Namrata & Shikhin whenever they felt like it.
Our (my wife Archana's & mine) adventures with them started, when we landed up in the big car for a trip to Pondicherry. Chunnu & Munni seemed a little reluctant in the beginning to share their corner with us, but very courteously agreed to.
We left Bangalore around 8 on Friday & readied for a 6 hour drive to Pondicherry. The road was good & with Shikhin in full force behind the wheel, we were doing a good 100 kmph. We were treated to some wonderful & absolutely random music by Chunnu & Munni's close friend - the stereo - which took us on a roller coaster journey from Mohd. Rafi one min to Kumar Sanu the other to Hemant Kumar the next & Jagjit Singh to follow.
After the first hour, Namrata started doling out the goodies... good for us that she had just returned from Jaipur, for she had a bag full of home made 'mathrees', deliciously creamy & large 'nankhatais', along with several small boxes of varous sizes, each emanating a unique fragrance, according to it's contents. The box with the delicately sweet fragrance contained some mixed 'supari', while the one with the slightly tangy smell had some 'chatpata churan'. To Archana's immense delight, the box with no smell at all had her favourite - small pieces of hard 'supari' !!!
We did good time & our tummy's started rumbling in unison only after we had crossed Krishnagiri. Some frantic search for a dhaba before the rumbling turned into a roar, led us to stop at a small place which had a black & white television belting out the latest Tamil hits & some hard cots... distantly resembling the 'charpais' from our childhood memories. The food was passable... more so because our tummy's (mine I am sure was) were aching for some hot tandoori rotis & some decent vegetable... which we finally managed to get. The food was supplemented by some of Haldiram's 'namkeens', courtesy Namrata, some sweet papayas, thanks (should we?) Archana & some unfortunate custard apples who could not withstand the pressure of my backside & ingloriously caved in. The owner/Head Chef seemed like a filmi version of Veerappan & his overbearing presence & menacing looks ensure that I messed up with the order, showing 2 fingers to indicate one 'egg bhurji'! Dinner over, once again we took to the road.
A long time back, I had spent 3 days in Jim Corbett, frantically searching for the most majestic of all animals - the tiger. Little did I know that I would meet the female version very soon... sharing the same vehicle. We reached Pondicherry city around 1 o' clock & aided by a drowsy but courteous policeman, managed to reach the approximate location of our bungalow. Thus began an unforgettable adventure on the East Coast Road. We called up a rather drunk & drowsy watchman who had problem understanding us, we had problem understanding him & hence we ended up making friends with all the dogs, chickens, hens, cows, buffaloes on that 10 km stretch, who I am sure would have got tired of seeing us with a rather irritating regularity & would have been hoping as much as we were that we find our promised abode near the sea & disappear. Finally, after an hour's effort, came the defining moment of the trip - the tigress roared... the tiger reacted as if he was hit by a lightning... while the rest of us (Chunnu, Munni, Archana & I), did our best imitation of a lifeless object. The results came quick & fast & very soon we were nestled cozily under soft quilts, having taken up accommodation in another resort - with a rather grandiose name - 'St. James Beach Resort'. Thus ended the first half day of our journey, with enough adventure to seem much longer than it actually was.
Chunnu & Munni live in a big car - spending most of the time hanging to the rear window, within kicking distance of each other. They started their lives in Archies Gallery, where our friends Shikhin & Namrata saw them & decided to adopt them. So, Chunnu & Munni became permanent occupants of their big car - a silver coloured Ford Ikon, deciding to share it with Namrata & Shikhin whenever they felt like it.
Our (my wife Archana's & mine) adventures with them started, when we landed up in the big car for a trip to Pondicherry. Chunnu & Munni seemed a little reluctant in the beginning to share their corner with us, but very courteously agreed to.
We left Bangalore around 8 on Friday & readied for a 6 hour drive to Pondicherry. The road was good & with Shikhin in full force behind the wheel, we were doing a good 100 kmph. We were treated to some wonderful & absolutely random music by Chunnu & Munni's close friend - the stereo - which took us on a roller coaster journey from Mohd. Rafi one min to Kumar Sanu the other to Hemant Kumar the next & Jagjit Singh to follow.
After the first hour, Namrata started doling out the goodies... good for us that she had just returned from Jaipur, for she had a bag full of home made 'mathrees', deliciously creamy & large 'nankhatais', along with several small boxes of varous sizes, each emanating a unique fragrance, according to it's contents. The box with the delicately sweet fragrance contained some mixed 'supari', while the one with the slightly tangy smell had some 'chatpata churan'. To Archana's immense delight, the box with no smell at all had her favourite - small pieces of hard 'supari' !!!
We did good time & our tummy's started rumbling in unison only after we had crossed Krishnagiri. Some frantic search for a dhaba before the rumbling turned into a roar, led us to stop at a small place which had a black & white television belting out the latest Tamil hits & some hard cots... distantly resembling the 'charpais' from our childhood memories. The food was passable... more so because our tummy's (mine I am sure was) were aching for some hot tandoori rotis & some decent vegetable... which we finally managed to get. The food was supplemented by some of Haldiram's 'namkeens', courtesy Namrata, some sweet papayas, thanks (should we?) Archana & some unfortunate custard apples who could not withstand the pressure of my backside & ingloriously caved in. The owner/Head Chef seemed like a filmi version of Veerappan & his overbearing presence & menacing looks ensure that I messed up with the order, showing 2 fingers to indicate one 'egg bhurji'! Dinner over, once again we took to the road.
A long time back, I had spent 3 days in Jim Corbett, frantically searching for the most majestic of all animals - the tiger. Little did I know that I would meet the female version very soon... sharing the same vehicle. We reached Pondicherry city around 1 o' clock & aided by a drowsy but courteous policeman, managed to reach the approximate location of our bungalow. Thus began an unforgettable adventure on the East Coast Road. We called up a rather drunk & drowsy watchman who had problem understanding us, we had problem understanding him & hence we ended up making friends with all the dogs, chickens, hens, cows, buffaloes on that 10 km stretch, who I am sure would have got tired of seeing us with a rather irritating regularity & would have been hoping as much as we were that we find our promised abode near the sea & disappear. Finally, after an hour's effort, came the defining moment of the trip - the tigress roared... the tiger reacted as if he was hit by a lightning... while the rest of us (Chunnu, Munni, Archana & I), did our best imitation of a lifeless object. The results came quick & fast & very soon we were nestled cozily under soft quilts, having taken up accommodation in another resort - with a rather grandiose name - 'St. James Beach Resort'. Thus ended the first half day of our journey, with enough adventure to seem much longer than it actually was.
posted by umang at 1:06 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home