Last night me and my colleagues were standing in the office terrace. One of my friends looked up at the sky and said "Hey! There's a meteorite passing!" I looked up at the sky and I did not see the sky that's above me, I saw a night sky from seven years ago. A magical sky full of stars and shooting stars, that me and my friends gazed at from a hilltop, from midnight to the first break of dawn. To that night in Wagamon!"
That should not be a night we should forget easily. So before our memories fade out, let me put that in paper here. A small recap of how it happened.
This is how easy it was to go for a trip those days. But now with the myriad of planning and preparation. Wish it was as easy as those days.
6:30 PM : I was called from the football field and was just said one thing " Macha, nale harthal aanu, let's go tripping somewhere"
7:00 PM : All the muttans have gathered, sub muttans have been asked to come. Bikes are counted, cash is scrapped from here and there. Yes we are ready to go.
Where do we go? Someone suggested Wagamon! Why not? Here we go! I tried to think why we choose Wagamon. That is what we thought we could do there at night, For the life of me I couldn't get one sensible answer.
Anyway I think at that point, at that age, we didn't care, what happened or anything. We just went with the flow.
8:00 PM : The pack leaves Rajagiri hostel, perhaps 10-15 of us, I honestly don't remember who all were there, let me still do a headcount, Podi, Mama, Pothay, Jundi, Snake, Athishayan, Kuria, Nambi, Me and hmmm then who? Hmm Sany? Naa, he was always too big a baby to come out of the hostel at night. Although I am guessing his bike would have been there. Oh yeah Murshid and Ajith Sivadasan, not sure how those two tagged along. I guess that's it.
8:00 pm - 11ish pm : Me and Podi was on my bike. The ride was exactly how it should have been, the weather got really cold on route, I can still remember my tooth biting, fingers numbers and the air in my lungs freezing! Same with everyone else! All the right ingredients for the perfect ride! And all the fun we could have, we did have!
11-12 pm - We reached Wagamon. Let me give you a picture of how it was there. There was not a single soul there to ask for a place to stay. Not one single shop open. Not even a passing vehicle. Not even a stray light. Just the blowing wind and the eerie night with us in that lonely town.
Now what do we? Someone suggested "Let's climb up the Kurishumala!" (This hill is a very busy place during the holy week season. But in our night of adventure, it was a deserted, dark and isolated place. With God knows what all creatures would be creeping by. But then this did not deter us in anyway. I don't think anyone thought this was an absurd idea.(Now when I think about it, it was as absurd as it can get) So we climbed up, with the moon and our mobile lights showing us our steep uphill path. But with the a spirit of the young and foolish, we climbed it up with ease, with each step higher and higher into the top of the hill at the middle of the night.
With every step we make it started to get more and more colder. We climbed perhaps more half n hour or an hour to reach the top of the hill. It wasn't an easy trek, it was steep, it was dark, it was cold. But yet in the spirit of muttanship, that midnight we climbed up the hill.
We reached on top, but it was incredibly incredibly incredibly cold. We did not even have jackets or even shoes. For variety of reasons we decided we won't be climbing down and will be spending up on the hilltop for the whole night.
But the problem was the cold. Ridiculously cold. Apart from the rocky hill top, there was only two things on top of that hill. A church, closed of course. Then a tiny teeny hut where lotta wood and other stuff was kept. We tried sitting behind the church wall, but not working. We ran into the hut and tried to make ourselves comfortable.
I think we found one sack there which someone tried getting into (Snake if my memory is right). We thought about all possible solutions including a very gay form of sleep that will perhaps keep us warm, lol (we did not do it ofcourse!!!). It was 1-2 am by this time and we had to stay there till the sun slightly shows up. We ran out of ideas and slowly succumbed to the cold inside that hut. But the cold was getting to us. The hut was getting congested so someone stepped out and laid down on the rock looking at the sky. Then he called out to us inside the hut telling "Come here and look at the sky! It's just full of stars."
I thought yeah cool it was full stars, but I am not getting out of this hut. Then the intensity of the calls got high, "Guys guys, come out! You have to see this!"
I went out and peeked at the sky! My oh my! It was indeed full of stars. And when I meant full, it could not have got fuller. It was like every star out there decided to show up that day! Imagine seeing a city from a far point, you will be seeing thousands of tiny lights right. It's like that, but only a million times more beautiful. We all laid down on those rocks, spellbound and kept gazing up. Shooting stars were shooting around sparingly. We all made our secret wishes. I know mine became true. And let me say it again, it could not have gotten more beautiful up there.
Spellbound with this spectacle, the cold could not affect us anymore. We threw away our tshirts and faced the cold bare. And howled like wild ones. That's what we were that night. Wild.
We spent the whole night lying down on that rocky hilltop, gazing up at that magical sky.
When light broke in the skies, we climbed down, we were wild and hungry. Now that the wild part was over, we had to take care of the hungry part. It was 6ish in the morning, no shops had opened. We waited in front of a shop till the shopguy came. We told him our problem and he said wait for 20 mins and he will make us breakfast. We waited and got one of our most memorable breakfast, steaming hot appams, egg roast and piping hot. My My, can breakfast get more awesomer after such a cold night?
Now I don't think any other sky can be that beautiful for me, but still whenever I look up at any night sky, that night at Wagamon always subtly comes up in my mind. And I smile silently in the remembrance of that night.
That should not be a night we should forget easily. So before our memories fade out, let me put that in paper here. A small recap of how it happened.
This is how easy it was to go for a trip those days. But now with the myriad of planning and preparation. Wish it was as easy as those days.
6:30 PM : I was called from the football field and was just said one thing " Macha, nale harthal aanu, let's go tripping somewhere"
7:00 PM : All the muttans have gathered, sub muttans have been asked to come. Bikes are counted, cash is scrapped from here and there. Yes we are ready to go.
Where do we go? Someone suggested Wagamon! Why not? Here we go! I tried to think why we choose Wagamon. That is what we thought we could do there at night, For the life of me I couldn't get one sensible answer.
Anyway I think at that point, at that age, we didn't care, what happened or anything. We just went with the flow.
8:00 PM : The pack leaves Rajagiri hostel, perhaps 10-15 of us, I honestly don't remember who all were there, let me still do a headcount, Podi, Mama, Pothay, Jundi, Snake, Athishayan, Kuria, Nambi, Me and hmmm then who? Hmm Sany? Naa, he was always too big a baby to come out of the hostel at night. Although I am guessing his bike would have been there. Oh yeah Murshid and Ajith Sivadasan, not sure how those two tagged along. I guess that's it.
8:00 pm - 11ish pm : Me and Podi was on my bike. The ride was exactly how it should have been, the weather got really cold on route, I can still remember my tooth biting, fingers numbers and the air in my lungs freezing! Same with everyone else! All the right ingredients for the perfect ride! And all the fun we could have, we did have!
11-12 pm - We reached Wagamon. Let me give you a picture of how it was there. There was not a single soul there to ask for a place to stay. Not one single shop open. Not even a passing vehicle. Not even a stray light. Just the blowing wind and the eerie night with us in that lonely town.
Now what do we? Someone suggested "Let's climb up the Kurishumala!" (This hill is a very busy place during the holy week season. But in our night of adventure, it was a deserted, dark and isolated place. With God knows what all creatures would be creeping by. But then this did not deter us in anyway. I don't think anyone thought this was an absurd idea.(Now when I think about it, it was as absurd as it can get) So we climbed up, with the moon and our mobile lights showing us our steep uphill path. But with the a spirit of the young and foolish, we climbed it up with ease, with each step higher and higher into the top of the hill at the middle of the night.
With every step we make it started to get more and more colder. We climbed perhaps more half n hour or an hour to reach the top of the hill. It wasn't an easy trek, it was steep, it was dark, it was cold. But yet in the spirit of muttanship, that midnight we climbed up the hill.
We reached on top, but it was incredibly incredibly incredibly cold. We did not even have jackets or even shoes. For variety of reasons we decided we won't be climbing down and will be spending up on the hilltop for the whole night.
But the problem was the cold. Ridiculously cold. Apart from the rocky hill top, there was only two things on top of that hill. A church, closed of course. Then a tiny teeny hut where lotta wood and other stuff was kept. We tried sitting behind the church wall, but not working. We ran into the hut and tried to make ourselves comfortable.
I think we found one sack there which someone tried getting into (Snake if my memory is right). We thought about all possible solutions including a very gay form of sleep that will perhaps keep us warm, lol (we did not do it ofcourse!!!). It was 1-2 am by this time and we had to stay there till the sun slightly shows up. We ran out of ideas and slowly succumbed to the cold inside that hut. But the cold was getting to us. The hut was getting congested so someone stepped out and laid down on the rock looking at the sky. Then he called out to us inside the hut telling "Come here and look at the sky! It's just full of stars."
I thought yeah cool it was full stars, but I am not getting out of this hut. Then the intensity of the calls got high, "Guys guys, come out! You have to see this!"
I went out and peeked at the sky! My oh my! It was indeed full of stars. And when I meant full, it could not have got fuller. It was like every star out there decided to show up that day! Imagine seeing a city from a far point, you will be seeing thousands of tiny lights right. It's like that, but only a million times more beautiful. We all laid down on those rocks, spellbound and kept gazing up. Shooting stars were shooting around sparingly. We all made our secret wishes. I know mine became true. And let me say it again, it could not have gotten more beautiful up there.
Spellbound with this spectacle, the cold could not affect us anymore. We threw away our tshirts and faced the cold bare. And howled like wild ones. That's what we were that night. Wild.
We spent the whole night lying down on that rocky hilltop, gazing up at that magical sky.
When light broke in the skies, we climbed down, we were wild and hungry. Now that the wild part was over, we had to take care of the hungry part. It was 6ish in the morning, no shops had opened. We waited in front of a shop till the shopguy came. We told him our problem and he said wait for 20 mins and he will make us breakfast. We waited and got one of our most memorable breakfast, steaming hot appams, egg roast and piping hot. My My, can breakfast get more awesomer after such a cold night?
Now I don't think any other sky can be that beautiful for me, but still whenever I look up at any night sky, that night at Wagamon always subtly comes up in my mind. And I smile silently in the remembrance of that night.
