Sehnsucht

Right now I'm waiting for Hyouka's episode two to load and listening to Highway, although I can assure you that I'm nowhere on any road or in Japan.

Cutie-pie alert. Oreki ♥

The only adventure I had had aside from swiveling in my new swivel chair and re-blogging Tumblr posts the past week was when I went to Kashmir. And what an adventure it was. (Take note that I apply the term 'adventure' loosely here.)

Us: Throughout Kashmir

It was us nine - the usual ennead of the Natarajans sans Manoj, the Rajagopals, and the Veerasubramanians.

Us being 'nautral'. My horse's name was Dilkul. Such a lazy-bum but we got along. Situation Song: Dreams on Fire

Like before any vacation, like any never-before-seen-snow recipients, we were all absolutely numb with excitement. It was our first time actually crossing the equator, can you imagine how excited we were at that prospect? Sure I was a bit apprehensive in the beginning, to be completely honest. But I wrote it off as just a silly fear of a motion-sickness-prone girl of the five-hour to-and-fro flight. Completely rational apprehension, right?

It would seem so. But the events that occurred later make me doubt if I'm clairvoyant. Or maybe just intensely intuitive.

I might be Raven, guys.

While we were all jumping with excitement and chanting Kashmir like it's our national anthem (only with a bit more patriotism) before the trip, we certainly weren't after the first few days. Last week's trip was the first trip in my whole life that I'd ever detested.

The irony of it all is this: during our trip to Goa, I specifically remember us saying 'Yuck, GOA!' on our flight inbound. But after we reached, we were all 'OMG. OMG. LIke Goa's THE BEST!'. (Okay, not really. I don't ever start a sentence with 'OMG', but we were/are still thinking it.) But it was exactly the opposite for our 'adventure' in Kashmir. Most of the time in Kashmir, we were all 'I want Chennai!' Never have I ever been so enthused and expectant of the Chennai heat.

My photography B) I just edited the horde of people out :P Place: Pahalgam

 Just to be clear, I'm not dissing Kashmir here. Kashmir is absolutely stunning. But it's food is dangerous for us South Indians.

Food not advised for South Indians

Place is recommended.

We were all hearty and happy for just twenty-four hours. Drowned in our elation and bliss, we missed the foreboding signal that the rest of our trip days were to be doomed. Even me, who was a bit weary at first, was delighted, unaware of our impending doom.

It started with Mum. Late night the second day, she suffered in the restroom with no water. Then it spread to the rest eight of us, slowly, poisoning us through the food. In the end, all nine of us were sick in two ways - nothing-is-staying-in-our-stomach sick and home sick.

But nevertheless, I have to acknowledge the fact that we would have immensely enjoyed Kashmir if it was not for our sickness. We would have had a snow-fight (as I'd dreamed) if Gokul had been able to walk and Varsha hadn't fainted after her skiing stint. We would have gone to Sonamarg as planned if we hadn't been traumatized and made even more sick by the horse ride up Pahalgam.

Although I do have to say, snow wasn't at all what I expected it to be. All that hype was for nothing; maybe the scenery - that was really good, while going up the winch. But snow was just ice, you could see it in your own freezer. And it was really dirty. I had dreams of making a snowman, a snow-angel, referencing Frozen, riding on the sledge, taking a pose on the ski wearing goggles and all.

Needless to say, they were crushed. Like a bug. Under a boot.

Maybe I've been fooled by too many cartoons and Disney films.

Go to hell, Jack. You little cheat. 

Well if there was one thing we got in our favour, it was the things we bought. I got some cool leather-suede gloves I could use in future for motor-biking days, and I also bought a beanie like monkey cap. Varsha threw a tantrum and got herself a smoking-pipe. Gokul got, ugh, well, I guess he got high off the scenery and torturing us, of course.

♫ I'm Varsha the sailor girl ♫ I threw a tantrum cause I want me some pipe ♫

Bonus: Varsha and I discovered the wonder that is cameras. We were practically the photographers the whole trip; we just took a bunch of flowers because we'd found out about the 'Close-up' setting.

The quality was real good, but then I messed up. Sorry. PC: Varsha, Me. EC: Me. 

Gokul, Varsha, my mum and Varsha's parents dressed up in authentic Kashmir wear and took photos worth 50 bucks each.

Best thing was, in the last day, we cancelled our trip to Sonamarg and went to a local garden where we saw some really cute elementary kids on excursion. They were all so rosy and fair because of the weather and their teachers allowed us to take pictures with them. They even gave us some Frooti! :D

This one cute boy-cut kid was giving poses, hiding behind the shrub. And this one kid was grumpy as hell.

So it seems we only enjoyed ourselves when we strayed off the packaged-tour and went to local places. 

There you have it, I'm never going on pre-planned packaged tour ever again. The main problem with this trip was the stuffed and cramped planning. We had no time to catch our breaths or nurse ourselves.

The trip wasn't completely useless, I did get to learn some politics. See our parents like to talk a lot in our tempo/car/our-transport-vehicle in all our trips. The topics, as Gokie and I had made a deep study of it, go like this: movies to politics to events to cinema to politics-again. It is rather interesting when you hear it first-hand. They change topics so suddenly yet so gradually, and the changed topic will have no seeming relation to the original one. It's wonderful.

And I garnered some knowledge about Kashmir and the people's trifle with the GoI. Well, I only have one thing to say on this: unless and until the GoI meets the expectations of Kashmiri people, what right does it have over them?

If I continue talking, it'll become a full-blown rant occupying another five pages and I'll be left with sore fingers. Now neither of us want that, do we?

In other matters, our results came today and here we have mine:

For anyone who doubted the boundaries of my awesomeness. Peace out.

Okay, before all of you sneer at me, let me say this: I worked really, really hard for this and spent countless nights sleepless, so I have all the right to boast about it however much I want. Haters can suck it.

On a nicer note: thanks to all who congratulated me and congratulations to all my friends who passed, no matter your GPA, capisce?

-Alex

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P.S.S All pictures taken by us are edited either for enhancing the colours or for cloning out unwanted people.