M E M O R I E S

The Nellore outing !!!

It’s been almost 5 months since that unforgettable Nellore outing. Sowmy was gracious enough to book tickets for 6 of us – yours truly, Vidu, Subha, Saniya, umC, Saddy. Nellore is Sowmy’s birthplace and her grand parents stay there. And a trivia for those ignorant – Sowmy will get married in Nellore. So there is another outing that’s due early next year. ;-)

All of us assembled in the Egmore Railway Station on the day’s morning. UmC had come over to Saniya’s place since they planned to come to the station together. umC mistook Saniya’s neighboring house for her house and accidentally stepped over a sleeping dog !!! Thankfully, the dog was in a deep trance !! Subha’s parents had come over to the railway station to send her off. We had never seen Subha being so well – mannered. Why??? Her parents’ presence !!! She was not even laughing !!! It was all subdued giggles ! And we were having a nice time pulling her leg in front of her parents just to force her put the usual mokkais ! Sowmy’s mother accompanied us and the compartment was almost empty. So it turned out like we were the troublemakers. There was a session of card game, not to forget Saniya’s stint with the phone ! Yours truly had a small nap but was soon woken by the screams around.

We reached Nellore in 3 hours. Sowmy’s grandfather had come to pick us up and we left in two cars. It was a 30 minutes drive to the village. The house was a typical village one but really big !! Every room had two exits and we occupied one on the first floor. There was a huge mattress spread across the room for the 7 of us to sleep. Sowmy’s Mum used the adjoining room to sleep in the nights. Otherwise, both the rooms were ours in the mornings.

We had never eaten so much in our entire lives ! Sowmy’s Mum was kind enough to make everything that we liked and she constantly kept filling our stomachs. They had two domestic maids who worked with them since their grandfather’s time – Yenkamma and Shanthamma. Shantamma was an excellent cook and she made really delicious food.

We spent the afternoon taking snaps in different poses and by then the lunch was ready ! We finished the appetizing lunch and left to our rooms. All of us were too tired and fell asleep. Evening was sports time !!! We played Shuttle and Lock and Key. Sowmy’s Mum joined in as well. Yours truly was getting pathetic with every shot. Subha was facing problems with service. Vidhya and Sowmy were on a roll. Sadhana and Uma were mediocre. After the gaming session, it was time to watch TV. We saw Sowmy’s old birthday videos for some time. And then again, it was time for dinner !! Saniya brought few DVDs one of which was a supposedly ghost movie ‘Gauri’. Vidu, yours truly, Saddy, umC were too tired to watch the movie. We spent about 2 hours talking in the balcony and fell asleep. Vidu and Saddy were listening to songs. Sowmy and Saniya had by then finished watching the movie and when they came up, they could hear a song playing. Vidu was half asleep and Sowmy tried to scare them in the nights. She said ‘Hey Vidu, Gauri vandhurukku di..’ Vidu sleepily replied, ‘ poitu naliki vara sollu di…’ Sowmy and Saniya were in splits. Next morning, they tried to over exaggerate the movie’s scariness and coaxed us to watch the movie. We did that after a cards session. The movie was so scary that we almost fell asleep !!! :-|

Beach time !!! We traveled for about an hour and a half to the beach. Before that, we went to the Hatcheries that Nellore is really famous for. It stinked !! Seriously !!! :-|

It was a very small beach with few people. Sowmy’s Mum had brought food and snacks. We played in the beach for some time. Those still remain etched in our hearts !!! We laughed like we never laughed before. We played like we never played before. We spent about 2 hours in the beach and left late in the evening. All of us reached home at about 9.00 in the night and had our dinner. Saddy and I were yapping till 2.00 in the morning !!! Sowmy and Saniya were upto something else !!! ;-) Others had fallen asleep !!

Next morning, we got up really late. We had a session of card playing. Also, all of us sang the Kadhalikka Neramillai title song and recorded it. In the afternoon, we saw ‘Happy Feet’. It was a cute anime movie. We came up with really funny translations for those English lines. In the evening, we had a photo session for about an hour and left to the temple. Sowmy’s Mum had stressed on sleeping early because we were leaving the next day. The trip had come to an end !!! All of us were in the terrace that night and spoke till 1.00 in the morning.

We packed our bags next morning and left to the station, bidding adieu to everybody there. The return journey was exciting as well, just that the compartment was full. Saniya was busy looking at a reddie. We played cards for long. Chennai arrived and we left to our respective homes with hearts full of fond memories and never wanting to leave each other.

Few of those one-liners that we borrowed from various sources were

Aaniya pudunga venaa……………

Adhaagapattadhu ennanaa………….

Enna koduma sir idhu !!………………..

Saboothreee…………………

The trip was made even more hilarious with Subha’s constant mokkaiest mokkais. Friends, I can’t recall any of them because there were many !!! Help me out !!!