My last trip as a free man.

Last year this time.

I had just finished college. It was april 18th and the exams were over, and I went home, amid very emotional scenes in college. Everyone would be departing today, never to see each other again, may be, may be not.

I was at home for 3-4 days, when I started getting restless with the inactivity and slothfulness I was feeling for quite a long time before leaving college. I started to prepare to leave home. My parents were reluctant to let me go, since this would be last sojourn at home. I tore myself away from home, and went to Chennai, to Haree’s place.

From there I took his motorcycle, a Pulsar 150, and started planning for a week long trip to Kodai, Munnar and Cochin. I bought maps. I planned out everything. The plan was this.

Day 1: Chennai to Kodai via. Trichy. (530 kms)
Day 2: Kodai
Day 3: Kodai
Day 4: Kodai to Munnar (160 kms)
Day 5: Munnar to Cochin (120 kms)
Day 6: Cochin
Day 7: Cochin to Chennai (740 kms)

It was the peak of the summer. I started off early from Chennai and reached Kodai by late after noon. I took a bed at the TTDC dorm for a rock bottom Rs. 80 per day. I managed to bribe a room boy to give me access to a well-heated room with hot water and the works for a mere 50 rupees a day.

It was a nice 2 days at Kodai. I had nothing to do, but to loiter around in my bike, goto some cliff or precipice and wile away time, reading or meditating. It was the peak of the tourist season and there were a lot of people around me like myself, who just wanted to chill out and relax.

I left kodai on a morning, and came down to the plains and then again climbed the hils to Munnar. I have never been in a mountain road more picturesque than this one. The road between Cumbum and Munnar. 50 kms of visual delights, tea gardens, deep ravines, and near vertical gradients.

I took a very comfortable room at a place called Munnar Tourist Home, and stayed there for 2 days. Then I started off to Cochin. I had a friend there, with whom I spent a couple of days in comfort and contentedness.

Then it was the marathon ride to Chennai, 740 kms, via Palghat and Coimbatore. I have never ridden so much in a day. I started off at 9.30 am in the morning and reached chennai at 11.10 pm in the night. I never did more than 90 kmph.

I came back to Chennai, stayed for a couple of days to do shopping and equip myself for my debut as a professional. I then left for Indore to join Eicher, never again to be that free to roam around on a motorcycle. Never again to be so unstressed. Never again to be so open and free.

I recall this now, a year later, because to leave out this trip as a mere memory would be a great injustice to the innocence that governed my actions before I started working. I have never been freer in my life. I have never been so happy, again.