Mein Kahan Hoon???

August 5th 20011, it was one of those routine fridays when I had the least of intentions to work and was looking forward for the weekend. Work started off slow and lousy like everyother week day and some time

around mid day Murphy's Law came into effect!

Just when I was looking forward to leave office on time and get started with the weekend we came to know of a screw up that had to be rectified the same day. The Math told us that it would take us an entire day to clear it and that we will need to come in to work on saturday. Though I did not have any plans for the weekend, the thought of having to work on saturday was terrifying. We decided not to come in to work on saturday, instead stay back friday night however long it takes and finish off the work.

This means I will miss my friday evening routine, What is mr friday routine? I go back home and catch up with my best friends. (I have 3 best friends - Russel, Leeni & Amith and my life revolves around them). Its still better than not being able to catch up with them the whole of saturday. Leeni & I work at the same place, I walked up to her desk and told her that I may end up working on saturday. She also recommended that I stick to plan B and finish off the work by stretching on friday night. She said she has made some plans for Saturday late in the morning for the 4 of us and did not want me to come to work.

Without wasting any further time, I got back to work with the team. As we progressed through the evening, we started to see light at the end of the tunnel as the system speed dramatically improved post business hours. In the next few minutes that light turned out to be an approaching train - the servers crashed.

While we waited for the systems to come back up we were aimlessly wandering around in the world wide web trying to find the developers of the application that just crashed. At regular intervals I was in touch with my

best friends giving them an update on whats going on and sharing my frustration over the application's performance.

At around 12 midnight Leeni called me up and said they are going to sleep, but Amith will stay awake. She told me to wake them up what ever time I return and that we will drive down to Maddur. All four of us love long drives and when we don't get an opportunity to go on a weekend getaway at regular intervals, we drive down to Maddur or BIA (Bangalore International Airport) sit in coffee day for sometime and drive back. These drives have always been fun.

Though the systems came back, the system speed was way too frustrating for us to tolerate. At around 3AM we gave up and decided to call it a day. The guys from my team said they will come in later in the day on saturday and complete the workload.

Too tired and lazy to ride back home, I called Amith. He came over to pick me up, once we reached home we woke Russel & Leeni up and we all decided to meet up in about 30 mins. Leeni just told me that there is a surprise for all of us and that we need to wear shoes as there is some trecking involved. Without asking any further questionns, I went up to my apartment, took a shower, got ready and came down to Russel's place.

Leeni has been talking about to going on a trek to Skandagiri for quite sometime, and I was starting to think that is where she was taking us. We left home at around 4 AM, headed towards Maddur or Skamdagiri or God knows where else. Since I hadn't had any sleep I dozzed off on the way and when I woke up after a short nap we were still on the road and hey the route we were on didn't look familiar. I was almost certain that the plan was for us to go to Skandagiri for an early morning trek to see the sunrise. Thanks to me we now won't be able to see the sunrise as we were already late. I asked Russel if that is where we are going and he said he is not sure either as Leeni has not mentioned much about where we are headed but has just been giving directions. I now started pestering Leeni asking if it was Skandagiri and finally she fell prey for my nagging and confirmed Skandagiti is where we are headed. She also thanked me for spoiling the fun with my spoiler alert.

A few minutes post day break Russel pulled over and stopped by a Petrol Station to fill fuel and there was a coffee day just besides the petrol station. After filling fuel we parked the car and got into coffee day for some snacks and coffee. I asked Leeni if she got her camera and she said she forgot. It would have been nice if she'd got her camera because from what I've heard the view from the top (skandagiri) is amazing. But then I remembered that Amith had just bought a new Samsung Galaxy S2 which had an amazing 8 megapixed HD camera so I thought we are still ok.

                            

As we completed our pit stop and got back on the highway Russel said, "I still have no clue where we are going and I'm sure Leeni and Vimal have planned this together." Still convincecd that we are headed to Skandagiri, I was looking forward for the trek. We continued to drive and drive and drive.... I was looking all around and for some strange reason I cannot see any indications of any hilly area in the vicinity. I started getting suspicious about where we are headed and went back the drawing board again - in my mind.

I launched Google Maps on my phone to find out where we are and in which direction we are headed. BSNL mobile has a great reputation of not being available and or of giving some wierd errors messages on connectivity when you need it the most and they lived up to their reputation this time as well. Still as confused as I was when we left home, I told my friends, "I'm starting to think that you guys are taking me on a long trip. I don't have any clothes to change so it will be nice if you guys can stop at the next town so that I can buy some clothes for myself." As no one seemed to take my comment seriously we resorted back to our normal long drive conversations.

We continued to drive and drive and drive..... Suddenly out of the blue, Leeni pulled out her camera and handed it over to me, she said "Here. Take." This was the same camera that she said she had forgotten to bring along. It was at that moment, I started to freak out. I said, "Oh freak. Leeni you said you forgot to bring the camera a while ago and now you are pulling it out of nowhere. I won't be surprised if you guys are taking me on a weekend trip. And I wont be surprised if all your bags are packed and kept in the boot and I am the only one with out any clothes to change for the entire trip." No one said anything in return but just had a smirk on their faces.

I got off my seat, turned over to the boot and I saw some quilts lying there (these were the quilts Russel has been telling he needs to drop at the drycleaner). As I moved the Quilts to one side I saw three bags!!!!

"OH FREAK. OH FREAK. WHAT IS HAPPENING? OH FREAK. Where are we going? Where are you guys taking me? FREAK" as I was freaking out Russel, Leeni and Amith were laughing their guts out (of course even I was laughing). As the laughter in the car slowly reduced, Amith and Leeni handed over some print outs to me in which there were some route maps! I could see Mangalore, Sakleshpur, etc in these maps and finally I realised that these guys have booked a homestay in Sakleshpur for the Friendship Day weekend and have been planning this surprise trip for me for more than a week!

The night before we left, Lenni had gone up to my apartment, told my parents about the plan, packed my stuff and put it in the car. She'd done such a good job with packing my stuff that I never fell short of anything. The surprise was way too good and I just couldn't stop smiling and laughing, in fact we all were smiling and laughing all the way to Sakleshpur and the whole trip turned out to be that way. I can't remember when was the last time I laughed and smiled so much.

The home stay these guys had booked was amazing and the place where went to turned out to be an excellent weekend getaway spot. Similar to the other trips we have been on, we took the Safari 4x4 on an offroading spree, climbed mountains, crossed rivers, took pictures, ate good food, relaxed, played games, pulled each others legs, got drenched in the rain, parked the safari in the middle of a stream & washed it, had a camp fire, almost got stuck in a spookey place & got back, laughed like crazy, celebrated and had loads & loads of fun. I don't think we would've had so much fun even as kids. What an amazing trip it turned out to be and this is the best vacation I have ever been on so far. Kudos to my dear firends for pulling this off! I can't stop smiling everytime I think of this trip :-) :-) :-)

Like I always say, I have been blessed with these three great friends and the best phase of my life so far has been and is the time I've been with these guys. I never have to tell them how I felt or what I wanted, they know it without me having to say it and they will ensure I get what I want without me having to ask for it.

If I could borrow Peter Parker's words from the first Spiderman movie and change it a bit, it would go like.

"Whatever life holds in store for me, I will never forget these words: With great friends comes great things in life. This is my gift, my blessing. Who am I? I'm Russel, Leeni & Amith's best friend."

Note: If you are not so familiar with the above mentioned words from the Spiderman movie, here is the original version.

Whatever life holds in store for me, I will never forget these words: "With great power comes great responsibility." This is my gift, my curse. Who am I? I'm Spider-man.

(Note: The images & Photos in the first half of this article have been randomly picked from the internet.)