We were like dolls at the hands of the mogembo. Distressed, dejected, low-spirited and helpless. He had already taken the whole amount and we were fully in his trap and there was nothing we could do. We fully understood that only a Mangal Pandey could revolt against him and hence we relied upon our destiny to save us. We now only hoped that this villain does not extract our organs by killing us and sell them to some sheikh in Dubai. If he happens to think so, I was sure that he would have killed me first in the greed of getting 4 kidneys. Farooq would have been the last person to get killed or rather i would say he would not have been killed because he would have already made a lot of money by killing me and atul.
Enjoying the trip was the last thought that came to our mind. We were already shocked by the way our trip was progressing. The rational part at the topmost region of our body had gone dumb and we were behaving as robots in the mogembo's hand. Suddenly a new voice cropped up "Go and sit in the bus. The blue bus. Jaldi jakar baitho time nahi hain". I wondered if it was my conscience. Soon realised that it was Mogembo's assistant. We boarded the bus and were about to sit on the seat available on the first row. The assistant shouted "Nahi wahaan nahi. You have to sit behind on the last 7 seats". Again our Jacky chang Nilesh protested, "what do you mean?...we also have paid the same amount as others". The assistant was well trained by mogembo and hit back at us saying "If you demand or command you wont get. Go to the last seats. do not demand or command". We like programmed robots sat on the last seats as per the order given by our master. Anyways, we did not have the habit of sitting on the front rows. Only Carl Costa dared to sit exactly below Prof. Amonkar's nose.
The bus started and we were on our way to mysore our first sight seeing destination. We were slowly getting into the groove now and though we thought the villain to be mogembo, our perception about him was changing as the bus was in good condition besides the guide provided on the bus as well had good knowledge about the places in karnataka. We had started enjoying the trip and were having fun by playing some witty games. By this i mean doing "Foktepana", mind you doing foktepana requires quite a good amount of energy and brains. Manesh as usual was at his best doing it. We also played Antakshari in the bus. After around 3 hours of journey we were at the beautiful city of palaces.
Huge palaces and gardens all around the city. Mysore boasts itself of great history of maharaja's and their rich hobbies. The vrindavan garden was what we were looking upto as we had heard about it a lot for good things like light dance. Sandeep had already started imagining all naughty things when Manesh told him that Vrindavan garden has a light dance. However, soon after Manesh clarified that it is just water fountains and bright lights dancing together. I could understand Sandeep's grief at that point. We reached Vrindavan gardens at around 6:15 in the evening and we were told to return to the bus in half an hour as we had to travel a good distance before we reach our hotel. We all prayed and our god was Michael johnson, jesse owens and also PT Usha as we had to almost sprint to win the race against time. We also wanted to see the water dance and return back to the bus in half an hour.
Ready steady go. Off we go with a bang. we also compelled the sweet looking couples usually in their comfortable and convenient positions engrossed in their so called future plans, to give us an expression and they obliged. We were running like galileo in the garden except that we were not naked. We jumped, jaggled, banged with our aim just one, Vrindavan water fountain dance. It was suppose to start at 6:30 and we had just 15 minutes to cover the distance which was around 6 kms. Ketan's mathematical mind had already started to make the calculations. He declared we have to cover a kilometer in 2.5 minutes in order to get there in 15 minutes. Now how on earth are we going to measure time and distance was each ones headache. Persons like me not very good at calculating thought I should run as hard as possible. The flowers in the way were clapping, the leaves appreciating our determination, the concrete under our foot giving us the support to indeed cover that distance in record time. We were still 2 kms away and Manesh suddenly realised he also had a camera to capture these moments. Except for Atul nobody was in mood to click, however as if it was our respectful duty we all stood creatures in a hurry. Finally we could see the finish line and a incharge there told us that there are still a few minutes to start the water dance. Nilesh also had his hands raised to acnowledge his fan following in the stands before me reminding him that we were here to see the vrindavan garden and not 100 mtrs sprint.
Yes we had done it and we were about to witness the water fountain dance, the lights had started and music which consisted mostly of string instruments. It was an amazing sight, with all different colours and water fountain dancing on the tone of the music. We relaxed for the first time since our disastrous trip started. The music playing its part and lively colours as if asking us to forget the bad things that have happened because after a black colour there is a white colour and then a green colour and then a yellow. After a soothing stress free session at the gardens it was time for us to return back to the bus and we now had just 10 mins remaining to reach the bus. Ketan was attempting to make another calculation before he realised that we all had already started running. We were back by the same way, over the bridge and in the bus at the right time.
Such a trip to Vrindavan garden was one of its kind and this can be done only with friends together!!! Rocking experience Long live Lee Family.
Stay tuned for the Ooty experience in my next blog. The chilly december climate is awaiting us.
