Chapter 20
The Never Started Journey

After a loooong time, I am actually writing some sensible content in the blog. But please dont go by the title. It may sound bit too heavy but I wanted to write about our trip, which we never went. :-)

Yes, you heard right.... A trip which was planned but never executed...... Actually I can recall atleast 10-15 trips before which we planned but never went. The planning for about 8-9 out of them were started by me.(Cannot help... I am a trip enthusiast and others arent, hence fail trying to convince people who are not interested). You would be wondering "What is so special about this trip that is making me write about it?!!!!". Let me briefly explain you about the ongoings of the planning for this trip.

This was a simple idea started off around 1 1/2 months back by Mr.Great Abhi who is leaving to US for his higher studies. So, he wanted to go out of Bangalore atleast once, before he leaves India, with his friends(tht is us). He came up with a brilliant idea about going to Shimla which was instantly objected because of the expense associated with the trip(A poor Brahmin cannot afford all the luxuries of life... Err... I am talking about myself). Now since his idea was rejected not only by me, but by many poor brahmins from my group, we started thinking of other feasible options like Pune/Goa/Dandeli etc. etc.

Pune was finalized for a moment and almost everyone agreed to it. We actually tried looking out for Train tickets and also accommodation. Mind you, this time we started planning early(1 1/2 months is tooo early for us to actually execute the trip successfully). Since Dec was a peak season, we couldnt book train tickets as we were already in Waiting List no 50+. So, dejected, we had to switch to other options life Goa, Kerala, Dandeli etc etc.

Someone in the trip had come up with a brilliant idea of going to Pondicherry as he had been there during last year itseems and he said the place is worth to be visited. Since I hadnt seen that place and I like trying new places, I was okey with it. One more reason was it was nearer to Bangalore and hence travel charges would be less. :-)

Yeah... I forgot to mention. Already 2 rounds of conference calls and 3 rounds of chain mails(to company's ID) and each chain mail having atleast 50 replies associated with it, was already over only to decide which place we are going during Christmas. I brought about the conference calls and chain mails since it has a major role in this episode.

Now back to trip, now our own Hero "Chain Mail" started off again asking people to confirm if they are actually willing to come to trip or not. The list gets added. We had around 20 people at once who were a part of the list. People started confirming or giving their reasons for not coming. All the girls rejected instantly(Good for us - We thought atleast we'll have peace of mind and freedom). People confirmed, and people left. We did not have a final number of those who confirmed. There were people who were in 2 minds.

Mr.Akshay, who is now a quality associate, gave a brief explanation about the process to be followed in planning a trip and he sent out an excel file which either contains "In" or "Out". Yeah, he forgot to think about the effort involved in collating this information. Anyways, none of my business, as I had made my mind not to involve myself in planning this trip as I had already got the name - "the-Failed-planner". Well.... lets talk about how I got that name some other day.

Excel got filled, we found atleast 8 members who were ready for the trip. So, we decided about booking a TT(Tempo Traveller). Well there was a conference call for actually deciding the mode of transport(Either by TT or by Qualis/Tata Sumo). Since TT was finalized in that discussion(since Mr.Sandy had actually enquired about the tariffs associated with TT), we went ahead with it. All these happened 2-3 weeks before the actual day of the trip.

Since everything was finalized, Mr.Sagii(co-ordinator/planner/originator of the chain mail) also got settled down I guess as there was no news about the trip for entire 2 weeks.

Suddenly 1 week before the trip, I saw a reply from Mr.Raghu asking for the status of the trip. I guess, people had actually forgotten about the trip. All of a sudden, chain mails started to flow, conference calls started to happen. People were asked to confirm again, the destination for the trip was also discussed(due to weather conditions), there were loads of phone calls, people started fighting, teasing, discussing all crap things in those meetings(mails and phone calls) except the trip. Now somebody realised they had to book the TT and accommodation as well.

Since there was a confusion between who needs to book the TT, no one did it. But yeah, Thanks to Mr.Sagii who atlast found a TT(bit costly, but nonetheless we had something to travel). So, we asked him to book it. He said he could book the TT, after a few problems. Everyone felt happy that atleast we could go outside Bangalore. Since there were 3-4 seats remaining in the TT, I decided to call on my friends(Mr.PK and Mr.Vicky).

They didnt confirm immediately, but on the day before leaving for the trip, they confirmed which was okey with us. Now, PK and Vicky were already planning about what to do, where all to visit and also about the route to take to Pondi. Suddenly at around 6pm, I get a call from Mr.Sagii in which he says - "Maga... No TT". The story about cancellation goes like this.

Mr.Sagii had only confirmed the TT and he hadnt paid any advance money. TT was already booked by someone else by the time he realised. Now the job was onto us for booking it. I didnt know what to say to PK and Vicky since they were already in a holiday mood and i didnt want to disturb it until it was confirmed that the trip is cancelled.

I started searching for TT from 8pm and roamed around the city like a thirsty crow(couldnt find a better phrase) looking for transport till 10 in the night. There was a friend of mine who was coming from UK (Uttara Kannada) only for this trip and he wasnt sure to cancel his bus or to come to Bangalore as it was Eid on that day and he wanted to spend time with his family who stayed there(if the trip got cancelled) . We tried our best and were unable to find even a single TT in entire Bangalore. There goes our trip. baaaaah!!!!! I expected it, but hadnt expected this would happen in the end moment.

Now, since this trip was cancelled, me, Mr.PK and Mr.Vicky came up with our own trip plan. Go to Pondi in KSRTC. Bus tickets was available but we wanted to ensure we had the accommodation also. I got up early in the morning and started to call almost all the reasonable priced hotels in Pondi. To our bad luck everything was booked. There goes our trip no.2.

What do we do now?!!! We change the trip plan to Mysore hoping we get some accommodation there atleast. PK consults 2 of his friends who suggested him that it is a bad idea to go to Mysore at this point of time since accommodation will be booked during this time itseems. So, there goes trip no.3.

Now we are planning to have another trip. This time a one day trip in our own bikes to ensure we dont have to book a TT or for accommodation. I dont know when chain mails and conference calls will start to happen for this.

I only touched upon the major happenings during the planning. There were several parts during the planning stages which made it even more special. I dont want to discuss about those things since those are out of context. I guess atleast whatever I have written was interesting to you.