When Kriti was in Karnataka- Mysuru Travel.
This is an account of how I made new friends, talked all kinds of things, shared sweat and sweets and ate my heart out in a land of foreign tongue and unknown faces. It is about the time I was in Karnataka.For some reason, I had associated a Kathakali face whenever I thought of Karnataka, some mix up with images in 4th standard GK book. But all of it was about to change. As you might have recognised the pattern till now. Most of travel happen because of exams to be taken here and there. And thank the lords I don’t pass any so I get to travel some more. This one is when I went for SSB in Mysore.Before I went, I knew Mysore or Mysuru to be the cleanest city in India with a palace and that was all what idea I had about the place.
The journey started of as a branching of my 3 weeks stay at Goa. Yes, I spent a summer in Goa not bragging or anything. It was not like I spent a summer in Germany, you guys! take a chill capsule. So I boarded a night bus from Pa naji to my suru land and struggled to sleep while a kannada guy fitted in the TV tried really hard to entertain me.
I reached the palace city next late morning and checked into the hotel. All settled down, I decided to file up my documents very neatly to find all my horrors coming true. I had any got any of my documents attested. Horrified and sweating, I reached the reception and asked for guidance to get to the court. I was taken to dingy gully with a mosque and was instructed by a kind faced old rickshaw wallah recently turned a villian to inquire about a notary guy in the mosque.
So this is me entering a mosque for the first time. All the theories about women not being allowed inside a mosque and being the girl in the city started engulfing me. I was greeted by a line of burka clothed women, sitting in squat position telling me to get out as the person I was asking for was on leave. I swear I could have shat my pants there and then. I ran back hopped on the rickshaw and went straight back to the hotel.
The nervousness was wrecking my head. The hotel was located near the medical hospital/college and it struck me that a doctor could also testify for the authenticity of my documents. It was a big big building, beautiful with a large lavish ground where a cricket match was being contested. The air was filled with the magnanimity of the building, the smell of dettol, wounds, food, people, sadness and kannada-english commentary.
I got my documents attested after struggling through the three parts of the building back and forth trying to force and kannada accent into my english to make people understand me better and I finally got it. It was the most beautiful set of signatures I have ever seen. Kannada for me will remain the most beautiful language with intricacies and beauty embedded in each word.
Next morning, I found myself surrounded by impeccable looking ladies, dressed in their formals and waiting for the reporting to happen. It was when I met Sadhana Sarout, who was my roommate, my group mate, giggle partner, crush drooler for the next five days. While I was trying my best to make her believe that only time I have heard of army is through Ranvijay in roadies and that I genuinely believe that the entire experience of SSB is nothing but a way to find a true roadie, we reached Mysore AFSB 2.
Skip Skip Skip.
Cut to the part when I met my soul sisters, my musketeers and my dirty jokes squad. So this group comprised of Isha Sen, Manasi (dude your surname is hard to spell), Rhea Rose Gracias, Sharon ( dude your surname is hard to spell). You know there are people you meet and you know you click because there is this look on your face when even something remotely dirty happens. These were those people. I knew, I was enjoying when I was singing bad, very bad honey singh songs at the top my lungs in chorus with these goddesses in the recreation room. Boy, we knew how to recreate.
We were allowed to roam around after 2 pm for the last three days of our 5 day stay.Also a fun fact: we were not allowed to carry our mobile phones with us at any point. So the entire adventure is without google maps, book my show or yahoo searches, which was all the more exciting.
The first outing, we all unanimously decided to engage in was to watch a Kannada movie. It was in the shadiest theatre I have ever been ( except Rakesh Cinema near nala, Saharanpur, UP) and it was GOLD. The sheer pleasure of seeing a God size, cut out poster of Jaggu Dada with garlands of lights and flowers was humbling. It felt small about my mere presence in this world. The movie was scare comedy where the protagonist’s grandfather after his death turns into a ghost to guide Jaggu Dada, same coloured shirt, pants, handkerchief,shades shoes belt and wallet wearing man, through fighting the gundas, fighting the government, establishing their regime in the area and of course getting him his love interest . The movie had a character named opener Kamli who was there for subtle but obvious sexual humour and we laughed. We laughed our hearts out.
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