3 Decades of Fun Times

16 yrs old. 1982 in Cochin. Brand new town for me and just started to make new friends and that's when I meet Stephen and Aditya. Over the course of time Aditya, Stephen and I would embark on several spur of the moment trips. Each one more eventful than the last. From short day trips to Fort Cochin and around to long ones.

One of the most memorable one was a trip where Aditya had to visit his Cinnamon Estate in Nilambur and to meet his cousins who were based on the property so Stephen and myself go along with him in his trusted Mahindra MM540. Getting ready for the trip the packing was a whole lot of booze and that was it. A great drive, Aditya always kept a steady place and we reached without incident.




Now at the estate Aditya and his cousins get to business and Stephen and myself are left enjoying nature and smelling the flowers. Needless to say consumption of spirits was the activity which went along. That evening we have planned to stay a night at a forest guest house at Masinagudi. A long drive through the Mudumalai National Park and we finally reach Kothawala's Jungle Retreat. Old man Kothawala, an ex planter from Coonoor had setup a very fine spot and the food was amazing. The best of Parsi cooking and hospitality. In the evening we decided to go check out the wildlife. By this time, except for one of Aditya's cousins the rest of us were quite upbeat with alcoholic influences and bravado which turned to some "brave" suggestions - mine was to walk back in pitch black night through the forest (inhabited by big cats and elephants). The sober guy refused to let Stephen and me walk at night. So we got back into the jeep.



At the first forest check post the guard makes a big show of flashing his torch inside and checking the back for contraband. Then we were let through. At the check post on the other end of the forest again a guard came and shone his torch. Alcohol influence at its highest, as soon as the light flashed, I mooned the poor guard...to much mirth and cackles. The guard then goes to the police station, right next to the forest check post and calls the Inspector out. The cops proceed to take us all into the station and then the interrogation begins. We had decided to behave as though we don't speak any South Indian languages but instead only spoke English. However this was not going on very well as the Inspector was talking to Stephen in Malayalam and he was answering back in English. For a while the cops did not catch on. Then the guard was called and he identified Stephen as the mooner and then the cop picked on Stephen. At that time Aditya told the cops that the guard was probably drunk and imagined all this. He explained that one of the guys was changing his clothes in the back as it had got wet by spilling a drink and that's what probably happened. With this the cops now wanted to search the jeep for booze and a few are dispatched to search. They come back with half a bottle of Whiskey. For the amount of drinking we had done, this was a joke and we all started laughing. Eventually the cops let us go saying "Kerala people - keep your tail tied down when you leave Kerala".




The next day the entire village had come out to he streets and waved at us, apparently the cops and the forest guard were not much liked and they thought us heroes to moon the guard.

The pictures here were taken in 2007, beginning of another eventful trip to Goa.