A 'Trip' to Remember

During my university days, I had a very enthusiastic bunch of classmates, who were always up for trips. In our first semester, we had managed to make a number of day trips in and around the city. Now as the second semester rolled in, we were all eager to go somewhere outside the city.

We soon began shortlisting some potential destinations and after a lot of arguments and disagreements, we finally settled on Pondicherry, a coastal city in South India which used to be a French territory. Our whole class (around 40 people) had agreed to come and the atmosphere was filled with excitement.

The college had just been declared deemed into a university and soon after that, it had decided to implement a totalitarian sort of a regime to ensure students were always in line. Some of these measures were: the minimum attendance was jacked up from 75 to 85 per cent, you could no longer wear t-shirts and the classes itself had become stricter.

We were all bursting with pent up frustration and this trip seemed like the perfect opportunity to blow some steam off. The transport – two minibuses – was booked, the accommodation was finalized and the permissions from home were granted.

Everything was going smoothly before the university dropped a bomb! We had planned to take this trip over the weekend. We would leave on Friday evening, reach on Saturday morning, spend the night and the next day in Pondi and then leave for home on Sunday evening. This planned seemed viable as Monday was supposed to be a holiday owing to some festival.

However, the university, sticking with their new agenda of torture, had cancelled the holiday on Monday, citing some feeble excuse that it would reduce the load on the teachers to finish their respective syllabuses. On top of that, they had also hinted that Mondays may start featuring mini-tests, whose results may get added to the final term.

After these announcements, the numbers in our group quickly dwindled. However, approximately half of us, displaying the devil-may-care attitude, decided to ignore the announcements and stick to our original plan. As we were sure that the other half would play the role of Judas and rat us out to the teachers if we didn’t turn up on Monday, we agreed that all of us would head straight to class after getting back.

The fateful Friday finally arrived and after class, the braver half all congregated at the agreed place where the minibus would pick us up. As we were eager to start partying right away, most of us had had already stocked up on all the arsenal that would take us higher than Everest.

As a result, our sobriety disappeared even before we boarded the bus. The bus finally came and all of us stumbled in, eager to take the party to another level. Soon enough, the only sounds that could be heard were the mixing of liquids and the crushing and rolling of certain substances that weren’t entirely legal.

The bus started and the journey began. The atmosphere inside the bus transcended into a Stifler’s party (sans the sex) and by the time we’d even left the vicinity of the city we were already tracing constellations in the nearest galaxy.

The merrymaking continued into the night with no signs of stopping as all of us ascended into uncharted territories of Euphoria. The bus driver had been bribed with a few bottles of our magical elixir so that he would look the other way but that turned out to be a colossal mistake as he too joined in the celebration and nearly drove us straight to heaven on two separate instances.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the party began to show signs of abating as the loud music was replaced by snores. When almost all of us had drifted into intoxicated slumber, the bus suddenly jerked into a stop, startling us.

Some of us got up to check out what was happening and soon realised that we had arrived at the state border and some sort of checking was going on. We had forgotten to add this to our list of concerns and now we were….for a lack of a better word, f****d. The driver too had been foolhardy and now he was done for as he would surely be subject to a breathalyser. We had to think quickly…

In the whole group, only one guy was somewhat sober. He had just had a few swigs of the elixir and a couple of hits of the semi-legal substance. We were not sure whether he would make the cut but there was no other option. We quickly asked the driver to switch places and he readily agreed. The other snag was that this semi-sober guy didn’t have a driver’s license. Even if he did he couldn’t have shown it as bus drivers have a different permit. So the only option was for him to take the bus drivers’ driving permit and hope that the authorities didn’t compare his likeness to the photo in the id (the two of them didn’t even remotely share a resemblance).

Soon enough it was our turn to be inspected and we saw a guy in uniform signalling us to stop. The driver stopped the bus and quickly swapped places with our semi sober pal. There was a loud thud on the door and after we opened it a face peered inside. We had tried to clean up the place and mask the cocktail of intoxicating aromas that was emanating from the bus. But a faint smell had still lingered. The uniform barked something in a foreign tongue, which our pal thankfully understood.

He seemed to be asking for his papers. The driver, who had hidden in the shadows pretended to sleep. Some further dialogue was exchanged as our pal showed him the papers. He looked satisfied with his answers but still looked suspiciously at all of us, who were all sleeping or pretending to sleep. He was examining the cursed driving permit and I could see lines of worry building on our fake driver’s face. The uniform, in the darkness of the bus (our pal had apparently refused to turn on the lights explaining that his passengers would be disturbed), examined at the permit and after looking satisfied returned it. He then left.

As a series of sighs filled the bus, the uniform returned with something in his hand. It was a breathalyser. Our fingers were in knots as he blew into it. This was the moment of truth. A decimal in the wrong direction and it was all over. I couldn’t even imagine what would happen to our pal and real driver.

Our pal handed the instrument to the uniform and he checked the readings. He gave a disappointed nod and left the bus. We were in the clear…

The driver reappeared form the back and returned to his original place. As he directed the back away from the checkpoint, a collective sigh escaped our lips.

Nothing could go wrong now right….? Wrong… We had merely put a couple of kilometres between us and the checkpoint when another snag interrupted our peace. The vehicle’s headlights had gone off (both of them). It was pitch dark outside, with it being a moonless night. The driver wanted to continue on but we stopped him as the risk was too much.

A babble of talk broke out, with everyone throwing in their 2 cents. Some suggested that we should wait until visibility improved, while others wanted to go and look for a mechanic. Both suggestions were quickly dismissed, as unfeasible and we started racking our brains again. Eventually, a somewhat reasonable plan (well it sounded like a reasonable plan at the time anyway) was put forward by someone.

The plan involved someone sitting shotgun and illuminating the road with a phone’s flashlight. As smartphones had not yet flooded the markets at the time, not all mobile phones were equipped with flashlights. Luckily for us, one guy had an ancient phone that had a somewhat usable flashlight. As we didn’t have any more bright ideas, we were forced to proceed with the flashlight option. We worked in shifts and were relieved to discover that the idea had somewhat worked. However, the driver was forced to drastically slow his pace until daybreak and this resulted in the journey taking longer than necessary.

After an interesting journey (to say the very least), we reached Pondi. The first thing that I realised was that our accommodation was very very modest. The person in charge of making the reservations had booked a sort of an ashram, which had no separate rooms and no fans. All the guests (men and women) had to sleep in a bigass hall on the floor and no bedding was provided.

However, none of us complained as the price was……well let’s say almost free, and all of us were happy that our finances could now be completely directed towards more pleasurable areas. After taking a quick shower (it wasn’t that quick as we had to wait in line due to the bathrooms being common), we headed out.

The whole day was well spent as we reached the ashram at around midnight looking like different avatars of the joker. However, we didn’t want to waste our time sleeping so we decided to continue the party on the building’s terrace. As daybreak approached our group thinned, as people started passing out one by one until it was only one of my mates and me. After a while, I too couldn’t ignore exhaustion anymore and the next I remember is waking up sprawled in the ashram, with my head about to split open.

After fixing myself up, the best I could, I headed out with a group to get some breakfast. We had a hearty one and returned, eager to discuss the days itinerary with the rest of the group. However, as we walked in, there was an expression of worry on everyone’s face.

We soon discovered that the guy who had been up with me till the very end had disappeared. Nobody had seen him since last night. Everyone started looking eagerly at me and I informed them that I was clueless as well. Cursing him, we went out again looking for him and he was discovered soon enough. Not far from the hotel, there was a beach full of massive rocks. He was passed out on one of the rocks. As he had been topless, he was completely sunburnt.

The rest of the day passed without any further incident as we continued to party. It was finally time to leave and we headed back to the minibus, which was all set to roll after having its headlights fixed. The journey began again but we soon discovered that we were short on the elixir. We had the driver stop the bus as soon as the nearest elixir shop came into view. As we were making the purchase, I heard a commotion. Some of our group members were having a loud disagreement with some local men, who had apparently attempted to steal some of our elixir.

Before the matter could be sorted out peacefully, a scuffle broke out and it soon progressed to a full-blown fistfight. Bottles were smashed, heads were bruised, and eyes were blackened. Someone informed us that the owner of the establishment had called the authorities. We scrammed…..

They tried to hold us back in order to make us accountable for the damages but there were too many of us. We easily escaped their clutches and soon enough we were on the road again. Although we were elated at having made a very narrow escape, we were also disappointed at not having procured enough elixir.

After some time, we stopped at another elixir store. This time, we decided that only a handful of us (which included me) would go and make the purchase. We started collecting cash from the rest after noting down what they wanted. The guy who had passed out on the rock also requested some elixir but when we told him he couldn’t have any (because we knew couldn’t handle it), we went berserk. He starting screaming and throwing bundles of currency from the bus’ window. He finally quieted after we agreed to get him some.

However, we decided that we would give him a diluted mixture (water and cola with a teaspoon of elixir) for his own good. As we handed him the mixture (in a 600 ml bottle), we warned him that it was very strong and he should go easy on it. But he, being the showoff he was, downed almost three-fourths of the bottle in one go. We quietly sniggered but continued playacting as we scolded him for being irresponsible.

After a while, that guy – believing he had downed pure fuel – seemed to have gotten a placebo effect as he appeared completely intoxicated. All of us quietly grinned as he became progressively hysterical before passing out.

The final stretch of our journey was peaceful as everyone wanted to catch some z’s before heading to class. This guy suddenly woke up and starting asking for water. As we had none on the bus, we pretended to sleep on. As the bus entered the city, it started drizzling and I could see this guy sticking his head out of the window with his mouth open.

Finally, we reached our destination and headed straight for class, which was due to start in ten minutes. After we got in, I occupied my usual seat in the back of the class. To our relief, the professor announced that the mini-tests had been postponed to the following week. Then as the professor started droning, I eased into a comfortable slumber, waking up only when it was time to go home.