As a kid, I never used to understand when my friends used to say they do not go on family tours. Even the families that used to go would be three or four of them. I used to wonder how a family can exist without going on tours and what they would do during the holidays. It took me many years to realize that they were not the odd ones. But I was the odd one who was born in a tour-addicted family.
When I say family I am referring to the twenty of us. My family from my mom’s side. My grandparents, their four children with their spouses and their ten grand children. We will decide one afternoon that it is time to go on a tour. The men will start planning the places and the routes with actual maps. The women will start packing. We, the kids, will run around the home like lunatics. Excitement will find a new meaning in my family when a tour is being planned. No bookings will be made, no google searches, no researching… no nothing! We decide. We Leave. My thatha will be our Google, Wikipedia, Lonely Planet and the sponsor for the entire crowd. :) We will take a Mahindra Van… and off we will go to live our lives on four wheels for the next few days.
Guess when the excitement will reach THE PEAK… it is when we load the bags, take our places in the van and the driver anna starts the van. OMG. I swear, the second the engine wakes up is the moment when we feel the excitement which knows no limits.
I say driver anna because he will be someone my family has known all his life. So he will be almost like family.
That van will become our home. As soon as we get into the van, the kids will decide their places and even mark it. I remember, me and JS used to share this elevated space in the van. The space below which will be one of the van’s rear tire. It will be right for just the two of us. :) As days go by, we will forget our places and run all around the van.
Date, day, time, place… everything will be forgotten. We will go wherever thatha takes us. He will have a plan to adhere to. There are only three things which can deviate us from the plan… (1) Food (2) Food (3) Water. We are one very hungry family… especially when we come together. We eat, eat, eat and eat. Nothing will be bought in packets or KGs. It will always be cartons. :D
We can never get enough of water. Whenever we see any water body… be it river, lake, dam, pond… anything… we just have to stop the van and jump inside. The point is, out of the twenty only around five of us know swimming. he he. Out of all the water bodies I have visited… the one that I can NEVER get enough of is Athirapally falls. It is truly heaven on earth. I wrote about it on my old blog. Here is the link. Every time I go there, jump in and come out… I am born again! :) It is a MUST-SEE place. Please do go there if you haven’t been there already.
We will travel, travel and travel. See one place. And travel, travel and travel. Go see another place. It will be like we need a vacation to relax from this vacation. But today, I don’t complain because name any must-see place in South India, we have seen it. Thanks to our thatha. :) He will take a round-about route, take a dangerous route, travel all night, spend all the money and his reason will be… “Kozhandhainga andha edatha pakkanum pa.” Thank you, thatha!
Also, it is not just about visiting places. These tours have molded me into what I am today. Those days taught me how to share. Twenty people living together in a small place for many days. You will learn to share. Those days taught me to adjust in the worst situations. We were reckless… sometimes it proved to be life threatening. But we survived all that. So those days made me believe God loves us. And we were human beings. We had our differences. We were like any other family. There used to be fights and misunderstandings. But all of those will be forgotten when we come together. There wont even be any cold war happening.
There were days when we slept through the night in the van itself. There were days when most of us almost drowned in a dangerous waterfalls. There were days when one person got up to eat during midnight and the entire family smelled food and woke up to grab the food. There were days of laughter. There were days when elephants and snakes were just a couple of feet away from us in the wild. There were days of smiles. There were days when we got hurt. There were days when we roamed in Kodaikanal at 1 A.M. not being able to find a room. There were days when the twenty used to be stuffed in two or three rooms. Planning few things and leaving most of it to fall in place when the time comes. Not having a lot of money but having glimpses of heaven with the little that we had. You know what… All this is life as we know it!
I feel like posting hundreds of photos from the tours. But none of those are scanned. :( So, let me leave you all with an image of me. It was around this time that we went on many tours. This used to be the standard for me… two pony tails, earrings, one pottu and rarely RED lipstick. :D The photo below was taken during one of the crazy tours.
P.S. I seem to be getting all self-obsessed by posting photos of myself. You don’t mind, do you? *puppy eyes look*
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