We reached the waterfalls after 5 minutes. When the boatman dropped the anchor at the shore, he reminded that we could spend one hour and then return by the same boat with the same people. Or else, you can return at your convenience in any boat - just that the 15 member / 300 rupees rule still applied.
After a good but short trek (with incidents like this to see), we reached the Baana Theertham Falls. In case I have not mentioned it yet, this is the falls that comes in the movie Roja. If you remember the song 'chinna chinna aasai' and the Falls that comes in it, then you may be pleased to know that the song was shot at this location only.
And even more importantly, the lead character in the movie prays to a statue of Lord Vinayaka - stating things like you better tell the vadakathi saami and other such juvenile blabberings. This statue is also right next to the Falls.
Since I hate water/bathing/getting wet etc., I didn't venture out to the Falls. If you ask a seemingly logical question as to why then, I went there in the first place, well, all I can say is that in civilised countries, you don't generally take bath in public! Just because this country ceases to be one quite often, doesn't mean that I too have to change. I go to the Falls to admire nature's work.
So, Lakshmi, her kids and me were waiting and just generally chatting. Then, I noticed a monkey sneak up from one side and it was weighing its option of attacking our backpack that was lying nearby.
Like a brainiac that I am, I moved a step closer to the bag and looked the monkey squarely in the eye and let out a 'Shoo'. You must note that the sound emanating from my vocal chords were in response to my brain's commands that I need to warn the monkey without offending it.
Unfortunately, what my brain wanted was not achieved. And the monkey either felt too threatened or it felt that I was too meek for it. So it basically gave me back a nice grunt and for dramatic effect, it also decided not to keep its mouth barred and showed an impeccable set of dangerous looking teeth.
I carefully retracted at this point by offering an apology to it. But, I also moved the bag closer to me. At which point, I partly expected that creature to jump towards me and create some interesting time-pass for the people near us. But the monkey decided that I was not a worthy opponent and so it hopped on to a rock and went in another direction. Feeling quite relieved, I then started guarding the backpacks with a more watchful eye.
After some time, the guys also came back and we then decided to head back to T'veli. The original plan was to return to the Hotel, change into better clothes, visit Nellaiappar temple and then go to the reception. But since we seemed to be hard-pressed for time, we decided to restructure items 1,2,3,4 above, to a 3,1,2,4 sequence.
The motion was ratified in our AGM at the shore while waiting for the next boat. After an excruciating wait once again, for 15 people to assemble in the boat, we finally reached the shore where we started from. By now we were like 2 hours behind schedule!
No comments:
Post a Comment