The Yatra

For nearly 8 years, the wee hours of the 30th of every March went by leaving me with a cake-iced front and a tomato-reddened rear. This year was refreshingly different. With the close of FY2010-11, I slammed my academic record (of every sort!) shut. In the silence that ensued, I heard corporate and societal gremlins snickering. A plot to sabotage the peaceful machinery (of the glider fondly called My Life) was being hatched. Wanderlust had already led me to Rishikesh, Haridwar, Pushkar and McLeod Gunj (yes, yes, dedicated posts will come up shortly). But it was high time to make that final YATRA before the coffee-nourished insomniacs, monotony-infected weekdays and sanity-wrecking protocols said 'here we are!' once more. So the pilgrim was on his way and this is what his Hajj looked like.

Gurgaon --> Goa (4 days) --> Mumbai (2 days) --> Bangalore (1 day) --> Goa (9 days) --> Chennai (1/2 day) --> Kakinada (3 days) --> Visakhapatnam (1/2 day) --> Gurgaon (2 days) --> Jaipur (2 days) --> Bikaner (2 days) --> Sam (1/2 day) --> Jaisalmer (1/2 day) --> Jodhpur (1 day) --> Ajmer (1/2 day) --> Pushkar (1/2 day) --> Gurgaon (1 1/2 days) --> Visakhapatnam (1 day) --> Kakinada.

And now, after all of the above, I sit at home and compile this post, watching India go from grandstanding (courtesy: superheated Sehwag & unwitting Umar Gul) to gasping (courtesy: malfunctioning Middle Order) to gut wrenching (courtesy: well-oiled Wahab) to gunning-for-glory (courtesy: brutal bowlers & fox-terrier-ish fielders). Inshallah they won because all other scenarios would have defamed my birthday for aeons to come. Or at least until the Kaku Hoshasen from Japan killed all of us.

What next? Peace, quiet and hopefully leisure to post some more....