Some noise and few of the first rays of Sun light made me a little conscious and I opened my eyes rubbing with both handed. I checked time in my mobile and it was 6:25 in the morning. We had entered Madurai border and passengers were getting down at the places nearest to their destination. With laziness and sleep hovering all around, I, in my semi consciousness noticed bus getting almost empty. I looked towards the window and what an amazing view that was. I could not remove my eyes off this scenic beauty of nature. I kept on watching the beautiful scenery both side of bus. I realized what I miss every morning, the pristine beauty and sobriety of nature. It was not the first time I realized this but this is something happens to me every time. The nature attracts me all the possible ways and inspires me to get early in the morning. But poor me, who prefer to be in dreams, wrapped up in my warm blanket in the morning.
After around 15 mins when I got into more senses, the itching to wake VIP and P started. I removed blanket and called them in a very irritating voice, No effect !! I repeated their names again but this time, both of them pulled the blanket and covered the face. Again some trick to trouble them but same result but with some cuss #$%@@$ words. Later part only from P, but it atleast brought him into life again. After 5 mins we all were getting down at the Madurai Bus Stop, obviously we were the last to get down. Conductor was shouting something in Tamil but it was not enough to make Mr. P realize that he too should get down now. The moron was sleeping like he haven't slept in ages. It seemed like he was more comfortable sleeping either beside a man with age 45-50 or prefer bus seats over mattress.
So finally we were in Madurai. Our first stop of the trip. Madurai "The city of Temples", a prominent tourist attraction in South India. We were very happy that things are going great and we reached our first place of the trip. We were smiling at our success and giggling by remembering Loud laugh of P and the reaction of that man, when he was getting down from the bus. Now standing at the bus stop, the one and only big question, all we had was "What's next??". Among the several alternatives we always have, we picked the smartest and best one within 45 mins. Yes, just 45 minutes it took to take this big decision and who cares if a little verbel fight also becomes part of these decision making process. It happens when you take some tough decisions. Anyway we decided to go to some hotel for 2 hours for all the inevitable morning tasks, taking shover and get ready by bringing all the charm in our faces. After all one should look smart and dashing in pics, if you are taking those snaps in front of a huge temple like Meenakshi Temple.
We had a pretty bad time with autowalas making them understand that we want to go to some good hotel for 2 hours. This was our first interaction with these strongly tamil rooted people and we got a hint about difficulty we were going to face there. Before that I only heard that most of the tamilians don't like north Indians and treat them very roughly. I never believe these kind of generalized statements about a larger group of people but I never thought this time it is going to be a little tough for me.
Finally we succeded in finding an auto asking some reasonable amount. The way he was repeating "yaaa yaaa" as a universal answer to all of our questions, it was clear that not much we are controlling here and probably he too. He dropped us to some lodge near railway station. We entered one lodge. One tall, over healthy guy with white tilak with a red Teeka at the center of this forehead stood up from the other side of the counter, looked at us with suspicious eyes and asked "Yes" ?? " We want a room for 1-2 hours. Just want to stretch our bodies, use the wash room and room is all yours again." I answered.
"what?".
"1 room, 2 hours only " this time actions all over mixed with the verbal communication.
"No room."
"ek room mangta, do ghante ke liye" P this time.
"No room, housefull".
Disappointingly we came out of the hotel. Some 3-4 local folks were waiting for us outside the hotel. They started shouting to attract us " Sir, kaha jana, hum leke chalega", "Hotel, hotel mangta??", "Are Sir, idhar aao, hum le ke chalta, hotel.. Cheap and best". These folks were some local people who know a little of hindi and get activated from the very early morning to found such Murgas". Anyway we were happy to get someone who can get a room for us. We talked to one of them, about 2 hr thing and in next 20 minutes he took us to around 12 hotels and lodges. Some of them were full, some of them were not worth spending a minute by any chance, and rest were asking to take it for one full day. We knew that our ask was a little weird, a room for 2 hours but yes, our thing we were sure of on this pretty unplanned trip that we have to leave Madurai before tonight otherwise we will miss few places in our trip.
Now we were getting a little irritated and that savior man who were showing us these different places now looked in a little ferocious mood. We requested him to go and said we will find one ourselves but he is not even willing to let us go away. Finally with all this hip-hop we found an ultra deluxe room in a lodge, "ambassador Lodge". We rolled into big laughter as we glanced at the room. Room ended before we could find out its entrance, space sufficient for 2 small cots at both side, a small table between these two cots, 1 mirror and the smallest possible tv hanging in one corner of the wall. The best part was TV buttons were not working and some "MAHA" Tamil movie was running to freak us out. We decided to go to toilet and take shower as soon as possible and leave the holy place. The place anyway reminded me of some very old houses in my village. Good to remember good times. I finished first and with winning smile came at the counter, took out my guide , wikipedia pages, tried to collect some info about places to visit in Madurai, routes to them and best mean to reach there. We thanked them and before leaving the lodge around at 10.
To be continue.......
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