CUBED!

Sitting in the dingy crumpled office room, I would often dream of some posh office. The dream was there even before I landed the job in that not-remotely-posh office. The comforts of a small working unit notwithstanding, the mind’s eye were always looking for ‘beauty’.

Friends contributed a lot to the dream and so did the rightly-so idiot-box. Then there were titanic influences of the Holly-n-Bolly-wood. There was no escape from those spacious reception, state-of-the-art buildings, lavish interiors and to go with that well groomed people, crisp dresses and currency of course! Everything and everyone seemed to pronounce the same verdict – if you are not part of that lot, you have not achieved a thing in life.

“Tong” – a stroke of luck and I found myself receiving an appointment letter from one of those coveted companies housed in one of those state-of-the-art buildings. Life changed. Colleagues in the old office looked up at me with renewed reverence. Well, I was the chosen one for the big leap. I was happy. More dreams were now hovering on the edge.

Day one and I felt lost. So many faces – all new, some tensed, some carefree, some angry, some happy. And I was confused and terrified dwarfed by the hugeness.
After some looking around I found the place – the much dreamt cube - my cube – and I was happy again. At last, a corner to myself. I had lots of plans to make this corner my own. Lot of things needed to be done...

Half month down the line, I was ready with the environment. Sitting snugly in a corner was my pet stuffed monkey – two pictures of the family, a small cactus, one fancy coffee mug, a designer water bottle and a laughing Buddha to take care of my luck in this new world.

The neighbouring cubites were curious about my preparations. Some just looked, some smiled and some talked. Oblivious to all my collection kept growing each day.
With ‘new joinee’ tag now beginning to fade, work pressure slowly started piling up. Every day the log off time seemed to drift away in the night. The long calls, deadlines, performance and anonymity.

Lost appetite, lost food, lost friends, lost time, lost my-self. The two day weekends transformed into extended sleep hours. Irritated, short tempered, depressed – that’s what I became. Somehow the thought of returning to the cubicle everyday was repulsive – but no option – I had chosen it!

It was my dream which turned into a nightmare...I wished to be in a beautiful cube and ended up being cubed!!

Captivating Kodai

Kodaikanal is a small hill station in Tamil Nadu. It is situated at an altitude of about 2,133-m high and covers an area of 21.45-sq-km with a population of around 40,000 whose prime occupation is agriculture and tourism.
We had a chance to visit this lovely place last weekend. Though winter is not a 'season' to visit the town this season has its own charm.
We took a train from Chennai to a small station called Kodai road where we landed in the early hours of Saturday. There was a car to pick us up from there. The journey through the twining roads on the mountain was a beauty. There were patches where we moved through the clouds which seemed trapped in the valley!

Considering we stay in Chennai the drop in temperature was huge for us. Added to it was the fact that when we landed in Kodai - as it is fondly called -it started to rain. We were shuddering and went straight up to our room in the resort and under the blanket!
In the afternoon the rain stopped for some time and we took a chance to go around the town. The narrow roads went up and down like a serpent. We could see the clouds covering the ends of the roads and the top of the mountains! And there were chocolates....and chocolates...everywhere every shop had an offering of homemade delicious chocolates rich with fruits and nuts...yummmm!
Sunday was true to its name and came along with the Sun. It was a bright, sunny, crispy and cold morning. We went out on a full day tour along with others from the resort. There are so many beautiful and breadth taking views of the valley and we kept moving from one to the other. Croaker's walk, Green valley view, pillar rocks, pine forest, lake view, the shanti valley, palani mountain view and a couple of temples and park filled our day, heart and mind. The day ended on the Kodai Lake where we hired a shikara and went for a ride.

Monday morning was equally good and we thought of going for some trekking. We saw a 500 year old tree on the way...still standing strong. The first place we went that day was Pambar Falls. To reach that one needs to go across a wall from the road and then keep going downhill for sometime till you see the wonderful cascading water body. We had to walk across the water rather hop over the boulders and stones. Once on the other side we realised we were in the forest proper!! The realisation was a chilling one. I asked the guide if there were any animals in there. He coolly said that there are mostly bison in the forest which wouldn’t come out during day and there are a few cheetahs. I was glad he told me! Then after a pause the guide went on to reveal that there are lots of pythons but no other poisonous snakes!! I couldn’t thank him enough for the information to which he grinned and said "But you don’t worry madam".
The track continued and after countless hurdles we reached another part of the cascading water body but here it was called the Vettakanal Falls - named after the village it flowed in. Next to that was a cave called the Lion's cave. It seems a couple of years ago a cheetah was staying there with its cubs. Once the cheetah wandered into one of the villages from where the forest officials captured it and sent it to the Vandaloor Zoo in Chennai. However, the cubs were still in the forest.
That was all to see there and we started to backtrack. Once on the road we felt relieved that we returned without meeting either the cheetah or the python :)
The next destination was a place called the Dolphin's nose. That’s one piece of rock hanging from the mountain top and gives a breadth taking view. But the catch was the steep downhill road that needed to be crossed to reach that spot. The road was full of big rocks, small stones, mud patches and tree roots. It was about a kilometre long stretch and took about an hour to reach the point. But we were beaten in the race by the clouds who suddenly appeared from nowhere and settled in the mountains. Yet the place was beautiful and scary. There was also an Echo point nearby. We tried some names but probably the clouds ate up our words :)
When we started to comeback we realised that the going downhill was the easiest thing we did that morning! It took a lot of time and lot of pauses before we reached our car.
That evening was our train to Chennai and we bid good bye to captivating Kodai.