#3's tour of Kodai - Day 1

Day 1 - 20/05/2006

Woke up bleary eyed, shaking off the mists of sleep in a hurry with Sriram’s warning that the train would stop at Kodai Road for just two minutes hanging heavy over our heads. Having woken up, we then learned that the train was about an hour late. As we were to later discover, the cause of the white dhoti brigade, newly elected DMK MLA Mr.Palanivel Rajan was on the same train as us and had suffered a heart attack somewhere before Dindigul, leading to the delay while this emergency was attended to. He later succumbed to the attack, may his soul RIP. This unfortunate event was to affect our tour in unanticipated ways, but more on that later.

Disembarked at Kodai Rd. without any hassles, piled into the van and set off up the hill. I can say without hesitation that it was by far the least intoxicated ride up that hill that any bikganger has ever undertaken, with even cigarettes being banned by the rather stiff van guy. This didn’t dampen the enthu, though several people used the van drive as an opportunity to catch up on more sleep, and as we were already late we reached our destination without stopping anywhere significant. Got down from the van, picked up our luggage, and then we saw it. The Slope. A 300 metre stretch that from that moment on punctuated every decision we made regarding leaving the room and returning to it. It pretty much ensured that if we left and returned once in a day, wild horses couldn’t drag us out again. All thoughts of quickly nipping down to seven roads etc. were banished.

The first trek to the house was downward, but we knew full well that we’d be coming back up, with the kit, in about an hour’s time. Oh well, what the hell, we set off. On the way we saw one lodge where we hoped we’d be staying. That’s because it was called Babes Palace. I kid you not, Babes Palace. It wasn’t where we were staying though, we were staying further down the dreaded slope in an independent house. Initially we went in the ground floor and stashed our bags in a couple of rather run down looking rooms, and some rather nervous glances were exchanged. Soon, however, the upstairs floor was cleared and we moved into three rooms and a hall that lifted spirits a bit. We had the run of the place, and once we were supplied with some nice tea and idlis for breakfast, we changed into our brand new team uniforms and set off up the damned slope again. We had made the acquaintance of Sriram’s coach and our host for the trip, Sundar Anna. He let us know we were really late by this point, as we had to finish the game by a certain time and peak season traffic in Kodai didn’t help. A mixture of cabs and bikes finally got us to our Captain’s alma mater, Bhavan’s Gandhi Vidyashram. We entered a picturesque little ground, dotted with trees on one side and with a road running on the other. The pavilion actually had tree trunks and logs for seating, apart from a few stone benches. The outfield was very heavy though, and had a stream (canal? gutter?) running around it. There was even a ditch on one side of the wicket that counted for 2 runs if the ball got stuck in there (remember 2s rule on top T?). Boundary hitting here was definitely going to be a problem for us. Not so for them, as we soon found out.

We met the opposition, lost the toss (which was not filmed in any way whatsoever) and fielded first. Tony played in this game, a welcome comeback from injury, and Hui sat it out. Vik and Joy shared the new ball, and the first few overs reminded me how long it had been since I had kept wickets. Improved a bit later, but Bulavar was missed. We started off ok, then we dropped a couple, with Narendra and Ramesh failing to get the measure of things and the openers made us pay. Anything marginally short was powerfully dispatched, and the score rattled along. Lex came on replacing Joy and bowled some nice tight stuff, picking up one opener and inducing an edge from their one drop which I held. At the other end, the old fox Narendra had also picked one up, with Joy breaking our jinx by holding a skier. But repeated trips to the boundary and into the water was making the ball heavier and more slippery, and our spin attack, so often our trump card, was rendered ineffective. This was to prove decisive in both games, as we failed to check the run scoring even though we did pick up several more wickets. Sriram in particular managed to get several of their batsman holing out in the deep. Tony made amends for a dropped catch by getting rid of their top scorer, one of the openers, with an almost identical catch, and they finished up at 168 for 9 off 25 overs. The only other incident of note in the field involved, inevitably, iii. A cracking pull shot dipped on him at deep square leg, and made full on contact with his knee, producing a sharp knocking sound and leaving him on the floor in agony. We feared the worst, but thank heavens, he was hobbling about again in a bit and even took the field. Trust iii to sit still.

Special mention must also be made here of the cheering squad, led admirably by Jake. Her voice screaming “we want another one….” is still ringing in my ears, and she’s certainly putting in an early bid for the fan award for season 2. And she doesn’t even live in Chennai.

When our turn to bat came, Ramesh padded up with Indrabeer, who finally, in his fourth game for #3, got a chance to bat. And he looked easily the more comfortable of the two, a testament both to his good play and to Ramesh’s uncharacteristically scratchy effort. Ramesh was dismissed early, and Kishore at one down continued his good form from the Loyola game. Beer was also dismissed after an innings that clearly established him as a potent batting weapon for #3 in the future, but the outfield told on us, and inability to find the boundaries meant the asking rate climbed rapidly. Sriram went in at four, as usual timed it sweetly, and struck one mighty six. But his next attempt stayed within the field of play and was well caught. We had to try to score heavily and as a result lost wickets regularly until Joy walked in and played a bit of a blinder, cracking several boundaries to finish on 18 not out, our top score. One six zoned in on a van parked on the adjoining road and broke a window. Luckily no one was hurt, but by the time we finished (90 for 9 off 25, for the record) the van guys were trying to enter the school. We sat back and let Sriram and his school guys handle it, the watchman and one of the Staff counterblading them until they left. Not even a single rupee changed hands. Wow.

Well, normally after a game, we would troop off to respective homes to shower and maybe meet up later. But this was KODI. Ha ha. Here, the match is followed by an excellent lunch, served in the school canteen, and a walk up to this amazing spot called Meditation Point. That’s the rocky area in the photos, which has a spectacular valley view to rival any tourist spot in the town. And this is within Narahoo’s school campus. The dogs. After some oms, some silence and a rather silly (though long and detailed) discussion about how we could turn the electrified fence into a barbecue grill, we went back to the entrance via the school flower garden.

Yes, we were tired after the match, but did that stop us from playing full court, five on five basketball? Of course not. And some football thereafter? Nah. Who are these sports freaks? Bikang? You’ve got to be joking.

Back to the house, some guys went off to the lake, etc. and some of us went back down the slope. Which means that we then settled in the room and didn’t even dream of leaving it again. Sriram was dispatched on Sunder Anna’s bike to pick up booze. And when he returned, we dug in with a vengeance. What a bash! Two laptops playing music on speakers that we carried from Chennai (we even had two sets of speakers), cricket match on TV, oms, aziz, dancing (with the wretch around, can dancing be far behind?)….. we rocked the joint. Sundar Anna was going to captain the team the next day, and he challenged us that he would score a hundred off us if we let them bat first. And so it was decided the toss would be academic.

As some of the guys started to turn in keeping the match in mind, Tony, Quai, Kishore and me continued into the wee hours, giving Lodd an education in the music of Van Halen. What can I say, bikes, it was a classic night, where we ended up eating chappatis with chutney and sugar. A true bike event.

What a long post. But what a long day.