"YOLO!"

8th June 2018, I was on a trip with my friends in Coorg. Yes, it's true! We made plans and it actually came into picture. It was our third day in Coorg and we hadn't left the homestay for two days because of the rains. On the third day, the rains subsided and we took a call that we shall spend the day touring the city and the places surrounding.

We finally stepped out of our homestay, got into our car and left to view a ridge, called 'Mandalpatti'. It is a heavenly place with lush greenery all around as far as our sight reached. We had to park our cars at the foot of the hill and climb all the way to the top. It was a small but a happy trek. Upon reaching the top, we started taking pictures. But the weather had a surprise for us in it's pockets. The weather around the city is always cloudy and we never knew when it would rain. Slowly it started drizzling, but since it was a drizzle, we assumed it might stop after a while and continued clicking pictures but to our surprise, rain got heavier and we were struck on a hilltop, getting drenched in vertical rains. Looking for directions to lead us back to our cars, we were lost! No one was present around. They'd left as soon the rains began. I presume they were the locals. But thanks to our overconfidence, we were soaked head to toe in 5 minutes and the most shocking part was that all my friends used me as a shield. They put me in the front and protected themselves from the vertical rains (vertical due to the proximity with clouds and heavy winds). After searching the path to the parking lot for around 20 minutes, we finally found the right path and ran straight to our cars, and lo! The rain stopped as soon as we reached our door handles. Fate was really evil that day. We rested for a few minutes outside our cars, couldn't get in due to the wet clothes. Finally when we decided to get in, we took off our t shirts and got in the car. We didn't care about it since major part of the route back to our homestay was jungles. We left the place half naked. Two guys among us, Nithin and Ashwin had to go to the supermarket, therefore upon reaching town, they wore their t shirts, but the people seated at the back of the car, Akshay and I thought it's better not to wear our t shirts, as it was still wet. The car had a blanket in it and we used it to cover ourselves as it had just rained and the weather was too chilly!

a happy picture!

Left to right: Ashwini Kumar, Akshay, Nithin, Ashwin, Sai prasad, myself and Thirunarayan 

Picture credit: Nikhil 

It was somewhere around 4 in the evening and children were out of their schools, elders left their workplaces for their homes, traffic was a bit heavy and we were moving slow. Windows were open and to our astonishment, people were staring right at Akshay and me. While children laughed, adults gave death stares. Akshay and I had no clue whatsoever, but after a few minutes Nithin figured out what was wrong- two half naked guys, wrapped in a blanket at the back of a car! We had painted a completely different picture, being completely unaware of it. Akshay swiftly reached out to his t shirt, I held his hand and said "Akshay, you live only once, we have no relatives in this town, we never know if we both can again make it to this town, let's stay like this, it's fun!" He is a guy who always agreed to whatever I said. He smiled at my idea and agreed this time too. We took our vehicle for a spin in the town and found people laughing at us. It was nice to have entertained all the kids of that town and we didn't care about the adults. We knew we weren't at wrong. We were just a bunch of carefree lads having fun in an unknown town.

I think life is not serious in its wholeness, happiness is a state of mind, it can neither be destroyed nor created! Well this was my ZNMD moment with gang of friends, hope all of you are not serious all the while, it's ok to have fun regularly!