of course he was the star. who else could come close to it. anyway, lemme chart out who went on the gorkarna trip in the first place. of course, there was aditya, anagh, azeb, manu mathew, sriram, me, himanshu and.... of course! vijairam. damn! almost forgot him!
the first day, we reached the place by a 5 hour trip by train. the day was uneventful. the sand, the water, the waves, a frisbee that all of us rejoiced in.
and of course, ethyl alcohol, in different forms, as well as... you know. the stuff we smoke...
you know.. that thing.
bah! anyway.. here goes...
we're ordering food in a cafe. its 9 pm at night. and we've ordered the most exotic food available there. isreali, mexican, spanish, and with it our very own indian biriyani. i happen to order squid, cos i thought i needed the protein, and vijay, sitting next to me orders a prawn fried rice.
we were all ravenous with hunger, so we pounced on the food as soon as we got them. and you definately cant expect us to be in our senses because... well, you know.. we .... we simply werent in our senses!
vijay starts coughing a bit next to me. i wonder whether he's ok.. and ask him if he's fine.
says nothing. we continue eating.
then after half hour, vijay excuses himself and walks away from the table and into the darkness. i wonder whether he's got a stomach problem and ask whether he needs company to the hotel room to puke. offer him a promethazine. i keep one or two tabs of anti-histaminics in my wallet, just in case.
he says nothing. says he'll be fine.. and gets back to the table.
that is when we noticed a bit of it. a small swelling towards his left cheek. the area around his parotid gland, slowly enlarges to become a little bigger swelling.
well, what would we just-passed-final year-boys' think? its a local inflammatory reaction, and all of us dont bother about it, and continue eating.
after dinner, everyone takes a walk to the beach, and lies on the sand. looking up at the sky. the clouds. the darkness. or the inner surfaces of our eyelids... or whatever.
aditya's busy responding to requests of hindi songs by manu, who's.. you know.. high. and falling asleep now and then.
anagh's stepping in and out of reality, high.
sriram's almost dozing off. the good little bangalorean boy.
vijay's doing god knows what. in the sand. as it is he doesnt talk much. so you wouldnt know if he's passed out or not even when he's alive and breathing and sitting right in front of you.
and i was dreaming. as usual.
since we were falling asleep, we decided to return to the room and doze off. we booked two rooms, with 4 in each. and please note, every place there is dark, unless youre close to a building and there's an electric bulb over head.
2 to 3 of us got back. and it was then that i saw vijay's face. and i froze on my tracks. my revolving brain suddenly stopping at a signal.
vijay's face slightly began to swell. the skin towards the left side of his face became shiny due to the stretching.his periorbital area began to gather more volume. making him look chinese. the area above his lips began to swell as well.
well, it seemed obvious enough he was getting an allergic reaction. i began to get wary.
but then, the rest of us were soo terribly sleepy, that we just crashed on to the bed. vijay, too, thought of sleeping off.
but not me.
i walked to and fro, to wonder whether vj needed to visit a peripheral health centre or not.
i needed a second opinion, and so i called sriram. who was our tour guide, (to kodachadri, kumar parvat, or WHEREVER) and this is what he says...
sriram: " da, its unilateral, nothing's gonna happen, he's gonna be fine in the morning, dont panic"
himanshu." dude, someone in my family too has experienced this, its no big deal"
and i couldnt call the rest of the folks because, they wouldnt answer their phones, nor did we have any IDEA about what they were doing.
and all this was when i hadn't spoken to azeb in about 9 months. well, we're essentially best friends, but sometimes we've fights that end in period's of silence that lasts aages. and this was one such time.
my mind was racing. what if vj develops anaphylaxis? what if he develops larygoedema. he doesnt speak much as it is, what if he gets respiratory depression and passes out? he wouldnt even be able to shout for help! the horror!
thats when aditya, anagh and aditya came back.. and helped to ease my tension.
we used the hoteliers help to get an auto, from civilization( 7 km away) and come close to the resort where we stayed.the hoteliers on the other hand, wondered how food could cause such a reaction.
and if you dint know, that part of the state, had experienced at least 4 fatalities within the past month.
so the question of a casualty, was very very dicey.
so there we were, holding one torch, in the dead of the night, walking towards a small hill, which would lead to a road, on top of which was an auto, which served as the only ambulance to revive vj.
and VIJAY by then, seemed to deteriorate further. his face was grotesque, lips pouting. imagine, blowing up a baloon, and then imagine blowing up areas of the balloon so that it stretches the rubber to thin out and lighten the colour of the part that is being stretched. it was.... horrifying!
and while we were walking, vj's slipper suddenly tore, aditya quickly replaced it with his, and we kept walking. into the darkness. a small pen torch to guide us.
when we reached the hill, we held hands, cos there were huge rocks on the ground, that needed a firm sure gripping, before progressing to the next step above. after about 15 minutes, we reached the top, which showed us a mud path. we sent sriram and anagh with vj and decided to get back.
who decided to get back? azeb and me.
and with our steadfast egoes, you cant expect us to speak to each other.
but then, the night was dark. our only torch was gone. and there were two rocky paths in front of us..
and there was this eerie silence of the waves and the sight of bushes as big as humans around us...
we decide to take one path..
we walk a little further.. for about 2 minutes, and reach a dead end. a throny bush facing us.
me: "dude, azeb, i'm scared man. i think we took the wrong path"
azeb: "shaddap bastard, let go of my hand! dont be a chicken. "
the first words we said to each other after 9 months of uncomfortable silence. best friends. co-directors of 3 prize winning variety shows.
what followed was the walk down towards the hotel on the beachside. and us waiting for sriram, anagh and vj to return.
and of course, since there was, nothing to do, except , wait, azeb, decided to .. you know.. light up.
after close to an hour of them disappearing, they returned... in the dark of course..(it was close to 2:30)
vj entered the room first.
azeb, in his state, first looked at vj in the light of the room.. and burst out laughing saying..
"hanuman! hanuman!"
and after him comes, 'sri-ram'
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