…. Of live chickens and dusty roads

…. Of live chickens and dusty roads

Oops!!! Did I say- dusty roads, I would be better off calling it- dusty lanes or in Indian ishtyle- Kachada road.

This incident took place six months back… I had this long (not to mention never-ending) fight with my girlfriend and to make it up to her I decided to take her to a resort nearby. I did some browsing on some of the budget resorts in and outside Bangalore. Keeping that in mind I chose a couple of places- Ramnashree California and Village Resort. When I was seconds away from earmarking the place to visit, a friend of mine (I didn’t realise he would turn villain this soon) suggested this resort, which is about 40 kms from the city- Pearl Valley. He had been there a year back; he said. He went on add; “Man- you want privacy- this is the place, man- you want to experience nature, this is the place, man- you want to just spend time- then your search ends here.”

My eyes popped out. Rather hesitantly, I asked him the rates for the resort. He said; “ It shouldn’t cost you more than 1000 bucks for two people”. “What’s more- this place has the best of Chinese and North Indian cuisine, a lake- which is like its never been touched before, a stable, boat riding, tennis and acres of greenery.” I was in heaven by now. I was patting myself with a boosted ego that I am gonna make it up to her BIG time. I thanked my friend for all the support and called my girlfriend up and listed out the plans for the BIG DAY.

I promised her that this was the day, when all her problems of me not being good at planning and delivering surprises would be put to rest, once and for all!!!

Finally, the day arrived. I was at my best, picking her up before time and what’s more without any of my usual hiccups like my bike running out of fuel or going bust with flat tyres. We drove through the city on to Bannerghata and then we chicaned the bike through villages and reached a board which said- “This is the way to Pearl Valley”. The colour of the board was a bit tanned though. We rode through some really dusty roads, full of humps and no clue as to where the road was or where the sides were. We encountered some bemused villagers and some rather too relaxed sheep’s and goats on the way. Wow!! This place is great remarked the women sitting on my back…. My life-size ego got bigger

We were some meters away from the resort…. we could see the resort…but couldn’t reach there. For there was a barricade blocking entry to the resort. We parked the bike and strolled towards THE place. We were welcomed by some of earth’s most rusted sheet metals, bars, slides and some hens and dogs that hadn’t seen anything remotely called food. We slowly moved towards the reception, but we found no one there. We met this old man, who introduced himself as the gatekeeper. He said- the place had closed months back and all it had was a restaurant and yes- the lake and mother earth. No boating, no tennis and no stable was the order of the day. Great!!! We are fine with the gourmet and the lake that awaits us echoed my girlfriend. We walked towards the lake and found one stream of water, which knew no boundaries and had ransacked and shackled the rocks, the lawns and the so-called acres of greenery. All there was, was a bunch of rocks in the middle of the lake and a whole army of red ants waiting to pounce on anything called food, be it our legs, noses or head.

I was down and out. Talk about enjoying Mother Nature’s virginity!!! The day was ruthless, even for the brave-hearted. Without looking at the girl beside me, I lead her to the restaurant. We ordered some kababs and chicken wings. The Waiter/Cook/Front desk. executive/Receptionist (all in one) informed us that it would take an hours time, since his son had to go and pick up the meat and vegetables first. This was it…. I woke up like an injured soldier and looked up to my girlfriend and said, “ Nandini Palace in Koramangla* is not a bad place, you know!!!

*- For those in Pune, Koramangla is a place in the heart of Bangalore