A la Wonderla...

I got up at 9:30AM. It was some day in the middle of the week; but I could not readily figure out whether it was Wednesday or Thursday. It is usually difficult to distinguish between Wednesdays and Thursdays; you know that it has been quite some time since the weekend but you don't recall how many days. After all, a routine day at office is as good (or as bad) as another. I was feeling the dizzyness from waking at this untimely hour.Moreover, my right eye was sore due to some reason. The only bright side was that now I had the time to go downstairs and have a cup of tea and then read the newspaper before leaving for office.

Within an hour and a half, I was on my way to office. The April sun was getting oppressive. The mercury seemed to be headed north day after day. I was pleased to find an auto right away. It was the kind of start to a day that makes one feel cheerful. But that was not to last too long. The auto driver tried to act too smart and broke lanes at a traffic signal only to result in utter chaos and a traffic jam both ways. So many vehicles were idling away due to one stupid move from an auto driver and we were not only burning so much of fossil fuel but also pumping out so much of those gases which would push the mercury still further. Moreover, just wonder the number of people-hours lost in the jam. And this was just one road in one of the cities of India. I remembered that quote from the most intelligent person of the last century: Two things are infinite; the universe and human stupidity and I am not sure about the former.

I reached office and it was BAU (Business As Usual). People checking mails and news and other general stuff on the net. Some of them discussing complex things (matters of consequence may be). Soon it was lunch time and I and Kadam met Ramkumar downstairs. The other people around were ZOD, Prady and Pramod. (A more detailed description of the people involved in this blog will appear sometime later in a separate post.) It was then that the idea of making a trip to Wonderla came up and we all jumped on it. Pramod showered heaps of praise on it but then backed off saying he had been there just a week ago (that f*cker!) . But the decision had been made. We were off to Wonderla on the weekend. We got further recruits in Kamesh and Nikesh.

Now was the crucial part. We were supposed to meet at office on Saturday at 9AM. The best I managed to wake up was 9:15AM and found several missed calls on my cell. Thanks to Prady and his Apache, I managed to reach the rendezvous point at 9:45AM. ZOD was seething with anger and the moment we arrived, we were greeted with a live Howler from ZOD. However, the problem is that when ZOD gets angry, you just can't stop laughing. This angers him still further and the chain reaction continues and finally ending with ZOD heaving deep breaths and shifting his weight from one foot to another (You have got to see that to enjoy it!).

Soon we were on our way to Wonderla and cruising at a brisk speed (normally unreachable on city roads) and after one brief pitstop to get fuel, we reached Wonderla around 11AM. The first impression was very good and I knew it would be memorable being here. Rather than waste a few thousand words, here is the first impression.. The refreshing breeze is quite evident isn't it?

After shelling out Rs. 540 per head and also with the natural beauty around, it was a very pleasant start. There were too many rides to enjoy and time was short. So we began with the most thrilling ones!

The first ride was Maverick. A very innocent looking one at the outset but multiple 360 deg turns in quick succession followed by weird turns at 45 deg from the ground had our heads spinning. And the unfortunate part was six of us went together whereas Nikesh went in the next round. The poor fella was so scared that he was just holding his head with eyes shut and the terror kept him from coming to many other rides later.

The next to follow was Insanity and it was pairs of people randomly arranged at different positions and then it starts turning insanely in all directions at high speeds. The background music of Du Hast Mich (Rammstein) added to the atmo and it was thoroughly enjoyable. We had another round of this insane stuff and it was awesome. In fact I would term it LEGENDARY! :P

Next followed the Pirate Ship (Total bachcha stuff but we took the pleasure of screaming nonetheless), a bit of rope climbing, Vertical Fall (thought it would be very exciting but not quite compared to earlier rides; we could have a good top view of the entire place though!) and a few others (I don't recall all the names!). We were all damn hungry and all the turning and spinning had churned our stomachs. We relished some manchurian stuff, fried rice and sandwiches sitting near the water pools. And then it was time to chill out in the water during the afternoon. Some pics to give a feel of the relaxed mood. (Lo! I saved another couple of thousand words!)

The next item on the agenda were the hourly waves in the waterpool that rose upto a few metres and one had to jump up at the exact point of arrival of the crest to stay over the water. Initially, I was not able to get the timing accurate and frequently ended up being submerged in water (I am no swimmer!) The thrill of being in water and enjoying the waves was too much to resist and soon, I had improved my timing and managed to stay afloat (well, most of the times!)

As the waves were about to end after 15 min of total masti, I found that things around me were appearing blur. I thought that it was the effect of the water on my eyes till suddenly it dawned on me! My glasses were not where they should be! We were all on the mission glassesfinder and I even crossed some barriers I was not supposed to cross! Just in search of my glasses! This got the helpers around frantic and they angrily advised me to go back behind the LoC. (I had accidently entered the all-female part of the pool :P) The helper guy promptly brought forward a fishing net and got my glasses out. How nice to have a clear vision again! Albeit with a few scratches.. But I was not the only one whose glasses were damaged. The ZOD had lost his glasses too and he sent nbd waves in the pool after the regular waves. He found them later too but they were broken and no longer usable. This was yet another proof that the universe had conspired against ZOD (when my glasses just had a few scratches, why should it be that his were totally unusable?) Unfair-e-yaar!!

The late afternoon was marked by awesome water slides. The twists and turns on these slides were einfach klase! The sinuous tunnels which wound their way down from the third floor like huge serpents swallowing you down their winding bodies until you saw light after maybe 30 seconds (but which seemed like hours!) The water slides were so numerous that we lost count of the number of times we made our way up and down the stairs enjoying every bit of it. But the climax of them all were the near vertical fall (at an angle of 70 deg to the ground). You could see the setting sun as you made your way from a height of three floors to the pool below. The impact on ur back when u reach the base leaves you stunned to say the least. It was a once in a lifetime experience (at least the life so far!).

It was evening time and we had a few snacks before changing into dry clothes. We had a few more rides to go to.. But the most thrilling of them was the Hurricane.. Moving and twisting at slower speeds is actually more painful than the speed of Insanity. And the sudden gear changes were too much. And even my seat belt came kinda loose in the middle of that! The last ride that we could get after this was the Great Giant wheel whose base itself was some 15 storeys above the ground. The view around was beautiful and it's slothful movement was very soothing.

The return journey took us a bit longer and we ended the day with some delicious Hyderabadi Biryani. All in all, one of the more pleasant and memorable days in Bangalore. And more importantly, I enjoyed some rides which I would have been terrified to experience earlier. I was especially afraid earlier of those tunnel slides and the hurricane ride (from Essel World and Water Kingdom experience). But now there would be no fear... just lingering memories of the times when i conquered my fears.

Look straight at your fear,

And into thin air will it disappear!