Smokies - Awesome Trip-I

This is what Santhosh Vijayakumar has to say about our Trip to Smoky Mountains, Tennesse.


What a terrific weekend. A bunch of 6 gung-ho lunatics, 1 sole voice
of sanity, a never-seen-before opulent cabin shrouded in the mountain
jungles, liquor, cigars, river rafting and chopper rides - if I were
Steven Soderbergh, I'd make a top grosser called Mountains Seven. As I try to recover from scattered sleep, fast food, and rounds of epileptic laughter, here's seven moments from our trip I can never forget:

1. Let's start with yours truly! It will HAVE TO be my undie jumping
into the jacuzzi pool on the patio. With sparse dry hair that would
put any opium-ridden sadhu in the Ganges to shame, and a bod that can best be described as an advertisement for a crusade against first-world malnutrition, I unfurled my physical magic into the mountains. And I could really see even the forest birds turn to look the other way, poor them. However, I doff my soiled grey hat to each one of you for ridding me off my inhibition :)

2. This time the scene's the pool, again. But the protagonist is our
good ole' master jester Venky whose almost-nude pelvic thrusts to my
sporadic rendition of Radheshyam Rasiya's Aaja Aaja Aaja will remain
unparelleled in Smoky Mountain's history of performing arts . For
those who missed the grand recital, Venky rose from inside the pool
waters like a belly dancer sworn to seduction. He then thrusted,
gyrated and shook in wild rhythm as mounds of happy, wet flesh
smothered the air of the hills only to be interrupted by his insane
chuckle. We can't imagine the trip without you dude :)

3. The man liveth the moment. And you can see it. We're talkin of post
chopper-ride stylist, none other than Chaddi aka Chetan. I would pay a
million bucks (okay I agree I exaggerated that by a million times) to
watch his almost triumphant war pilot kind of gait after he jumped off
the chopper's gruelling blades. With dark shades in tow, a rugged
jacket, and classy vintage cargo shorts, we were all witness to Chaddi
playing desi Top Gun on that almost allegorical scene - a yellow dusty
evening and a proud, handsome lad off a successful sortie - the only
difference was Tom Cruise came with a halo of chicks, our man arrived
with a halo of chic beans ;) Your planning and execution of the whole
trip was immaculate dude :)



From Left to Right: Abhishek Mahnot,Venky Jagannathan, ,Santhosh Vijayakumar, Dr.Mallikarjuna Basavarajppa, Dr.sivakumar Gowda, Aswin Garimella, Dr.Chetan wasekar.

4. Next up, the one calming influence on the whole trip, Mr. Gowda.
After all the rash rafting and traveling, Mr. Gowda's marathon
chronicle of chapatis will be unforgettable for times to come.
Kneading the dough with seasoned, toughened palms, and changing them from small brown globes to smooth, flat wheat discs, Mr. Gowda went about his task with unbelievable obsession - a count of nearly 80 chapatis tells the tale. His various deputies (Mallik, Ashwin, and at one stage myself ) came and went, but he remained the sole point of patience in that night's dinner gig. Saludos, Mr. Gowda, I bet none of
us could blend into a group of loud yuppies as effortlessly as you did
:)

5. We have all been witness to Thalai's (Aswin) bursts of exuberance ;) each
one memorable in their own way, but none would rank as highly on my
list of favorites as his frenetic exhibition around the pool table on
Night 1. When each of us rookie poolies in the opposing team were
struggling to meddle the balls, Thalai reveled in our misery. As soon
as he figured he would get a cue ball for his turn, he would break
into an exotic, ecstatic dance of thrill and victory, jumping and
yelling, "cue, cue, cue!!!!!", inspired probably the Anyako Atsia
tribe. You're a great sport, dude :)

Continued.............