Mandarmani Part I

It was May 2007. We were a happy team in office. Our Team Lead was a psycho, but we managed to smile in spite of all odds. Seven of us were almost the same age-group and had a lot in common. Never-ever did we have a calm day under Him. On one such summer morning, when we were all tensed as usual, one of us suddenly came up with the idea of a tour – somewhere....anywhere.
Suddenly the entire room started chirping, an idea from here, a suggestion from there. The Google search engine helping us in finding out nearby places...
“Digha”, someone said....”Naaah”, was the chorus response..”Shankarpur”, another suggestion, “Ummm, what else ?”, then came the name - “Mandarmani !!”, a senior had gone there recently with his wife for a short honeymoon ( I personally believe, honeymoons should not be short and should never be to a place close to where you stay...), anyways, so Mandarmani it was going to be. We downloaded snaps of Mandarmani from the net and set those as our desktop backgrounds. Looked up everything we needed to know about the place. Counted the number of heads, decided on the mode and date of travel, calculated the per-head costing. Only thing that was left to be done, was to GO.
Then, the issues started coming up, somebody had to attend a wedding, another one did not get the permission, blah blah and blah. Mandarmani did not happen.
I was amongst the two most excited people, with few of us having issues at homes and otherwise, I became very sad at the cancellation of the trip and my colleagues never mentioned “mandarmani” in my presence again 'cos I gave them the, 'you better not mention, or else I will blast you' look whenever they did.

August 2008, lunch break at office...same process repeated...same name came up...someone said....”Mandarmani”.... [ there were two major differences this time, (a) it was a different department...so..new TL...thank God and (b) old team mates replaced by new ones....the old ones are scattered all over the country now...one in Chennai...another in Mumbai...still another, in a separate company...only one colleague still remains ].
It took two days for all the decisions to be taken, I am the cashier, therefore in the thick and thin of things...yet...I lack the enthu which I had a year ago. Initially I thought..may be because there is still some time left for the trip I am not getting into the mood, but now this is too late, I mean, we are going this Saturday and I still do not feel a thing... Strange huh ??
Someone called me 'melodramatic' few months back (that really really hurt)....ever since then I completely have turned emotionless...God knows what He has in store for me, but I simply do not get moved by ANYTHING these days. I smile for a short while, I do get angry at times...but all for a very very small period of time.

I just hope, I get into the tempo soon enough....need to get back home and start packing my bags. More on the trip to Mandarmani along with snaps coming up in the next post. Until then...stay tuned.

4 comments:

    On September 10, 2008 at 6:58 PM Anonymous said...

    You are not excited this time as you stopped reacting to any plans specially related to that place. I bet once you reach there you will be in tune. And please dont forget to carry your cam....

     

    Excellent expression! Who said so? None of us here is melo... Forgive him/her. Strange things sometimes come up with strange notes - not letting you get into the mood beforehand. I am sure you're gonna explode the drive out! Tour's on! Its on... its on... hey its on!

    Let's plan for the next trip... what?

     

    hmm..... u wont believe half the things ppl say to me and behind my back..
    evn i felt the same way earlier.. nw i dnt gv a damn.
    :)

    its a cool place, the name sounds exciting... maybe u aint feelin excited cuz every1 else is nt arnd, n cuz things hav changed...
    try goin only fr yourself... make it a happy vacation, n keep smilin...
    m sure u luk nice that way :)
    have fun!

     

    Hmm..may be u r right Tanusri.

    Thanks Bappa-da. Yes I'v forgiven, but forgetting is a challenge :) Like Shambhavi said....will have to learn the art of "givin a damn".

    And finally...Shambhavi darling...u rock...that was vely vely shweet...muaahh

    I am feeling excited already... :)
    love u all for making "excitement" so contagious ;)