Let me introduce to you a way of travelling which my friends have discovered.
We proudly call ourselves the “CHEAP THRILLS”.
We believe in age old adage. .that “the point of journey is not reaching the destination but the journey itself “
Additionally we also believe that the journeys which are marked by confusion, on spot decisions, total desperation and serendipity are more interesting and worth remembering.
We have three Commandments to guide us in all the trips that we undertake.
Let me explain, enumerating them with the incidents that took place when we went to MM Hills.
A place that was made famous by the sandalwood bandit Veerapan and his fearsome moustache.
The first commandment.
Thou shall plan everything, except for unnecessary details like what, where, how and how many.
So one fine weekend we decide to go to MM Hills. We had a vague idea that we would get bus from Majestic (Bangalore Main Bus Stand). But its frequency, the timing of last bus and the time taken to travel etc, were mysteries that we planned to solve on spot.
We were uncertain to the very last moment how many of us were actually going to come, it was no wonder; some of us stared helplessly at the last bus as it pulled out of the stand, while others were stuck in traffic.
We frantically considered our options, should we go somewhere else? Should we stay put in Bangalore?
Deciding to stick with the plan we went to Mysore, from there we were bound to find something connecting.
We realized how wrong were we only after reaching Mysore, where we had to hire a cab at around 3 am, since stranded at the bus stand is not exactly our idea of thrills.
The Second Commandment
Thou shall seek thrills the cheapest way.
The funny thing about money is … It’s never enough…
So we try our best not to spend too much of it during our travels.
We broke our commandment by hiring a cab. But we tried to compensate, by making full use of the DVD player in the cab. We saw a movie in Malayalam, a language which we are not familiar with, through the night, a cheap thrill wasn’t it.
Normally, we travel by cheapest available buses and the lowest class of trains. This way we get to know the real culture of that place without our wallet losing much weight.
To understand the culture of the place, it’s essential to haggle for seats with the general public, it’s absolutely immaterial that one does this with people whose languages one doesn’t understand. The gestures are self explanatory.
The third commandment
Thou shall crack PJs constantly, silence is strictly prohibited.
One way of seeking thrills is to keep coming up with outrageous PJs (Poor Jokes), no matter what the situation is. And the funny thing about PJ’s is the worst they are the better they sound.
We keep pulling each other’s legs, coming up with wacky one-liners and parodies.
We even came up with anthem for our group, during our return journey on the bus, which went something like this
“Life is exciting we are cheap thrills
Confusion, indecision we are cheap thrills”
We created so much racket in the bus, it resulted in harsh altercation with our co passengers, who took us for drunken lunatics.
So that was crux of our philosophy without going into the details of what we did at our actual destination.
We basically compromise our comforts and risk our lives in our quest to achieve thrills without spending too much money on it.
But let’s talk about a journey in which we try our best, not to reach the destination. Life; and we all know what final destination is, we have seen the movie haven’t we?
In my opinion these three commandments are applicable here also, only our understanding needs to be changed.
Life is not a 6 sigma project; don’t plan everything meticulously in life. You never know when something or maybe someone comes up and disrupts your plans. Follow the first commandment.
Coming to the second, being cheap is not related to money in this journey. The important thing is not to search for your happiness in materialistic things around you. The best things in life are free; seek thrill in those, like; enjoy the nature, get wet in rains till your soul get drenched.
Follow the third commandment with extreme care, not everyone can tolerate PJ’s.
But try to make people smile especially when they are feeling blue or when they are tensed, this can be your good deed for the day.
We proudly call ourselves the “CHEAP THRILLS”.
We believe in age old adage. .that “the point of journey is not reaching the destination but the journey itself “
Additionally we also believe that the journeys which are marked by confusion, on spot decisions, total desperation and serendipity are more interesting and worth remembering.
We have three Commandments to guide us in all the trips that we undertake.
Let me explain, enumerating them with the incidents that took place when we went to MM Hills.
A place that was made famous by the sandalwood bandit Veerapan and his fearsome moustache.
The first commandment.
Thou shall plan everything, except for unnecessary details like what, where, how and how many.
So one fine weekend we decide to go to MM Hills. We had a vague idea that we would get bus from Majestic (Bangalore Main Bus Stand). But its frequency, the timing of last bus and the time taken to travel etc, were mysteries that we planned to solve on spot.
We were uncertain to the very last moment how many of us were actually going to come, it was no wonder; some of us stared helplessly at the last bus as it pulled out of the stand, while others were stuck in traffic.
We frantically considered our options, should we go somewhere else? Should we stay put in Bangalore?
Deciding to stick with the plan we went to Mysore, from there we were bound to find something connecting.
We realized how wrong were we only after reaching Mysore, where we had to hire a cab at around 3 am, since stranded at the bus stand is not exactly our idea of thrills.
The Second Commandment
Thou shall seek thrills the cheapest way.
The funny thing about money is … It’s never enough…
So we try our best not to spend too much of it during our travels.
We broke our commandment by hiring a cab. But we tried to compensate, by making full use of the DVD player in the cab. We saw a movie in Malayalam, a language which we are not familiar with, through the night, a cheap thrill wasn’t it.
Normally, we travel by cheapest available buses and the lowest class of trains. This way we get to know the real culture of that place without our wallet losing much weight.
To understand the culture of the place, it’s essential to haggle for seats with the general public, it’s absolutely immaterial that one does this with people whose languages one doesn’t understand. The gestures are self explanatory.
The third commandment
Thou shall crack PJs constantly, silence is strictly prohibited.
One way of seeking thrills is to keep coming up with outrageous PJs (Poor Jokes), no matter what the situation is. And the funny thing about PJ’s is the worst they are the better they sound.
We keep pulling each other’s legs, coming up with wacky one-liners and parodies.
We even came up with anthem for our group, during our return journey on the bus, which went something like this
“Life is exciting we are cheap thrills
Confusion, indecision we are cheap thrills”
We created so much racket in the bus, it resulted in harsh altercation with our co passengers, who took us for drunken lunatics.
So that was crux of our philosophy without going into the details of what we did at our actual destination.
We basically compromise our comforts and risk our lives in our quest to achieve thrills without spending too much money on it.
But let’s talk about a journey in which we try our best, not to reach the destination. Life; and we all know what final destination is, we have seen the movie haven’t we?
In my opinion these three commandments are applicable here also, only our understanding needs to be changed.
Life is not a 6 sigma project; don’t plan everything meticulously in life. You never know when something or maybe someone comes up and disrupts your plans. Follow the first commandment.
Coming to the second, being cheap is not related to money in this journey. The important thing is not to search for your happiness in materialistic things around you. The best things in life are free; seek thrill in those, like; enjoy the nature, get wet in rains till your soul get drenched.
Follow the third commandment with extreme care, not everyone can tolerate PJ’s.
But try to make people smile especially when they are feeling blue or when they are tensed, this can be your good deed for the day.
