Hmm.. You would be
a bit perplexed by the title. I know. That’s right. But this is what my 20th
birthday had presented me. It had been a great surprise and a wonderful
exposure to the world of snow and ice.
I hope that at
least a few of my friends would have understood what exactly this place is.
Well! For them, “Yeah guys.. You are awesome. I’m proud of having geniuses like
you as my friends!”
Yeah. About the
‘Kashmir’!
This is not the
real Kashmir which you would have heard of. This is not the place for which
India and Pak had been fighting for so long. This is a chill cold place
enclosed by walls and doors. The temperature here is -6°C. You will reach here
if you take a 7F or 7M bus from the Broadway stand in Chennai.
From my 1st
year at the college, I had heard of this place. But I had not gone to this mall
because I had heard from many people that if we have to enter this mall, we
need movie tickets. I was not interested in watching a movie in the multiplexes
in Chennai because I don’t wanna spend too much, like 200 bugs for a priceless
movie which I could otherwise watch in my lappy for free in another 15 days. (Even the new movies are shown at the hostel.
So don’t say that it’s illegal.)
Anyhow, I was much
inspired by my friends on that day about a visit to this place and I thought of
trying my luck by entering this mall just to go to the Snow world. May be
because we were lucky that day, we weren’t asked the movie tickets.
You may know about
a mall. It’s a place with too many shops to attract people and to snatch money
out of their pockets. It’s a place where pick pocketing is done legally and
publicly. Yeah. I had five friends – 2 boys and 3girls – who had persuaded me
to come to this place. You know about girls! They will be easily taken by the
fantasies of the offer boards kept at the shops. One pair of chapels for Rs.199.
Isn’t that a wow? They are rushing for that shop at the next frantic second.
OMG! It’s very difficult to persuade these people to change their decision.
Because the shops there were very deceptive and they were all meant for girls
who can be easily targeted by their attractive colors, snaps and all those
craps.
Well! I had to really
work hard in order to bring them out of the shops. When one wanted bathroom chapel,
the other one wanted party wear chapel, formal chapel for the other. OMG! How
many variations do we have even in the things that we use just to cover the
feet? Yeah! After boasting them for their superb skills in selecting the ones
that suited them the best, they came out.(Actually it didn’t suit them at all.
But I had to say that. Otherwise they will stay in there for the whole day
until I say that they are beauty damsels wearing that.)
Hmm! I thought that
it was over. But it was just about to begin. My fellow beings had told that
their stomachs are burning for their hunger for food. Would the stomachs burn?
Then we could eat uncooked food. Isn’t it? Because it will get cooked by itself
if it’s getting burned in the stomach! Still, if they had said it means that’s
it. No other go. We had to ascend a fleet of long stairs in order to reach the
international food court there. They call it international. But I doubt whether
it’s the same chicken that people all over the world take? Yeah! We – a group
of 6 people – ate for Rs.400. It isn’t a high price in a city like Chennai.
Before getting stuck with their next demand, I just pulled them to the Snow
world. Each ticket costs Rs.150 and when we were told that we will be getting just
20 minutes to spend in the snow world, we felt very sad. Anyhow, no other go.
We have to go and we just went in to collect the shoes, gloves etc. For most of
us, it fitted best. But one of my friends who had got a very slim body (‘a slim
beauty’ would be a deceptive word if I use that to refer to her) found it
difficult to roam around wearing that. Still, she too managed to walk even though
it was very difficult for her to stand on two feet.
When a crew who had
gone inside before us had come out, we had got our turn to go in. Yeah! It was
fun. There were 50 tones of ice maintained at a temperature of -6°C. We had not
felt that shivering cold since we were wearing the jackets that we were
provided with.
But when we started
throwing snow on each other and when were made to fall on snow, it was very marvelous.
We had seen a few buckets inside there. We filled in them with the snow and
used them to bathe our friends in snow. Wow! It was really nice to see people
with snow on their heads. Wow!
We posed for the
photos in various angles inside there. We had slid down the ice peak in a life
buoy. Wow! All was fun! We just enjoyed it. In the midst someone had made me
sit on an ice trolley and had pulled me around. We sat on ice blocks. We threw
ice and enjoyed the fun.
At the expiry of
the 19th minute, the lights started to flash and we could hardly see
what was happening. And in another minute, we were told that the time was out
and we had to come out.
Since we were not
allowed to take our cameras inside, we had to get the photos from those people
who were there inside to take the snaps. They had taken around 31 photos and we
had to pay a lump sum amount of Rs.400 for the snaps. It’s city life and we
will lose money just as we look at things.
Hmm! It was all
fun. We sat there. I had my lappy with me. We saw all of the photos which were
taken while we were inside and enjoyed the fun for some more time. Finally, we
took the decision about the photos which were to be uploaded into the facebook
for our fellow mates to be jealous of the fun that we had. I took over the
responsibility to upload them because some snaps required a photoshop touch.
When we were about
to come out, one of my friends expressed her wish of visiting the beach. It was
just 4:30pm and since it’s the day we are coming back from home, it’s OK even
though we are bit late to reach the hostel. So we went to the Mareena beach and
enjoyed fun in making castle and roaming around in the beach after the kites.
As the night approached, it was felt like some envious eyes were preying the
beauty damsels we had with us. So we took the bus and went to the Chennai
Central station and we took our luggages which we had kept in the luggage room.
But the hunger played the deceptive role this time. We had to invest another 77
bugs for having Chilli porotta from Saravana Bhavan restaurant there. Then we
split up and went to the destinations we had to reach. It was all fun and it
had been the best birthday I had in my life till this time because I had
enjoyed it to the fullest!
Thanks to all of my
friends who had made the occasion the best!!
