Aaah summer!!

Hello there!!Haven't written for a couple of days now...well it's just me back to my lazy self.But hey how does it matter now that I am back??!!

The reason I am back is because I just have to write about my weekend.Well,Friday was rather quiet with me spending 'quality' time with my dear husband....good,homemade food and some TV.Saturday was the day of activity.Vivek,Priya,Subu,Gayatri,my husband Uday and I all headed out to the Meramec river for a picnic.Yeah a real summer picnic.No,we did not have ginger cookies and root beer a la Famous Five style.But we did have sevai (rice noodles),tomato rice,sandwiches and curd rice.Of course man,what else could you expect....we were a bunch of thorough-breed South Indians.The men of course couldn't do without the curd rice though I would've been more than happy with the delicious sandwiches that Priya had made.I made the sevai....obviously 'cause it was easiest of the lot and required hardly any cooking time.We left around 10.30am and reached the river by 12.30pm....yes,we did get stuck in some weekend traffic.We first did the most important thing....have lunch of course.Then we rented tubes from the center there and set off.Initially we were told that the water was only around 4ft deep at it's deepest.We were sure we could manage that.....I mean how can full grown adults drown in 4 ft water right?Apparently we were misinformed.The water was about 12 ft deep at it's deepest point and there was no way we were going to risk that!!Oh yeah and I forgot to mention,none of us swim very well!!!We got some stained and old life jackets from the staff there and set off.

Now see this was a 4 mile trip.The river is pretty fast at some points and rather placid at others.You are given this tube in which you sit and float on the water.It's all nice and fun as long as there is a decent current and you are somewhat in the center of the river.But things start to get messy when you are pulled towards one bank or are simply not able to manoeuvre the float.We wouldn't have been on the water for 5 mins when Uday and I hit a branch (we were trying this romantic floating in tandem thingy!!!).His float actually hit the branch and since we were holding each other both of us were shaking from the imapct.And then Uday lost balance and fell into the water!!!!Gosh it was terrible....I didn't know what to do....he was holding onto his float with one hand and mine with the other.I was certain I would fall in too!!The strong guy that he is,he somehow managed to hold onto to his float and reach a point in the river where he could stand in the water.He then hoisted himself back onto the float and joined me.Whew....that was some incident.

As we were getting back into the groove of floating....we heard Gayatri scream.She had gotten stuck in some branches that were bending over into the river.None of us were close to her and could do nothing to help her.Her husband Subu valiantly tried to steer his float closer to her.The rest of us moved on as they promised to join us soon.Thus went our journey,from one bend to another,from one near disaster to another.There were other people on the river....on rafts,fishing or just lounging about in the sun.We were offered beer and soda many times along the way....a comfortable sense of camaraderie among total strangers.....that is one thing really unique to Americans.It may seem superficial but they really are a friendly lot.Anyway,after about 3.5 hrs we were close to the end of our trip.All we had to do was bring ourselves to the bank and get off the tube.There,the prople from the renting company were waiting to collect our tubes and vests.But then,how could it all end so tamely??

Uday and I were leading the whole group and saw the signs telling us where to stop first.It was like an interstate with one lane for those who wanted to end the trip and another lane for those who were going to continue further.And obviously,I was in the wrong lane!!Poor Uday kept shouting out to me to move to my right....little did he know that I was trying and trying hard at that!!But then I just kept floating on....nowhere near the bank.The poor man reached the bank where we were supposed to and started running towards me,float and all.Somehow I managed to get toward the bank and he pulled me off the water.The others followed us soon.We were all wet and very ready to return our floats.

As if all this activity was not enough,we then decided to play.We had a variety of sport equipment at hand.One could choose to play badminton,volley ball or frisbee.We all took turns and ended up playing everything.Was good fun.We then decided to head to Priya (an Indian restaurant) for Mysore masala dosa.Managed to get in just before they closed and had a hearty meal of dosa and Andhra thali (which was sweet!!) and mango lassi,of course.

Good fun,good food and above all great company!!!
Here's to many more summer picnics and weekends!!
So long!