Ripples on the brain

I think the main problem with non-mainstream tourist places in and around Chennai (admittedly not many) these days is alcoholism. Actually I have no problem with people consuming alcohol if they weren’t such a nuisance to others. As it turns out, most of the folks in this part of the world consume alcohol just to flaunt and be noticed. The problem compounds if there’s a larger group, for then it turns into a mob with every person considering himself to be all powerful and also going that extra mile to get better noticed than the rest of the crowd. I cannot fathom why liquor cannot be consumed in the confines of one’s home or room.

I have witnessed a lot of such behaviour at college and also at work. In Chennai, especially during weekends, in places along ECR, notably Mayajaal, this is a perennial problem, so much so I that sometimes consider moral policing befitting these people.

We ran into one such boisterous mob during our stay in Le Auroville in Yelagiri. We chose that place based on some of the travelogues and also on the hospitality of the host when we were there. The “resort” actually has very basic accomodation facilities (it was converted from a school) that is definitely not worth the rates charged. However, the host boasted of the “experience” for the price we paid. We were promised of things like strawberry picking in his farm, night safari, bikes to ride around the place, parasailing and so on that really made us choose the place, though we were somewhat apprehensive about the security of the place considering its location.

As it turned out, an unruly bunch of guys turned up at that place on Saturday evening and ruined the whole serene ambience. They were drunk as they drove in. The host told us later that the group had reserved claiming that they were going to be with their wives. I believed that part of his story as he appeared to be a bit shocked to see this huge bunch of guys and enquired them about their wives as they checked-in. This group took over the entire common area in the resort and the campfire in the night. My wife and I were not too bothered till this point as we were more happy visiting places, reading, drawing and chatting away.

It is what happened in the night that left a bad taste in the mouth. As we retired to the bed resigning to the fact that there was indeed going to be no strawberry picking and no night safari that the host had promised, we found a hand in the dark grab the doors of our window and try to open it and peep into our ground floor room. Thankfully, we had earlier asked the resort guy to fasten the boltless door using a rope so that guy wasn’t successful. We immediately raised an alarm and called all the resort guys. At this time, we discovered that the guy had earlier tried to peep into two other rooms. By the time he was in our place, the resort guy already knew that this guy was part of the bunch that I was referring to. In the night, the resort guy offered to turn the bunch away if we identified the offender (he even offered to use his shotgun ). It was obviously dark and the guy wasn’t actually successful. Besides there was a thick curtain in the window and so we just saw a shadow. We opted to stay in the same room as the option of moving to a different hotel in the dead of the night didn’t appear feasible.

What happened the subsequent morning was more bizarre. When we enquired with the resort guy who offered to use even his shotgun against the offender claimed that he actually identified the culprit. But he found that the culprit was so drunk that he actually thought our window was the entrance to his room. This explanation was laughable because that guy had peeped into 3 other rooms including a bathroom window of an adjacent room. As we discovered, this group frequented to this place almost every other week and hence presented a continuous revenue stream to the resort. The resort guy obviously didn’t want to alienate this group.

We decided not to talk with guy any further and left the resort resolving not to let this lone incident sully the otherwise pleasant memories we carried from this place. This was also a lesson for us to choose places of stay. We are better off with rooms closer together than being spread out from a security standpoint and it is better to get rooms in the top floors rather than in the ground floor.