The trip to meet Ray - day 1

I wanted to meet Ray over the weekend at Cochin. But that didn’t materialize because of his busy hospital schedule. Finally we planned to meet on Tuesday evening at Cochin. I took a bus right next to my home. On an uncomfortable, yet scenic journey through the backyards of the picturesque Kerala, I took these snaps most of them from a moving bus. Just take a look at the spectacle.

 

 

 

The ‘tea-shop’ is the quintessential essence of Kerala, where the average Keralaite socializes. Apart from Tea, we get just about everything essential for life here. An average Keralaite will go to the ‘tea-shop’ in the morning to start his daily routines and end the day with a banana, often a must for many (like Chuck, my friend). It also doubles up as a newspaper stand as you can see.

 

I reached the Cochin at around 6 pm. We had planned to catch a movie but Ray was a little too late for the show. Instead, we hung out for some time. Then we booked a room at a hotel. The manager at the hotel, which was decorated at its entrance by an army of cats, was quite suspicious of the intent of our stay – I was really wondering if we looked like sex-partners, me and Ray.

Then, we went to a pub nearby – was a really dull one to have beer. I actually had couple of pegs of Rum with soda. The cricket match on the tube was the only saving grace as I watched Ray almost getting drunk with about half a mug of beer.

Of course, all through out, we kept catching up with each other. I heard Ray’s stories about seducing men on bus rides. I also heard about his relationship with the farmer he was almost in love with, who, like my sister, wants him to convert into ‘straight’. He persisted that I was not ‘trying hard enough’ at cruising. Maybe I’m a little scared. Or maybe, I value Xander’s and E-boi’s advice more than I think I do. They had said before I had started that ‘We don’t expect you to be shamefully treated (in the case of the mishap while cruising) because you are one person who we look upto.