Tallahassee and Tampa.

We reached Tallahassee on Christmas morning. 5.15 AM to be exact. My friend Preetham came to pick us up from the station. We drove to his house and slept for a few hours, and got up at lunch time. Had lunch and then we guys went to play cricket in the tennis court. We later made plans to go to some "interesting" places that night but every thing was closed that day because it was Christmas! Man, I thought Christmas time was for celebrations everywhere but it was just the opposite! All the streets were empty and the only place which was open was Hooter’s and there was no place inside to even stand as it was filled with buggers like us! So we ditched all plans and decided to roam around Tallahassee and later go to the movies which was also open. We went to see the Capitol building (or tower) and took some snaps there. Some buggers were working that day too as only 1 floor was lit.

After that, we decided to go to the movie. But before that, we also found this Chinese buffet restaurant and had our dinner there and it was decent enough. All along, another friend of mine, Raghu who is also in Tallahassee was interrogating me to spill out all secrets about my love life, and the interrogations were hopeless as there was nothing :(. (Any babes out there reading this? U can contact me..)

So, the movie we decided to go goes by the name “King Kong” and is a hugely popular movie these days (wonder why? It’s just old wine in a new bottle… (hic)). For those who have seen the movie and liked it, no comments. For those who did not like it, join our group. For those lucky people who haven’t yet seen the movie, you do realize why you guys are lucky, don’t you?? Well, anyway, the movie is a slightly modified English version of the Hindi movie “Saajan” starring Sanjay Dutt, Madhuri and Salman. Surprised?? Yes, it TRUE!! The comparisons are told in the brackets. There is this hero (in place of Sanju Baba. Incidentally, even this guy is tall, slim with a long nose) who is in love with the heroine (in place of Madhuri) and is all caring for her while she doesn’t yet realize that and she is also an admirer of his plays (like his shayaris). All the action takes place in a deserted island (in place of Ooty) and filled with a set of “scary” tribal people (in place of the Ootians) who haven’t eaten a chocolate for years and mistakes the director’s hand for the chocolate when he offers one to them (unlike in Ooty, where they make chocolates!). So the scene is set, and suddenly, out of the blue, comes King Kong (in place of Salman) and starts jumping around & acting crazy (just like Salman, without clothes, but this guy used to wear them those days, but this is a new movie you see) and the heroine falls for him and a major love story develops between the heroine and King Kong (I guess she likes ’em hairy). Our hero waits patiently till the end when King Kong sacrifices his love when he accidentally slips from the Empire State Building while prancing around with the heroine. (This was the modified part, Salman doesn’t slip and fall in the movie but just sacrifices). So hero and heroine are united at last!! See, just like Saajan, but a much sadder version of that.

To further prove my point, check out this photo and u'll realize..

By the end of the movie, even our state was somewhat like those tribes and so we decided to come back home and hit the sack as we had a long day ahead.

The next day, the plan was that Preetham will take us till Gainesville and Meghna will pick us up from there as it comes midway between Tallahassee and Tampa. Raghu also joined in for another round of interrogation. All along the 2 hr journey, we had a lot of fun and a mini chase with some redhead in a chevy and reached Gainesville by noon. Meghna and her hubby Mahesh arrived after a while and we took leave of Preetham and Raghu. The drive to Tampa was Nostalgic time as me, Megz and Nidhi discussed our college days while Mahesh was getting bored and Deepak fell asleep. 7 out of 10 times, the discussions involved Muddy (cant help it dude, u were so popular! ;)), not just that day, but every time we discussed college. We reached Tampa in the evening and it had beautiful weather which reminded us of Bangalore (sigh….). Megz hasn’t changed one bit in nature but she definitely has turned into a great cook! That night, we had a taste of good Pulao and to complement that, there was this Hindi movie ‘Kyun Ki’ starring Salman (not the gorilla, but Salman himself, not that it matters… but the gorilla is a better actor). In this movie, he plays a madman and so he was very sober throughout except for some occasional scenes during the flashback when he’s not yet mad. And there is also Kareena, Jackie and Om Puri who are all doctors but behave like madmen while the patients are more normal. After seeing this movie, I began to get serious doubts as to which is worse, this or King Kong!! I decided to award that to this movie because King Kong atleast had good special effects!! So 2 bad movies in a row…

The next day we decided to go to Epcot, Disneyland in Orlando which is an hour’s drive from Tampa. Meghna and Mahesh could not join us as they had some work and so they dropped us off at Epcot and picked us up at night. More about Epcot in the next post. Till then, do drop in the comments…