An unforgettable Zoo Trip

For this term vacation i wanted to organize a (extended)family outing to someplace. I zeroed in the spot as Vandalur zoo because this should be a full day outing(9-5)and should be interesting to kids and have ample place for us to rest and eat.

I started making calls to all the family members in Chennai. I tried Gopala Iyer family(my father's side) and karikali family (my mother's side). There are lot of people in gopala iyers' clan but not many with little kids who can enjoy a zoo trip. so not much takers except shanti athanga and his little son amaresh. But at the last minute sasi athanga and harish came as shanthi athanga has caught up with a private business of her own. Suresh gave n number of excuses and declined to come. For some private reasons adi and ganesh dropped out later.

So, its majority happens to be the karikali kumbal. My family, Meena & family(sankar's mami and cousin came too), amma, appa, Kumar & family, Kita mama & family(except sharadha and swathy as they r in rajan mama's family nowadays!!!, hahaha....), Sekar and akshay. Surprisingly everyone enthusiastically agreed at once and we decided the date to be on sep 27th the sunday. Almost all have cars so no need to worry about transport. My amma prepared bisibelebath(Usha akka's idea). Myself and revathi akka prepared curd rice.

Everyone reached almost as per schedule but we realised at once that zoo still managed to retain its charm. There was a huge crowd. we could only get the electric car ride ticket for 2.30pm. Thank god we got lion safari tickets for 1100 hrs. We walked here and there and saw nearby animals, aquarium and spent the 45 mins.

We came back to the ticket counter to board the lion safari van and was waiting for the same. We suddenly realised sriram was missing from our crowd. We were panicked and arun was utterly shaken. We searched here and there, my mom was shouting his name. Then i came back to the ticket counter realising there is no way he could have walked this far all by himself. as i came back, by gods grace, some guard was telling the person behind the counter that he is having a child and if someone came searching for him send them to the ranger's office. i gave a cry that's me. i went with him and found my little boy sitting in a chair and merrily swinging his legs. I said hi to him and there is no trace of any understanding of the gravity of the situation on him. Later i gathered from him that the forest officer gave him a chocolate and he was very happy afterwards. The officer and the guard praised him that he didnt cry and throw tantrums. I felt very sick, hearing those words. I almost lost the kid who couldnt even realise what had happened to him. We found him within 10minutes(or less) but it seem like an eternity. After this brief situation we resumed our sight seeing and one or the other was asking for sriram once in 5 minutes for the whole day.

In the lion safari, (i dunno whether its worth calling a safari) We went very near to the den and the lion was lying next to our van. There were only 4 lions. We also saw some other animals and the whole trip took an hour. We sat for lunch. Bisibelebath sold like a hot cake and it was really hot too. Then some took a nap. Kids played with the bat and ball. They enjoyed the marathadi and the vast open space.

Then we went in the electric car to see more animals like panther, white tiger, zebra, giraffe, hippo, crocodile, snakes, tortoise, etc. All the kids watched those animals excitedly and none slept through out the trip. We brought 2 kids' pram, which was very useful sometimes to carry the kids(saketh, sandhya, sriram,etc) and in other times to carry the luggage.

Sundar anna and family joined us then. We chatted a while and prepared to leave. All were eager to have more such trips. Everyone was hopeful of another fun trip soon. Lets plan one on December, folks.