Won't make you wait too much:-). Here's what happened:
We were due to meet at the Kalki office at 4 Pm. I, Lavanya and Anuradha met at 3 PM- to tie up loose ends and finalise things (Kamal was due later- he had some work to complete). Sunder Bharadwaj (the person Balakumaran referred to ) gave us useful tips about the route, and so the route map was pretty well decided (the one Lavanya posted). We went up to the first floor of the Kalki office. Ram's mother came next- she wanted to meet us all in person:-). Sathya (123 id:-) came next. We sat around chatting for a while, then the others trickled in- Krupashankar, Vijay, Mr. L. Srinivasan, Mr. Vijayakumar et al. 'Vishwaksenan' arrived in a few minutes, looked through the route map(which Lavanya explained very well), asked a few questions and digested facts. Ms. Seetha Ravi arrived, and she took a look at the map too. She gave a few tips (like taking our lunch along with us to Kodikarai, getting the ASI's permission to visit the top of the Periya Koil in Thanjai)...she also told us that she'd inform the Kalki agents of the places we'd be visiting. That was quite a valuable suggestion.
Kamal has arranged a van from Chennai itself (we'll be starting from T.Nagar on Thursday night). Accomodations have been arranged in Chidambaram and Thanjai (where we'll be spending two nights). Great job, Kamal!
Money was collected too- in fact, the mundane parts of the job were over very quickly. Kamal arrived later, bringing with him the tape containing transcripts of his talk with Balakumaran (it appears that BK tapes every conversation he has)-Ms. Seetha Ravi has agreed to make copies of it.
The route was rehashed, everyone sorted out about where they lived, where they could board the van, what they could/must bring (cameras,especially). Kamal is gonna bring a digital camera (have I got the name right?)- so we'll be able to get good visuals.
So things are set- and I hope and wish they'll turn out well. Is it coincidence or is it a good omen that a person called 'Vishwaksenan' (the God one must pray to, for success in any venture) is coming with us on the trip?