It all started on June 14, 2009, when Mumbai se aaya apna dost - Abhishek. some of us form MBE met at DLF Saket, on this occasion - Abhishek, Arunabha, Manas, Me n Sharad. Someone casually suggested that we all should go out for a day or two to the hill to beat the Dilli Ki Garmi. We all agreed that it was a good idea n 2nd weekend of next month could be a probable date - we would have ample time to arrange for leave, peak holiday season wud be over, book tickets etc. We decided to pursue it further once we went back home work towards planning the same.I so wished to go out for a weekend, but statistics revealed other wise - planning period of a month was too long a period for Murhpy to play havoc. Personal experience suggested that JIT was a better technique for such outings but he logistics involved made that difficult. Still we continued with our efforts
First Step - Mail by Arunabha kick starts our planing phase of the project.The mail had the subject - 'Dekho Kutto Dekho'. Don't know why Arunabaha named it so - maybe he wanted us to work with the vigour n enthusiasm of dogs especially sniffer dogs with the narcotics dept - when sniffing for drugs. Any which ways, i found it sort of inspiring. Ab initio Nainital was selected as the destination for a 3 day trip. Sort of FGDs on where to go, how to go, where to stay n what not. What ensued was a parley mainly through mails to work out the nitigrities of big adventure, spanning over 60 mail threads ans we zeroed on Going to kasauli - by train (till kalka n then by taxi) - stay at a govt guest house (coutsey Arunabaha's Dad) - 2 nights and 3 day (for me it was a one night stand ;), 1 night and 2 days - had some work back in office on Monday :( )
Day 1
Never the less, all logistics were in place, and we woke up on Saturday morning all set for the trip. I had a very strong feeling that some thing somewhere was wrong, it all seemed to be too good to be true. I took a metro to the railway station. Got at call from Arunabha, told him about my coordinates, they too were on their way. And then we finally reached the railway station, boarded the train n off we went. Kalka Shatabdi - reached Kalak at 11.40 AM
Then we took a taxi that was waiting for us at the station, with the driver Lalit holding a placard for Arunabaha - It seemed like a trailer to the royal treatment we were to get. Was exciting,
We were now heading towards the guesthouse at Kasauli.
Once at the guesthouse, we rested for some time and then started off for Kasauli - we had too little time to waste. Main attractions for Kasauli were - Man-ki Point, Mall Road, Sunset point. Man-ki point was more like an air force observation point which had a Hanuman Ji Temple. We had a pit stop at Hot Millions for a 'light lunch' and then moved on to Manki point, where the cutoff time for entry was 4 PM. and had to make a mad rush to reach the place. Thanks to Lalit, we were JIT for it. We were probably the last onece to gain access to the temple. The temple was atop a hill and had a fairly steep ascent. Unfortunately as it was a military area, no camera or cell phones were allowed inside the premises. From there on we went to Mall Road, our second stop. We visited a churh there first and then moved on to the hike towards sunset point, our agla padaav. We went upto an altitude of some 6150 feet above MSL. We were a bit earlly for the sunset and also it was too cloudy. None the less, it was fun. Probably saw clouds form such close quarters.
Then we went around the mall road, that wasn't that exiciting for us shehri kids.
We returned back to the guesthouse after having a pitstop at Hot Millions from where we got some grub packed for the long night ahead.
What ensued was desultory talks - reminisiczing our college days, batchmates, teachers, Second year trips et al. Music played in the background - thanks to Manas's N 76 - mostlly kishore kumar songs - Typical Manas mahajan Type Playlist. On interesting acitivity we did was that we called up one of our friend and arunabha told her that i was drunk and totally our of my mind an puking and while i was high, i had confessed about my love life - a girl with whom i had been going around for the past one year. It was a tough bluff to pull through but Arunabha did it so well, aided by Sharad Manas that she was convinced about each n evey word they said. I was virtually ROFL, cud not even talk to her coz of that, it also helped in the bluff.
Day 2
We woke up lazily and got ready for today's excursion. got on to the car n off we went for our trip. planned for a breakfast en route. the plan was to go to to chail, kufri n then shimla, which wud have been the last stop for me n i wud take a bus for delhi form shimla. we had a stopover at dhaba n had yummy maggi for breakfast. the day was mostly a roadtrip. had some pit stops to admire the nature's beauty. we reached chail. we saw the hotel where we had stayed when we had come with our class mates to chail in 2006, those roads through which we had long walks, a handpump which shivender, dev, himani n richahad used a prop for a pic n all. the trip seemed so fresh in my memory. we reached the chail palace, now a heritage resort. was a nice place. we had not visited it when we had come here previously due to obvious financial constraints. the palace was grand. to lot many pictures there n had some snacks to fill our tummies. i also booked for a bus ticket from shimla to delhi through himachal tourism. ticket was to be collected form shimla. got a ticket for the volvo bus service. from there we went on to chail stadium, which is considered to be the highest cricket ground in the world. unfortunately it was closed.we took some pics an moved on to kufri, we were palnning to visit wild flowerhall, an oberoi resort, which is considered to be one among the best. we planned to visit its coffee shop n then explore the resort, we reached to resort but to our dismay, the coffee house was now only open for the people staying there. hard luck we moved forward to shimla.
it wasn't cold that cold but i insisted on putting on my jacket, atleast pics main toh lage ki it was cold, after all we came to shimla to beat delhi heat ;). we finally reached shmila n headed towards mall road. we took the lift n reached mall road. we decided to take a break for late lunch n then proceed for the mall road visit. as we waited for our food at the restaurant, it started rain n raining heavily. we had our food n waited for some more time. once the rain stopped,we proceeded to mall road. the mall road was similar to to all the mall roads in all other hill stations n just did some window shopping. i also collected a ticket for my onwards journey to delhi. we also explored the opportunity of ice skating as i insisted that we chk it out. we had to take a down hill pagdandi sort of thing to reach the venue - a school ground with puddles of water fresh from today's rains. n then we are informed that it happens only in winters :(. we went back n on our way back saw that the bill board did mention that it happens only in winters. i felt like running for cover, made them all go down that pagdandi for no avail. n e ways, its all a part of the learning curve. then for me its was the end of my weekend getaway n time to get ready for my journey to delhi, while the rest wud move back to the guest house at kasauli. the boys dropped me at the bus stand and went for their onward journey.
it started raining again n i had to wait for some 1-1.5 hours before my bus came. i took shelter at the bus stand and kept on inquiring form where i cud board my volvo. i was guided to all sorts of place at the bus stand but to no avail. the rain added to the troubles. finally i made out that the bus stand was a himachal transport corp one n i had a ticket for a bus operated by himachal tourism, n that they were separate entities.finally reached victory tunnel from where i was to board the bus. at 7.30pm. the bus came n i boarded it. it was just amzing, what comfortable seats, n foot rests it had (no point for guessing that it was the first time i was travelling by a volvo). we had a noisy bunch of young girls as our co-passengers n their constant chatter kept us awake n made a lot of noise about the movie to be played during the journey. also the bus had sealed windows n to add to our woes, many people started feeling nauseated due to the hill drive. we had to take some stops to help them. we took a final stop a himachal tourism hotel for dinner. i didn't have any thing to avoid sickness during the travel, thanks to my extensive bus travel experience. there i chatted with an elderly couple and also with a swiss lady who had come to india on a vacation with her mother. we resumed out journey n i fell asleep.
next morning i wake up in delhi, when the bus had reached its last stop. n off i go back to home so that i can reach office on time.
some hight points (apart form the ones coz of high altitude) we shared mostly courtsey sharad.
- how we were 'destined' to visit manki point - we made it just in the nick of time, probably the last ones for the day, allowed to enter the gates.
- the different pronunciations of the word 'pleasure'
- siberian tiger. did it growl at you? - arunabha
- yeh sadak kahan jaati hai? - on our way to manki point.
- there was a small drawing near the helipad at manki point of the nearby cities. sharad wondered how the pilot could see such a small map while landing the copter.
- imitations of cigarette smoking king - pardon n all
- a k seth - yeh bachhi batayegi..... padha hai n all.
- 'kitna dena hai' n then we all wud hurriedly start doing the math as we initially went dutch for our expenses. maths being my strong point (ahem ahem) i wud leave the calculations half way most of the times. then we decided that manas should be our SPOC - single point of contact for all payments n we cud square off the balances later on.
- the song 'aaoge jab tum sajana' from jab we met played exactly at the time when we reached shimla. coincidently the song was also filmed at shimla
- 'sehra main tu jungle main tu' part of the song durr by strings. baki sab toh theek hai, yeh jungle kyon hain yahan, yeh nahn samajh aaya - sharad
- warranty card n glass - dont remember this exactly but i have noted it somehow.
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