Getting Over Is A Hard Time
I Am Just Not Into You Anymore

I never thought this day would come this soon in our lives. I still remember the day we fell in love, we kissed each other at that very moment. It seemed like two bodies in a desperate need to touch each other, feel each other, be with each other. And since then you were there with me whenever I felt lonely or overjoyed, happy or sad, or sometimes when I felt nothing at all. When we were apart, I could feel you looking at me at every turn in my life, waiting for me to feel your need, hold you and then kiss you a thousand times. And I would give up myself to your mesmerizing beauty, hallucinating scent and soft and silky touch.

Remember the countless parties we went to? You would never let me leave you. In fact, I too, never wanted to do that. I didn't care what people watching us said about us, I still went on kissing you. We felt like the only two souls in the world, with no one to watch us, no one to stop us. It was like a dream, just a cloud of smoke all around us, the world becoming blur behind the smoke and the only thing we could see was just each other. We didn't stop even after coming back at home from the party. We kissed and kissed and kissed again until we went to sleep. We were so used to each other that we both thought that this wasn't an affair anymore; we had found a lifetime companion.

But deep down somewhere we both knew, that it wasn't meant to be. Many of my friends always kept telling me I am making a mistake, It's not gonna make me look better, What do I see in you, What do I get from you, and what not. Some even said that you would suck everything out of me and then leave me with no hope but to die. But, I never believed anyone. May be I was deeply in love with you, or may be I was just another idiot, just another stupid person who loved you unreasonably, ignoring the facts that were visible to his eyes.

Yes, I loved you! I loved you too much to care about anything else. Whenever you looked at me, I felt you realizing that I had an undying love for you. It was true. It was true until a month back. And I owe this to my friends. My friends who have been with me since my childhood, since the time we knew only Math and Science and nothing about love and companionship. I had ignored many of them since I met you, ignored every warning they gave me about our relationship. But now I regret. I regret betraying my friends' trust in me that I would always do the right thing. I regret fighting with my friends over you, which might have given them a wrong impression about me to an extent of losing them as a friend. My deepest apologies to all my friends. I am really sorry for whatever happened. And I am grateful that you all were there for me during my bad times. Thank you, my friends, for pulling me out of this deadly relationship.

I have realized that Love is not blind, it turns you blind.

It's been a month now that I have not thought of you as I did before. It was a very rough time for me to get over you. Until recently, I thought about you every single moment. I wanted to smell you again, feel you again, taste you again, kiss you again, be with you again. But now I am at a point where I should have been a long back. It's time to face the reality, that we both were not meant for each other and some day it had to end. And that day is today. I am happy that I am not into you anymore. I am over you!

I hope you find another idiot to love you just as I did. And I am sure, with your sensuous beauty, you'll definitely find one.

All the best Classic Milds! I'll see you around.

Good Bye!

4:37 PM | Category: , , , , , , | 9 comments

Adventurous North Trip - Part 5 (Rishikesh)
Sunrise at Kunjapuri

The next morning's plan was to wake up at 0400 hrs and go up the Narendranagar hills to Kunjapuri Temple (a.k.a. Kuchchapuri Temple). Why? For A) It is one of the highest peaks (1645 meters above sea level) surrounding Rishikesh from where you can see Rishikesh, Haridwar and Dehradun, and B) It gives you the most spectacular view of the sunrise. And indeed it was. We were expecting the sun to come out from behind the mountains. But, it's always the case that clouds form a band where the sky touches the mountains. Hence, the sunrise, that is the first rays of sun, is seen when the sun is at a good height in the sky. It's wonderful to watch how the night colors of the sky change to the daylight colors, and the rays tear apart the clouds and pierce through them to make their way towards the earth.


There are other reasons why this temple is famous, and these would really interest you.
1. It is one of the twelve sacred temples called the Shakti Pith (where your wishes come true)
2. It is Sati Devi's temple (consort of Lord Shiva)
3. This temple has the chest part of Sati Devi

The last point would obviously raise some questions like why just the chest part and how did that part end up there. It has a proper story in Hindu mythology behind it that I would describe here in my words. It goes something like this:

Apparently Sati's father was throwing a party to all the gods (Guys! The drinks are on me tonight!) and he purposely did not invite Shiva because a) He didn't like him, b) He was a Rishi and not god, and the party was strictly for gods only, c) he wanted to insult Shiva. Sati came to know about her dad's party and also that he didn't invite Shiva due to some unjustifiable reasons, and felt pissed off and embarrassed that her hubby was insulted, and in turn she was insulted. She could not take this embarrassment and destroyed herself in fire (that's how the Sati system came into picture). Learning that his wife has committed suicide, Shiva got angry, carried Sati's body along with him, and did his dirty dancing, the Taandav Nritya, because of which the world was about to get destroyed. (Death by dance it shall be!)

Vishnu came to the rescue of the world with his Sudarshan Chakra and cut Sati's body into three parts, viz. the head, the chest and the rest. Now Shiva was carrying all these parts of his dead wife with him and trying to find a cure. On his way he happened to stumble (or couldn't balance all the three pieces) and dropped one piece of her body at every sacred location where there is Sati's temple today. One of these locations is Kunjapuri, where rests the chest. Interesting na?

We had been giving our guides enough hints that we wanted to try the one thing people come to Rishikesh for. Baba Ka Prasad! So they gave us a taste of how it is. Atop the Kunjapuri hill, they handed over a cigarette filled with tobacco and Ganja (Marijuana) to us. We lit it and had a couple of drags. The smell was peculiar and the taste was good, but the effect was negligent (may be they added just a small amount of marijuana). Looking at this the guides told us that they'll get better version of prasad in the evening for us.


The First Boredom

The sunrise view was to be followed by a 16 km downhill trek through the Narendranagar hills. Manish's leg was sprained and so he, along with Roopali, took the car back to the hotel. Gayatri and Faheem had not joined us for the sunrise, so the downhill trek was done by Pedro, Nanu, Gaury and me, and the two guides. This trek was horrible, since it involved just walking down the hill. No hurdles and, to add to the frustration, the whole path was covered with small chipped stones that made the ankles twist every now and then. Gaury came down with a swollen leg and we teased her saying she is carrying the disease of Elephantiasis. That's about the trek. I don't wanna describe it further.


The 'Cloud 9' Feeling

We had told are guides that the last event had been a complete mood spoiler. So do something that will cheer us up again. Bring some good Baba ka Prasad for us (We always like to try different stuff that makes people go woo. We just try such stuff once, so don't think of us as Charasis). They came back with the real thing. Charas! Radhe prepared five cigarettes, with every successive cigarette having double the quantity of Cannabis in it. The volunteers (or the people interested in trying) were three from our gang (including me) along with Vijay and Radhe.

First round begun. It begun with Radhe doing some ritual with the cigarette and remembering Lord Shiva. It was funny to see that these villagers remember God even before having a Sutta (by the way, Shiva used to smoke weed. FYI!). The smell was quite differentiable from other cigarette and marijuana. And of course, the taste was strong too and it tickled the taste buds.

First round was easy to handle. The next one begun. Now the kick started coming in. My palms had become cold and sweaty. I turned to Batla Danny (name changed ... LOL!) and saw his face was getting reddish. I turned to my other side and noticed Shahrukh's (name changed ... again) eyes were red. Second round complete. Shahrukh decided to throw the towel and sneaked out making an excuse of dinner. Third round begun. My hands were completely cold by now, and I was feeling hard to pull up my eye lids and keep my eyes open. It was like some 100 grams of weight hanging from my eye lids. Since it was my first experience (and I swear my last. Don't want this experience again) with Cannabis, I decided to quit after the third round and went in to have dinner. As I got up, I realized that I was as high as I am after two-three large pegs whiskey (that is not much for me, my friends know that). I quietly sat in a corner of the bedroom, to analyze how much high I was, and started to eat my dinner. Soon after the fourth round Batla Danny gave up and came in to have his dinner. His face was red like an apple. He kept saying that he wasn't that high, but everyone could see how he was completely focused on his biryani and he finished one whole plate in six to seven minutes.

Later on in the night, when the guides ate the dinner and left, I came out in the hall and slept on the couch. My throat had gone completely dry and I felt the urge for water in my body. I drank almost 1.5 liters without having to pee even once. I knew that my bladder would be about to burst by the morning. As I was sleeping on the couch, I started feeling depressed and sick. It was like I am in a hospital bed down with some illness. It was one feeling I never wish to have again. But it was fun trying it out.


The Second Boredom

Next day we went to Rajaji national Park, where the majorly cited animals are wild elephants and leopards. But our luck with wild animals has never been good. All we could see was deers and elephant shit. When we came out, the driver of our rented car told us that it's all just hoax. You can see some elephants, but leopards? Never. 'Sab paise kamaane ke dhandhe hai!'. True. We wasted around more than Rs. 2000/- for this ride to see nothing but shit. If you decide on a visit to Rishikesh, safely remove this place from your list. No further comments.


The Camp

From the Rajaji NP, we went to our Camping area at Shivpuri. We were loving this place very much as it was just next to the river stream, on the other side of which was a volleyball court. The weather and the scenic beauty of this place added more taste to the stay. We had already started getting positive vibes about the place and everyone was sure that tonight's gonna be a good night!



Morning<------------------------------->Evening

The evening started with a couple of hours being spent playing volley ball. The volley ball court was on the other side of the river stream (just a couple of bamboos kept as a bridge to cross over it). We played many rounds with even the local team joining in to show their talent. It was amazing.


We then headed to the camping area where we played some other activity games until the dinner was served. There was chicken for dinner. Yes, since this was a camp area, away from the buzz of the Rishikesh city, you do get non-vegetarian food on request. The food was good and spicy. The dinner was done under the moonlight in the warmth of the bonfire. We had been allotted four small tents, each with two beds. The tents were cozy and the blankets were good enough to make you survive through the night.

The next morning we first headed uphill, some 12-15kms upwards. We stopped at a rock, some 25 feet in height. This would be the rock where we would try our skills at rock climbing. It was a team effort! Though each of us was climbing the rock individually, the support from the others on the ground watching played an important factor in everyone's tasks of rock climbing and rappelling, without which it would have been a much difficult task to climb the rock.


After the rock climbing session, we headed towards our final ascent in the mountains of Rishikesh, the starting pint of our 30 kms Rafting. This time we had eight of us, plus two guides Vijay and Radhe, plus two Rafting guides Veeru and a new chap. In all 12 people in a raft for 10. The raft was already carrying double the weight form the last one we tried a couple of days ago. On top of that, we had 2-3 people without a row. So they were just going to sit in the raft doing nothing, just adding more wight to the raft and making it more difficult to row. The first half of rafting route hardly had any rapids. But we did enjoy ourselves in the free surfing area. This is the area where the water current is swift and without any obstacles. You just have to dive into the river, and let yourself float with the support of life jacket. Even though the water was icy cold, it was quite relaxing. Even Roops dared to dive and get a feel of it.

The next half was the adventurous part. It had more rapids and we had already tried it once. It was a repeat telecast for us, while the new comers (Gayatri, Faheem and Gaury) got their first shot at the splashing cold waters of the Ganges.


Note: There is nothing great about the 30 kms rafting route, except for the fact that it has a longer free surfing route. Most of the rapids are on the second half of the route, which are covered in the 17 kms rafting route. So our suggestion would be go for the 17 kms route. You would not miss much.

After the end of rafting we spent some time to some Indian music played on guitar and flute by some foreigners near the river bank. A cute firangi chic and and one Indian kid were dancing to the music. Later on, we went to our rooms, took a bath and headed out to the market for dinner. This time we wanted to try something new. So we went to a restaurant called Tip-Top, opposite the Topiwala restaurant. It serves a good variety of cuisines from around the world. That too, at affordable prices.


The Night Laughs

After dinner, we headed to our hotel rooms for a final nap at Rishikesh. Our nights never end without something funny happening to one of us. It is always a good laughing session before we finally doze off and go to sleep. This time it was again provided by Pedro. Remember I described his ability to be at the wrong place at the wrong time? He somehow managed to do it again and keep up to his reputation. This time he was sleeping at the end of the bed, which was facing the wall where all the electrical switches were mounted. He had to get up twice to switch on/off the lights and increase/decrease the fan speed.

Just the previous day, when he was sleeping in Manish's room, he woke in the middle of the night from a nightmare saying 'Mujhe Chhod do! Mere paas paise nahi hai!'. Manish shook him to wake him up and asked what happened to which Pedro said, 'Kuch nahi. Kisiko bolna mat mai sapne me bol raha tha. Yeh room ki baat isi room me rehne de.' But we all like to screw and take each other's case, so now, it's known to the world.


All good things come to an End

The next morning we woke up early to board our last rented vehicle of the trip, from Rishikesh to New Delhi. We were surprised and happy to see that our guides had arranged for a 12-seater vehicle, with loads our luggage space, at the price of a 8-seater vehicle. It was actually a goof up that benefited us. We had enough room to stand and walk around in the vehicle to free our legs, and also stretch our legs while sleeping.

GaribRath Yuva

We boarded our train to Mumbai. the train was Garibrath Yuva, which is a completely Chair car train. We had switched from Paschim Express to this train because Yuva would reach Mumbai in 15-16 hrs as compared to 29-30 hrs taken by Paschim express. but we did not considered the fact fact that it is still too much time to sit at one place, which would swell your ass to twice its original size. Within two hours, we started feeling the pain in our asses. And we were starving too.

Note: Garibrath Yuva is the worst train to travel in because:
1. It only has Chair car seating arrangement.
2. Luggage space is lesser that what we have in the local trains in Mumbai.
3. There is no Pantry.

The train does not stop at any station for more than two minutes. It was just the Kota junction, our last hope to get food, where the train was going to make a stop for 10 minutes. We made up a plan and decided who will get what from the station. We proceeded towards the head of the train, so that even if the train starts while we are buying stuff, we could still make it easily to our compartment, which was sixth or seventh from the engine. What we discovered was an oasis in the desert. There were three consecutive compartments that were completely empty, without a single booking. We asked the TTE and he told us that there was no Tatkaal booking at all for this journey. We were overjoyed. We had our dinner in one of the empty compartments, after which we secretly moved all our luggage from our jam-packed compartment to the 3 BHK spacious compartment. Each one of us then had three chairs to sleep on. It was a lottery. Gentle advice! Don't take the chance of traveling in this train hoping to find an empty compartment. It was sheer luck for us.


Last adventure before the End

The Garibrath Yuva has just 5-6 stops between Delhi and Mumbai. The first stop at Mumbai was Bandra. most of us stay in Borivali and were praying that the train hits a red signal somewhere near Borivali. The train hit a signal at Dahisar station. As the train was slowing down at the Dahisar station, Roopali got off the running train, since we were not sure whether the train would stop again at Borivali. Just as she got down, the train started picking up speed. Now we had no choice, but to somehow try and get off the train, along with our luggage.

I was standing a door behind the others. Faheem, Gayatri and Gaury were getting down at Bandra. So we took our chance. Manish and Pedro threw a couple of bags down on the platform. Meanwhile I jumped off the train and started collecting the bags thrown. Then Nanu, Pedro and Manish, all of them got down since the train was catching up speed. There were some bags still left in the train. But with the help of Gayatri and Faheem, we managed to get all the bags thrown on the platform. This stunt came with a warning: These stunts are performed by professionals. Do not try this at home!

Sachin came to pick us up at Dahisar station, and that ended the trip. It was a great trip and I hope you enjoyed my narration. My lack of work at office has played a big role in allowing me to find time and finish this write-up, covering most of the events during the trip.

We are planning our next trip to Bangkok, somewhere in November 2010 and Leh-Ladhak in July 2011.
As always, everyone's invited!

See you then! Adios!

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Adventurous North Trip - Part 4 (Rishikesh)
Off to Chakki Bank

The previous places on our route, viz. Amritsar, Dalhousie and Dharamsala/McLeodganj had been just beyond the expectations. Little did we know that this extent of going beyond the expectations would be further stretched in Rishikesh.

The journey started in a rented car from Dharamsala to Chakki Bank (the station from where we were to catch our train to Rishikesh), where everyone enjoyed a good session of songs sung mainly by the back-benchers, Faheem, Gayatri and me. Rishikesh was gonna be a dry area, meaning no non-vegetarian food and no alcohol. So we decided to have some in the car on our way to Chakki Bank. It's hard to find Kingfisher in rural areas and so we had to quench our beer thirst with Haywards 5000. Pedro, after emptying two and a half cans (or Haywards 12500 as we call it), started feeling a buzz and went on laughing throughout for next thirty minutes until finally he peed and let the beer out of his body.

We reached the station a good one hour early and decided to have dinner at a nearby restaurant. The food was great there but more important the service was great. There was this little chap named Lucky who was serving us. We asked him what we can get in 10 minutes. He gave us precisely the menu that could be made available in 109 minutes. Roopali asked him whether the restaurant served Malai Kofta to which Lucky replied, 'Madam mil to jayega, but Kofta ka stuffing karne me time lagta hai aur phir pakne me bhi time lagega. Kum se kum 20 minute lag jayenge'. Impressed! On top of that, he knew the recipes for all the dishes. After finishing our dinner, we had a chat with the li'l fella. Turned out he scored 86% in SSC. Manish said 'Mumbai aaja, bahot aage jayega tu.' The kid was smart enough to come back with good reply, 'Sir, Bambai aayenge to bigadh jayenge. Wahaan aake aadmi paap karne lag jata hai. Hum yahin thik hai.'

We came back to the station, heavily stuffed, and waited for our train to arrive. Meanwhile, we played some new games on the station like passing a bag (with rollers) through two bottles kept at some distance. We attracted a good amount of crowd that gathered around us to look what we were doing. Apart from that the winner got a round of applause and a bugle salute from Nanu. The train arrived 30 minutes late. We boarded the train, played for a while and then went to sleep. This time the journey was going to be short, we would be in Rishikesh when we wake up the next morning.

Note: Rishikesh is a dry area, no alcohol and no non-veg. It just means it is not sold there. You can carry alcohol with you and drink inside your rooms, not publicly sitting outside in balcony and keeping it on display. Also, you can get alcohol and non-veg food just 2 kms away from Rishikesh in another city/village where it is not banned. Our guides were generous enough to go on their bikes and bring us whatever non-vegetarian food we demanded.
Similarly, Amritsar, or Punjab as a whole, and Dalhousie are a no smoking zone. You have to find proper corner to keep out from police view.


RishikHASH

The next morning, we were short of cigarettes, and as I am used to borrowing one from any stranger, I was looking for someone smoking at the door. Just then Faheem woke up and announce that he has one last cigarette. Great! We all (Faheem, Pedro, Nanu and me) gathered near the door to share the consolation prize. As we were smoking, there was a Fakir smoking something very peculiar and familiar to us, Charas! He caught us stag at him and said, 'Rishikesh ke Rishi, Zindagi Charas aur Nashe me Ghusi' (Most of the Fakirs and Babas are poets, of some weird kind). He then offered us the maal, but looking at his untidiness and uncleanliness, we turned down the offer.

We had already taken up a package deal for four days at Rishikesh and the guides were already waiting for us at the station when we arrived. Two Six-seater auto-rickshaws were ready for us to board. The guides took us through the Ram Jhula on to the other side of the Garhwal district, called the Pauri Garhwal. Our hotel had a good view of the Ganges, and the biggest rooms so far with a hall, a kitchen, a bedroom and a balcony. It was a proper flat.


View from our Balcony

Note: The Ganges river divides the district of Garhwal into two regions, Tehri Garhwal on the west side and Pauri Garhwal on the east. There are several tourists spots on both the sides of the Ganges river, and so you will have to go across Ram and Laxman Jhula several times. So do not spend much time taking pictures at the jhulas, since you'll get plenty of opportunities to do that.



Rishikesh is famous for four major things:
1. It is a highly spiritual place and hence you see a lot of foreigners living in this part
2. The Ganga of course (The Ganges river), which holds a high position in Hindu mythology
3. It is a great place for adventure sports, esp. White water rafting, Rock Climbing and Rappelling
4. Though it is banned, you will find almost easy access to Hashish (Grass), Charas (Cannabis) and Ganja (Marijuana)

All these things can not be covered over a weekend. You need at least a week to do justice to your visit to Rishikesh.

Our package included:
1. Stay at the Hotel for 4N/5D
2. 30km River rafting along with transport to the starting point
3. camp over night, with two meals and 1 breakfast (But they were very generous and gave us three meals)
4. Safari at Rajaji National Park
5. Two treks (water and snacks included)
All of the above included in a package of Rs. 28800/-. That is, Rs. 3600/- per person.


Neelkanth Trek

The first day was not included in our package deal and we had already decided to take rest for the day. But our guides (Vijay and Radhe) were quite some enthusiasts. They told us that we can do a small uphill trek to Neelkanth that day itself. So we agreed. Point of caution here: When the local people say it's a small trek, don't buy it on face value 'coz they are used to walking long distances. Always get a specific answer either in terms of minutes or in kilometers. Turned out the trek was 8 kilometers from the foot of the hill, the foot hill was again a couple of kilometers away from our hotel. And once you start the trek, there is no looking back. Not because you can't, but the trek is through a route where vehicles are not allowed. We somehow managed to creep up the hills, helping each other, and were completely exhausted by the time we reached up.



By the time we came down, it was dinner time. Our guide took us to the Topiwala restaurant, just in front of his office. The service was good, food was awesome, and the VFM was just super. Just imagine. Eight of us ... fulfilled with vegan food ... and the bill doesn't shoot up over 700 bucks. That's 700 bucks well spent! Since we all were tired from the overwhelming trek, we decided to sleep the next day to recover. So everyone woke up at their own convenience the next morning, sorry, afternoon. :)

Note: There is also a restaurant called Chotiwala, which is one of the famous restaurants in Rishikesh, but it is pointlessly expensive.

The next day we didn't have anything planned for the whole group, so we split up. Faheem, Gayatri and Gaury went on to check out the Laxman Jhula and surrounding temples (one of which had 14 floors), while the rest of the gang wanted to try a short rafting route to get ready for the big one coming up on Friday. The Jeep took us 17 kms upwards to the Shivpuri camp. The camps are basically a flat land with natural deposit of sand on the river banks. It was an amazing place with a picturesque view of the valley. Our rafting guide was Veeru and he was accompanied by a kid named Chintoo. Since it was our first experience of rafting in the Ganges, we had decided not to carry any cameras, but Gauri still handed over her camera as it was compact and sleek.

Note: The 17 km rafting costs not more than Rs. 300/- per person.


White Water Rafting

The guide gave us a quick crash course on the paddle movements and the calls he would be giving. A scream to cheer up: 'Ganga Mata ki Jai'! and we took off. The water was cold, and the weather wasn't that warm either, when we came across our first rapid. Rapids are parts of the river where the water is shallow due to which the current are strong and causes the water to wave up and down and thrash on the surrounding rocks. The raft banged against each wave in the rapid, which lifted it up almost 45 degrees upwards. Then suddenly the wave disappeared beneath the raft and sent it crashing down with a loud impact. It was thrilling! There are five to six such rapids, the best ones are at the beginning of the route. Half way through the route, our guide showed us the cliff from where they allow cliff-jumping. It was just two storey high and we thought of it as a cake walk. But as we stopped our raft there, climbed up the rock, and looked down the cliff, believe me we were petrified. The distance suddenly seemed like a mile and we started thinking of the impact. I can't talk about personal feeling of Nanu and Manish, but I know, it was the biggest achievement in my life. That is because I have never jumped into water from that height, and secondly, I am afraid of heights.

We were enjoying this rafting experience very much, but at the same time cursing ourselves that no one was around to take our snaps from the banks. Just then, as we were passing below the Laxman Jhula, you can call it luck, telepathy, god's grace, or sheer coincidence, the same time Gayatri, Gaury and Faheem were crossing over the Laxman Jhula. We were overflowing with joy I thanked anyone and everyone we could for getting this moment captured. We also showed our rafting skills by spinning are raft from right to left and back again.



Note: Make sure the Rafting guide is experienced and has knowledge about the names of the rapids that come your way. There are many interesting names like Three Blind Mice, Roller Coaster, Black Money, etc. and each has an interesting story about the choice of that name. These all names were given by a renowned mountaineer and explorer Edmund Hillary, who traveled in his motor boat against the current of the Ganges river during his expedition. All these stories add more interest to your Rafting experience.

In the evening, we went to witness the Ganga Aarti, which is carried out everyday somewhere around 1800 hrs. The Ganga Aarti is held in front of a temple of Shiva, where you'll find many idols of Lord Shiva, the biggest one sitting right outside the temple on a ramp over the Ganges. The main trustee of the temple, Muni Baba, performs the aarti. It takes around thirty minutes after which the bhajans start and lasts for a couple of hours.


We had our dinner, again at the Topiwala restaurant, and headed to our hotel rooms to end one more day at Rishikesh ... continued in Part 5.

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Adventurous North Trip - Part 3 (Dharamsala & McLeodganj)
Dharamsala & McLeodganj

Though Dharamsala is some 120 kms away from Dalhousie, the drive through the ghats takes more than four hours. We'd started at 1630 hrs and we reached McLeodganj at 2230 hrs (we are used to taking pee and tea breaks, which added a couple of hours to the journey). The temperature was not lower than Dalhousie, but it felt like 4-5 degrees below freezing point due to the gentle breezes that kept blowing in this part. I never knew I had good bargaining skills until I convinced the manager of the Sky Lark Hotel (at BhagsuNag, a kilometer away from McLeodganj) to slash the charges by 500 rupees. I just took his calculator, added some figures and told him to fit in that amount. In all we just paid 1350/- per day for two rooms (one with a double bed and the other with a double bed and a single bed) along with heaters. The rooms were the best so far in our trip, with long balconies (one could play box-cricket in there) and spacious bathrooms.

It was already 2300hrs and the hotel's kitchen was closed. So we headed to the McLeodganj market to look for a place to have dinner. There was this place called 'Excite' right in the center of the market with a roof-top restaurant. The place served Tibetan, Chinese, Punjabi and Continental cuisines; Drinks and Hookah too. Unfortunately we had reached there so late, that only some of the Chinese and Punjabi dishes could be made available. While the staff went busy preparing the food, we sipped on beers and sucked on a Hookah. I turned the pages of the menu and noticed a message 'We are lazy and take time to serve food'. Quite a straight-forward message to the customer so that he sets the right expectations. And they did stand to their words, it took an hour for them to get the food on our table (we were the only customers at that time, so the whole staff was serving us, still the delay). Moreover, after such a long wait, the food was another disappointment. It tasted rubbish. The hookah wasn't that great either. So overall, the place has nothing good about it.


Naddi

The next day we went a place called Naddi, which is 3-4 kms above BhagsuNag. The weather was chillier here due to strong winds and increase in altitude. We had a nature walk around the mountain admiring the scenic beauty of the snow-capped mountains and coniferous trees of the Dhauladhar range. I guess we also saw the highest peak of Dhauladhar range, called the Hanuman ka Tibba, but we could not confirm as there was no one around. There were bits of melting snow in our way by the road side. It did not snow at McLeodganj, but just a few kilometers above, at Naddi, it snowed a week back. We had tea and biscuits at Naddi and left for St. John's Church, near Dharamsala on the way to McLeodganj. By the way, did I mention that this was the first trip where we did not get decent tea even once? None of the places we went to knew how to make good tea. Some added more water, some added more sugar, while some didn't care to add sugar at all.


Small Church, Big History

I didn't know the history of St. John in the Wilderness until I googled it and James Bruce, a.k.a. Lord Elgin (Viceroy and Governer General of India in 1861), who rests in peace in the premises of the church. Turns out that the church building was built in 1852 and is one of the few buildings to have survived a major earthquake at Kangra a century back. also it is famous for it's stained glass from Belgium, which unfortunately we could not see since the church was closed. It also has a huge bell that was brought from England and installed in the premises. I don't understand why all this information is not mentioned anywhere at the church. This gives a complete new understanding and a new perspective to look around the building and admire the historic monument.



Mini Tibet

From the church we went to the Tibetan Monastery at McLeodganj. It is called Tsuglagkhang, the Dalai Lama's temple. It was a strange experience. We felt like foreigners in our own country. McLeodganj is full of Tibetans and as you enter the monastery, the concentration suddenly grows scarily stronger. But Tibetans are peaceful people, the same is evident through their 50-year long non-violent struggle to free Tibet. There were huge golden idols of Buddha and some goddess inside the temple, where photography is prohibited. This monastery is a tourist attraction as it is the Dalai Lama's temple and just opposite to the temple is his office. Moreover, just behind the office building was his residence. We asked the security outside and he told us the Dalai Lama would be coming out on the evening of Losar, the New Year's Day, 14th Feb 2010. Until then he would not be coming out. Sadly, we were going to leave the next day and would not be able to catch a glimpse of him. There is also a Tibetan museum on the way to the temple. Unfortunately it was closed that day.

We also read about the Panchen Lama, Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, who has been taken into protective custody by the Chinese authorities, reasons unknown. Many of us, who do not know the process of appointing the Dalai Lama or Panchen Lama, believe that Panchen Lama would be taking the chair as the next Dalai Lama after the current (14th) Dalai Lama's death (even I used to think the same). The fact is, Panchen Lama is the next highest level after the Dalai Lama and not necessarily (and seldom the case) the next Dalai Lama. However, both play a role in finding the next Dalai Lama or Panchen Lama.



Out of the monastery, we all were hungry and I was desperately looking for a Tibetan restaurant. Funny thing is there are no Tibetan restaurants near the monastery (or at least we couldn't find one). We had to walk for 15 minutes to get to the market to find a place to eat. But the walk was worth it. We ended up at a place called Norling Restaurant. It serves a good variety of Chinese, Tibetan, Japanese and Korean food. The restaurant is also recognized by 'NDTV Good Times - Highway on my Plate' as one of the best eating joints. I decided to come there again the next day to try out some Japanese cuisine. We spent the rest of the evening wandering in the market. Roopali found an Ayurvedic Massage center where she got a foot massage. While returning we also paid a visit to the BhagsuNag temple just behind our hotel. The temple has a huge history that Roopali can explain better.

We had decided to leave the next day for Rishikesh, but we already had an extra day, and we loved the place so much that we decided to add another day at McLedoganj. This way, we could check out the Tibetan New Year celebrations and might get a chance to see Dalai Lama as well. So we called up Santji and paid him off that night itself and left the car.

Note: You do not need a vehicle to go around places in Dharamsala/McLeodganj. Most of the places are within 1-2 kms distance of each other. Besides, share autos and taxis are also available to visit farther places.


Girl down again!

Everyone was dying due to cold and the necessity of heat for our bodies was growing every minute. So bought some alcohol as a remedy. That night we discussed and debated on a variety of topics (and we don't remember what initiated the first, the next and the last topic). The topics ranged from Tele communication, optical fibers, China, Tibet, Dalai Lama, One Country Two Governments, yada yada. We were so pumped up and engrossed in the discussion that it would have required some disastrous event to make us stop. And that event was provided by Gaury. Gaury after doing a mix and match, felt tipsy, and wanted to use the bathroom. She opened the door and ... THUD! for the second time! This time even the splashing of water on her face was not able to wake her up. Surprisingly this time the situation was not that tense. Most of us were laughing and thinking of ways to get her back on the bed. Finally, it required all the five guys to lift her up and put her on the bed. It was one hell of a task.

The next day was a leisure day. We left the Hotel at 1400 hrs for the market. Everyone spread across in different directions. Roopali had already left for the market to buy some stoles. Manish and I selected a ladies top as a surprise gift for Roopali. Then we, along with Roopali went to the massage center. Nanu and Pedro started to look out for travel agents to hire a vehicle for Chakki Bank (our boarding station for the train to Rishikesh). Gaury, Gayatri and Fahim went out shopping in the market. While Manish and Roopali went in to have the massage, I decided to give another visit to the temple to check out the museum. But it was closed again. Turned out that the museum would be closed till the new year. That's one thing I regret missing to see.

We all had planned to gather back at the Norling Restaurant. This time I ordered Sukiyaki Chicken, a Japanese dish suggested by the waiter. It arrived with a sizzle in a flat base wok. It looked beautiful with perfectly cooked chicken surrounded by broccoli, pickled cabbage and onions, tofu, black mushrooms, tomatoes, red and green pepper, and some kind of sweet noodles. To add more colors and flavor, it was topped with a fried egg, sunny side up. Yummy! The rest of the gang ordered thukpas, thenthuks, Chinese noodles and fried rice.



Note: There are several massage centers in McLeodganj market offering various types of Ayurvedic, Kerala and Tibetan massages. Tibetan massages are the toughest and a bit painful due to the intensity of the massage. A massage would cost you somewhere from Rs. 250 - Rs. 600, depending on the type and body parts in the massage. We went to a place called Synergy Ayurvedic Massage Center. Everyone got at least one kind of massage there. The Masseuse named Purushottam was the one of the best masseuses there.

Losa and Valentine's Day Celebration

I had noticed fire crackers being sold in the market and I got a brilliant idea. Manish had not planned for a surprise on Valentines day for Roopali yet. So I whispered to Manish saying it would make a great surprise event, not just a gift but some fire crackers in the night when the clock struck twelve. We sealed the deal on the plan. While the rest of the gang, including me, went in for our scheduled massages in the evening. Pedro and Manish bought some fire crackers and handed over to me to keep them out of Roopali's sight. I added a jewel cracker to them and gave them all to the manager of our hotel to hide it until midnight. I also requested him to keep the terrace open to light up the crackers.

It was 2200 hrs then, and when I reached our room, everybody had already got cozy siting close to each other and watching 3 Idiots. By 2330 hrs, we finished the movie, had our dinner and one by one slowly started sneaking out of the room and going to the terrace to set up the crackers in place. Manish brought Roopali on the terrace by making up some reason (don't what reason he gave her, but I thought it would be a difficult task to get out on terrace in that chilling weather). As they both entered the terrace, there was a loud blast. We all were shocked, even the people who knew about crackers in place were shaken up by the boom. The cracker went up some 50 meters up in the air before it made a second blast and spread all over in the sky over our hotel. Strangely we were the only ones lighting the crackers and people from other hotel were wishing us 'Happy new year'. We all wished each other a Happy valentines Day, and Happy New Year too. Gayatri and Roopali cut the small cake we had bought and Manish gifted Roopali with the gift. Later on we went downstairs and lit some flower pot crackers.


Crazy & Funny Night

Back in our rooms, we were intrigued by the red illumination from the heater rod, which initiated the idea of taking innovative and creative photographs ... Horror poses! Check the same in my Facebook album. We also discovered an ability of Pedro that had gone unnoticed for a long time ... to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. That day he had switched his sleeping place to the side of the bed that is closer to the door. Nanu had happily given up the place since a heater was placed on the other side of the bed. I had already resigned the idea of getting into argument over places in bed, and hence took the center place on the bed. That night we had continuos knocking on the door, a couple of times by Gaury, then by Gayatri, and again a couple of times by Faheem. Pedro was and the peak of annoyance while Nanu, Roopali, Manish and I laughed so hard that our eyes were filled with tears.

The next day was the Tibetan New Year and the Valentines day. I wanted to check the celebrations at Tibetan temple, but most of us were game for the BhagsuNag falls somewhere behind our hotel. so five of us headed towards the falls, Gayatri and Faheem went to the market again, and Gaury attended the Tibetan New Year celebration at the monastery. Gaury's experience of the Tibetan culture is mentioned here.



This year, the Dalai Lama had requested the Tibetans not to celebrate the New Year, and hence the celebrations were limited to just some decorations and sugar idols.
The BhagsuNag have the best flow in the monsoons, but we could still get a pretty good view of the falls. The water in the falls comes directly from the melting glaciers and hence very clean.



Note: We missed out on seeing quite a few interesting places in Dharamsala, like the Norbulinka Institute and the Tea gardens, due to our laziness. Make sure you visit these places if you plan a trip to this part of India.

We wrapped up our visit to falls, packed our bags at the hotel and loaded it on the car we booked for a journey to Chakki Bank.

Next and the last destination - Rishikesh! ... continued in Part 4.

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Adventurous North Trip - Part 2 (Dalhousie)
SurprICE at Dalhousie

Now out of Amritsar, we knew the drive to Dalhousie was going to be long, more than six hours, and through the Ghats. So we took turns to shuffle the seats among us so that no one feels nausea. But still something happened, something really horrifying. Gaury started feeling weird and wanted to get out of the car and puke. We stopped somewhere in the middle of the mountains, where it was pitch dark. Manish and Gayatri were sitting along with Gauri in the back seat of the car, when she opened the door and stepped out to vomit. Manish and Gayatri continued with the talks with the front-seaters, when Manish heard a thud. He looked back and initially he couldn't see Gaury. He enlarged his iris and pierced his vision through the darkness. He saw her and screamed, 'Gaury gir gayi!' (Gaury fell down). He ran to her along with Gayatri and shook her. She didn't move. We were terrified to the core. The last thing we wanted was an unconscious girl, in the middle of the Ghats, with no one else around to help in the darkness of the night. Nanu splashed water on her face and she came back to her senses. We made her sit and asked her to stay there for a while, but Gaury, not aware of what had just happened, said 'Itni thandi me road pe bitha ke kyu rakha hai? (Why have you made me sit on road in this freezing weather?) Let me go back to the car.' We got her back in the car and continued our drive towards our second surprise. This was one story we kept bringing up throughout the rest of the trip.

Some 10-15 kms away from Dalhousie, we stopped our car to buy liquor. Santji knew a place where liquor was sold at less than the MRP. So he had advised us to buy the liquor from there instead of Dalhousie where they charge 10-20 percent over the MRP. We bought the liquor, went back to the car and Santji turned the keys to the car and the car refused to start. We tried jump-starting the car, but it didn't work. Then Manish came to the rescue. He shuffled some resisters here and there and asked Santji to try starting the car. The car started after a couple of failures. And off we went again. This time we told Santji 'No more stops until we reach Dalhousie'.

Approximately 5-6 kms away from Dalhousie we saw the road was sprinkled with some snow. Everyone in the car started screaming and singing, refreshed by the pleasant view outside the window. Some of us were seeing snow for the first time, which doubled our enthusiasm. Right then Santji stopped the car at a hotel. We asked whether we have reached and he said that we were 5 kms away from Dalhousie and the roads could be blocked. It was night then and hence he suggested going to Dalhousie in the morning. Now that was bullshit. We'd asked some local guys, at a tea stall on our way, whether the roads had opened and they'd confirmed that they were. We figured that Santji was either avoiding the uphill drive or wanted to save on gas. Either ways, we didn't care. We told him that we'd just started seeing snow on roads and that too in small quantities. It would not be that bad at Dalhousie. So let us ourselves go and see whether the roads are closed, and if they are, we can come back here. As I said in my previous blog, Santji was a cool-headed man and agreed to whatever we said.

Note: Whichever place you go, make it a point to stay close to the heart of the place and near the market area. That will give you the best exposure and experience of the local life and culture.
Secondly, alcohol is expensive at Dalhousie. So make sure to buy it before you reach there.

We reached Dalhousie and most of us were freezing to death. So we checked into the first hotel available, Hotel Raj Kumar. To our surprise, the rooms were cheap as compared to their size and interiors. We dumped our luggage in the rooms and came out again to enjoy the snow for a while. I have been waiting for ages to see snow and always wanted to feel the coldness right on my skin. And this was my moment. I walked outside the hotel and handed over my camera to Manish. Then took off my shirt and threw at Gayatri to hold on to, while I posed for a snap. :) It was a chilling experience. Soon after, Manish and Nanu too joined in to challenge their ability of resistance.


After a couple more snaps we walked back to our hotel, where we discovered that Gaury, the 'Trained to be Hopeless' girl [that's the title I gave her :)], dropped my stock of liquor on the floor. So I had to switch to rum. The weather was so freezing, we all had the drinks neat. That night was spent just drinking, hopping around in beds, and seven of us (except Roopali) trying to sleep on one bed. The bed had got so warm later on that none of us wanted to get out of that coziness.


The next day, we had planned to visit the Dalhousie market, Subhash Chowk and Gandhi chowk, all were 2 kms uphill where the roads were blocked for vehicles due to heavy snowfall the previous day. So we had to take a walk. But just in front of our hotel was the Dalhousie Club house. We don't know whether it was open, we don't know whether it was allowed to enter the premises, but what we saw was heaven. It was a huge flat area covered with at least 1-foot deep layer of snow. Virgin snow! No marks of footsteps in an around the place. And we, the haraami people, took it's virginity!


Next couple of hours were enjoyed with full hearts in snow fights!


Finally we started our walk uphill, but soon gave up realizing that we also had to leave for Dharamshala in a couple of hours. We could only cover the Dalhousie market. As I've said this earlier in my Noida blog, you will find Maggi noodles stalls everywhere in North, be it Delhi, Noida, Punjab, Uttarakhand or any other place. They are crazy about two things, Maggi and Parathas. We were hungry and could not find a good place to have lunch.

We stuffed our bellies with Maggi and omelet and we took off for Dharamshala ... continued in Part 3.

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