Trip to Ladakh

Leh – a small town surrounded by sandy and rocky mountains. It's one of the destinations where everyone should go, atleast once. Just googling this place on internet will leave you will lots of pictures and even more imaginations. Finally I took a break from the so-called busy life and planned for a trip to Leh.

My journey started from Ahmedabad. Catching an evening flight to Delhi, staying overnight at the national capital, and continuing the journey to Leh early next morning. Boarding a plane was never so much fun and thrilling. As the plane entered the Kashmir valley, and as we moved further towards Leh, the sight became simply awesome. Snow covered mountains all over, and the plane flying between those white tips. Sun just started peeping on these mountain tops and the radiance got spread everywhere. The moment we landed at the Leh airport and disembarked the plane, the first glimpse of the place took our breath.

They say, at 12000 feet height, you are bound to grasp for oxygen – so better be prepared and take necessary precautions. Proper medications, warm clothes, sun-screen lotions, moisturizers, sun glasses, and the list continues.

It was around 7 am. We came out of the airport and there was a cab waiting for us. We reached Hotel LehChen, one of the nicest and comfortable hotels in the town.

I would like to give a special mention about the local people in Leh. I have never seen so warm and welcoming people anywhere in the country. You may go to Goa or down south or even far east, but Ladakhi people will stand out for their humility and good conduct. We worked our way out, and got the rooms at the top floor, with probably the best view of the scenic beauty surrounding the place.

First day at Leh was dedicated to complete rest. We need to acclimatize to the weather condition and hence it is advised to control the adrenaline rush within and the urge to explore nearby places. Stay at the room, roam around in the hotel, have nice food, chit chat, gossip, play cards and sleep.

Second day was dedicated to local site seeing in Leh. We visited Shanti Stupa, a local Monastery and the famous Leh Palace. Shanti Stupa is a temple-like structure with idols of Buddha and his life story depicted on the walls surrounding the stupa. Local people say that the precious works of Buddhist literature have been preserved inside the stupa, and is not accessible by anyone. The Shanti Stupa was located just behind our hotel. We can very well climb up the mountain and reach the stupa (something we did few days later).

Monasteries are something that you will find at every nook and corner in Leh. But these monasteries produce some of the finest art works, what they call Tanka paintings. We visited a similar monastery in Leh, where there were Buddhist monks doing their rituals.

Leh is also famous for its mud palace. This palace is made of stones, mud-bricks, mud-mortar, wooden rafters and mud-plaster. It's a pretty huge monument looking at the size of the surrounding buildings. The palace is having 9 floors, constructed along the slope of the mountain, and the city view from every floor is simply majestic.

After all this site seeing, we decided to have the special ladakhi food for lunch. That's Momos (typical veggie dumplings) and Thumpa (noodle soup). It was a real good experience. Post lunch, we returned to our hotel and spent the rest of the day resting. Morning breakfast, evening snacks, dinner…we were lucky to have very good meals at Lehchen. The only problem – a minor one, that we occasionally faced was getting hot water. Needless to say, there were days when I didn't get hot water, and that kept me away from bathing. Though we were lucky enough to have a television set in our rooms, that actually helped me in spending most of the time in the most effective manner inside the room.

Third day of our trip was dedicated to Pangong lake (the one we see in the ending scenes of the movie 3-idiots). The journey to Pangong was one of its kind. We passed through the sandy and rocky mountains. And in the middle of no where, there were small small green patches, ensuring the existence of humans in those regions. We were told by the hotel staff that the weather that day was not that good, especially on the way to Pangong.

We reached certain height, and we were into the clouds. Suddenly it started snowing. First time in my life, I saw real snow fall. We entered the territory of snow clad mountains. And in no time, we reach the world's third highest pass - Chang-la (17586 feet).

The temperature was around -6 degrees and it was indeed very chilling. I was struggling to click more pics and rushed into the car. Soon we left chang-la and continued with our journey to Pangong. On the way we came across rivers, streams, cattles grazing, lush green fields and so on. We took a break on the way, near some village. They had arranged for a hot lunch for us. I can still feel the softness of the rotis and taste of the daal they cooked.

We moved on and were waiting eagerly for that one glimpse of the pangong lake. After a long drive, finally we reached the lake. Though the weather was not so good that day, still we can visualize how beautiful the lake would look had the skies been clear.

It was raining at Pangong lake, and the wind was also blowing with all its strength. How would it be like, if we can get a cup of hot tea, and say, a bowl full of hot noodles. We discovered a small tent near the lake, where the person was running a small dhaba kind of business. We immediately ordered for tea and maggi noodles and enjoyed it in the cool breeze outside.

Considering the weather conditions, and since all other cars had already left, we decided to start our return journey. It is advisable to travel with a group of vehicles, acting as convoy to each other. The return trip was also via chang-la pass, where we again stopped for a while and clicked few more snaps.

We came back to the hotel, took some rest, had a nice hot dinner, played cards, watched tv, and went to sleep. Good rest was a must, since we had travelled nearly 300 k.m. that day, and were all set for an adventurous outing for the next day.

Day four was scheduled for visits to few nearby places outside Leh town. But we had our own different plans. We got a very good combined deal for river rafting and mountain climbing. Early morning, as soon as we finished our breakfast, the cab had arrived to pick us up. We had to go to Chilling, a place from where river Zanskar has a good down-stream, ideal situation and the starting point for exciting river rafting. Also I would mention that the road to Chilling is one the most eye-catching roads. The mountains, valleys, zanksar river flowing. You can actually witness rocks with some unimaginable colors like green, purple, black, blue, cholocate, silver.

We reached Chilling at around 11 am. The support teams were ready with all the gears and rafts. We put on the clothes provided by them, along with the life jackets and helmets. After receiving few initial tips and commands, we were all set for river rafting.

28 kms long river rafting, indeed a tiring task. After 3 hours of slogging, finally we reached the sangam point – where two major rivers (Zanskar and Indus) meet. The organizers had arranged for a quick lunch. We quickly changed our dresses, relaxed for a while, had lunch and got ready to visit near by places.

On our way back, we halted at a place named Magnetic hill. This particular place is said to have a strong magnetic power, that can actually pull a vehicle up-hill when put on neutral gear. It does sound weird, but believe me its true. We parked our vehicle on the down-hill, put it on neutral gear and as soon as we released the clutch and brake, the car started moving towards the top (unlike usual downward motion). It was surprising to watch the magnetic power being stronger than gravity on that particular patch.

Then we visited a gurudwara on the way to Leh. Probably the highest gurudwara in the world. I wonder how many things in Leh (almost all) are listed as the highest in the world.. :)

We returned to our hotel and fell on the bed as if we were all exhausted with the energy sapping day. But my friends had something else in mind. We hardly rested for an hour and they we all set to climb up the hill next to our hotel and go to the shanty stupa again. Tired me, decided to take the responsibility of clicking their pics while trekking (and other surroundings as well).

An exciting day ended. We were all so thrilled with the river rafting experience, and more than the thrill, we were so awed by the scenic beauty of the place. It was simply out of the world.

Fifth day was unexpectedly the most tiring day of our trip. We had to check out from our hotel in the morning. We were going stay over-night at the Nubra valley. Excursion to nubra valley – via Khardung-la (world's highest pass) was one heck of a ride. Going up and down the hills, eyes witnessing the sparkling beauty of the snow clad mountain ranges. The pick of the journey was Khardung-la pass. Never ever in my life did I even imagine myself standing at 18000+ feet (18380 to be precise). I actually and literally felt on the top of the world while we were climbing up the khardung-la pass.

Soon after we left Khardung-la pass, we had a small water stream following us throughout the way. It was as if the river was playing in the lap of Mother Nature. We stopped for a while, clicked some more pics of the mountains and river. Every sight was soothing our eyes, and we just felt like staying longer and spending as much time as possible. But we had to reach the Nubra valley by evening and so we continued with our journey.

The road to Nubra was yet another eye-catcher. Crossing the rivers and small bridges, occasionally we found ourselves surrounded by huge rocks and mountains. At times our necks started paining, since we had to look absolutely straight up in the air to find the mountain tops. There is one straight road (nearly 3-4 kms) where you will find yourself standing at the lowest part of the valley, surrounded by those gigantic mountains. We stopped there, got off the car and enjoyed the endless mountain ranges of Himalayas.

Just moments away from this deserted road, there was a waterfall. Finding water in the middle of a desert surely gives you a sense of achievement. We also visited a temple near the nubra valley.

In an hour's time, we reached Hundar – place famous for its desert and camel rides. You will find typical double humped camels in this part. On one side you will see sand dunes and on the other side you will see cool water stream with lush green surroundings. One of the rarest sight I have ever witnessed – combination of snow clad mountains, forests, rivers, streams, waterfalls, dry desert and sand at one single location. That was moment when I bowed down the nature and firmly believed that after all it's the nature, the sole super power that can possibly make or break anything in the world.

After spending some time in the desert, we started our journey to nubra camp, place where we stayed overnight. The camp was full of white tents, spacious from inside, very comfortable and the entire arrangement was good enough to improve our stay. We have our evening snacks, roamed around the tents and surroundings. Dinner at nubra camp was very special – we were served khichadi. Post dinner we found sat around the camp fire and spent some time chatting. It was relatively cold outside, so we settled inside the tents.

Next day morning, we all got up early. Clicked few snaps of the nearby surroundings, had our breakfast and started with the return journey to Leh. Again, we reached Khardung-la pass. We again climbed up the hill, this time for enjoying a long slide on the snow. Soon we reached Leh and had hot water shower and took some rest.

Evening time – we decided to go to the nearby market. There we hired three bikes on rent for a day and started roaming around in the city. We took the bikes and went outside Leh city, riding on the Leh-Srinagar highway. Suddenly we went off the road and reached to a mountain base. One of our friends suggested leaving the bikes there and starting climbing the mountain. We all followed obediently. The best part of this place is that there is always room for adventure.

After an hour or so, and with limited fuel in the tanks, we decided to move back to the city. On the way back, we stopped at Leh – Hall of Fame. This is a small museum kind of set up, where you will find all the historical information about the region. Also they have put the weapons captured from Pakistani army during the Kargil war. The feeling of lifting a snipper and a pistol was simply great. They indeed weigh a lot..Hats off to our Indian army.

We then went to a café and had a nice heavy dinner. We needed to save our energies for the next day, as we planned to go for rock climbing. So we slept on time and woke up on time. Got ready quickly, filled the bike tanks and went for yet another amazing experience. There a team of 3 trainers was placed. We reached the mountains at around 9 am. They gave some brief about the equipments, ropes, knots, necessary precautions, etc. and soon we were ready to rock on the rocks.

It was a similar feeling to what we saw in the movie Lakshya. In fact the title track of the movie was always going on in my mind.. :) "Lakshya to har haal mein paana hai!!" .We climbed a couple of rocks, and were all exhausted. The sun had reached the top, and it was indeed very hot. Our final task was rappelling down from nearly 60 feet high rocks. It was a thrilling experience, standing high on the rocks, without any support, trusting the shoes and ropes.

We finished with all the exertions, and then had a healthy lunch provided by the organizers. While returning back to the city, we stopped at the main market for some shopping. I bought a nice little statue of Lord Buddha, carved in yak bone, a small souvenir in form of a praying wheel with prayers written inside.

Finally we returned the bike to the owner, and came back to the hotel for final packing. It was our last evening in Leh. We never realized how the time flew away and a week long vacation came to an end. But the final few moments in this place, were full of memories, images of mountains, snow, waterfalls, desert, sand, rocks. All I did, is closed my eyes, captured all the sweet memories of the place, and made a promise to myself - for re-visiting the town whenever I get time in future.

Next day, early morning at 6, we took our flight to Delhi, and thereafter another flight to Ahmedabad. And that brought us to the end of one of the most exciting, fun-filled, exhausting, beautiful and mind boggling trip. The time spent in Ladakh was indeed unforgettable.

EVERYDAY...!!!

Every morning, I wait for the evening.

Every day, I wait for Friday.

Every week, I wait for the weekend.

And every month, I wait for the last day.

Every month, I look for a holiday,

For freedom, peace, happiness.

Every month, I look for an escape,

From boredom, crib, sadness.

It’s the rat race, that we are part of,

Or is it the other way round?

We still don’t know what we want,

Everything is a mystery, unfound.

We think what we have, is not sufficient

There is always room for some more.

We struggle, we part, we go isolated,

And then wonder whom are we slogging for.

The time has come, when a call from an old friend

Brings a wide smile on your face,

Everything is a past, too blur,

Yet you ponder over the cheerful days.

What we need to survive, are very basic things

Food, shelter and clothes.

And the work that we do,

Is surely providing it all.

Its our body, that gets good food,

An aircon roof and designer clothes,

But where is our soul,

We are searching it nowhere.

Is our soul getting the food it requires,

Peace, happiness, satisfaction?

Is our soul getting the shelter it requires,

Protection, closeness, affection?

And who in this world cares, whether

Our naked soul is roaming around

Or sitting idly somewhere,

Shivering, helpless and totally lost.

Opportunities are the key nowadays,

Excellence is a benchmark,

Competition is the food for encouragement,

And adaptability is the survival.

The question still remains unanswered,

Are we doing what we want to do?

What we love to do?

What we are born to do?

Every night, we analyse our day’s work,

Think of what we could have done,

Dream of a new opening, an awakening

That hopefully will change our lives.

Every night we go to bed,

Remembering our parents, family, the loved ones.

Every night we dream of heaven,

Full of love, prosperity and happiness.

And the next day, we wake up,

Its still the same day, the same morning,

We are still waiting for the evening,

We are still waiting for Friday…

"MCLE"



THAT'S ME::::

"Mr. Confused Long Ears...."

JUST ONE CHANCE

“Twinkle twinkle little star… How I wonder what you are….. Up above the world so high…. I really wonder where you are???” People say that stars and other celestial bodies do have an impact on living beings. If that is so, where are you when you are needed the most? Life is full of chances, and what I am asking is just one chance…. One chance to prove, prove something that I don’t know, and I don’t want to know… But just want to prove… Prove myself that I am something, to prove the world that I am not nothing. Life takes twists and turns every time, and who has to suffer, us. We are the creators and also the victims of this vicious cycle called life.

It is rightly said that happiness can’t be gained easily. Good times rarely knock your door, and if you miss it, there are 100s of bad times waiting to conquer you. You miss the train and there you are, surrounded by bad things everywhere. You can’t breath freely, there is smoke all over, your lungs start pumping hard, and heart gives up pumping at times. And what you want is just one chance to change that mistake you made and just one chance to change the things and bring everything back to normal. But the rules say, you miss one, and you are a loser. No matter how much you try, you will have to suffer the pain that is written in your destiny.

But then, we are human beings- the most intelligent living organism, and we find an excuse to everything. And the excuse is “its not in our hands… whatever happens is for our own good…. There is always a brighter side to every darkness…. Etc… etc….” it really sound soothing when spoken, but its painful when it comes to our own self. The reason is quite obvious, you know that you made a mistake and the darkness around you is just because of that blunder you did, may be due to the circumstances around, may be due to some really bad time you are going through. As it is rightly said “A person really goes out of his mind, when his fate is near”.

You must be having millions of happiness around you, but one moment, a really bad moment, can ruin everything. Just like a tsunami or an earthquake changes the map of a location. It is quite true. The ocean and the land are quite silent by nature, same as human hearts… you never know what’s going on inside them… but the day they break all the shackles and start their rampant journey… it’s a massive destruction… so it’s called a catastrophe…

No one is perfect. Everyone has some or the other fault. It may be impatience, it may be anger, it may be anything. But is it not fair enough to forgive one deed and give JUST ONE CHANCE? No heart is good or bad by birth. It’s the way you treat it. And if you know that the so called soul, the counter part of the mind, is pure and very pure, isn’t it fair enough to give JUST ONE CHANCE? Is it asking for too much?? It may sound ridiculous to many of us, but the truth is that every one of us is searching for that ONE CHANCE… to change the things, to change the mistakes and to change our own self, if needed.

Life teaches us everything, and the sole answer to all the above question is TIME. Everyone says that give time, and everything will be back to normal. But, but, but…. Does it mean that we should give up on the efforts and wait for the time to come and heal everything? I mean, how can one give up so soon, or so easily on the happiness around, just for some stupid mistake that he committed, and accept the fate and take up all the pain given to him. Mr. X commits a fatal error, and he knows that. He is feeling guilty and responsible for what he did. That mistake ruined everything he had with him at that time… but the mistake was a mistake.. totally unintentional and based on the circumstances he was in. he knew the consequences of it, but got carried away.. and now is suffering the end result of the wrong step that he took. Now what he is asking is JUST ONE CHANCE… he knows he can’t undo the error, but can definitely make up for mistake he made. Who doesn’t want things to be normal, everybody does. So is it fair enough to leave Mr. X alone with his mistake circled around his neck, or should others try to give him ONE CHANCE, forgetting what he did, and to get things back on track. The mistake that he made costed him the priceless thing, TRUST. ‘The Others’ lost trust in him, and it is the most difficult thing to gain back… people trust others, and the real trust comes very rarely… it takes ages to develop that trust… and Mr. X know that once even spoken words and arrows can at times return, but the lost trust can never come back… and he knows that he has lost it… but can’t he get just one chance to make things better between Mr. X and ‘The Others’… please…..

One reply I got on this one...:

" Why did earthquakes or tsumanis occur? Because we humans are ruining slowly something called the mother nature.. We the humans expect mother nature to tolerate all the digging and wasting - all the torture that we give her.. Y? Doesnt she have a right to be angry? Doesnt she feel bad or hurt? Its the fact one has to pay for one's deeds and has to accept change.. people are now back to their normal life after earthquake..we mourn but we dont stop living beacause we are intelligent and brave creation of GOD. If your mother hurts you for one of your wrong deeds - it doesnt mean that she hates you or your life has ended. It hurts a lot and might once leave a mark for few days but after those few days.. its back.. its normal.. she is also hurt by what she did to you but it was needed.." -- A friend...

LIFE CAN BE SO PREDICTABLE

Who could have imagined that life can be predictable? Everyone say that life is the most mysterious thing in this world. No one can say what route it will take the next moment and what will happen next. But I say that you just need to have right vision, and the doors of uncertainty are wide open in front of you. May it be any situation or a person, if you are able to analyze it fully, all the moves are predictable. Time is a crucial factor in this case. If you can devote some time effectively in analyzing things around, you can surely know what will happen next.

Human mind, as all know, works very fast and the number of decisions taken by it is huge. Millions of thoughts flow through the networks in a while. But one thing is for sure, that all the decisions or thoughts follow a trend. They cannot be totally independent. They all have something in common, and the key is to catch that common factor. This commonality helps us in coining what will happen next if a given situation is faced. The reason being, the mind can think in only that direction, where all thoughts go. It is a very wrong notion that mind moves in all directions. In fact, there can be nothing as straight as mind. Yes, it can be diverted towards different paths, but that’s a different story altogether.

Talking from the past experiences, you will definitely find a range of people with different mind sets. They think differently, act differently and behave differently to different situations. In short they are different. But one thing that is common is that they all will have their own unique way of what we say “the mind motion”. This uniqueness, they feel is their strength, but in reality can be a weakness if caught by others. Human tendency is to hide everything, but in this quest, he tends to reveal more than required. You think that you can run away with your thoughts and deeds by not expressing them to others. But one thing that you are forgetting is that there is someone somewhere keeping a close watch on you. And the moment you expose a little bit of your inner self, you become predictable. It is very hard to digest this fact, but I am sure, those who have experienced this, will support the reality. No matter how intelligently one can preserve his own self, but someday it has to come out. It’s inevitable. And that is the time, he becomes predictable. Every step that he takes or he is going to take, is right there in your mind.

Many a times you will think that “ohh yes, I knew it… this thing was always there in the back of my mind….. how did I miss it, it was so obvious…..” These are nothing but the predictions that you could have made, if you had the right kind of thoughts and directions. Nothing is hidden in this world. What is required, is to open your eyes and see the unseen. Expect the unexpected. Find the hidden and remember the forgotten. You will definitely find a way out of any situation.

DOES LIVING REALLY MEAN WHAT WE ARE CURRENTLY LIVING ????


People generally consider life to be very complicated. For them, life is an unsolved mystery... But has anyone thought what makes life such a complex thing? Is it by itself or our own creation. We are born with equal opportunities... Its only our way of living that defines our life, and in turn we are the only one who blame our life. So why blaming life? The basic problem is the way we live our life.... Its highly possible that the life has got many good things for us in it, but the opaque or translucent layer of our thoughts disables it to show the reality. We mould our life the way we want to live it, be it good or be it bad.... The good thing for one may be bad for other, or vice versa... Its all about how you look at the things. Life is always neutral for everybody. God can never be bias... Though I haven't met God in person ( I dont know its He/She), but one thing is for sure, that God never wanted us to be the way we are.

There are only two kinds of people around: one who first perform and then ( may or may not) give a thought, and the others are the ones who think think and think, and then perform... Normally the second kind of people are considered to be very different or may be detested by others considering that they are not moving ahead with the pace required. Whats there to think so much?? Life is toooo short for thinking... We need to do a lot of stuff and so we will do it... Who cares whats next??? whatever it may be, we'll see when it comes... This is the general attitude of people towards living.... But my question is that is this living really what we are supposed to be living??? Is it fair enough to value life and living at our own convenience without even thinking what it has in it for us??? I am sure, if we intend to search the truth, we shall find some thing we already know... But its just we do not want to accept it.... It is very rightly said that truth is very bitter.... No doubt people want to be in their comfort zone always and tend to back off with the facts coming their way... They dont like changes.... Moreover they cannot take the changes going around them, be it individuals or the surroundings.... The expectations of human mind always create a very thick layer which prevents the mind as well as the soul to think beyond the obvious.... They always show to people what they want to see, and keeps them away from the things that people dont like...

Expectations also help in creating perceptions and that may result in giving away judgements very quickly... The individuals gives up his analytical skills ( if any ) and tends to think irrationally... though in his views, he is rational only... Thats the effect of expectations... - Denial of the truth.... Non-acceptance of what is right and acceptance of what, in their view, should be right...

Coming back to the initial discussion of life and living, the question still remains unanswered - Does living really mean what we are living??? Well the answer is NO... Living is infact very different from what we are living...

My trip to Simla.

After having the final look at the packings and luggages, I reached the railway station to start my journey, the journey of fun, the journey of adventure and the journey of peace.

The train was in time, and that caught me by surprise. It was a second class sleeper coach, the place where you would find all types of creatures belonging to the comminuty called human beings. We four, me and my three friends settled at our seats and had a good time together. We talked, played and had a good look at the so called ‘humsafars’ in our safar to Delhi. After having our dinner in the train we, in particular I, thought of going to sleep early. Most of the Rajasthan including the major towns like Ajmer and Jaipur passed by in out deep sleep and our morning started with the Rajasthan-Haryana border. Slowly and steadily (and I mean really slowly) we reached to our destination. We hired an auto rickshaw and went to Noida (home of our friend Sandeep Pati).

Delhi is famous for producing the biggest cheats and frauds and we started out trip on a perfect hit. The autowala took away double amount on money from us than normal. It was one of those rare occassions when someone succeeded in taking away money from us-me and hardik.

Sandeep’s home was located in such a place that we felt like winning the game after finding it. The address given by him was infact very straight and simple, but our autowala-our team’s captain, made it look like a giant maze.

After reaching at Sandy’s place, we were relaxed. The heat there was no different from what we left behind in Ahmedabad. Had our lunch and slept for some time. In the evening we took a bus and went to the centerstage mall. It was huge, nealy five times bigger than the FR (quite big one in Ahmedabad) . And the crowd!!!! Though it was a weekday, but still the sight was awesome. And more exciting was the shop named Punk. It was a nice theme shop but we need to sell our own self to buy even one wrist band ;-). So we came down and went to another market named Atta where everything seemed down to earth.

We returned to our base camp, Sandy’s place, had our dinner and got everything ready since our traing to Simla was leaving early in the morning. At night we had few games of table tennis before going to sleep.

It was 5:30 in the morning when Sandy came to wake us all. I was the last one to get ready by 6:30 (quite unusual for me too being late…). Then we all went to the station.

There we met Ganesh and we six people then started our journey to Simla. It was an AC chair car where we were served very good and healthy food. We reached Kalka (the base of Simla) and from there we settled in the Himalayan Queen, a small train that passes through the beautiful Himalayan ranges. We passed through more than 100 small and big tunnels and the views were mind blowing. As we reached the heights, the heat went down.

We moved around in the city for more than an hour in search of a hotel. Finally, doing all the climbing and descending on the inclined roads of Simla, we found a hotel (its name also amused me - “ Rajdoot ”- reminded me of that Dharmendra’s ad.). We reached our hotel at 7 pm and went to the famous Mall road for wandering. No doubt the city was crowded as it was vacation time. The atmosphere was cool and so was the crowd. We had our dinner at the mall road itself and moved around for some time with an ice-cream in hands. After a long journey of nearly 10 hrs by train and then the trekking in the city, we all were exhausted. Played cards for some time and then went to a deep sleep.

Next day belonged to the Simla darshan. We hired a taxi and visited the well-known spots in the town. Our first stop was the Green Valley. The view was soothing the eyes since the entire valley was wearing the green covering over it. There after we went to Kufri. The entire experience of Kufri was inexplicable.

We took 6 horses and had the greatest horse ride ever. The path was hardly sufficient for one horse to walk over and we were like 2-3 horses competing for the lead. We were all shouting, screaming and yelling like any thing. It was fun (now I can say that but that time…. huh). After spending around 4 hrs there, we went to the wild life park. It had those black and brown bears, wolves and the white leopard. At 5 it became cloudy and strong breeze started its own journey. Was seriously chilling (for me at least).

Our return trip to the hotel that day was full of thrill. Our driver was driving the car as if he was an F1 racer. We even named him Fernando Alonso. Seriously, it was the worst possible driving anyone could ever imagine. No brakes at all. And the mountain roads. Who knows whats coming from front. He was on the roll and there was pin drop silence in the car. Each of us was holding anything they can cling to and I don’t think there was any God of any religion who was not offered a prayer by me. Its was worse than a roller coaster ride. I was at the back seats in the car (it was a sumo so the back seats are vertical) and could not hold to one particular thing. Twice or thrice I fell off the seat and was sitting on the spare wheel placed between the two seats. It was in a true sense- mind blowing.

Finally we went to a very beautiful Hanuman temple (whom we remembered like anything and for whom we were chanting the chalissa too). The entire city was visible from the open terrace of the temple. It got really darker in the evening and so we went to the hotel and had our dinner there itself. Then after praying to the god, we went to a peaceful sleep.

Our second day at Simla was dedicated to a place called Tatta-pani (meaning place where there is a hot water stream). It is nearly 60 kms from Simla and to our luck (good or bad) we got the same old Alonso as our driver. But this time, somehow we saw a milder version of the F1 champ. Thank God!!! ( our prayers really worked that day)

First we went to a place called Shiv Gufa (a cave located on the other side of a mountain. We had to climb up the hill and then descend on the other side to reach the gufa.)which was around 6 kms from Tatta-Pani. We were totally in the laps of mother nature and the water flowing near that Gufa made us mad. We (me,Sandy and Hardik) explored the river and went walking along the flow. We were surrounded by the mountains all over. It was simply the best moment of the trip.

At Tatta-Pani we had a bath in the chilling waters of the river.there was a hot water strream due to the sulphur present in the soil. We spent nearly 2 hrs there and again only the three of us (as mentioned above) went to take the bath in the river. It was freezing and I mean it. We had our lunch in some restaurant there only and started our journey back to Simla. Our Alonso made a pitt stop near a golf course where we rested for few minutes. Again it became cloudy and it rained really hard that evening. We got stuck up in a traffic jam due to heavy rain and reached our rooms a bit late than expected.

We planned to take rest on the third day and move around in the town. But in the end it happened to be the day on which we had the maximum physical stress. We walked and walked and walked.we covered nearly the whole of Simla under our feet. First we went to the famous lift of Simla (nearly 2 kms from our hotel) that takes you two floors above, where the heart ot city-the mall road, is situated. Then we walked to one end of the mall road (another 2 kms) where we started our journey to the famous Jakhu temple (another Hanuman temple where it is said that Hanumanji went to Himalays for the Sanjeevani medicine via this place. He was adviced by some saint about the medicine.) the roads were inclined upto 50 degrees and the path was too steep.slowly and steadily we climbed up the mountain (another 3-4 kms). Actually there is another way to reach the temple by car directly, but we courageous six decided to climb from the other side. At last we reached the temple where the monkeys are famous all around for taking away things from you. We took our glasses,goggles and other belongings away from the sight of those little mischievous thieves. Then we came down the hill and reached the most crowded place of the mall road (another 3 kms). There was a church at the center of the place but to our bad luck, it was getting rennovated and so we could not get into it. We took our lunch near that church at 3. then we started moving along the road. There is a museum located at the extreme end of the mall road (6-7 kms from where we were) and we thought of visiting it. It was 4 in the evening. We started walking along the mall road. It was really stressful but the desire of seeing the museum gave us the courage. Finally we reached the museum at 5:45. Guess what, the museum closes at 5 pm everyday. This is what happens when you start your journey without knowing every single inch about the destination. We turned back and came back to the place from where we started (another 6-7 kms). we sat at the steps of a building and watched people around. The crowd was beyond imagination.then we went to some shops for little bit of shopping, had some cotton candies on the way for time pass and moved here and there (another 2 kms). then we went from restaurant to restaurant for proper dinner (hmmm, the menu cards should not be having the column showing the prices). Finally our final eve at Simla came to an end with a walk to some fare like exhibition (1 km only) from the restaurant and then we came back to our rooms (final 2 kms). If you sum up the total walking we did that day, then it comes out to be 25-27 kms only. But yes, the main thing, the main fun part was during our dinner when Ganesh was under severe attack by other 5 (Sandy,Alpesh,Falgun,Hardik and Me). That was too personal so I cant write it here, if in case anyone is interested in knowing what happened, you can surely contact me. We went to our rooms then and packed our bags since our train was leaving Simla at 10:30 in the morning.

The next morning was the check out time and we left the hotel at 9.we walked to the station and waited for the train. Now was the main problem in our return journey to Kalka. We six people had our seats distributed among three boggies. Somehow we managed to shuffle few people around and settles down in one boggie. We reached Kalka and from there it was a relief since we had reservations in the AC chair car. We were again served good snacks and dinner. Since it was an AC train, we couldn’t easily notice the temperature difference that was occuring from Kalka to delhi. But once we reached Delhi, we were like burning from everywhere. We walked over 12 plateforms and came out of the station ( which turned out to be the opposite end since we were supposed to come out from the plateform where our train landed. But Sandy- the local hero’s confidence compelled us all to follow his steps and in the end we landed up at the wrong end). We took the bus to the main market (the cannaught cirle) and from there we were supposed to take a bus that goes directly to Sandy’s place. It was 10 in the night and we were standing amidst the closed market and the only people we came across were those drunk ones. Then somehow we managed to catch a bus (supposing that it would go to Sandy’s place). We settled in that bus with all our luggages. It was full of Those Ones (the drunk ones ofcourse). And the ambience was also mind blowing (it literally blew off our minds). The entire bus was lighten up with those blue, green and purple dim lights and the radio stations were also on the mood of playing those old melodies (“bindiya chamkegi…” types). We felt as if we were in some chandni bar. Adding to our feelings, the guy sitting next to me was in full swing- laughing, shaking his body and dancing on the songs (esp. the “bindiya chamkegi” song). We even had two of Those Ones quarreling and shouting on top of their voices in sheer anger for no reason. The conductor then vacated the entire bus in the middle only telling that it won’t go further. Lucky we!!! We got another bus on the way and finally reached Noida at 12:30 in the night. We slept peacefully then.