WOW!!! A long cherished dream of hitting the road with college friends finally got realized. Post-college, Upasana, Mayank, Reshma, Akhilesh, Neha, Sameer, Nidhi, Gaurav, Richa, Kamal and I….practically, everybody from the group got busied preparing for the real world and building up our respective careers. Thus, the thought of making a memorable trip together actually never advanced through the threshold of the planning bit. But now with half the group confirming their availability for what was going to be a cracker of a trip, we were determined to make a go at it this time round.
The other half of the group, who couldn’t make it to the trip for their professional and personal reasons,was with us in spirit. Though we couldn’t help with their impending absence, we geared up with ones who were to make the journey together - Reshma, Akhilesh, Upasana, Mayank, Garima (Upasana’s friend from her hometown – Lucknow), Sameer and I.
We started off gathering information about the tourists’ spots that fall within the radius of 300-350 kms from Delhi. The break-neck working schedule on all weekdays and a small window of two days during the weekends don’t leave out enough scope for fancy (read farther) places anyway. Rishikesh, Nainital, Solan, Kasauli, Jaipur, Dehradoon and Mussoorie crossed our minds as options. I would like to admit here that any planning that involves people from different cities, family backgrounds and mindsets has the potential of turning into a tedious, exhausting and frustrating experience. The same dreaded thing happened with us but I am skipping that bit as I do not want to relive through those agonizing moments
Finally, a consensus was reached and we settled for Kasauli – a small hill station in the lap of Himachal Pradesh.
Akhilesh and Reshma had arranged for our stay in a nice hotel – Winnies Holiday Inn. I had the responsibility to take care of the transport and had hired an Innova for the weekend trip. All of us had taken a half-day leave from our respective offices and had assembled at my office in Mayur Vihar. We left Delhi at 1430 hrs for Kasauli. With a good supply of booze, nice buddies and cheerful selves we were on a roll. But wait a minute……how could the journey have been completed without our share of troubles! Just 40 minutes into the journey and the AC of our cab became dysfunctional because of some snag. I can never forget the moment it dawned on my friends that the AC was not working. I met with strange looks giving out signal as if they would eat me ALIVE!
Anyway, the AC problem injected the much needed adventure into the trip. To add to our woes, the weather was very unrelenting. The Sun in the month of June never looked as torturing as it was that day. The mercury had crossed 40 degree C outside. Soon, in the absence of AC, the temperature inside the car rose to 35 degree. We couldn’t even open the side and rear windows for it was still 1600 hrs and the heat waves were intolerable. We had to stop at every 15-20 kms to freshen up. The stopovers became even more frequent as we had to attend to nature’s call too (guys, don’t forget we were carrying booze!). At last, we pulled over to one side of the highway near an auto workshop in Karnal. Leaving the car with the mechanic, we headed towards a motel nearby for a quick light meal.
An hour later, around 1800 hrs, we resumed our journey to Kasauli. The mechanic had done what was expected of him –
kaam-chalau jugaad. The AC was now working intermittently. But by that time, we had come to terms with its lousy mood. We reached our hotel at 2300 hrs.
Hotel Winnies Holiday Inn is a beautiful property, away from the hustle and bustle of the city and is situated on the main kasauli road on the slopes of sanawar hills. The property shares a common boundary with Lawrence Sanawar School and is surrounded by reserved forest on the other side. It is located midway on the dharampur-kasauli road – 6 kms away from main kasauli bus-stand. Our rooms were spacious and cozy. But we couldn’t focus on anything as hunger was getting to us. Barely checking into our rooms, we had come downstairs to the dining room to gorge on the last meal of the day. There was a short delay in dinner being laid out before us. We guys were so hungry that, in sheer impatience and desperation, we could have sprinkled some salt on the kitchen staff and eaten them alive. But our prudent self foresaw that we needed them for the next two days to serve us again. So the fleeting idea went into the garbage bin without much elaborate thought. At last, the food came and we let the animals hiding inside our selves come to the fore. The food was average but the hunger was so intense that we relished the food and felt as if we had the best meal of the world.
All of us returned to our rooms and changed clothes. Though we were tired from the AC-less journey, the sleep was nowhere in sight. My friends thought of doing some gup-shup before calling it a night but the health-conscious in me – which otherwise turn a blind eye when I gorge on fast foods like a pig – prompted me to cajole them to move out from the hotel and go for a looooooong walk together. Reluctantly though, they accompanied me for the walk (I love you guys). Later on, all of us assembled in one room and bantered the entire night away. We shared funny anecdotes, gossips, dirty talk, sensible conversation, relationships status quo and many other personal experiences that fateful night. Interesting and worth sharing though, I won't be able to share content of certain 'subjects' of our discussion here as I am not qualified enough to present the same in a sanitized manner on a public platform (Reshma, I am keeping my word on not divulging any details). Waise bhi, what happens in Kasauli, should stay in Kasauli. Finally, we retired to our respective rooms at 0500 hrs in the morning to catch the much needed forty winks.
Five hours later, we woke up to a wonderful day, had our bed-tea and then the banter resumed. Since I knew that no one else would agree, I asked Upasana to come along for a short morning WALK. She was sportive enough to agree. A little later, when we were back in our rooms, she taught me some yoga postures (Surya namaskar to be very precise). She was so diligent in telling me how to go about it that I thought of following the yogic postures every day. It’s a different story that I discontinued performing surya-namaskar after adhering to it merely for 5 days. Anyway, after our morning ablutions, we nibbled at a light breakfast and left the hotel to visit the famous Monkey point. The Shimla Monkey Point is located in Kasauli. This is considered to be the highest tip of Kasauli. The Monkey Point of Shimla also houses a temple in the name of Lord Hanuman. The place is about four kms away from the Kasauli bus terminus. There is a legend that goes with the Hanuman temple. As per the existing lore, Lord Hanuman, after collecting the herb from Himalayas, was on his way back to Lanka (presently Sri Lanka) and touched this hill and for this reason the hill had taken the shape of a foot. From the mountain top, one can have a panoramic view of the Chandigarh plains where the Sutlej river appears like a thin silver thread. On a clear day, the view of the distant city of Chandigarh is simply amazing.
Post visiting the temple, we roamed around the Kasauli market. Visited the church, shopped a bit, bought some more booze and came back to our hotel. After having the lunch, we got into a relaxed mood. We opened up our liquor stock and the drinking binge started. Our weary souls befriended the booze and soon the friendly relationship changed its status to a passionate one. The romance lasted till the supply almost ran out. We had to attend a terrace party in one of the posh hotels in the Kasauli market a little later but the enthusiasm for the same had somewhat died down. Nobody…nobody showed any sign of moving an inch after the daaru-session got over. Reshma was having a head-ache (aur piyo vodka!); Akhilesh (being the good Samaritan and a caring boyfriend) was tending to her; Pappu (Sameer) was still romancing with his quota of daaru and cigarette packs; Upasana thought she would be better off watching the idiot box and decided to stay back with the weary pack. The sporty guy in me would have been counting his last too if it were not for Mayank and Garima. They agreed to come for the party and then three of us got ready in no time. The hilly areas feel amazing in the night (believe me, I am a pahadi guy) and it is so quite that even music being played at a low volume in the distance can be heard clearly. The venue was hardly 3-4 kms away from our hotel. We could hear the party music when we were nearing the venue. The party turned out to be a damp squib. But as the saying goes it is the people who matter and not the venue or occasion. Mayank was sharing his famous one-liners to keep us in good humour. Garima joined in the fun too but was wary and made sure I do not go on a drinking binge at the party too. Gauging her concern over it, I also changed my mind and settled for mocktails. I can never forget Garima's famous words (takiya kalaam). Every time we would say something untoward, she would say,
"Ohooo...fir shuru ho gaye. Bhagwan ke liye shubh-2 bolo". All three of us enjoyed ourselves at the party. So much so, that even the two poor guitarists (at the centrestage) making desperate and fruitless attempts at entertaining the audience seemed great performers.
We came back to our hotel around 2230 hrs and settled in for a late dinner with rest of the gang. Next morning, fresh from an 8-hour sleep, we were back to our energetic selves. The breakfast session entailed playful conversation. Some dance routine, leg-pulling, lots of weird, cute n non-sensical activities followed. Whoever said making sense all the time is good must have missed out on the fun that is there in being part of some real non-sense. At times, doing some non-sense does knock a lot of sense into our otherwise pragmatic selves. Now, here goes the preacher in me...
you should never take yourself too seriously and never forget 'the child' in you! It was a total
fundoo session because full-on
masti was at its core. By and by, it became so interesting and funny that I secretly hoped the time to get stalled just at that.
Finally, the 'Goodbye' moment knocked on the door. We sat down for a short while and shared our accounts (trip expenses). Before checking out of the hotel, an elaborate photo-session followed wherein we posed like only we could. And while everybody had checked out of the hotel and was busy settling their luggage inside the car parked in front of the hotel entrance, I perched myself on the balcony of my room that overlooked a beautiful garden and got me a wonderful view of the Kasauli hills. For a few minutes, I just stayed still and looked into the distance. Don't know what it was. May be, I was trying to soak in the Kasauli experience and breathe in the purity of the natural surrounding so much that it would last me for lifetime. Soon, I got out of the trance and quickly joined my friends. With rekindled interest in life, we took a cab back to our homes. GOODBYE KASAULI….WE WILL MISS YOU!
