Corbett National Park and Nainital
15th Feb 2007, Room No. 14, Old Hostel, IIFT:
Plans are being finalized for the Jim Corbett trip. Due to the sudden addition of the occupants of rooms 13 and 14, the possibility of so many people getting accommodation inside the park rapidly declined.
16th Feb 2007, 12.30 p.m., outside acad block, IIFT:
Two Qualises are waiting and we happily load our luggage and set off, music blaring loudly. After Ghaziabad, the excitement tones down, as people take their turns sleeping.
6.30. p.m. : Authentic Punjabi pre-dinner meal at a famous dhabha.
8.30 p.m. : Saurabh’s brother swapped for Harry in the girls' qualis. Antyakshari is on and Harry brings entertainment to the party with his “mein samudar mein”, sung in his peculiar style.
9.30 p.m. : Ramnagar reached.
10.00 p.m. : We reach Jim Corbett Park. Home-like-food for dinner at the forest bungalow.
17th Feb 2007, Forest Bungalow, Jim Corbett Park:
4.30 a.m. : Wake up, get ready.
5.30 a.m. : The man who promised passes the previous night is untraceable .
7.00 a.m. : Search abandoned, other plans made.
7.30 a.m. : Short walk with Deepa.
8.30 a.m. : Off to the temple in the middle of the river .
9.00 a.m. : Encounter with the lunatic sporting a gun, with a friend's giggles augumenting the danger element of this adventure.
9.30 a.m. : On our way to Corbett falls .
10.00 a.m.: Thick vegetation, rainforest ambience, I walk faster than the group, only to be slowed by the loud shouts of a large group near the falls. As the vegetation clears, I see PC clicking a snap of CP. Wow, the noisy group is none other than Placecom + PC.
1.00 p.m. : Videos for the UP election campaign are being shot. Quick lunch and then we’re off to the safari on the gypsies. The other IIFT group is already there, donning caps and goggles.
Till 5.30 p.m. : We spot Cheetal, Barking deer, Porcupine and dung of a wild tusker. Spend some time on the watch tower and return to the bungalow.
6.00 p.m. : Both the drivers missing. Hunt on.
7.00 p.m. : Both appear drunk and we try to guess who is more sober of the two. Off to Nainital
17th Feb 2007, Enroute Nainital:
7.30 p.m. : Safer route closed due to snowfall. We risk taking the steeper route.
8.00 p.m. : The other qualis pulls off the road suddenly. Reason – overheating. The same repeats four or five times in quick succession.
8.45 p.m. : The climb almost finished, millions of starts in the sky, patches of snow on either sides of the road.
11.00 p.m. : Bitter cold although the hotel room is paneled in wood.
18th Feb 2007, Lawn facing the Lake, Hotel Rose Star, Nainital:
7.00 a.m. : Short walk, hot chocolate and John Grisham’s The Summons.
10.00 a.m. : On the rope car, photo sessions at snow point
12.30 p.m. : Pedal Boating, dockie paddles hard and smokes harder.
2.00 p.m. : Placecom spotted again, Sumit hosts lunch at the fabulous boat club of Nainital.
5.30 p.m. : Candles bought, off to Delhi.
Thursday, April 05, 2007
Adventure on the Highway
18th Feb 2007, National Highway No. 7, 70 km from Hirdhwani:
8.00 p.m. : Driver suspected of taking a few swigs while we stopped somewhere.
8.30 p.m. : Very rash driving, insistence on listening to Jagjit Singh’s Ghazals at the loudest possible volume.
9.20 p.m. : Driver expresses his desire to meet his children in the village as well as his dead parents.
9.25 p.m. : Anshu takes the wheel by force. Driver goes on rambling, Anshu shuts him up and shall be called ‘Hero on the Highway’ in the later days.
10.30 p.m. : We stop at the dhabha to grab a bite. I almost doze off.
10.50 p.m. : Driver missing along with his bag.
11.00 p.m. : Search futile. Anshu decides to drive all the way to Delhi. Entertains/scares us with stories of the notorious dacoits of Uttar Pradesh..
1.00 a.m. : Near Ghaziabad. Flat tyre on the other qualis. Too sleepy by now, can hardly understand what is happening.
4.00 a.m. : Anshu finally parks the car in the campus.
19th February 2007, IIFT, New Delhi:
The owner comes and takes his car away, with promises of taking the driver to task incase he is found. I discover I left a few cassettes in the car. Life resumes in the normal mode with two hour breakfasts, three hour lunches and four hour dinners. (Includes time spent in making calls to collect people).
18th Feb 2007, National Highway No. 7, 70 km from Hirdhwani:
8.00 p.m. : Driver suspected of taking a few swigs while we stopped somewhere.
8.30 p.m. : Very rash driving, insistence on listening to Jagjit Singh’s Ghazals at the loudest possible volume.
9.20 p.m. : Driver expresses his desire to meet his children in the village as well as his dead parents.
9.25 p.m. : Anshu takes the wheel by force. Driver goes on rambling, Anshu shuts him up and shall be called ‘Hero on the Highway’ in the later days.
10.30 p.m. : We stop at the dhabha to grab a bite. I almost doze off.
10.50 p.m. : Driver missing along with his bag.
11.00 p.m. : Search futile. Anshu decides to drive all the way to Delhi. Entertains/scares us with stories of the notorious dacoits of Uttar Pradesh..
1.00 a.m. : Near Ghaziabad. Flat tyre on the other qualis. Too sleepy by now, can hardly understand what is happening.
4.00 a.m. : Anshu finally parks the car in the campus.
19th February 2007, IIFT, New Delhi:
The owner comes and takes his car away, with promises of taking the driver to task incase he is found. I discover I left a few cassettes in the car. Life resumes in the normal mode with two hour breakfasts, three hour lunches and four hour dinners. (Includes time spent in making calls to collect people).
A sample weekend in February – The party month
I get the wake up call at 7.30 a.m., but am almost ready by then. A few decent souls will sit in the CRM class shortly, while half of the bunking community is already out of campus and the other half sleeping cozily underneath their razaayis.
It is a beautiful day and the sky is partially overcast. Perfect weather when you have to spend many hours outdoors. Chenchu wants breakfast, but we finally decide some biscuits will do. Some haggling with autowallas and we are off to Daryaganj. Loads of books lie there on the platforms, waiting to be picked up. Book lovers, with their bags slung across the backs like us throng the streets, even as the books are being unloaded. We walk to and fro till the end of the street and soon our bag is heavy and books are almost spilling off. It starts to drizzle lightly, so we get into an auto for CP.
Chenchu’s treat had long been due and we go to Embassy restaurant – bad ambience and high prices. We study the menu, enquire if they have Italian and getting the assured ‘no’ as the answer, leave the place. By the now the Sun is out, making the the Connaught Place corridors sparkle. We roam around in the afternoon breeze for a while and then enter Grand Coffee Palace, with authentic English ambience and excellent menu.
Presently we head for South Ex, to get IIFT T-shirts, spending more than an hour at the Mc Donald’s, waiting for a certain Mr. Mehta to arrive. Its pure fun of course, after he arrives, with Mehtaji taking care of the shop in the absence of the shopkeeper and driving us away because we were blocking the customers from shopping. Then we go to ‘Ghost Rider’, an average movie, but a welcome change after a series of mushy romantic comedies. Dinner appointment with a long forgotten senior and I am back on the campus, putting my name on all the books I bought.
I get the wake up call at 7.30 a.m., but am almost ready by then. A few decent souls will sit in the CRM class shortly, while half of the bunking community is already out of campus and the other half sleeping cozily underneath their razaayis.
It is a beautiful day and the sky is partially overcast. Perfect weather when you have to spend many hours outdoors. Chenchu wants breakfast, but we finally decide some biscuits will do. Some haggling with autowallas and we are off to Daryaganj. Loads of books lie there on the platforms, waiting to be picked up. Book lovers, with their bags slung across the backs like us throng the streets, even as the books are being unloaded. We walk to and fro till the end of the street and soon our bag is heavy and books are almost spilling off. It starts to drizzle lightly, so we get into an auto for CP.
Chenchu’s treat had long been due and we go to Embassy restaurant – bad ambience and high prices. We study the menu, enquire if they have Italian and getting the assured ‘no’ as the answer, leave the place. By the now the Sun is out, making the the Connaught Place corridors sparkle. We roam around in the afternoon breeze for a while and then enter Grand Coffee Palace, with authentic English ambience and excellent menu.
Presently we head for South Ex, to get IIFT T-shirts, spending more than an hour at the Mc Donald’s, waiting for a certain Mr. Mehta to arrive. Its pure fun of course, after he arrives, with Mehtaji taking care of the shop in the absence of the shopkeeper and driving us away because we were blocking the customers from shopping. Then we go to ‘Ghost Rider’, an average movie, but a welcome change after a series of mushy romantic comedies. Dinner appointment with a long forgotten senior and I am back on the campus, putting my name on all the books I bought.
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