A Fairy-Tail

“Ummm” Raghav looked Puzzled

“What?” Atul asked

“Did you look at this?” Raghav stretched his hand. He held a white feather of a bird in his hand. The feather was unusually big

“Ummm” Atul took the feather in his hand. Suddenly his face lit up

“Do you see this thin gold line on the feather” He asked Raghav

“Ummmmm” Raghav responded

“I had read somewhere” Atul continued without waiting for a confirmation “that these are special feathers.”

“Special?” Raghu was curious. He was always interested in such “special” stuff

“Its called a fairy-tail” Atul said still scanning the feather. The thin golden line ran along the edges of the pure white feather

“Fairy tale?”

“No! Fairy tail as in tail of a animal” Atul was excited “See the feather is supposed to be from the tail of a fairy”

“Fairies don’t have tail” Raghav laughed “Actually fairies don’t exist”

“If they don’t exist how come you are confident that they don’t have tails” Atul reasoned “They have tails like bird so that they can fly. Arre! Flying funda remains same everywhere”

“Well!” Raghav started to argue

“See! Now listen! See these fairies have rules that any part of their being should not fall in the hands of the humans” Atul was serious “They have to give you anything to get it back”

‘You are pulling my leg, aren’t you?”

“Fine! Don’t believe me but keep this with you and see if a fairy comes for it” Atul challenged

“I don’t believe it.” Raghav laughed “You are just making fun of me”

“Ok! Do whatever you want” Atul threw the feather on the ground and walked away in a huff

Raghav stood there looking at Atul go and then he looked at the feather on the ground. He stood there for a few minutes before picking up the feather and keeping it carefully in his book. He wanted the fairy to come.

Atul was looking at him hiding behind a tree. He was desperately trying to control his laughter.

Boy! He had a story to tell everybody!

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Six Months later

“Hello” Atul picked up an unknown number

“Hi Atul, Raghav here”

“Hey Raghav! Long time no see How are you?”

“I am fine. How are you?”

“I am doing just fine”

“Hey! I called to invite you”

“Invitation? Getting married?” Atul teased

“No! Got married 1 month back. Could not call you. Sorry!” Raghav explained “But I just bought a 4 bedroom flat and a new car. So just inviting few friends”

“Got married? 4 bedroom flat? Car? What the hell have you been up to?”

“Oh! Nothing! You know same old. Just got a little lucky”

“You are hiding something from me? Come on! Out with it”

“Oh! Actually nothing great! Just lucky I guess!”

“Come on! I have been your buddy for so long! Tell me!”

“Ok! I guess I can tell you” Raghav relented “Actually it all because of your advice.”

“Advice? My advice?”

“Yes! That feather!” Raghav lowered his voice “That’s true. The fairy came and as you said, I asked money in exchange for her feather. She had no choice but to give me all that”

There was silence at the other end.

“Hello! Atul? Are you there?”

“Huh! Yes!” Atul recovered from the shock “Sorry! The fairy? She came? Fairy with a tail?”

“Oh! No! She did not have a tail. I told you. Just wings. But they cannot let humans have any part of their body. She had to give me what I wanted” Raghav beamed from the other side

There was silence on the other end again

“Hello? Atul?”

“Huh! Yes!” Atul had not recovered from the shock yet

“So I will be expecting you?” Raghav asked

“Yes! Oh! Yes! Sorry! I will certainly try to come! I have another call”

“Oh! Ok Sorry! I will call you back. And listen. Keep the secret with you. I have told people that my distant Uncle left his money for me. You know how people are? They will just laugh. Not everyone is helpful like you! You know!” Atul said “Ok! Buddy! See you then”

The phone went silent while Atul just stood there still trying to get in terms of the the conversation with Raghav

===============================================

“Ready?” Raghav’s wife asked as Raghav was keeping the phone down

“Oh! Yes!” Raghav smiled back “So did you decide the colors of the new curtains? I get bored in shopping”

“Almost” She looked around the house “One month back, I did not even imagine we would be sitting in such a big house. Your Uncle sure did leave a lot of property for you”

“You are my lucky charm” Raghav smiled at her. She blushed

“Who was on the phone?”

“Oh just an old friend. Talked to him after a long time”

“What did you talk about?” She asked

“Oh! Nothing! He always told me nice stories”

“Oh! So did he tell you one today?”

“No! Infact I told him a good one today”

“Story? You? Tell me one”

“Someday dear! Someday” Raghav smiled at her.

He placed the feather with the golden line in the book. It served as a good bookmark.

“Ready?” He asked his wife. She smiled back as they both left for the market.

====================================================

Alternate Ending

“Ready?” Raghav’s wife asked as Raghav was keeping the phone down

“Oh! Yes!” Raghav smiled back “So did you decide the colors of the new curtains? I get bored in shopping”

“Don’t worry! We will finish shopping in no time.”

“Who was on the phone?” She asked

“Oh just an old friend. Talked to him after a long time”

Raghav looked at his wife. She was really beautiful

“I feel so lucky to have you in my life” Raghav told her “I fell in love with you the first time I saw you, even with those wings. Thank God! They have disappeared”

“I love you too! I told you once I marry you, all the traces of me being a fairy vanishes and that includes the wings”

“That’s a relief”

“I was surprised that you asked me to marry you in exchange of my feather” She smiled “And it was so funny that you wanted to see my tail. Fairies don’t have tails”

“Somebody told me that” Raghav Sheepishly answered

“The same someone who told you to bargain with a fairy?” She asked again

Raghav nodded his head.

“I am lucky he did!” She smiled “Now lets go”

He held her hand as they walked out of their newly bought 4-bedroom flat. They walked toward the car parked in the building compound. The security guard at the building gate felt a strong wind against his face. Wind that blew because of fluttering of wings.

He saluted the couple still confused at the origin of the whiff of wind.

============================================================

Note: Inspired while seeing a billboard during morning journey to office. The billboard said “Fairy tale”. Played with the spelling of tale

Fictionaries

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Chalte Chalte…6 – Dalhousie to Kalatop

Kalatop is a wildlife sanctuary almost 8 Kms from Dalhousie and our first stop in the 3 days trek. It had just snowed in Dalhousie and we heard that there was inches of snow in Kalatop. Kalatop is at a height of 8000 Feet. But snow was not my problem. My problem was climbing from 6750 feet to 8000 feet. I become breathless when I climb the 3 floors of my office so was naturally getting to 8000 feet would be a challenge.

With the batch after us giving us a warm welcome, we started for kalatop and the first 15 minutes exhausted us. The walk takes you through the Tibetan market to Gandhi Chowk and then to a long hilly route through the jungle to the boundary of Kalatop-Khajjiar Sanctuary. The rest of the journey is from road to Lakanmandi. From Lakadmandi. Kalatop is 3 Kms walk through the sanctuary to the Kalaptop guest house.

The real challenge was from Dalhousie to the boundary of Kalatop-Khajjiar sanctuary. Through the jungle and climbing upward, I knew the meaning of traveling light.

This is just 20 minutes after we left. This is Meher Hotel. A very old hotel and a part of History because Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose lived here when he was suffering from Tuberculosis. We were told that drinking from a spring in the hills and breathing the fresh airs from Deodhar trees around dalhousie, he was cured of TB in 7 months. This sure is a grand hotel stretching on the hills, unlike other hotels which were built of single building.

Just after we left Dalhousie. This is walk though the jungle and mostly an uphill climb. This was just the start of the trek and the most exhaustive part of the first day.

It had snowed heavily a day before and the first snow of the season. The roads were slippery and snowy as our tired group made slowly toward kalatop. The cars on these road made the road all the more slippery as the snow turned into ice

The snow covered terraced hills on the way to Kalatop. On the way we found potato research center. Just a building with tatched roof. Its somewhere on those hills

The gate of Kalatop Khajjiar sanctuary. Kalatop guest house is still 3 kilometers from here. They say it was total 8 Kilometers but we felt it we had traveled 8 kilometers till we reach here. This is called Lakarmandi.

Icicles formed at the small office we rested at Lakarmandi.

Gujjar’s settlement at Lakarmandi. All houses are locked. People migrate to lower altitude during snowfall

The last 3 Kilometers walk to Kalatop. Mathew walking ahead of me

The snow covered narrow path. A slip here and you go down

The flowers that bloom in winter

The trees on the slope of the hills.

The last 200 Meters. It still felt far way off with legs paining

The end. The destination. Kalatop Forest Guest House. Finally!

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We don’t like you…..

We don’t like the way you live!

We don’t like the way you breathe!

We don’t like what you eat!

We don’t like what you see!

We don’t like what you hear!

We would want to decide how you live!

We also want to decide what you think!

We want to decide what you wear!

We want to decide where you go to have a good time!

We want to decide what customs you follow!

We want to decide how you pray, to whom you pray!

Because obviously you cannot decide for yourself. You better listen to us because we have people who could beat the living daylight out of you. We have people who could chase you on the roads beating you with stick and can even kill you. Nobody can arrest us, punish us because we are supported by the law makers who were elected by you.

We know you have a family and you would not retaliate. But we will continue attacking you as long as we feel that you are not behaving the way that we like. You are stupid, idiots who don’t know what culture is and we are here to teach you and the only language you understand is the language of the stick. So you better watch out and be scared because one day we will force you to do, say, and live as we say. 

By the way, Wish you all a Happy Republic Day!

I hope you know what a republic day is, you moron? It is the day when in 1950, our constitution came into force giving us the right and freedom to live, say and think within the boundaries of law.

But obviously that is just on paper because you will do what we tell you to do because we just don’t like the way you live!

===========================

Inspired by the self-declared moral police of India

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Chalte Chalte…5 – The Practice Walk

Acclimatization is defined as the reversible process by which a person becomes adapted to a change in the environment. It requires adaptations to a variety of factors (e.g. temperature, humidity, and atmospheric pressure). Acclimation, by contrast, involves an adaptation to a single factor (e.g. temperature). (Source: www.answer.com)

I didn’t know the word until I registered myself for the YHAI trek. The first day schedule included the Acclimatization walk, a 8 Kilometer walk to and back from Panchpula. Panchpula is actually on way to Dalhousie. It has a memorial built in the name of Sardar Ajit Singh who was the uncle of Bhagat Singh.

We were told to fill our rug sack with the heavy blanket we had received a day earlier. This would give us the feel of walking with the heavy bag the next day. the walk was through Dalhousie to the outskirt of the city to Panchpula which means 5 bridges. We started at 9:00 AM and we walked to Subhash Chowk and then through the famous Mall road to Gandhi Chowk.

The walk to Panchpula was a downhill road. We were climbing down on the road to Dalhousie so it was not tiring. $ kilometers ended after almost 2 hours of walk but we did realize that the only way to Panchpula and back to the base camp was through that winding road and as easy it was to walk down, the more difficult it would to walk back up.

By the time we reached back, we were totally exhausted. Thankfully the rest of the day was not as exhaustive.

The morning fog on Dalhousie hills. The sun played hide and seek through the trees and clouds

The morning trekkers walking toward Panchpula as rain falls. This was the road downhill so everyone was in good spirit. Getting back was tiring.

Gandhi Chowk next to Mall road. This is the most busiest road of Dalhousie. It looks like my apartment compound in Mumbai. This is not a crowd.

The sunlight reaches the ground below as greenery shines from the trees. The air was so pure and pollution free.

The leaf shining in the morning

The most colorful building of Dalhousie.

Thats a pet goat. Atleast that’s what the shop owner told me. But it is a bad model. I tried to pose with it but it almost butted me. Modeling is such a dangerous job.

Panchpula memorial.

After little shopping and a good dinner, the Acclimatization walk prepared us for the three days ahead.

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A Death and a Funeral…

Its been a long day yesterday. As I boarded my morning train to office, my cousin sister called me. She was crying and the only thing I could hear was come quickly and Papa. Her papa, my uncle and husband of my Mausi passed away this morning.

By the time I reached there, he had already passed away. My cousin is one of his two daughter. The elder daughter is married while the younger one is studying.

My uncle always joked that his last rites would be performed by his daughters and his younger daughter would agree quite seriously. In Hinduism, the last rites are performed by the son or a male member of the family. People really have strong opinion about something based on religious belief but my aunt was adamant.

Finally my cousin did perform last rites on her father as we all watched. I don’t know much about religion but I guess no where has written that the last rites cannot be performed by a woman. I felt proud about her.

Unfortunately after dad’s death, I have attended many funerals, some close and some not so close. In every funeral, the rites performed depends on the people present and the extent of the knowledge they have. The procedure changes as per the situation and people. According to scriptures the last rites are important because that determines the after-life of the dead and the next life.

I am not into the debate of life after death nor I am debating about the meaning of the rites but the way I look at it, the dead has already passed over. The people left behind have to bear more pain and no rites can bring peace from the loss of their loved ones. The rites, the scriptures do little to calm a pained heart and yet everybody insist that the scriptures have to go well putting doubts in the hearts of the loved ones of the dead.

The basic human nature does not change in any situation. People are ready to take advantage of any situation no matter what extent they can fall to. I witnessed people blowing their own horn and organizing the funeral as if it was some kind of mega event. The attitude sickens me when I see people behaving in such obnoxious manner. But then as I said its human nature.

And still, in all these mayhem, one thing that stood out was that my uncle had donated his eyes. He had pledged his eyes way back in 1988. The strange thing was that he had searched for the card just two week back and kept it in a safe place. Did he have some kind of premonition? Maybe he did!

May he rest in peace!!

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Chalte Chalte…4 – Dalhousie

We enjoyed Amritsar but the final destiny still remained Dalhousie, our base camp for the 3 day trek. Pathankot is a center city for three state; Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh. So the only road to Dalhousie from Amritsar passes through Pathankot. It took us almost 6 hours to reach Dalhousie. The Sumo driver was a dare devil and took us through the winding roads of Dalhousie.

By the time we reached the base camp, it was past 9 PM. Most of our trek group members had reported to the camp. A group of Mumbai trekkers were stranded somewhere in Pathankot because their train was almost 11 hours late. It was a good thing that we had called earlier because they kept some food for us. Dalhousie is a small town and most of the hotels were closed long back.

Our driver also packed his food as he was supposed to come back the same night. We unloaded our luggage and had food. We completed the formality of registering for the trek.

We collected our sleeping bags and blanket and were directed to our room. Dalhousie was cold and after a long journey, we wanted to get into bed. The camp leader, Viral told us to be ready early morning for morning exercise and acclimatization walk. This meant getting up at 5:00 AM to be ready by 7:00.

Getting into a sleeping bag is an experience in itself. You first have to get in a thin cloth bag called the “Inner”. After you get in, you have to hop into the thick mattress sleeping bag. Once in, it feels quite warm but it does feel tied up in the beginning. I sleep on my sides and not on my back so it gets difficult to turn on one side because it may ruin the whole setup. It feels like taking part in a sack race.

I did have a nice sleep although Mathew complained that I was snoring. I don’t know because I was sleeping. The next day, everyone was snoring.

We got up early morning. There was hot water but getting wet did not appeal to me. We could hear that many people were moving around outside the door. People were getting ready for the morning exercise. A group before us was on its first day of trekking. Both the group would start at the same time. As I sat there, I noticed flash lights on the window pane.

People were taking photos at 6:00 AM. I opened the gallery door and was surprised to find the whole ground covered with snow. It was the first snow of Dalhousie. There had been almost 15 batches before us but no batch had experienced snow. We were the first batch to witness the first snow of the season.

The first snow of Dalhousie falling. The picture is taken at 6:00 AM. Poonam had experienced the first snow and was awake at 3:30 or 4:00 AM. Snow flakes shine in the flash light.

The first light and snow covered Dalhousie. A view from the balcony of our room. The tents served as store rooms.

The snow caped mountains with sun shining on the clouds gave it a wonderful effect

By 6:30 AM we had started the morning exercise. It felt exhausting to give those rusted bones some work. I haven’t worked out in a long time and the 30 minutes exercise had me sweating on a cold morning. After the exercise, we were ready with the rug sack YHAI gave us. We were told to fill the rug sack with the heavy blanket they gave us.

We would start for our acclimatization walk at 9:00 AM after giving the previous batch a warm good bye and wishing them luck. We wished them happy journey and got ready for our own 8 Kms through Dalhousie.

It was going to be the start of a tiring journey!

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Six Zero Zero Four Seven Four

So after a long long time, Full2 faltu finally crossed the 6 Lakh hits mark. It has been a very long wait. The hits have reduced and it has taken me more days and more post to reach here.

But then a mile stone is a milestone and needs to be celebrated and celebrate we would. So as always the statistics without any pictures because my blog editor is not uploading picture properly so just the stats.

 

Total Number of post : 723 (including the current one)

Guest Posts : 41

Forwarded Emails Posts: 3

Short Stories: 55

Short Stories by Guest Blogger : 5

Movie Reviews: 79

Categories : 50

Categories with the highest number of posts: Personal (362 Posts)

Categories with the lowest number of posts : Statistics (1 Post)

Total Number of Hits since 21st February 2006 : 600,474

Best day ever in terms of Hits: 1414 (Friday, March 2, 2007)

Average hits per day : 500

Total Number of comments: 4,534

Total Spam comments : 92,630

Top three months with highest number of posts: August 2005 (29 posts) June 2006 (28 Posts) and July 2007 (23 Posts)

Total posts in 2004 : 31 (0.5 posts per week)

Total posts in 2005 : 165 (3.1 posts per week)

Total Posts in 2006 : 176 (3.3 posts per week)

Total Posts in 2007: 194 (3.7 posts per week)

Total Posts in 2008: 151 (2.9 posts per week)

Total Posts in 2009 till date: 6 (2 posts per week)

Average Posts per week since creation: 2.75 posts per week

Completed 700th Post on: 23rd November 2008

Completed 600th Post on: 1st March 2008

Completed 500th Post on : 22nd August 2007

Completed 400th Post on : 26th February 2007

Completed 300th Post on : 8th August 2006

Date when reached 1 Lakh Hits : 25th December 2006

Date when reached 2 Lakh hits : 3rd May 2007

Date when reached 3 Lakh Hits: 9th September 2007

Date when Reached 4 Lakh hits: 16th January 2008

Date when Reached 5 Lakh hits: 18th June 2008

Date when Reached 6 Lakh hits: 19th January 2009

Started blogging in WordPress: 21 Feb 2006

Time taken to reach 100 Thousand hits: 11 Months and 4 days

Post to reach 100 Thousand: 366 Posts

Time take to reach the next 100 Thousand (200 Thousand): 5 months and 8 days

Post to reach Next 100 thousand (200 Thousand): 66 Post (post count: 433)

Time to reach Next 100 Thousand (300 Thousand): 4 months 6 days (129 days)

Post to reach Next 100 Thousand (300 Thousand): 73 Posts (post count 510)

Time to reach Next 100 Thousand (400 Thousand): 4 months 7 days (129 days)

Post to reach Next 100 Thousand(400 Thousand): 65 Posts (post count 575)

Time to reach Next 100 Thousand (500 Thousand): 5 months 5 days (155 days)

Post to reach Next 100 Thousand (500 Thousand):  78 Posts (post count 652)

Time to reach Next 100 Thousand (600 Thousand): 7 months 6 days (215 days)

Post to reach Next 100 Thousand (600 Thousand):  71 Posts (post count 723)

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Chalte Chalte…3 – Amritsar Again

After a heavy breakfast and 3 hours journey we finally reached Amritsar. There are basically three main attraction of Amritsar; The Golden Temple, JallianWala Baug and the Wagah Border between India and Pakistan. Wagah Border is almost 30 kms from the city. Its basically famous for the lowering of flags ceremony every evening.

Looking at the time we had and the fact that we needed to report to our base camp that very day, Wagah border was out of question. Golden Temple and Jallianwala Baug are very close to each other.

The moment we entered the city, the traffic and roads took our one hour. Being the major tourist attraction in addition to being the devotional centers for Sikh, the city needs a major overhaul. But then its just my perspective.

Banana shake

The traffic on the road slowed our progress. In addition the sky was overcast and foggy. We saw this banana vendor carrying his wares on the horse cart. Bananas are very delicate fruits and can get squished under weight. Strangely the man was sitting quite comfortably on them. Maybe they were not ripe yet

It Shines

Golden Temple was the only place of worship where I could take my camera. Outside the golden temple, you see lots of people. Its a sea of people around it very typical of many devotional places in India. Once we entered the gate after washing our feet in water, the first view of the Harminder Shahib is so mesmerising. Covered in gold, it shines even on that foggy day. The chaos outside the wall turns peaceful within the walls of the temple.

Birds of a feather…

Hundreds of birds fly in unison at the Minars of Ramgarhia Bunga. Close to it is the Langar. I guess that explains the birds up there.

One

A family prays as the sun tries to peep from the cloud. I could not get enough light on this one and yet I like the shot of the family against the temple backdrop

The man was deep in prayers oblivious of the surroundings. I guess that is what it is to be “One” with God.

As we came out a lot of procession were coming toward the temple. It was some festive occasion that day. That is one big sword that I have seen.

The man below came dangerously close to the crowd while swinging the heavy ball.

Jallianwala Baug

Jallianwala Baug Massacre was one of the biggest massacre in the history of India’s freedom struggle. The picture shows marks where bullets hit the building. More than a 1000 people died. None of them were armed. The memorial below

Picture Courtesy: Hemant

After so many years of freedom, do we really respect the sacrifice those people gave for us?

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Chalte Chalte…2 – Amristar

I haven’t been on a long Train journey ever. The last time I made a train journey was when I went to Bangalore. Traveling from Mumbai to Chakki Bank took almost 36 hours. The station is called Chakki because the town is near the River Chakki so Chakki river’s bank.

Its fascinating to see a place which you have only heard of. I have a mental picture of the place in my mind but the real picture can be way of from my imagination. I am currently in a project where the client has offices all over India and we deal with people all over India. Talking to them, interacting with them, we always tend to make a mental picture in our mind and imagine the place to be something different.

Cities like Jalandar, Ludhiana, kota and such that we talked about in the problem in the offices of these cities came during the journey to Dalhousie. And it feels surreal

Ratlam Ki Galiyon Main….

Remember “Jab We Met“? Because we did. Shahid and Kareena on Ratlam station at night? Hotel Decent? We had reached Ratlam Junction in the evening and we all took photos below this board. Felt silly! Yes! And Its exactly 493.62 meters above sea level. Just that you know!

Foggy Road

We were 6 hours late to reach Pathankot because of this. Its such a dense fog that its difficult to see beyond a few meters. This was taken from the back seat of Tata Sumo en route to Amritsar. This is somewhere at 9:00 AM and there is no sign of sunshine. The foggy dull atmosphere continued in Amritsar too.

Below a clean road without any traffic. Ekdum phoren lagta hai!

Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye!

Just after leaving pathankot for Amritsar comes a railway crossing. As vehicles waited for the train to pass, we had this school bus standing next to us and in it were boys of varying age. The elder one came out of the bus while the younger one sat looking outside. As we tried to cajole them for a photo, they keep looking away. One of them even shut the window when we pointed camera at him. The dusty dirty windows made it all the more difficult to take a perfect picture. The above picture was a lucky one when the little boy turned and laughed at us. And I love my camera!!!

Bird-Rest

Mathew shot this one from the train. Don’t exactly remember which station. Actually now when I look at it, it looks like steps to climb up the pole. That time, it looked like a bird rest, where birds could rest a while before flying off. Imagination?

Triplets

We did not have breakfast before our journey to Amritsar. The idea was to have Parathas on the way. We stopped at a dhabba (road side hotel) where we had the most amazing parathas. 6 Parathas gone in 5 minutes. Behind the Dhabba was a small farm with piles of dry grass. I caught these bird flying from one pile to another.

Two-Colour Picture

I have done nothing but just reduced the brightness and the picture comes in two colours both separated by a imaginary line. The field was behind the dhabba where we took our lunch although the lunch was not as tasty like our breakfast.

Three-Tired sleeper

We had spent more than 34 hours in the train. After a late night sleep, we had got up early for Amritsar. After a quick tour of Amritsar, we came back to Pathankot and were supposed to go ahead to Dalhousie. We still had 6 hours of journey ahead of us. All of us were tired. Mathew and I sat at the back when we saw them sleeping. From left to right; Taj, Hemant and Ashwin.

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To be Continued…….

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Chalte Chalte… 1

The Youth Hostel movement was started by a German school teacher back in 1909. The movement has grown to be a worldwide phenomenon from the time of its formation. Today we have an Indian chapter of Youth Hostel Association supported by Ministry of Youth Affairs. They run trekking programs all over India throughout the year. Some of these treks are tough and some of them manageable. They also organize a 3 day trek from Dalhousie to Chamba in the month of December every year. The trek involves walking in snow and a little bit of climbing.

But for us, it all started during the unforgettable trip to Kahoj and we were hooked to trekking. It was back in September when Mathew brought up the idea of trekking in Dalhousie. He had already discussed in office with his friend, Taj who had decided to go. I guess it was somewhere in October that we finally booked on the YHAI Himalayan Winter Trekking 2008-09. We were ready when we booked the tickets on the Swaraj Express.

The website said 3 days of prodding through snow. I was a little skeptical of walking through snow. The distance per day was minimum 8 Kilometers. I had suffered and enjoyed Kahoj but three days of Kahoj like trek? Was I prepared?

I did try to get some exercise by cycling a month before the trek. Time and more of laziness made me skip some exercise. Here I was on 31 December 2008, panting after a three floor climb to my office getting ready for 1300 feet climb up to a snowy mountain. Looked quite difficult if not impossible.

As the day for departure came near, we got ready with last minute packing. Medicine, warm clothes, camera, camera chargers and we were ready to go. The train was scheduled on the 1st day of the new year and thankfully was from Borivali. The checklist had become bigger and the bag heavier. I was just imagining what it would be like to climb the tall steep mountains with this heavy bag on my back.

The train journey was to take us more than 30 hours to reach Chakki Bank, then 4Km to Pathankot. We would then travel to see Dharamshala and then finally to Dalhousie to report on 3rd January at the base camp.

But the best laid plans can fail and we realized that when the train was more than 6 hours late. Dharamshala was certainly out of question for want of time. There was nothing to see in Pathankot and there were nothing interesting near Pathankot. The only option was to reach Dalhousie and report to the base camp.

We would have started for Dalhousie if I hadn’t heard Marathi in a restaurant of Pathankot. When we were having dinner of tasty Tandoori Chicken in Pathankot, I heard a couple of voice behind us speaking in Marathi and I did what every Indian does when he hears his/her language in a far away land;

I turn around and talked to the person. It turned out that he was working there since last two years. He suggested we visit Amritsar which was one and a half hour from Pathankot. It was already 9:00 PM and we were tired from the 36 hours journey but the idea of not wasting another day in Pathankot made us walk and find a vehicle for hire.

It turned out that Amritsar was almost 3 hours from Pathankot. After searching 2-3 shops we finalized one Tata Sumo which promised us to start the jpurney at  at 8:00 AM the next morning. We planned to travel to Amritsar, visit the Golden temple and Jalianwala Baug and then come back to Pathankot and take the same Sumo to Dalhousie.

We did start the journey on time the next day. This was the last day when I actually had a bath. I would have the next bath 5 days later in the same room.

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