Journey to Lansdowne

This is name of a place that none of us knew exists 2 days back but I can say the journey towards has become one of the greatest journey we would have ever had in our lives which we’ll remember n talk about for ages.

It was a usual Thursday evening when Pawan, Chini, Lala n me were discussing about what to do in the behemoth weekend that was ahead. We started planning to go for a place where we can reach by riding our own bikes. Hridwar seemed to be the best choice n all agreed upon that. We decided to take Akshay n Bangal with us. As Akshay is given preference over Bangal, (In Alphabetical Order only not anything else. he he. Bangal pls don’t mind par kya karu sabke sath reh reh k mujhe bhi teri ungal karne me maja aa raha hai. He he) Chini called up Akshay to join us in this adventure. Akshay agreed straight away and we called up Bangal after that but he seemed busy with some SCJP stuff, (Tester chala Developer Banne) so he straight away refused us. We were very happy to know that. He he.

After a while Akshay called us up n suggested us to find out where is this Lansdowne? We didn’t know the exact spelling (none of us) but we finally managed to find it out (Thanks to Google). The place seemed nice according to blogs n all around the net so we decided to start at 3 o’clock Saturday morning as it was 270 kms away from Noida.

We tried our best to convince Bangal the other day n finally he agreed to come with us. (We at least wanted someone whom we can do ungal) Now there were 6 of us ready to rock on 3 bikes. All were set but there was an addition at the last moment. Munish (john baba) and Viru came along n the team of 8 got ready to rock lat 10 in the evening. People were not feeling sleepy (except me so I already went to sleep as I had to get up at 3) so they decided to move on in the night only. They called my sleep off at 1 only n we started at 1:30 in the morning from home.

The route was as follows:

Noida -> Ghaziabad -> Modi Nagar -> Meerut -> Nazibabad -> Kotdwar -> Dugaad -> Landdowne

Akshay was seating behind me on my bike due to “Gaheri Dosti” we have. While going from Noida to Ghaziabad I took a sharp cut (it was a wrong cut but can’t say that I was wrong so used sharp) n “Akshay ki puri fat le”

The dialogues he delivered are as follows:

“Sale tera har judgemend kharab hota hai”

“Tujhe bike chalani hi nahi aati, Mein nahi beth raha tere piche”

“60-60 pe jayenge to koi dikkat nahi, Hum subah pahochenge to bhi chalega”

That was hot. He he.

We took rest at around 3:30 for a while at a local dhaba n started moving towards the destination. Munish (john baba) took my keys n was ready to rock my gladiator as shown in television adds. I didn’t realize why he was interested in riding 125 cc Gladiator leaving behind 150 cc CBZ Xtreme. I realized afterwards that John is the brand ambassador of Gladiator. Anyways but I must say that he was riding it like anything. He was matching the speed of a 125cc with 150cc bikes n we went at a speed of 90 for about 1 n half hour. The destination seemed very near due to that journey of 1 n half hour.

I took over the charge from there on n decide to ride it till the end. Meanwhile Akshay who left me behind had tested the driving of veeru where they almost got down but extra effort of Akshay n Veeru’s legs kept them unbroken. That was the moment I saw Akshay n laughed like anything. “Sala mujhe chod k gaya tha ha?”

Pawan, Chini n Lala were going smoothly for the time being. Chini was doing well as he is considered to be the coolest rider among all of us. Pawan as anticipated was leading the team n lala was enjoying the beauty of the nature. It was around 6:30 when we reached kotdwar n the real fun was about to start. The Journey of Landsdowne - which was 41 kms away from kotdwar and the whole road was around mountains n jungle.

It was difficult to keep your eyes away from the sceneries around u n it was more important not to keep your eyes off the road as it was whole zig zag kind of road. Initially we found it tough but as soon as we started being used to with it, we were going at 50-60 even on those roads.

It’s a place where you see clouds on streets and birds flying underneath. All of us were tired so we straight away went to hotel n after having some food, went to sleep. I preferred sleep over food n went straight away in bed but people started playing dirty games against Bangal……(ain’t it right bangal?) they teased him till the level that he really got angry n came to my room n slept.

I got up before everyone else as I slept earlier so I went to some places which were near by. Just go there n enjoy the weather, the greenery, the height, the mountains, the river. Everything was so beautiful but where there’re clouds, there is rain. It started raining n I had to come back. Rain didn’t stop until the evening when everyone was awake so we enjoyed chai with Pakodas. The patience was killing us all as we decided to move on the other day morning so we all went out at around 6 even though it was still raining. We saw the Bhulla Lake n took pictures for a while n saw the churches located few kms away from there but it was already dark so we decided to come back in the morning and then started our journey back to kotdwar.

On our journey back to Kotdwar, we stopped at few places and took bath in cold water. The force of the water was immense and we decided to move on with the flow but few of us didn’t know swimming but how can they go without experiencing something which others have? So they also jumped into the water which was deep n flowing hard. Chini n Pawan literally smelt the death as they got drowned for about 10 sec or so. All of us were inside the water otherwise it would be great to have a snap of their expressions at that time. I was the nearest guy to Chini while he was drowning so I know how enjoyable (he he I can write Enjoyable now but even my situation was tight when I saw him drowning) it was to see him in that gesture.

Again we started moving towards kotdwar and we were going well. We were on the verge of reaching there but what we saw was terrifying, our best rider Munish (john baba) slipped of the road n skid for about 10 ft taking Viru with him. Their clothes were the proof of how fast n smoothly they would have rushed horizontally on the road. Another shock was waiting for us. There was landslide just near the bridge to kotdwar n whole road was blocked. We went nearer to see how long will it take to repair it n felt like we were stuck to the place at least for a day. We were evaluating our options and decided to go to Rishikesh n then to Meerut but got to know that even that road is blocked so we didn’t have any other option then stop there n wait. We went back to Dugadda as it was only 10 kms away n there was nothing like tea stall where we can sit n wait. The hours that we spent in Dugadda were frustrating like anything. No one was ready to give their rooms as they knew it will be a rush in the evening and they can take as much money as they want if the road does not open up. All of us were hungry so we went to a dhaba but I didn’t find the place hygienic so avoided eating there. Pawan, Chini & Me went around the market but all of a sudden we reached a place which was amazing. We set there for a while mean time Pawan attended an important call from his friend, Chini tried to take his own snaps in Rajnikant style wearing my big glasses n I was trying my best to make my underwear dry as it was all wet in rain.

We went back to the dhaba were everyone else was having their lunch. On our way back, we heard a news that road is open at least for bikes n we rushed towards it - A great relief of reaching office on the Monday morning. Then there was nobody to stop us. We faced problems like heavy rains n Viru’s bike stopping in between but nothing stopped us and we came back home safe n sound.

I must say our bikes were the real heroes of our journey as they didn’t harass us a single time even on those tough roads. Hats off to them.

Link to the photographs is as follows:

http://picasaweb.google.com/akshaymalhotraindia/Lansdowne02

I heartily congratulate you on completing this blog but even after trying really hard to compress it, it took these many words to describe me the journey of our life time.

Tremendous Trip to Vaishnodevi

I was confused about how to start writing about this incident so I m choosing the best (Story telling) way to start it off.

One day my PM asked the team to go to Vaishno Devi. As a new guy in my team I say yes enthusiastically without knowing that the time when we are going there is a period of monsoon. I knew the trip is going to be adventurous but never knew it will end up being extravagantly adventurous.

We reached Delhi Station at around 7:00 and the train was expected at 8:30 (IST). I hope you all know the meaning of IST - Indian Standard Time. The train was a special train started for Vaishno Devi only but Lalu didn’t want people to reach there in time so it came at 9:30 (LST – Lalu Standard Time).

The train seemed ok but the AC was set for foreigners I suppose. It was too cool inside n usually I prefer upper birth so I went up straight away. After mid night I started realizing that it’s harmful, especially for my joints (I am getting older u know). It was tough for me to get up in the morning though I rose at 9:30.

We went to katra from jammu which was quite pleasant, took rest for a while and decided to start with our trip at around 12:30 but clouds came from no where n it started raining. It rained for about 2 hours n the sky was clear so we decided to put on our gears as we planned to go to shivkhodi the other day.

The journey of about 26 kms started with a strong determination that everyone will walk by the whole journey and no one’s going to ride a horse to reach till the end. But after few kms, our team’s little baby Mallika started feeling some pain in her stomach n was not ready to move a single step further. Everyone was really tense bout what to do now? Soon she started vomiting and that was a value addition in our tension. We then try all sorts of cameos to get her out of troubles n finally there was some ray of hope as she said let’s go. She walked for a while but again she got tired, it was around 4 o’clock n loads of dehydration so that was quite obvious.

After a while the other half of the team decided to move on while Mallika was resting but it wouldn’t be ok to keep her there all alone like that so I stayed with her with a thought that she’ll take up a horse once she gets real tired n I’ll be able to catch up with the other team but Mallika didn’t want to ride on a horse, don’t know what was going through her mind (Still don’t know). I was losing my hope as she was getting slower n slower with time but I had to stay with her as a team effort so I stick to her. We were reaching towards the target slowly but not steadily n after a while I was sure to meet the other team only when we reach back to the Hotel. As I was not aware of the way, I got confused but kept on going. Mallika seemed like gathering all her courage to make it to the top. She was going well now; probably it was due to the sunset and a cool pleasant atmosphere that started building at around 6 o’clock.

It was more then 3 hours past after we started our journey but we just cleared 5 kms. We still had 8 immense kms to go. It seemed a behemoth task with our current status. But all of a sudden, Mallika gathered all her courage n was looking all set to finish it up. We were going good n rather then going round through road; we were going through stairs, which was saving hell lot of hour time. But I think almighty had decided to put all sorts of troubles on our way n it started raining heavily. We didn’t have any other option to keep on moving so we kept on walking until it started raining heavily, we had to take shelter at one of the army person’s place for about 20 minutes or so but rain was not to stop so we decided to move on. We were going at quite a good pace but due to heavy rain, there were nobody around us.

I was not aware of the road so as anticipated we got over a wrong track. After a while we realized that it stopped raining but no one except people riding on horse were using that way. The reason: it was longer route then the original one. Huh…………..We were all tired n wet n after it stopped raining, the wind started blowing hard; really hard; as we were at around 700 ft height from the ground level. It was kind of scary as there was jungle all around n no one else around. I kept on shouting “Jai Mata di” but there wasn’t anybody to join me. We were physically really tired but we got mentally tired when we got to know that we now have to walk 3-4 kms more as we choose a wrong path.

But all that was not enough, we were wet n due to heavy wind we started getting dry n so do our clothes n shoes. All of a sudden I realized that sponge inside my shoes is totally ruined and was moving inside my shoes so I was not feeling comfortable at all but had to keep on moving as we were running out of time. With all that pain, we realized that we reached on top n now have to go down to the temple. We watched people coming from down to the temple while we were going down to the temple. Ha ha ha.

All that apart, we really had nice ‘DARSHAN’ n reached the hotel even earlier then the other team. Hats off to Mallika for all the efforts she had put in after the breakdown she had earlier.

“ZOR SE BOLO, JAI MATA DI”

Something's Missing - A Tribute to all my Friends

Going through different phases of life that everyone passes through
but still something's missing

When I go to disc, I still dance the same way that I used to in clg
but still something's missing

I still have eyes giving me a second look n staring at me for long
but still something's missing

My b'days come n go every year n I throw a party to celebrate
but still something's missing

I get calls from all around the world to wish me but if one can't
I feel like something's missing

People say "Life Moves On" n I'm moving with it
but still something's missing