Documented

Delhi-Haridwar-Chopta-Tungnath-Rudraprayag-Rishikesh-Delhi
28-31 March, 2013
Nidhi, Samridhi, Varun, Maria, Aryamala, Sumit

Delhi-Mandawa-Delhi
15-16 February, 2013
Smita, Payal, Chandrika, Smera, Aklanta, Vasudha, Anand, Vasu, Sumit, Anuj, Ruchi, Peter, Sahana

Delhi-Mangalore-Delhi
31 January-2 February, 2013
Priyam, Swetha, Basu, others

Delhi-Bangalore-Mysore-Coorg-Mysore-Bangalore-Delhi
16-20 January, 2013
Extended Family

Delhi-Bikaner-Jaisalmer-Jodhpur-Jaipur-Delhi
5-12 December, 2012
Vidha

Delhi-Chennai-Pondicherry-Chennai-Delhi
23-25 November, 2012
Milan, Ankita, Prerna, Priya, Parakram, others

Delhi-Dabolim-Benaulim-Panjim-Delhi
8-10 September, 2012

Delhi-Bhubaneswar-Jajpur-Konark-Delhi
2-5 August, 2012
Payal

Delhi-Manali-Keylong-Baralacha La-Darcha-Jispa-Udaipur-Manali-Delhi
13-19 July, 2012
Swetha

Delhi-Bhubaneswar-Cuttack-Konark-Ranchi-Delhi
28-31 May, 2012
Anand

Delhi-Port Blair-Wandoor-Ross Island-North Bay Island-Havelock Island-Port Blair-Delhi
9-14 January, 2012
Mom

Delhi-Mumbai-Delhi
25-27 November, 2011
Swetha, Ridhima, Robin, Ruhi, Avan, Baij

Delhi-Ludhiana-Chintpuri-JwalaJi-Ludhiana-Delhi
19-21 November, 2011
Dad, Mom, Bhai, Megha
















+++++++++

August 2011

I'm ill and bored. Had been thinking of making a record of the past few years' travels. So, here we are...

Delhi-Jhansi-Orchha-Jhansi-Delhi
20-22 August, 2011
Amiya, Alekhya, Shantanu, Tarun

Delhi-Bangalore-Wayanad-Delhi
13-15 August, 2011
Karan, Ruhi

Delhi-Jaipur-Delhi
14-15 May, 2011
Priyam, Ridhima, Swetha

Delhi-Agra-Fatehpur Sikri-Delhi
5 March, 2011
Varun

Delhi-Rudrapur-Nainital-Sitla-Mukteshwar-Almora-Patal Devi-Kasar Devi-Chitai-Jageshwar-Kausani-Ranikhet-Bhimtal-Kathgodam-Delhi
15-22 December, 2010
Radhika

Delhi-Mumbai-Pune-Mumbai-Delhi
11-12 December, 2010
Dhoop, Robin, Ruhi















Delhi-Amritsar-Delhi

24-25 May, 2010
Agneesh, Akshay, Amisha, Bhai, Bhabhi, Harsh, Nidhi, Salil, Samridhi, Sarthak, Sharad, Shiven, Surabhi, Stuthi, Sushant, Swaroop, Swathi, Tanya, Tushar

Pune-Mumbai-Pune
20-21 March, 2010
Mamaji and Family

Pune-Panchgani-Wai-Pune
15-16 March, 2010
Priyam, Robin, Ruhi, Swetha, Vrinda

Pune-Kunjirwadi-Pune
12 February, 2010
PR Batch, SIMC

Pune-Koyna-Guhagar-Ganpatipule-Malgund-Jaigad-Pune
30 December 2009-1 January 2010
Bhavya, Debanjana, Kausik, Priyam, Ranjan, Ridhima, Ruhi, Shagun, Swetha, Vinaya

Lavale-Tamhini Ghat-Pune City-Lavale
3 September, 2009
Priyam, Ridhima, Robin, Ruhi, Sahil, Vrinda

Lavale-Mulshi Lake-Pune City-Lavale
22 August, 2009
Kausik, Nishant, Venkatesh

Pune-Khadakvasla-Sinhagarh-Pune
26 July, 2009
Karan

Pune-Srivardhan-Pune
31 June-1 July, 2009
Ankita, Priyam, Swetha

Delhi-Chandigarh-Delhi
24 May, 2009
Bhai, Ma, Pa

Delhi-Rishikesh-Delhi
2-3 May, 2009
Avantika, Priya, Nidhi, Samridhi, Shagun

Pune-Aurangabad-Ellora-Ajanta-Aurangabad-Pune
9-10 February, 2009
Ankita, Priyam













Pune-Mumbai-Kolkata-Jamshedpur-Kolkata-Mumbai-Pune
30 January-4 February, 2009
Subhadip, Sumit

Delhi-Moradabad-Delhi
1-7 November, 2008

Delhi-Pune-Delhi
23-26 January, 2008
Ma, Nanu

Special Times

Apparently getting married is not easy. I have witnessed so many cases of people struggling, parents opposing, breakdowns happening and what not. But then there are many positive results too. I guess everyone just loves the drama. Case in point is Varun's wedding. It took more than three years to get all approvals. Kind of like the Government of India, eh? 

I wasn't roped in for one choreographed dance, it was three! There were practice sessions galore but they were more of drinking and entertainment sessions than anything else. That showed on the stage when the sequence which had ALL of us turned out to be a complete disaster. The other two were still alright.

But in the larger scheme of things, that didn't matter at all. 

In the past week I got to meet all the people who had made life comfortable when it was socially at one of the worst junctures. When I had no friends in my own class or college. When I didn't seem to get along with anyone. When I looked forward to the one hour in a maddeningly crowded bus just so that I could have a good time. Yes, it was the U Special gang of 2004-06. And their extended circle of niceness. 

Anjor - the mysterious entertainer

Ankita - the sweet, harmless one

Tarun - the best man

Yutika - incredible combination of kind and funny

Maria - my newest bud!

Sushmit - he lives in a land far away but Twitter bridges borders

Satyam - obnoxious no more; situational humour is still his thing

Hemant - he seems to have come of age

I would have liked to spend time with Avni too. But that didn't happen. 

My parents were extremely kind. I stayed out late on consecutive nights and they were okay with that. 

I must mention that the formal events were complete eye candy fests. I don't remember the last time I saw so many good looking men under one roof. Need I say more? Actually I must. I got a lot of male attention and suddenly being single was like the cool factor working for me. It was flattering. More on flattery in another post. 

Unfortunately we don't have any pictures together and this is the best Tarun managed on a practice night

I skipped dinner to get mehendi. Some kind hearts fed me afterwards

Did I mention we all got drunk at the cocktail?

Cannot express how much I loved being a part of the whole process with all these people

 

The happy man!

A trend that got established at this wedding is that I always find a moment to cry out of sheer happiness for the couple. Done it at too many weddings now. 

In the last month two more weddings got fixed. I knew it was going to be an entertaining year. 

Pictures courtesy - Hari (oh!, thisssss is Hari!)

*Sigh*

Somebody should sing this with me some day.

Action!

I am rarely in a position to say that I had a good week or a month, and this is one of those rare moments. After a series of supremely frustrating weeks, I had a week through which I felt good at all times. Work and social life, both, have suddenly picked up. The weekend was good too. 

Milan's farewell on Friday night was fun. Spending time with the girls is actually always enjoyable, but when Vidha tends to get tipsy, things take a more entertaining turn. As for Milan, I will miss her (yes, admitted).

Ruhi was also in town this weekend. It had been over a year since I last saw her. My friend in vegetarianism - read with her I can go for a meal where I am not sidelined with my single vegetarian dish. We ate, drank  and talked for 3.5 hours before I headed for my dance class. 

Yes, I have finally joined dance classes. As of now it is about hard work, being uncomfortable, being challenged, feeling exposed and awkward, but it is fun. Nobody except the instructors are professionals. And it is a very patient and pleasant bunch of people teaching. So I am happy. At least as of now. And my instructor says I have good rhythm. :D

Yesterday's class was rather hard. I spun so much that I could almost feel the margarita and this indulgent dessert spinning too. Wasn't a good feeling. But lesson learnt. From now on it will be early lunch on dance class days. 

Talking about dance, Varun emotionally blackmailed into doing a choreographed dance at his wedding. I didn't do one at my own brother's wedding, but I seem to have no choice here. So this afternoon was spent at his place trying to get a party on my mind but do a lot more than just groove. And while salsa is a lot of technique, this bollywood drama requires some serious movement of the upper body. Phew!

I also realised that I didn't take up the opportunity to call the shots when I had it.

Moving on, the evening at Avan's was rather nice. We didn't speak for three weeks and her world seems to have suddenly changed for the better. Things look promising. Positive updates awaited.

Back home, Suvvir slapped me hard and it was funny. Never saw this day coming. 

In other news, I think I am falling in love with this gentleman here. From the world that he belongs to, it has only been John Stamos and Patrick Dempsey in the past. *sigh*

And now, please make way for Monday blues. See you on the other side.

Stars

There are men and there is nature. And then there is this elusive thread of words that flow like the waves of a sea, breaking at your doorstep, nudging you at your threshold, enticing you into a world that is, at best, elusive.

Love. 

Never Mind

Massively obsessive

Borderline OCD

Touchy

Exacting at times

At extremes with expression

Sceptical 

Detached

A bunch of colours, and I don't remember anything else.

Jerk Factory

You know jerks? They are a common variety. Largely of the male human species. Do you know them? Please tell me you do because I happen to know way too many of them and I would like some consolation in being told that there are enough of them out there and that everyone knows one too many of these jerks. The ones who totally manage to kill the mood. The ones who know how to say everything that you won't like. That you won't like, that you won't want to hear, that you can so totally live without! The behaviour is no better. I don't know what happens to these people while growing up that all of them fuckin' turn out the same way. Like jerks! I don't know how people live with pretence as their best friend. All their lives. I don't know how they live in half-truths and half-facts all the time. And I don't know how they have the selective capacity to be such assholes. 

And So I Went!

Quite a few people asked me how I figured this place out. I do know that my reference point was the trip that Prashant, Subhadip, and others made a few years ago, but I cannot seem to recall when I decided that I want to do it. The idea of doing the trek had not even crossed my mind when I first read their respective blog posts. But I did think about it recently enough and planned it for the Good Friday weekend. 

After the regular back and forth over emails, it was finally a mixed group of seven people ready to rough it out to Chopta, Tungnath, and potentially Chandrashila top in Uttarakhand. The Chandrashila stretch would have been a factor of things like strength/capacity remaining, weather conditions, time, et cetera. 

The Gang - Sumit, Nidhi, Samridhi, Maria, Arya, Varun

We left in a train from Delhi on Thursday night and reached Haridwar at 4:00 am. The car that we had booked from there to Chopta did not work out for us because the driver turned up drunk. His boss tried to convince us that 'woh shudh ho ke chala hai' but that obviously didn't work. My super sense of smell won! So we tried figuring some other options and finally managed a car from Rishikesh. The journey from Haridwar to Rishikesh was covered in an auto. There was a chill in the morning air and somehow that was enough to figure that Chopta was going to be colder than what we all imagined. 

We were right. It kept getting colder as we ascended, and was freezing in Chopta. In fact, it started raining even before we checked in at the sole lodge (Hotel Neelkanth) over there. But the view also got more and more scenic as we moved higher up. Chopta was covered in pink flowers and fresh snow. The air was clean, cold and thin. And we all knew that we were at the perfect place for the weekend.

The first time that I saw these flowers

First views

 

I have rarely challenged myself physically. I got a rush when I saw the snow-covered peaks and thought that I'd be very proud of myself if I manage to climb successfully. But the first challenge was to manage the temperature. There was no electricity. Our so-called hotel obviously had no facilities. We were told we could get hot water but even that wasn't available. The caretaker tried to get a bonfire going but the wood was too wet. I layered myself up, had a lot of soup at the dhaba across the street, and took Varun's blanket as well, but none of that seemed to help. At night, I even thought that I may never go to Ladakh if it was as cold or more. But finally I managed some sleep and got up at 5:00 am for the trek.

Base camp

The sun appeared for a short while in the evening

Nobody could get enough of these flowers

6 am moon

We didn't leave before 8:30 am. Time was wasted in a lot of slow prep and some more slow prep. I was already at 60 per cent lung capacity and my nose was leaking. The first ten steps were hard. I knew I had to walk slow, concentrate on the breathing, and just focus on not giving up. The leg held up rather well. We had a clear track to walk on for only the first 300 metres or so. After that the snow cover kept getting heavier. We trudged along. Varun helped me climb quite a bit. I saw some other group of guys give up midway. That gave me a strangely good feeling about myself. And the strategy of not letting the mind think that the body is tired always works. Yes, I have selective control over my mind. After all, I had myself to beat at the challenge. With many a stops and a terrible cramp in a toe, it took 3.5 hours to reach Tungnath. I, technically, stopped a few steps before the temple. The highest of all the Kedars. I had little energy left and I was concerned about making it back to Chopta. A part of me was extremely disappointed when I admitted to myself that I would not be able to do the Chandrashila stretch. That is what I was aiming for. I even unrealistically believed that if I did not have to come down the same day, I could have managed to go all the way. But that was just me imagining things. And so I stopped. Others reiterated that it was still an accomplishment. I believed them. Finally nobody could go up because heavy clouds started approaching us. It was too late to begin climbing Chandrashila. One should leave at 5:30 am for that.

Poser!

The only meadow

Goofy was scared of me :)

Maria got cold feet (not) :P

During one of the many stops to catch a breath

It was tiring, but I was happy :)

This first-timer was the underdog. Climbed quietly and steadily!

When they took a short cut and went from last position to first position

I sat holding my cramped toe, and she got a stranger to click her picture from my camera

You see, we all had an agenda. :P

When he didn't pose

When I admitted I was losing energy

All of us. Varun clicked

The view from where I stopped

The descend was far harder on the back. It killed me. And the snow was slippery enough to get the pulse racing at every half a step that I tended to lose control of at that incline. 

With the friendly couple we met on the way back

The sisters! :D

It started raining (with hail) while we were still on our way back but this time I didn't feel a thing. Had finally warmed up. :)

So, I don't know if I completed the challenge (selective judgment), but I certainly feel good. It was the bravest thing I ever did. We were on the edge the whole time. The experience was so unreal that I cannot believe I was actually there three days ago. I don't even know if I can do it again. 

All of us, by the dhaba that saved our lives

We wished to do the Deorital hike too, but the fact that we couldn't get train tickets to get back to Delhi meant way too long a drive the next day. So we chose to come down some distance on Saturday itself and managed to get till Rudraprayag by the evening. The hotel here felt like a palace after the previous day's experience. The balcony had a good view too.

From the balcony

While someone else was puking :P

Next morning we left early so that we could at least make use of having Rishikesh on the way. Five of us went rafting. I have done it before, but I was still a little scared. Apparently the Ganges was kind to us, but all I know is that I managed this one smoothly too. :D

The kids!

The drive back to Delhi was an expected nightmare. Reached home only by 11 pm. The skin was burnt, the head was spinning, muscles were aching, but the sense of having done 13000 feet was overwhelming. Still is. 

Last year, Keylong at 11000 feet was hard enough to walk around in. Did not imagine even then that I could do it. 

And I came back with my own picture of the place!

Can I reach the Valley of Flowers? I have more hope today than I did till a week ago.

Source: Google