Some points I realised from my trip.
1. I am one luck guy to be meeting a lot of big wigs.
2. My mom does not like horses.
3. My sis loves shouting, “are bhaiya…. Is ghode ko roko. Ye bahut tez bhag raha hai” every time she is on a horse.
4. Snow is great and everybody should experience it.
5. God knows how our soldiers live at the LOC where it is even colder than this.
Friday, May 13, 2005
My Great trip--- Last Day!
TRIP END DAYS 6
Started really early. Woke up by 0300. Left for Chandighar. We had to catch the 1400 flight to Delhi. Made it in good time and had about an hour to spare.
Reached Delhi by 1500. Had my flight back to Hyderabad at 1500. Got ourselves checked in.
I thought my trip had come to an end and had seen all I had to but I couldn’t have been more wrong. I was watching the TV where “Wasim bhai” (aka Wasim Akram) was giving a comment saying Ganguly is a good captain (ya rite and I am the president of USA!!!) and then I look around to find “WASIM BHAI” sitting below. This needed no thinking twice. Went up to him, said I am big fan of his (actually I am!!) and said he bowled some of the best balls ever to be bowled in the history of cricket. He was a cool guy wearing a white shirt on blue jeans. He spoke really well. We must have spoke for about 10 min. They had announced the departure of his flight (awe… why does this happen with me!!). I asked if I could have a snap with him, which he kindly obliged. I ran and dragged my sis to take a snap of wasim and me bhai (she never believed that I was talking with wasim bhai). Took a couple of snaps and we bid each other goodbye.
I was in dreamland, thinking about the trip. Just then it started raining heavily in Delhi. God, that was some shower. All the flights got delayed. After a lot of delay I finally got into my flight at 2230hrs. A full 5.5 hrs late.
Reached Hyderabad at 0030 and that marked the end of the trip.
Started really early. Woke up by 0300. Left for Chandighar. We had to catch the 1400 flight to Delhi. Made it in good time and had about an hour to spare.
Reached Delhi by 1500. Had my flight back to Hyderabad at 1500. Got ourselves checked in.
I thought my trip had come to an end and had seen all I had to but I couldn’t have been more wrong. I was watching the TV where “Wasim bhai” (aka Wasim Akram) was giving a comment saying Ganguly is a good captain (ya rite and I am the president of USA!!!) and then I look around to find “WASIM BHAI” sitting below. This needed no thinking twice. Went up to him, said I am big fan of his (actually I am!!) and said he bowled some of the best balls ever to be bowled in the history of cricket. He was a cool guy wearing a white shirt on blue jeans. He spoke really well. We must have spoke for about 10 min. They had announced the departure of his flight (awe… why does this happen with me!!). I asked if I could have a snap with him, which he kindly obliged. I ran and dragged my sis to take a snap of wasim and me bhai (she never believed that I was talking with wasim bhai). Took a couple of snaps and we bid each other goodbye.
I was in dreamland, thinking about the trip. Just then it started raining heavily in Delhi. God, that was some shower. All the flights got delayed. After a lot of delay I finally got into my flight at 2230hrs. A full 5.5 hrs late.
Reached Hyderabad at 0030 and that marked the end of the trip.
My Great Trip--- Days 4 and 5
DAY 4
Day 4 saw the trip become serious. Temperature falling really fast. I was at Delhi two days back where it was soaring at 40c and now here I am in manali where the temperature was near 6c. We went to a place call “snow point”. We had to rent an overall, which looks like a space suit minus the helmet in movies like Armageddon. With gloves and stuff, it was as if I was in full gear for a mission. With that thought we neared my destination.
It was finally there. A white colour substance, which is at a temperature of 0c and is very brittle in nature. I saw SNOW (tada….). The feeling was great. Climbed about 4 mountains, thanks to the NCC training and the KAITILAPUR camp. But the only difference is that I climbed rocks and here I am climbing snow. Wow!!! It really was great. After about 4 hours of snow and thanks to the weather which now became really worse (I climbed the mountains when it was pouring like hell!! Not an easy task.) We returned. I was frozen and I could not feel my palms. Putting my hand in a mug of hot water gave very little relief.
Later in the evening we went for shopping.
DAY 5
It started at the right time. I got up at 0900. Got dressed up and ready to go by 1000. Today we were going to a place call “SOLONG VALLEY” to do some serious adventure stuff. I was going to Para glide. But, when I am around it always turns out the other way. We reached the place just to realise that they had closed the Para gliding for the past 2 days due to some bullshit government rule. Later he said skiing is available. I did not think twice. I am going to the top.
The same rule applied here too. You need to rent a horse to go to the top. This time my mom was strictly against going on a horse. So, my sis and I set off. On the way there was some shooting going around. Didn’t bother about that. Went all the way up.
Got strapped to the skis. My first time was not bad. I balanced perfectly but had problem stopping so I had to fall down to stop it. It went along like that and finally I could stop well too. The guy was impressed and said I learnt it really fast. Was skiing for about 3 hrs. On our way back we stopped at the shooting spot, as my sis was really interested in it.
We stopped over. Suddenly, I thought I saw HRITHIK ROASHAN walk past me. I thought I was dreaming. Somebody shouted from the back…. “are vo tho Hrithik hai”. That is when it struck me I was not dreaming. I walked along with him to the set, which were about 500m away. Man, he has great arms. Too good. He also had a good hair do. I took out my cam but the security guy stopped me threatening me that he would snatch the cam. So kept it down. I walked back to same place I met him initially and took out my cam. Thanks to my advance cam (NIKON COOLPIX 4500) I got a shot of him. That was with full zoom. We were ready to go that is when my mouth had dropped again.
PRIYANKA CHOPRA looks sick on screen but right now, I was drooling. She was daam gorgeous. She was wearing a blue ghagra and hey….. She was daaaaaaaaaaam SEXY. Could not get a shot of her. But then seeing them itself is a great thing.
Day 4 saw the trip become serious. Temperature falling really fast. I was at Delhi two days back where it was soaring at 40c and now here I am in manali where the temperature was near 6c. We went to a place call “snow point”. We had to rent an overall, which looks like a space suit minus the helmet in movies like Armageddon. With gloves and stuff, it was as if I was in full gear for a mission. With that thought we neared my destination.
It was finally there. A white colour substance, which is at a temperature of 0c and is very brittle in nature. I saw SNOW (tada….). The feeling was great. Climbed about 4 mountains, thanks to the NCC training and the KAITILAPUR camp. But the only difference is that I climbed rocks and here I am climbing snow. Wow!!! It really was great. After about 4 hours of snow and thanks to the weather which now became really worse (I climbed the mountains when it was pouring like hell!! Not an easy task.) We returned. I was frozen and I could not feel my palms. Putting my hand in a mug of hot water gave very little relief.
Later in the evening we went for shopping.
DAY 5
It started at the right time. I got up at 0900. Got dressed up and ready to go by 1000. Today we were going to a place call “SOLONG VALLEY” to do some serious adventure stuff. I was going to Para glide. But, when I am around it always turns out the other way. We reached the place just to realise that they had closed the Para gliding for the past 2 days due to some bullshit government rule. Later he said skiing is available. I did not think twice. I am going to the top.
The same rule applied here too. You need to rent a horse to go to the top. This time my mom was strictly against going on a horse. So, my sis and I set off. On the way there was some shooting going around. Didn’t bother about that. Went all the way up.
Got strapped to the skis. My first time was not bad. I balanced perfectly but had problem stopping so I had to fall down to stop it. It went along like that and finally I could stop well too. The guy was impressed and said I learnt it really fast. Was skiing for about 3 hrs. On our way back we stopped at the shooting spot, as my sis was really interested in it.
We stopped over. Suddenly, I thought I saw HRITHIK ROASHAN walk past me. I thought I was dreaming. Somebody shouted from the back…. “are vo tho Hrithik hai”. That is when it struck me I was not dreaming. I walked along with him to the set, which were about 500m away. Man, he has great arms. Too good. He also had a good hair do. I took out my cam but the security guy stopped me threatening me that he would snatch the cam. So kept it down. I walked back to same place I met him initially and took out my cam. Thanks to my advance cam (NIKON COOLPIX 4500) I got a shot of him. That was with full zoom. We were ready to go that is when my mouth had dropped again.
PRIYANKA CHOPRA looks sick on screen but right now, I was drooling. She was daam gorgeous. She was wearing a blue ghagra and hey….. She was daaaaaaaaaaam SEXY. Could not get a shot of her. But then seeing them itself is a great thing.
My Great trip--- Days 2 and 3
Day 2
The day started pretty early. Got up by 0700 and was ready by 0800. Left for Chandhighar by the morning flight. Reached by afternoon. Had a wonderful Punjabi lunch. Went out in the evening to a place call ROCK MUSEUM. Man, the place was great. Mr. Nek Chand, the creator had actually created a museum with things we usually through out. Right from broken tiles to broken electric plugs to broken pots. You name it and it will be there. We later met the created himself. Padma Shree Nek Chand was an ageing man in his early 80s. One look at him and you would know that sitting at one place is something he does not like. A man as active as a teenager in his 80s is not a sight you usually find. His room was the proof. He sure is a collector. He had a broken radio and stuff which people consider trash. Had a small chat with him and said good-bye to him. Had a yet another meal at the SASE (Snow and Avalanche Study Establishment) guesthouse. Good sleep is by default.
DAY 3
One more spoiled morning. Had to get up early and leave. Left for Shimla at 0800. Lots of travel. Reached shimla by evening. Wonderful sceanary on the way. Lovely mountains all along. Reached Shimla by evening. The whole town is put along a single high way. Its like every one lives on the main road. Stayed over for the night. The next day went to KUFRI, which is the highest point in shimla, at about 10,000m above sea level. Went above on a horse.
Whats common between a horse and Bajaj Pulsar?? Both of them are hard on your balls. Rough ride but then had a good time. Got to see a lot of places from the top using a telescope. The places included an apple orchard, Indo china border, the last Indian military point, etc. Went along with my mom and sis. My dad preferred walking his way through as he had a bad back. My mom was shouting all along that she would get down and start walking and was asking “aur kitna dur bhai….. aur kitna time lagega” probably a million times. The name of my horse was “laloo” named after our great railway minister Laloo Prasad Yadav.
The interesting part over here is that I found a “MICROWAVE STATION”. That is probably the highest microwave station.
Left for KULLU directly from there. Reached there by 1500hrs. Stopped for shopping. I bought the trademark Himachal Pradesh Cap.
On the way we stopped over at a place called MANIKARAN. It is a Shiva temple having hot springs. It was daam hot and to make things worse it started raining. It’s a wonderful place. With steam coming from all over. A must visit. It gives the impression of the real Shiva temple in the foot of “kailash parvat”.
We later left for MANALI. Reached there by 2200 hrs. Checked in and slept. The weather was daam cold.
The day started pretty early. Got up by 0700 and was ready by 0800. Left for Chandhighar by the morning flight. Reached by afternoon. Had a wonderful Punjabi lunch. Went out in the evening to a place call ROCK MUSEUM. Man, the place was great. Mr. Nek Chand, the creator had actually created a museum with things we usually through out. Right from broken tiles to broken electric plugs to broken pots. You name it and it will be there. We later met the created himself. Padma Shree Nek Chand was an ageing man in his early 80s. One look at him and you would know that sitting at one place is something he does not like. A man as active as a teenager in his 80s is not a sight you usually find. His room was the proof. He sure is a collector. He had a broken radio and stuff which people consider trash. Had a small chat with him and said good-bye to him. Had a yet another meal at the SASE (Snow and Avalanche Study Establishment) guesthouse. Good sleep is by default.
DAY 3
One more spoiled morning. Had to get up early and leave. Left for Shimla at 0800. Lots of travel. Reached shimla by evening. Wonderful sceanary on the way. Lovely mountains all along. Reached Shimla by evening. The whole town is put along a single high way. Its like every one lives on the main road. Stayed over for the night. The next day went to KUFRI, which is the highest point in shimla, at about 10,000m above sea level. Went above on a horse.
Whats common between a horse and Bajaj Pulsar?? Both of them are hard on your balls. Rough ride but then had a good time. Got to see a lot of places from the top using a telescope. The places included an apple orchard, Indo china border, the last Indian military point, etc. Went along with my mom and sis. My dad preferred walking his way through as he had a bad back. My mom was shouting all along that she would get down and start walking and was asking “aur kitna dur bhai….. aur kitna time lagega” probably a million times. The name of my horse was “laloo” named after our great railway minister Laloo Prasad Yadav.
The interesting part over here is that I found a “MICROWAVE STATION”. That is probably the highest microwave station.
Left for KULLU directly from there. Reached there by 1500hrs. Stopped for shopping. I bought the trademark Himachal Pradesh Cap.
On the way we stopped over at a place called MANIKARAN. It is a Shiva temple having hot springs. It was daam hot and to make things worse it started raining. It’s a wonderful place. With steam coming from all over. A must visit. It gives the impression of the real Shiva temple in the foot of “kailash parvat”.
We later left for MANALI. Reached there by 2200 hrs. Checked in and slept. The weather was daam cold.
My Great Trip----- Day 1
PROLOGUE
My trip started off pretty early. With not more than a day to spare, well what the hell, I was already in a vacation mood. Landed in Hyderabad on a hot afternoon on 20th of April. Was as tired as a laboured donkey. But then nobody spares me. I was dragged to shopping along with my mom and sis. One piece of advice, NEVER GO SHOPPING WITH LADIES. Its daam boring and I almost lost my mind. My sis was asking my opinion of what to buy and what not… from a guy who was really tired and desparate for some sleep. Sleep and I don’t go well together. Had a few hours of sleep and off to the airport to catch the 0600 flight to DELHI. The 21st of April shall go down as a one of my big days.
DAY 1- DELHI
The flight took off by 0605. Slept off initially just to be woken up by a gorgeous airhostess who wanted to serve a box of goodies. (There are many more ways she could have served me but then I was with my family!) Landed in Delhi by 0800hrs.Went to the BHRAMOS guest house (thanks to my dad!) had breakfast and was all set for the big meet with Mr. PRESIDENT. We had an appointment for 1400hrs. It was to last for about 10 min. So, got dressed up for the big event and left for the Rastrapathi Bhavan.
We had to report at the main gate at 1345hrs. We were there by 1315. Told the security officer about our appointment and we were given a royal welcome. Cleared about 4 levels of security checks and finally reached the reception. We were directed to a grand room, and severed with some really good snacks. The guy who served us was just as if he came out of a movie from the mughal-e-asam. He looked royal.
The Rastrapathi Bhavan is truly a palace. It has got 360 rooms (I could sleep in new room for an entire year!!!!). I was amazed by the interiors. It’s just like walking into a movie showing a palace. Man…. My mouth was wide open. A red carpet, which leads right to the prez office. Man, I just couldn’t believe it.
Subedar Major Ramakrishna, Head president guard, a well-built guy in his early 40s met us at the waiting room. He enquired if we were carrying any gifts or cams or mobiles. Thanks to the prior info we didn’t carry any of those. He gave a green signal and we were taken to the office. The doors opened and I put my foot into his office.
There he was. Wearing a traditional suit, sitting in a corner of a magnanimous room. God, I thought the RB was great but then the best room is surely the prez study room aka his office. He greeted us with a “ hai buddy!!!” I was amazed just to realise that he was referring to my dad. We sat down. Before we started, he asked us if we wanted some tea, which we gracefully denied. He started off by explaining about his garden (I have no idea why he did that!). I was looking around his office. Found a number of books. Once he finished his explanation, he enquired about me and kavitha (my sis). I told him, I was doing my 2nd year in Thigarajar College of Engineering. He had actually come to my college about 2 months before he became the prez. He remembered that and said it was a nice college with a good campus. All except me had prepared questions, to ask the prez. Kavitha was the first to go. I was meanwhile thinking what to ask him.
Then it hit me as if it were a meteorite. Why not ask about the Indian educational system. There I went all out on the IES (to understand this, it is mandatory to have read my previous two blogs on IES) and the prez for the first time had no answer. I had bowled him out for once. But then this feeling was short-lived. He came back saying that we have to change only the primary system so as to induce creativity. That was end of my turn and my mom took over from me. I was looking through his stuff and found a book on NANOTECHNOLOGY. That’s all I wanted. The next one was from me with a techi question. Was asking him about the nanotechnology. He showed me a pic of a peacock saying that it resembles nano-powder. I went in with the re-buttle, putting out facts about nano-tech. (thanks to my RF-lab in my coll.) Was talking about the fabrication and stuff and he seemed to be very impressed with it.
This is where he asked my name again and what I was doing. He said I better contact IISc for this. He said he would gladly write the reference letter for me. I was on top of the world.
The 10 min appointment went on and I realised that I was there inside for about 45mn. We took a snap with him. Still waiting for the snap. Will post it once I get the pic. We asked him if we could roam around the RB and he gladly approved.
We went around the RB, seeing lots of things. Right from the Durbar hall (place where the PM is installed and other stuff), Ashoka hall (place where they give out the gallantry awards), the museums showing the gifts which delegated from other country have given to the president, the Mughal gardens, etc. Man, it was so daam good.
As always, good things always come to an end really soon. Even this came to an end really fast (we were there for about 3 hrs.).
We later went to the India gate and sorojini market for some shopping. Had fun. Had my dinner in Mc Donald’s and back to the guesthouse. Had to leave for chandhighar the next day.
My trip started off pretty early. With not more than a day to spare, well what the hell, I was already in a vacation mood. Landed in Hyderabad on a hot afternoon on 20th of April. Was as tired as a laboured donkey. But then nobody spares me. I was dragged to shopping along with my mom and sis. One piece of advice, NEVER GO SHOPPING WITH LADIES. Its daam boring and I almost lost my mind. My sis was asking my opinion of what to buy and what not… from a guy who was really tired and desparate for some sleep. Sleep and I don’t go well together. Had a few hours of sleep and off to the airport to catch the 0600 flight to DELHI. The 21st of April shall go down as a one of my big days.
DAY 1- DELHI
The flight took off by 0605. Slept off initially just to be woken up by a gorgeous airhostess who wanted to serve a box of goodies. (There are many more ways she could have served me but then I was with my family!) Landed in Delhi by 0800hrs.Went to the BHRAMOS guest house (thanks to my dad!) had breakfast and was all set for the big meet with Mr. PRESIDENT. We had an appointment for 1400hrs. It was to last for about 10 min. So, got dressed up for the big event and left for the Rastrapathi Bhavan.
We had to report at the main gate at 1345hrs. We were there by 1315. Told the security officer about our appointment and we were given a royal welcome. Cleared about 4 levels of security checks and finally reached the reception. We were directed to a grand room, and severed with some really good snacks. The guy who served us was just as if he came out of a movie from the mughal-e-asam. He looked royal.
The Rastrapathi Bhavan is truly a palace. It has got 360 rooms (I could sleep in new room for an entire year!!!!). I was amazed by the interiors. It’s just like walking into a movie showing a palace. Man…. My mouth was wide open. A red carpet, which leads right to the prez office. Man, I just couldn’t believe it.
Subedar Major Ramakrishna, Head president guard, a well-built guy in his early 40s met us at the waiting room. He enquired if we were carrying any gifts or cams or mobiles. Thanks to the prior info we didn’t carry any of those. He gave a green signal and we were taken to the office. The doors opened and I put my foot into his office.
There he was. Wearing a traditional suit, sitting in a corner of a magnanimous room. God, I thought the RB was great but then the best room is surely the prez study room aka his office. He greeted us with a “ hai buddy!!!” I was amazed just to realise that he was referring to my dad. We sat down. Before we started, he asked us if we wanted some tea, which we gracefully denied. He started off by explaining about his garden (I have no idea why he did that!). I was looking around his office. Found a number of books. Once he finished his explanation, he enquired about me and kavitha (my sis). I told him, I was doing my 2nd year in Thigarajar College of Engineering. He had actually come to my college about 2 months before he became the prez. He remembered that and said it was a nice college with a good campus. All except me had prepared questions, to ask the prez. Kavitha was the first to go. I was meanwhile thinking what to ask him.
Then it hit me as if it were a meteorite. Why not ask about the Indian educational system. There I went all out on the IES (to understand this, it is mandatory to have read my previous two blogs on IES) and the prez for the first time had no answer. I had bowled him out for once. But then this feeling was short-lived. He came back saying that we have to change only the primary system so as to induce creativity. That was end of my turn and my mom took over from me. I was looking through his stuff and found a book on NANOTECHNOLOGY. That’s all I wanted. The next one was from me with a techi question. Was asking him about the nanotechnology. He showed me a pic of a peacock saying that it resembles nano-powder. I went in with the re-buttle, putting out facts about nano-tech. (thanks to my RF-lab in my coll.) Was talking about the fabrication and stuff and he seemed to be very impressed with it.
This is where he asked my name again and what I was doing. He said I better contact IISc for this. He said he would gladly write the reference letter for me. I was on top of the world.
The 10 min appointment went on and I realised that I was there inside for about 45mn. We took a snap with him. Still waiting for the snap. Will post it once I get the pic. We asked him if we could roam around the RB and he gladly approved.
We went around the RB, seeing lots of things. Right from the Durbar hall (place where the PM is installed and other stuff), Ashoka hall (place where they give out the gallantry awards), the museums showing the gifts which delegated from other country have given to the president, the Mughal gardens, etc. Man, it was so daam good.
As always, good things always come to an end really soon. Even this came to an end really fast (we were there for about 3 hrs.).
We later went to the India gate and sorojini market for some shopping. Had fun. Had my dinner in Mc Donald’s and back to the guesthouse. Had to leave for chandhighar the next day.
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