Nainital Trip- 29th May, 2010

Hi, here I am, back after a long time. Feeling like writing something today. Let me share my experience about our nainital trip.
It was the week of May 24th to May 28th. I was feeling bored. I was even running out of stock to talk about things with my friends who were Niti and Swati. We three were left from our Hewitt training batch without any work. So, we used to chat a lot with each other. That day also, I was chatting with them and was running out of stock about starting new topics of discussions. I felt like asking them if they were ready to go for a trip. Asked Niti first, and she responded immediately as if she was very interested. Then asked Swati. Even she was interested. I suddenly felt that a topic I just initiated, to come out of boredom, could actually be successful.
Everyone was excited and finally we finalized the plan. We were running short of people which was difficult to manage the budget. Finally Niti, Swati, Varun, Niti’s friend Anuj, Swati’s friend Mukesh and I were the final lot of tourists for the Nainital trip. We all were up to make it an unforgettable experience. Varun took the responsibility to hire the cab and book the hotel as he had someone contacts. It finally got scheduled for 29th of May which was Saturday.
We wanted to go on Saturday morning. However we did not know that it was Varun’s birthday. Hence we changed our plan to set out in the evening on the 29th of May in stead of the morning.
On the 29th of May, sometime in the afternoon comes Varun’s message. “ Bad news, the car which was booked has broken down and there is no other cab”. Everyone became disheartened. I started getting calls from Niti Swati. Finally I thought, let me take the charge and try to do something as I wanted the plan to be successful at any cost. Did not want it to be a spoilsport. Tried to encourage Niti by saying, “No matter what, we are not going to cancel the plan”. We were scheduled to set out at 9 in the evening. So, I had to make the plan with no change in the schedule. I immediately called one or two places. Also called one of my friends. He gave me a driver’s number. I negotiated and finally fixed the deal. I did not want to spread this until I was sure that it was done. Finally, I called Niti, and the moment I told him that it had been arranged, I cant explain how happy she became. Called Swati also to inform the same. She also became very happy. Asked Swati to come to my place because it was difficult to take take the cab back to Gurgaon and come back. Swati and Mukesh came. They waited for sometime. Could not bring them in my bedroom because of the Friday night party going on with. In the meanwhile the driver came and we set out for our grand trip.
Went to pick Varun from his place. Then to Nitis place. Niti was very excited. Finally reached her place. Picked her and started towards picking up Anuj from Ghaziabad. Picked him up.
The trip starts.
We all started the trip with a mobile party in the cab to celebrate Varun’s birthday. Niti brought cake for Varun. We all enjoyed his birthday party in the moving cab, courtesy Niti.
The cab stops at Ghaziabad to clear the road tax for UP. After it was done, it starts moving again. We all were feeling like going to washroom. Asked the driver to stop somewhere. Finally he stopped at a roadside dhaba. We freshened up and had tea and did some photo shoot as well. The cab starts moving again. This time we start singing songs one by one. Our intension was not to sleep. First it was me. Then Niti, then varun, then Swati a little bit. Everyone started singing. It was such a nice experience. Midnight. The cab moving with a high speed on a completely empty road with some speedy vehicles crossing by or we cross some. We go on like this for the entire night. We finally find the light in the sky indicating that it would be dawn soon. We stopped at a place where one train was crossing. We were behind many vehicles. We were stuck there for close to an hour. We preferred to come out of the cab and did some more photo shoot. It was morning my then. Finally the traffic cleared and we start moving towards our destination again. The moment we started thinking of reaching Nainital within the next 2 hours, we came to know that the driver did a blunder. He drove the cab 30 KMs ahead in a wrong route. So, we had to come back 30 KMs through a typical village. We stopped the cab again in a dhaba located inside the village. Had tea, did some photo shoot with the tube well. Finally started again. we keep on moving.
Finally the time comes when we could see some views of hills. We were excited. It was almost Nainital. We started moving up through the hilly roads. Niti was worried about how she would feel while moving up. She has problems with heights. Fortunately nothing happened with her. We stopped at a place on the hilly road. We did lot of photo shoot there. Niti and I had one snap shot with the titanic pose. Niti always talks about that. It is such a nice photo. I will remember that photo forever. We finally reached nainital. It was so nice. I was so satisfied realizing the success of the trip.
We went to the hotel that Varun was talking about. We booked it. One for Niti and swati and one for all the boys including that driver. After settling down and keeping our luggage, we go out to have lunch as everyone was very hungry. We took lunch at Sher-e-Punjab where the food was too good. After taking our lunch we came down, and in the mean while I came to the hotel room to give the driver some money so he could have his lunch and asked him not to return until 8PM. I went back and we planned for boating on the Naini lake. We did boating. I rowed entirely on my own which was an awesome experience. We took a round of the entire lake. Came back and then Anuj planned for horse riding. I never had any idea that it would be the most adventurous experience in the entire trip. We started horse riding one each with the people around to help up control the horse. A moment came when I was about to fall off the horse into another road which was more than 20 feet below where I was. Somehow I was fortunate. We kept on moving on the back of the horses and reached the peak of the hill. It was such an amazing view from there. The entire Nainital town was visible from there. We did a lot of photo shoot. We came down. While coming down it was even more horrible riding on those horses as there was every bit of chance of falling off the horse back and get injured. Fortunately it did not happen with anyone of us. We came down. Most amazingly, none of us were exhausted even after being awake for the entire previous night and non stop celebration. We were awake for more than 30 hours by then. We moved though the street where a small market is organized every Sunday. We had tea from there and finally came back to the hotel room. Anuj and Varun went to visit a near by Gurudwara, swati and Mukesh were lost somewhere. Niti and I were the first to enter the hotel. She went to her room and I came back to my room .I was so exhausted that I fell asleep immediately after I sat on the bed. After sleeping for may be an hour I got up and went to see if everyone returned. Found Mukesh sleeping. Went to the girl’s room to find Swait, Niti, Varun and Anuj gossiping with tired attire. I also joined them. Finally, it was time for dinner. We all went to the ground floor restaurant of the hotel and dined there. It was more expensive than what we had in lunch. After having dinner, we roamed around on the mall road for sometime. Anuj, Varun and I went to a travel agent to enquire about the places that we could visit. He suggested us to go to Mukteshwar which is a descent place to go with not too much of crowd. We made the plan but did not tell anyone about it as Niti and Swati were almost hesitant to go anywhere else. We came back to the hotel room and played cards for sometime. Everyone started feeling sleepy. So, we went to our respective rooms leaving Niti and swati in their rooms. Next day morning Anuj and I got up early. We went out to see how a Nainital morning looks like. We roamed around for sometime. Had some photo shoot with his black berry. It was awesome. We had tea. Came back to find Varun and Mukesh still sleeping. Finally they got up. I went to wake the girls up. We all got ready and did some photo shoot again in the hotel lobby. Finally checked out of the hotel. Then went to the famous Nainital candle shop just adjacent to the hotel. Saw some very good candle made works. We bought some candles from there, and started for Mukteswar. We were moving up and up. Suddenly Niti started to feel sick. Her condition deteriorated. That’s when we found that we did wrong not to inform them about it. I was feeling so bad for her. I was repeatedly looking back to her just hopping that she might be feeling better. After all these, her condition did not improve, we stopped the cab somewhere and I took some lemons and salts for niti as she wanted to have that in order to feel better. She was still not feeling better. Trying to puke again and again. Everyone was feeling bad about her. Finally we reach Mukteshwar which is at a height of 7500 feet from the ground. We went even further. Varun stayed back with Niti. We came back and joined them. Finally our trip was progressing towards an end. The cab started moving back from Mukteshwar. More distance we were covering, better Niti was feeling. On the way back to Dehi, nothing much happened. We all were tired. So, nothing more to write.
We reach Delhi. Drop Anuj Around 2.30AM on Monday. Then, Niti, then I. And then, Varun, Swati and Mukesh. End of an unforgettable trip. Our very own Nainital trip.

Thanks and regards


SUMAN BANERJEE
IND Benefit Operations Administrator
Hewitt Associates
Suman.Banerjee@hewitt.com | www.hewitt.com