Prologue:
The ceiling fan was nothing special! Yet, that night in August, I found myself lying on my bed, arms and legs splayed wide apart, staring at it endlessly. An occasional breath convinced me that I was still alive, because other than that I barely moved. Every now and then, my eyes would try to follow the movement of the fan’s blades, achieve success for a brief while and then lose again. I did this over and over. No particular thought flowed through my mind. Had I died then and there, I wouldn’t have complained….. I lie there, unable to move and unable to think, convinced that my life, as I know it, would be over soon. It was that time of my MBBS life. The days before the final exams.. Just then I heard my phone beep. With all the energy that I could muster, I extended my hand, and with the use of as few neck muscles as possible, looked at the screen. … A message…It was from Hari. A train of thoughts, none which made me feel better, ran in my mind as I tried to guess its contents. ‘God! Dot tell me that there in another Photostat!...Maybe they have postponed the exams!...Maybe the question papers leaked.’. I opened it firmly repeating Murphy’s law in my head, ‘Everything that can go wrong, will’….It said ’69 days!’. Having long lost its ability to think, my brain strained hard at this information. It took a while and then a thought struck! And I smiled!..I remembered that not long before, a promise was made. Sweet memories were to be made soon. Life remained to be lived to the fullest! I sat up, looked at that monster of a book by Bailey and Love, and moved toward it with a new viciousness. In my mind, a countdown had started….
The team-the lucky 13:
There were 13 of us: Abel, Ajay, Niby, Afsal, Mathew, Hari, Mithun, Manu, Karthik , Rony, Irfan,Johns and I.
The idea:
A few of 2k6 batch had undertaken a journey which took them through the many states of India. It was from their journey and adventures, that we found inspiration for our own. But we wanted to make it bigger. And so, we did!
With the words that follow, I do not intend to give you a detailed description of the landscapes and monuments that we saw or their history. I only wish to share some of the interesting places that we had been to, what we saw there and what we did. This journey was a toast to the fellowship and kinship that had grown between us over the years. I hope the words that follow will inspire you, our young brothers and sisters, to make a journey like this. I challenge you to make it bigger and better. And I wish you a happy journey!
Our journey:
The 13 of us took a tour of 21 days that spanned across 6 states (not counting the ones we passed through) and covered more than 10000 kms . We planned this journey just after our final sessionals in final year. Taking valuable advice from Divin and team of 2k6 batch, we arranged all the trains, places of stay and itinerary by ourself. Karthik, Mathew and Abel did most of the planning and they did a phenomenal job. It was one of the most thrilling experiences of our lives. And although we may undertake more journeys in the future, we know there won’t be one like this ever again.
We started from Kottayam, and after a journey of almost 2 days on the Kerala express, reached Agra. From there we went to Delhi where we stayed for a day. From Delhi, we took a bus to Manali. After spending 3 memorable days there, we visited Chandigarh and Amritsar for a day each and from Amritsar, took the train back to Delhi because a direct train to Jaipur was not available. From Delhi, where we spent 3 more days, we went to Jaipur for a day and from Jaipur to Goa. We really wished we could’ve spent more time in Jaipur, which we had to leave largely unexplored. But the train and bus schedules limited our options.
I believe it is impossible to put into words all the things that you experience from a journey. There are so many things that you learn, things that influence you and change you to be put on a paper. But I attempt a brief description of our trip.
Agra, the glorious city of the past:
We reached Agra cantonment station at around 9:30am. There are three railway stations in Agra and this was the closest to our places of interest. After spending an entire day in train, we badly needed to stretch our legs. Since we would be spending just a day there, we had planned to keep our luggage in the station's cloak room. But that day, some VIP had come and they had closed the section of the station which contained the cloak room. We thought about what we were to do with our luggage. Many suggestions were raised but in the end, more due to sheer exhaustion rather than proper thought, we decided to leave the stuff in the taxi that we would hire, after taking the valuables with us wherever we went.
After bargaining in bad Hindi, we finally hired two taxis. They would take us to the Taj, Agra fort and drop us back at the station.
Not wanting to give away that we were amateurs, I wrote down the cab's number in front of the driver and asked him to show his license. He protested and said that even foreigners trusted him with their luggage. I persisted and finally he showed me some id. He probably didn't have a license. I gave him the 'u better not cheat us' look and he returned the ' are all mallus morons?' look. After packing our luggage and stashing anything worth more than a thousand bucks in our jackets, the 13 of us got into the 2 taxis that we had hired.
There are 4 gates of entry at the Taj, where the queues are not of equal length. Our taxi guy guided us to the fastest entry point. From the entry gate, you have to travel by foot or by electric cars for a distance of about 1-2kms to the entrance of the Taj complex. It was good to see that they were taking steps to preserve the world wonder.
After the security checks, where Hari got caught with my hard disk and had a hard time explaining that it was not a malicious device, we entered Taj.
No matter how many times you have seen it in photos or videos, the first sight of Taj will take your breath away. It is that beautiful. Even after the lootings and acid rains, its beauty will leave you speechless at least for a moment. The thing that'll strike you the most is the sheer enormity of the monument. It will be bigger than what you imagine in your mind from the photographs. I felt proud of the Indian architects and workers who made it possible. Karthik and I rented audio-guides, which we found very useful. After many photographs and weird poses, we decided to move on. As, I got out, I had little appreciation for the allegedly great emperor, which diminshed further as the day progressed. He was a womanizer, who had many wives and concubines ranging well into the hundreds, who spent more than half of a country's wealth on a mausoleum, while women and children of his empire starved. What was so great about that?
We had lunch at a hotel where the taxi-guy probably had a tie-up and headed for our next destination, the Agra Fort. After the world wonder, we thought we wouldn't be impressed by anything. But we were wrong! Agra Fort was even richer with history. Plus, it was huge! We had a swell time running about and taking photos. Hari had the advantage of having been there earlier and guided us, recollecting from his previous guided tour. Apparently, emperor Shah jahan had a view-point for the exquisitely built bath-area for his mistresses. This information was passed on to another bunch, who were being guided. From within the group, we heard a comment ' Ho! Velya rajavanennu paranjitt karyamundo? Kuli scene ennum kuli scene thanne!'. We laughed hard! Apparently there was no shortage for malayalis there.
After spending some more time there, we returned to the station. There, another surprise awaited us. In the station, on a long train, were military equipment, including jeeps and TANKS!! When I saw it first, I couldn't comprehend immediately what I saw. It was amazing! We touched it in turns and maybe even giggled a bit! Boys will be boys!
And so, after an exciting day, we waited for the janashadabdi express.
Delhi:
We took on Delhi in two bites. This was because of the lack of trains from Amritsar to Jaipur. We left Agra and reached Delhi somewhere after midnight.
Our journey to Delhi by the Jan Shadabdi express was memorable. Having travelled in the Kerala express, we weren’t with all our imagination combined, prepared for the experience. The seats were so comfy, with ample leg space, nicely done interiors, air conditioned coaches and such a luxurious feel. We took our seats and planned to enjoy the 2 hours ahead. Many things happened in those 2 hours that still makes us laugh. It all started when Unni(Mithun) who sat just in front of me was nearly decapitated by my huge travel bag. Shortly after, a few men in black came into our coach and asked to our surprise whether we would like dinner. I was one of the first to be asked this question. I looked at the menu, once again scanned the air-conditioned coach and even though, the price wasn’t listed on the sides, made some quick mental calculations and decided that I couldn’t afford it. Having dealt with street hawkers earlier that day, I was ready with my newly improved Hindi vocabulary which consisted primarily of two words- ‘Nahi chahiye!’ But being a frugal Malayalee to the core, I had good sense to throw in the question ‘ Ye sab free hai, kya?’ , and after a brief pause for effect, added ‘free nahi hai tho nahi chahiye!’. Take it or leave it! I looked at Hari who sat beside me, who beamed at my new Hindi skills and nodded in agreement to what I had said. The guy took the scene in and asked us if it was our first time abroad the train and kindly explained to us that it was in fact included in our ticket-fare. We looked at each other, overwhelmed by emotion, and agreed to be served dinner. In a different part of the coach, Rony asserted himself “aapko samja nahi? Mujhe nahi chaahiye!”. Meanwhile Ajay updated his fb status “free meals on Jan shadabdi express”. It was 5 minutes later, when a bored Rony checked fb that he realized what a grave mistake he had made. It was after the entire meal was served, that the team of MIB emerged with a red plate for tips. Skillfully placing a couple of 100 rupee notes from their own pockets and removing all the 10s that would land on the plate, they approached us, only to find us all in our true “nahi chahiye” mode.
We reached Delhi after midnight and Delhi was cold. We had booked our accommodation at International Youth Hostel, Chanakyapuri through the Youth Hostel Association, India (This is an organization that any wannabe traveller should know about. Check their website out). We reached the hostel and it was awesome- a youth hostel of international standards.
The next day, we had time till night to roam about Delhi. Delhi has many interesting markets- Palika bazaar, Sarojini market, Chawri bazaar, Karol Bagh and more. We decided to take the day for just roaming about. We took the metro. It was a great experience. Efficient, clean, fast and always on time, it was amazing! We went to Connaught place and I spent most of my time in Palika bazaar which was nearby. It is a bazaar that’s mostly underground, hosting around 400 shops. Soon after we entered the place, we were being chased by shopkeepers with 512 gb pen drives! At one shop, the guy asked a price of 1000 bucks for the pen drive. We just stood there and guy offered it for 500. We looked at each other and started walking. He chased us.. 450…300…200…100…50..and then he finally offered it to us, at a price of 30 rs. We later found out after a bit of google searching that the pendrives of Palika Bazaar were quite infamous. Customers often found that the computer only read only kilobytes of memory within the 512 gb sticks. Some, who upon finding that the pendrives weren’t being read at all, would open up the plastic casing, only to find neatly folded paper inside. We all did our bit of shopping there, in spite of the risks, at a leisurely pace. We bargained, fought, were chased out of shops and still bought stuff. Ajay and I bargained across no less than 50 shops for an Angry birds mobile cover. Being jobless was wonderful. We took our bus to kulu that night.
We returned to Delhi, after visiting, Kullu, Manali, Cahndigarh and Amritsar.
Our impression about Delhi did not change on our second visit. New Delhi was neat and clean, awesomely organized. Old Delhi was dusty, filled with evil men who resembled villains in 70’s Hindi movies but rich in history.
We did a lot of shopping, mostly from Karol Bagh and Sarojini market, where a lot of good quality stuff were being sold at cheap prices. In these places, the price for which you got something depended mostly on your bargaining skills. Shady dealers selling “original”, “branded” sunglasses were all plentiful. The mantra of “nahi chaahiye!” was uttered over and over!
When it came to bargaining, Rony was King! The rest of us would argue, get into heated exchanges and fight while Rony would merely observe. A guy was selling bags, for which he initially demanded a price of 700. An interested customer soon approached him. After bargaining for nearly half hour, the frustrated seller who had only 2 more bags gave away the bag at 200, after muttering some well-chosen words. He was about to pack up, when Rony came, with 200 bucks in his one hand and the other pointed at the previous customer. The shopkeeper, too stunned for words, gave the bag away.
Since we had only a few days in Delhi, we took a guided tour of one day to cover the historical bits. Red fort was big and amazing, and a bit scary. Qutub minar was awesome! The Bahai temple was a new experience-we never knew Bahai was a form of faith. Gandhi Smriti helped us gain a lot of insight. The Rajghat evoked some powerful feelings. Nehru planetarium was cool. The Rashtrapathi bhavan appeared powerful even though we could only view it from a distance. Riding the rickshaw and the strange bike-rickshaw were interesting experiences. And the India gate evoked patriotism and raised some questions within. But some experiences stood out!
The Aksharadham temple left us absolutely speechless! I had not even heard of the temple’s primary deity – Swaminarayanan. We entered the temple after security checks and were absolutely stunned at the elaborate works that the temple had. Even though, most of the temple structures were made with the aid of sculpturing machines, it was simply spell-binding. The light and sound show was delightful as well.
We were lucky to get a chance to visit the Parliament. Hari’s aunt worked there and had arranged us a pass, at considerable risk to herself. What was most impressive about the whole thing was the security checks. After the parliament attacks of 2001, things were very strict there. We were frisked, grabbed, felt thoroughly many times. All our personal belongings were left outside. We couldn’t take in even a handkerchief. Hari’s aunt had gave us a brief outline on the code of behavior to be maintained inside- we were to remain absolutely silent, make no sudden moves and should not appear disrespectful to the sessions in progress. Inside the gallery, we were asked to sit straight with our backs against the chairs-we couldn’t even lean forward. At first, it was an interesting game of spotting the faces we knew from tv. Soon the excitement diminished. But we couldn’t even yawn because whenever we looked, at least 3 pairs of eyes would be on us!( Reminded me of the exam halls when Pathology staff came for invigilation).
Another fond memory was the quest in search of the exclusive “thandoori rann” from Karim’s. Karim’s is a popular hotel in old Delhi, which is apparently run by the successors of the chefs of the Mughal emperors. Their most famous dish is the Rann leg. A whole mutton leg roasted to perfection, after drying it for months in sun. It was Irfan who told us of this exotic dish. And so, on a night, aided by google maps, we traversed the pocket roads of old Delhi in search of Karim’s, which is located near Juma masjid. It was a scary journey. We were taken through several dim-lit places, where most tourists wouldn’t dare to walk in daylight. But we did. Such is the courage that a big group provides you. We reached the place that night only to be told the disappointing news that they had ran out of rann legs. But we fulfilled our appetites on a different day. And it was worth every trouble we took. Mwah! It was delicious!
Kullu and Manali- A slice of heaven itself:
We took the bus from Delhi to reach Manali on the morning of day 5. We had spent the entire night in the bus, fully insulated from the cold in our multi-layered clothing and felt confident that we would be able to handle Manali’s climate with ease. But the moment we stepped out of the bus, our entire confidence vapourized. It was so cold, so incredibly cold! We covered our heads with the caps of our jackets all the way till all we could see was half of the person in front, and withdrew our hands into its sleeves because the cheap gloves we had bought for all from Delhi wasn’t helping at all. The Youth hostel that we had booked was somewhere nearby, but how far and in which direction, we didn’t know. Google maps said a lot of things which made little sense. And to make things even more annoying, we were swarmed by taxi drivers from all sides. We unleashed Afsal the wonder-boy, whose skill at making a deal is commentable. For some reason, we decided to walk out of the bus station by ourselves. It was a scene that resembled the climax scene of the movie ‘Godfather’ when innocent and team entered the wedding place with their heads covered by big bowls. We couldn’t see a thing except for the guy in front and kept hitting on each other.
Finally we reached the Youth Hostel of Manali after hiring a taxi. There we met Anil Nag, who ran the place. Although, we had extensively planned how to get to and how many days to spend in Kullu and Manali, we hadn’t thought of what all things we wanted to do there. Anil helped us with all that. He arranged a couple of taxis and planned a brief itinerary for our 3 days. He told us that because we had come in winter, the Rohtang pass would be inaccessible, since it would be closed by the army. Since it was off-season, we got the best rooms available there. The view from our rooms, on the top floor which had balconies, was splendid. The balconies faced the mountains, some covered green- mostly pine trees,half covered by mist, with a few cottages distributed here and there, while the mountains beyond were covered in snow. It was the stuff that wallpapers are made of. Our taxis arrived soon and it was thus that we met Rakesh Bhaiyya. He was our taxi driver, who was silent at first, but gradually opened up to our broken Hindi. By the time we left Manali 3 days later, he had become part of our experience there. Terrific guy!
On the first day, we visited the River Beas, which derives its water from glacier melts and was barely flowing in November. The round rocks which formed the river bed, was an amusing sight and soon we posed again and again for our cameras. Manu, as usual, had found his wild side. He started jumping from one slippery rock to another and although unintended, finally took a dip in the nearly frozen waters. He emerged, unfazed , as if he had totally intended to take a dip and even commented that the water wasn’t that cold, all the while freezing in his soaked inner-wear. We were then taken to a hot water spring, which was frankly disappointing. We were taken to a huge water tank from which half-naked men said their hellos. And then we were informed that that was it! The source of the water tank was apparently a hot water spring. When our guide-cum-driver saw that our faces registered little appreciation, he invited us to test the temperature of the water. We obliged and registered a look of awe on our face to comfort the guy.
Next we made our way to the Hidimba temple. Apparently Hadimba devi meditated in this place and gave birth to her son ,Gadolkkajan, near its vicinity. The structure of the temple was interesting and inside, you could allegedly see the foot-print of Hadimba devi. And near-by a giant impression on the rocks, allegedly left behind by Gadolkkajan could be seen too. But what was most fun here was the dressing-up! We were dressed up in the traditional attire there and posed for photos. After that, we returned to the hostel.
At the hostel, Anil was ready with our food. Aloo paratha! We loved it on the first day, found it okay on the second and positively hated it on the third day. The food was great, but the aloo unbearable!
In a tour of 21 days, it is inevitable that there will be something that embarrasses you. On our second day there, a couple of new families dropped in at breakfast. The rebellion of youth flowing in our veins and confident to the core that we wouldn’t be understood, we joked aloud among ourselves. ‘Aliya aa charakk kozhappamilla. Nee edutho!’…. ‘Enikkengum venda! Atra pora!’….. ‘Ennalum nee eduthoda mone’…..’Shari! njan edukkam. Pakshe athinte thalle nee edukkanam!’… and so on ,the conversation, which meant no harm, went. During lunch the family again dropped by, took their seats and calmly waited. We were done with our raunchy jokes, and so, sat quietly, staring into the depths of the aloo mess we had to eat. And then the daughter spoke “Amme, aa udupp bagil illarunnu!” , to which the mother replied, “mole, ath matte bagil undavum. Nee nalla pole nokkikke!”. We were horrified! Our eyeballs nearly dropped from their sockets. One by one, we walked out from the dining hall and then ran to our rooms! Malayalam was uttered with caution from that moment on!
On the second day, we went for rafting in Kullu. The ideal season for rafting is summer when there is more water in the rivers. Rafting in winter, when the waters were somewhat shallower, was riskier. We could hit on rocks which would normally be submerged and if the raft toppled, the waters were unsafe with pointed stones and stuff. Needless to say, rafting was awesome!
The next destination proved to be one of the most spectacular in our tour. The Bijili Mahadev temple! It was accosiated with an interesting legend, Rakesh bhaiyya, told us. Apparently the temple, which hosted a shiva linga, which stands at a height of 2.5 kms above sealevel was looked after by the ancestors of the present preist, who were shepherds by profession. The temple stands on ground that has a propensity to be hit by lightning. Every 2-3 years, the shiv linga would be crumpled to pieces by the bijili(meaning lightning) and the pieces would be put back into shape with butter, which was made by the priest’s family. When it came to the turn of the present priest, in his youth, to look after the temple, he refused to look after the sacred sculpture and wanted to lead the life of a shepherd. And so, disaster struck for him. He lost his sheep to lightning, lost family members and eventually lost the use of his legs which became paralyzed. And so, he took upon himself, the role conferred to him by destiny and ancestry. He would remain in the temple, for most of the year. Food was brought to him by his sons. He would remain within the temple, when it was struck by lightning. And he promises to spend the rest of his life there! It was interesting, to say the least!
A hike of 3 km was to be made to see the temple. It was an incredibly difficult climb. Air became thinner as one ascended. Many a time, we felt as if the hike just couldn’t be made. But we persisted. And we were rewarded! The view from atop the mountain was too stunning to be described in words. From one face of the the mountain top, we could see the entire Kulu town, with its airport and everything, below. Beyond it, the mountains stood, almost touching the clouds above, while allowing the sun to spread its rays through in the most seductive manner. It was just great! There is another creature that arouses interest there. There is a black dog, a Labrador I think, which would accompany the first group of hikers in the morning, on their acesnd. It would then stay there and only return when the last group descended. It also carried milk and other supplies to homes in between. The gentle creature descended the mountain with us that day.
On our last day in Manali, we had our priorities set! We wanted to see some snow! Since, Rohtang pass (Rohtang literally means ‘pile of corpses’-due to people dying there in bad weather) was closed by the military, we were taken to Solang valley. But before that we went out to rent snowsuits and snowboots! And on our way to solang, we stopped somewhere and saw it! Snowfall! It was such a mesmerizing sight! We got off our taxis and started playing in the snow like kids. We even built a snow-man! We also tried our luck in skiing. It is an annoyingly hard sport! I had such a difficult time even standing up, while Irfan, with all his weightless glory, breezed past me. Gravity plays such cruel jokes on foodies!
And then, we went to Solang valley. The temperature stood at -7 degree celcius. We shivered in our multi-layered clothing topped with snowsuits. It was there that another thrill awaited us. Paragliding! It was a dream, a secret ambition that many among us hid from their parents, that would soon become a reality… But that was not so! Not for all of us anyway. The weather was not ideal for paragliding. But the guides there were willing to take the risk. At a price of course! But many of us had that sense of foreboding and decided to do it, perhaps another day. Hari, Johns, Afsal and Manu attempted the feat and said it remains one of the best experiences that they have ever had. We left Manali that night, happy memories etched in deep recesses within our minds.
Punjab:
From Manali, we took a bus to Chandigarh. If you check out the map of Chandigarh, you’ll understand why it is called a planned city -lots of square pieces of land separated by the roads that connect all of them so neatly and efficiently! Chandigarh wasn’t originally in our plans but we had an extra day and added it to our list. We arrived in Chandigarh inter-state bus terminal(ISBT) in at about 5 in the morning. Since we were to leave for Amritsar later that day, we put our bags in the cloak room, freshened up at the station and went out into the city, dressed in our jackets and multilayered clothing still, as the morning was cold. We took a tourist double-decker bus which guided us through the various places of interest there. We visited the rose garden, which was okay. Then we visited the rock garden that left us impressed at the work and dedication of the creator, Nek Chand. He was a government official, who built it in secret, collecting the materials required from demolition sites. It spreads out over 40 acres! We also visited a museum which took us through the history of Chandigarh and the Sukhna lake, where we rode the paddle boat. Then, we split up because the interests of many varied. Ajay,Afsal,Niby, Mithun, Manu and I (the sinister 6, Ajay dubs us) took a detour to Punjab university campus. Not only did we have the nerve to go into some college campus unannounced, but we also explored their students center. Curious and a few unfriendly eyes took notice of us, dressed up like terrorists. After a couple of hours, we left the campus, unhurt. Meanwhile, the rest visited PGI.
It was passed on to us, by our senior batch, that the main sights of the city weren’t the sculptures or the gardens, but the beautiful women. And we had to agree! The Punjabi women walked unashamed of her beauty, dashing a smile whenever appropriate, winning hearts all over. We gave appreciative smiles which were rarely returned. But Valan (Mathew) played the oldest trick that there is…Sympathy!
The aloo had been cruel to all of us, but it was Valan who had suffered from its wrath the most. His stomach hadn’t forgiven him still and that day, while most of us were busy capturing eye-candy at a mall, he sat alone on a bench outside. A group of girls came, asked him if could sit there and joined him. The sad look on his face prompted questions and soon they were sharing food and laughing. When we returned, the idiot had the biggest smile on his face!
What impressed us the most, in those two days which we spent in Punjab was the heart of the Sardar! The people of Punjab are warm-hearted and helpful. We met several people, interacted with them and felt that they were the most caring, benevolent, loving bunch that there is. We felt ashamed of all the Sardar jokes that we had enjoyed. The Sardar is the subject of jokes not because of his stupidity, but because of his innocence. Loved them!
In Amritsar, we visited the Golden temple and the Jalinwalah Bagh- both of which had stories of horror and bravery to be shared. The Punjabi are very proud of their history and welcomes everyone with great hospitality to share it. When we arrived in Amritsar railway station, we were welcomed , shown to a couple of taxis, taken to a place near the gurudwara to freshen up (The place charged a mere 13 bucks per person) and then led to the Jalinwalah Bagh. It is a place that is filled with stories that will make you cry and stories that’ll make you proud. A must visit for any Indian.
The Golden temple is beautiful. Everyone is welcome there. But one can still see the wounds left behind by operation Bluestar. One can still feel the extremist propaganda of Bhinderwala Singh still being pushed forward if one observes closely the books and pamphlets that are circulated outside the temple. But when we go through the rolls of history, we understand that the modern Sikh has every reason to be outraged at what happened that day and the things that followed.
From Amritsar, we went to Wagah border. We stopped by, at ‘Balle balle’-the last dhabba before the border, as its boards claimed, and helped ourselves to some sweet lassi. Several dhabas later, we reached the border. The queue outside the gates to the entrance was long and we waited for some time. Once the security checks are done, there is a walk of about 1 km to the galleries at the border. We ran like everyone else, to get good seats. After the run, finally we did get good seats. The performance of the army was incredible. National pride filled the air. The many who assembled there from various parts of the country became one and their voices echoed in respect to the National flag. A moment of silence was observed however, when Manu yelled out ‘Bolo bolo PHARAT matha kee!’. Heads turned, filled with confused looks at what this Pharath was. After a moment someone rescued the situation with a properly pronounced cheer for the nation.
We left Punjab with warm hearts, filled with happiness.
Jaipur, the land of Kings:
Jaipur remains one of the biggest regrets in our tour for the reason that we could not spend enough time there. We just had a day to explore this wonderful city. We reached Jaipur at night and stayed at a hotel arranged by Hari’s father. In the morning, we got right into exploring the wonders the city had to offer. One of our biggest mistakes we made here was the taxi-cum-guide guy we had hired. He took us to the places he deemed fit, forced us into shops where he had cuts even after we repeatedly told him that we weren’t interested and tried to force us into restaurants where he would get free lunch and rushed us through the various sites even when we wanted to stay a bit longer. We had a difficult time with him and it spoiled the experience a bit.
The main places we visited in Jaipur were the Hawa mahal, Jantar Mantar, a museum that used to be a palace and Amber fort. It was really an eye opening experience. The Jantar Mantar is a collection of huge astronomical instruments designed, built and used by Sawai Jai Singh. His genius and scientific method will make any Indian proud. The Amber fort was huge and was laden with history. The Rajputs were one of the richest and most organized kingdoms of India and left behind some truly spectacular architectural works.
At night, Hari, Manu and I, determined not to waste a moment of our vacation, went for the movie ‘Talash’ at a nearby mall. After the movie, it was around 1 am and taxis weren’t freely available. We decided to walk to the hotel, with the aid of google maps. I proudly led them on with my sophisticated phone in hand. After passing through many twisted turns and unfamiliar roads which were almost stranded, google announced ‘you have reached your destination!’ We looked around and understood that we were in the middle of nowhere. There we were, in a city unknown to us, with very little Hindi in our hands, at 1am in the night, unable to find our hotel!! Finally we retraced our path, asked a policeman out for patrolling and got directions. We took a leap of faith and finally reached the hotel somehow.
If you are planning to visit Rajastan, make plans for spending a week there at the least.
Goa-Party time!
Goa was the final destination of our tour. And we were really looking forward to chilling out there for a few days. We were in Goa for 4 and a half days, which in my opinion was a lot more than needed. We had rented a house through Mathew’s brother. Once we reached there, we rented scooters which were available for a price of rs.400 per day (During tourist season, it goes up to 2000).
We were joined by a couple of friends from Fr. Muller’s College, Mangalore who came there to attend the David Guetta concert. Our group of 13 split up now and then to explore the place to one’s won content. Ajay, Niby, Afsal, Mithun, Manu and I, joined our friends from Mangalore.
We went to almost all the beaches in North Goa- Anjuna, Calangute, Baga and Candolim. We visited some hip places there. We swam in the ocean, played football at the beach, checked out gorgeous women ( whom we surprisingly got tired of by day 2) and engaged in the all water sports that the place offered. They were- banana ride, jet skiing, bumpy ride and parasailing. All of them proved to be wonderful experiences but parasailing stood out.
Then we visited Fort Aguda at noon, which was incredibly hot and we had to cut short our visit. Visit the place in the evening if you plan to. Then we had fish platter-an assortment of various fish dishes, and it was delicious. The friends who joined us had been there many times before and the rest of us were guided by Joseph chettan, Mathew’s brother. This made finding places worth visiting really easy for us.
Goa is a funny place to say the least. Almost no shop opens till noon. If one gets thirsty, there are beer parlours every 100 feet of so, but to find a place to have food or snacks, you have to search for a long distance. Goa is an alcoholic’s dream come true. Alcohol is ubiquitously available and incredibly cheap. But our group was a funny mix. Of our group of 13, 10 were ‘alcohol virgins’ and the rest weren’t into hard liquor. So, we couldn’t exactly capitalize on the situation. We remained a very sober group till the end. A shame it was, according to many we recited the tales of goa to, later.
On one night, the 6 of us plus the two visited a night club. We danced there till 4am. And then went to the beach and just lay down there, watching the moon and the waves, making fun of each other and recalling times from our college life.
An interesting thing that you will experience in Goa if you are a young man is that you will be constantly chased by agents of ‘massage parlours’. We were often asked on the road “Massage? Party? Looking for a good time?”, to which we diligently shook our heads. But one experience stood out. We were returning from Baga beach to our stay, when a guy in a bike sped up to us and asked us while still driving,
’ Massage??’ …’ No’….’Party?’….’No!!’…… ‘Ladies???’….’ No!!!’. He then paused for a while and popped the question ‘How about Gays???? ‘. We stopped our bikes after chasing the guy off and laughed hard for a while! And then we looked at each other, convinced it was someone else in the group that prompted the question.
Goa is fun, but while there, one has to be really careful. We had a couple of bad experiences. The scooters we rode there had a lot of problems. The brakes were especially worn off. Niby’s scooter accidentally hit a taxi in the back. It was a minor collision. We were willing to compensate for the damage and talking to the driver when the situation got a bit out of hand. A local bystander demanded that we gave him our license and almost grabbed it from us and started yelling at us to give money. Luckily the owner arrived and we reasoned it out with him. A second experience was when we lost the key to our scooter after the water sports. We were searching for it in the beach when a couple of guys there told us that they had the key and would show it if we gave them money. They weren’t sure that it was ours but to take a look at it, we had to pay them. We found the key later at a restaurant we had been to. Goa is a place filled with con-men. Be careful while you are there.
By the last day, we were out of things to do. We watched ‘life of pi’ at a nearby cinema and slept a lot. 3 days is at most what you’ll need there to have a good time.
The end:
Our tour of 3 weeks ended in Goa. I went to Mumbai from there, to stay with my sister for another 3 weeks and had some memorable times there as well, while the rest returned to Kerala. It was one of the best experiences of our lives. We recommend a journey like this, to all our juniors. And again, we wish you a happy journey!
