the best day of our lives!!!

Day 1 ended with all of us playing cards after a bad mouthing dinner (yuck). This dinner made us change our hotel. Now after checking into the new hotel and freshening up , we headed to SnowPoint-Gulaba , which is a 25 km drive from manali. This is where we were going to have “the best time of our lives”. We stopped on the way for some people to rent 'astronaut clothing' so that they can be comfortable in the cold of Gulaba. We thought it would be futile to do this as it would not be that cold.
When we reached gulaba we were dissappointed to see no 'baraf' at all. All we could see was some remains from the snow which was there in the winters. But we were proved wrong later. When we were just about to think of how to enjoy we thought of renting shoes(gum boots) from the locals. We also rented sticks which would help us to go and conquer the mountain. Now there were 2 ways to go up the mountain – road and off-road, I chose the off road route and started climbing up the mountain. Mandeep followed immediately and then we had manish coming swiftly after him. Atul, Vibhor, chirag, prateek, modi, bimaland rahul too joined in. I reached the upper-road and then helped vibhor prateek and chirag get to there. When all were there we could see that we would not be able to go up the next slope as it was only mud and no rocks.(This is where mandeep, prateek and chirag left and continued there ascent via the road.)So we shifted our path to the left by 100 meters and found rocks and some hint of snow. I personally was very happy to see the sight of myself reaching a snow covered area. I tried to climb over the snow but it was very thin and i had to give that thought. The terrain above this point was very hard and every person had to climb according to his abilities. Manish was going fast but he took a wrong path and reached a point where he could not climb as the boulder below him were disintegrating. I reached the next road just inches away from him. Modi followed my path and he too got there. We then helped manish climb up. Bimal had to be given instructions as to where he shoul keep his feet and eventually he too got there. Vibhor and rahul followed a completely different route and were separated from us. Atul reached there and spotted us and joined us.

By now mandeep had separated from prateek and chirag, and had climbed even higher than us.
Now we reached what looked like a base camp for starting a journey into the snow covered mountains. This base camp included all types of khachars and dhabas. Now atul and modi found a very easy way to climb up and got to the next stop very easily. I discovered this route while coming back.
We (me, manish & bimal) saw rahul and vibhor eating dal-moth, but were too keen on scaling the mountain that we did not feel like stopping. Then after climbing about 20-30 meters we stopped (we were feeling the cold snow entering our gum-boots and anaesthising our feet). We were not aware as to how to counter this. We met people freezing beer in the snow. They offered us some of it. Not in the mood to sit with them, we started climbing further( after clearing our boots off ice). We travelled further and crossed a tributary just for the sake of fun. Here, Bimal left us . Now we were only 2 - manish and me
The snow near the sides of that small riverine was very soft and would break as soon as we touched it , let alone step on it. But we had to cross this. And we did it; by travelling along it and then crossing it where it could be done. The place we now reached was just what nobody would ever want. But we were looking forward to this. We could not set one foot without slipping. This was one of the best experiences of climbing the mountain. Somehow we managed to get above our physical energy levels and climbed this exciting portion of the climb. Now we again had to stop to clear our boots off ice. We were sitting on the stem of a fallen tree. It is here that we met atul again. He had come there from an easy but very dirty route.
From now till the top we 3 were together. It is here that we found a way to counter the snow from entering our boots. We climbed a very steep phase of the mountain without stopping . Manish being the lightest of us was the fastest and reached a plane. We followed soon after. Now while we were sitting there we found out through GPS that we were at a height of 3114 meters. Modi was calling from behind and we could hear his voice and the echo. So we sat there for around ten minutes. Then we shot some videos. I got bored of all this. I thought, if we waste time here we will not be able to get to the top of the mountain. So i started to travel on my own and reached around 100 meters above the others level. I called out to them to encourage them to come fast. Now as they were moving upwards (towards me), I that i should keep on moving else i should get sluggish and sleepy. After moving for some more time i got to a tree and almost slept on it. When they reached my place i observed that my helping stick had gone missing. We dug out some snow and recovered it. Now, we looked up and decided that we were going to go only upto that point and make a snowman there.

When we reached that point we were tempted to go a little further. And we did. We climbed a further 70-80 meters. We were game to carry on a little more but maddy called up and said that we had to go. So we quickly created a snowman there, clicked 3-4 pics with it and started our return.
Modi, as always, was getting himself clicked. Me and atul were making the snowman. Atul's hood was used as a bag for accumulating snow to make the snowman. Now we clicked photos with the snowman. Even this was done in a special way. We got all the 4 sticks to stand in the snow and make a bonfire kind of a thing. We placed the camera on it and started the auto feature. ( under normal circumstamces we would never have thought about this idea but this place was special).

The return was yet another adventure. We tried to slide our way down the slope but were getting stuck in the snow. So we started running. At one point i fell down on my bottom and started sliding automatically. I was not under control but was nevertheless enjoying the slide. But after some time i got the hang of it a stopped at a place beyond which it was dangerous to slide down. I had slided a little too fast. I lost all of them. Now on the return i met maddy, and bimal who had created a special snow'man'. I was now wanting to go down sliding again. So i left them waiting for manish, atul and modi. But this time i was on the wrong side of luck. The sliding again got out of control and i landed on a burning stove. The chaiwala had just ignited the stove to boil water and i caught the fire of his stove this felt more cosy than hot. I drank 2 cups of tea and thanked him for letting me hold his stove. Now i reached the place where we had found the khachars. I waited for around 15-20 minutes for all the people to come down. And we started going on the rocky terrain downwards. We reached the car and went to the hotel. It was around 730 by the time we reached our hotel. Truly exhilarated, i was in no mood to sleep. Now we went out to the mall road and spent some leisure(boring) time there.
Dinner was ready by the time we reached back to the hotel. Dal makhani etc. Now was the turn for our special game of DumbCharades. But, there is a twist. We were not going to act on bollywood movies. It was time for some creativity. And bimal came out tops, with the best collection of rhyming one liners. His guessing was also the highlight of the night.
It's time to sleep now.
I can easily say that this was the best day of my life. No career achievement or anything else can take the cake for the best day of my life. This day takes the cake, the baker and the bakery as the best day of my life.
I hope some day this will be broken, but i dont see it happening. This day was pure, unhindered, ,natural pleasure.

Huh!

cycling generation

This is about me going out and trying to make a difference. This sunday ,like most other sundays, I had to be out cycling, but there was a difference. I had told some of the small children to meet me at the park gate to go cycling out on the ring road. No one was initially allowed by their parents to go there. Now, it being a sunday, most parents were also free and so agreed to accompany their children on their motorised vehicles. We were travelling like VIPs and I was able to get across the message that we can travel on the wildest road on earth on our cycles and that too without any danger but i was not totally correct as I realised later.
Of course i am not an activist and didn't want to say anything about the cycling lanes, but our lives would be a lot easier if we had cycling lanes. This was proved by an incident when I, while guiding a small boy to keep to the left of the road, fell down myself and a truck coming from behind thundered past me. At that point in time, I could feel how vulnerable we cyclists are, and that it is the duty of the government to protect us.
But , overall it was a fun ride of about 5 kms from the park gate to rajouri and back. I think some of the children would have been affected by this and will grow up to become sensitive about the cyclists and what a great boon they are too the society and the earth.

Manali trip Day 1

What could be the best start to a trip.....i dont know. But 1 thing I know for sure is that there could not be a better trip than the one on which we went last week. So gear up for a narration to the best college trip ever.
The start was not the best, I must say. It was delayed by about an hour and a half. But nevertheless we started and slowly made our way onto NH1. We stopped for some light snack at sonepat(although it was 10:00 pm) then we went on and started playing cards (hearts and flash- there is a particular story to flash which I'll narrate some other time). At around 1 am we reached karnal and had a very heavy dinner at Haveli. This dinner was not enough to make us sleep though. We continued our cards though ( there is going to be more of cards so please don't get bored). The whole night went by and we had to go through a very physically taxing path to reach our destination- Manali. On the way we saw too many things which we could talk about. There was Chitkara Univ. which it had some connection to Modi. Then there was the eyesore J.P. cement factory. It looked like an artificial tooth in the road from delhi to manali(there is another artificial tooth in the tale).But these things are not important in the fun.
The next morning fresh from not sleeping fotr the last 24 hrs we were there at the river rafting site which is 20 kms to manali. There was the now known indecision as to whether we should go in for the river rafting or not . It was decided that we do it now and then leave for manali.
Now came one of the good parts of the story. Most of the people we saw were going 'boating' in a raft. The raft was being handled by 'trained “technical” professionals'. But, we were in the mood for adventure. We told the 'trained professional that we are going to do this on our own, which we did. Th rafting experience in itself was a tale-to-tell.
I was manning the left side of the raft, Rahul was on the left back , vibhor was on the right betwen the 2 'trained professionals'. Prateek(motu) wassitting in the centre of the raft (to give stability :) ) .Chirag was sitting on the right, praying to GOD to make the journey go event-free(but that was not going to be the case, as it turned out).
When we started rafting the river seemed to be very nice. The first rapid was negotiated very well as per the instructions of the 'guide'. But the next ones were going to be “technical”. And, boy, they were. The first 'technical' rapid was negotiated with only a slight hiccup , that of us hitting a rock and the raft not overturning. The second 'techical' rapid was negotiated with us going right over the rock and feeling it hit on our heels. The third 'technical' rapid gave us the greatest pain a.k.a pleasure. The rock hit the raft at such speed that the 'trained professional' was thrown back at us and we had to steady him and the raft. After that came the easy portion of the rafting and we swimmed a little in the river and went till the 7km mark without any help from the 'trained professional' and then it was over. But nothing ends until it ends completely. We had to be transported back to the starting place. We then had a game regarding who can throw the boulders at the maximum distance(no points for guessing as to who won ... ofcourse me).
Now we were transported back to the starting place. Now the adventure bug in me had been awakened and I wanted to go swimming in the river . No one was game and it was getting late, so I decided against it. But I will swim in the river the next time I get there (which is going to happen sooner rather than later).
The other things happening there.....
Some localite was trying to impress the girls by repeatedly bathing in the river.
Army school children were swimming in the river(but I could not :( )
We ate omlette-bread.
Someone was going to be caught embarrased in the loo.
I am just thinking that this is the first day and nothing great had happened yet and still i have so much to write about.
The best part of the trip is coming in the next blog post when we reach Manali(and from there Gulaba).

the men who mattered

I am going to write about the Manali trip in the next blog post.First of all, let me acquaint you with the people whom you are going to read about below

me : jaspreet - I love adventure and I don't think too much before doing anything
chirag : a very sombre person who likes to enjoy life but safely
prateek: motu wants to do everything but can only study hard and play cricket
vibhor: says he can do anything but usually that is not the case(prateek thinks he will get into MS and clear CAT as well)
rahul : waxed legs, tourist all the way
maddy: mast banda , not too adventurous
atul : solid sense of jhall
modi : he does pushups at home but not in front of us :p
bimal : also called bimla , he eats sleeps drinks and does whatever everybody else is doing
manish : a lot like me, plus a techie brain
dikshit: this person was indipensable in the last leg when we were keen on learning new games of cards