It all started with a clever
inception. A subtle, seemingly not important at all post on Facebook by a
master manipulator and evil genius. Months back Deepak posted a suggestion on
Facebook that we all should go to Nainital. I remembered nothing of it in a few
days and I doubt if anyone else did. But the seed was planted deep. So, when we
started talking about a trip to celebrate Sakshi’s birthday, after exploring a
few suggestions, we decided on Nainital. I was very happy about it ofcourse. I
always love the mountains.
To our great surprise and pleasure,
Prem also agreed to come to the trip. Sakshi persuaded him to come along, but
hats off to you bro! It was so much more fun to have you along on the trip.
Finally the fateful day came and we
all met up at Sri-Sakshi’s place in the evening. Aunty made awesome dinner for
us all. We cut a cake to celebrate Maate’s birthday, along with the 9 month
birthday of Vishesh. With a strange mix of feelings of excitement, wanderlust
and disbelief, we all ventured out to board the bus. The bus was a bit of a
disappointment for Sri, who had taken the pain to make all the bookings.
Personally I didn’t mind it at all. Infact, I was quite happy that it was a
sleeper. That meant we could all get some sleep and be ready for the adventures
of the next day. And I was not wrong. Despite of all the shortcomings of the
bus, we did get to sleep and that was a big advantage.
Nainital greeted us with a cold and
mild rain. Getting down from the bus and huddled close under the umbrella, we
got into a couple of cabs to head to the hotel. I call it a hotel because
that’s what I had in mind. Boy was I wrong! As soon as we entered the property,
I knew this trip was going to be epic! The property is called Ayar Jungle Camp
and they don’t kid when they say ‘Jungle’. It’s essentially 5 acres of jungle
with some cottages and tents sprinkled around. Lush green rain forest and
beautiful, narrow trails mark the resort. We were taken to our cottage, which
is a 5 minute hike through the jungle, by the staff. The cottage was a large
room with 3 beds for 5 people. A marvelous wood and bamboo structure, this
looked like something out of an adventure story book. We all were super excited
that we all would stay together all the time! That was one of the
master-strokes of Sri.
Pretty soon we figured out that the
rain wasn’t going to stop. Staying in the cottage was obviously not an option.
So, we all took our umbrellas, borrowed a couple more from the resort and hit
the road. The roads were deserted partly because the hotel is in a location
which is a little far from the heart of the town and partly because only the
most dire need would have compelled someone to come out in that weather.
Tracing those narrow roads, dotted with quaint little houses on one side and
trees on the other, we climbed down towards the commercial center of the town,
the Mall Road. The mission; buy a raincoat.
Equipped with a raincoat I gave up
my umbrella for community service. The lake was a tempting sight from the Mall
Road. Barely visible through the clouds which hang like mist over the town, it
reminded me of the magical lake of the Harry Potter series; dark, mysterious
and irresistible, we all were drawn towards it as if indeed a spell was upon
us. The road to the lake was filled with evidence of activity. Shut down carts
which would be selling infinite number of crap to us tourists on a sunny day,
when the road would be packed beyond capacity with romantic couples, excited
children and annoyed aunties. But not today! Today was special. It was as if
the place belonged to us few adventurous nut cases who didn’t bother the rain.
There were only a couple of vendors selling coffee and baked corn. The boat
owners were desperate to get people to try boating. We respectfully refused. We
were crazy, but not crazy enough to go boating on the lake on a day when it was
raining incessantly and the visibility was barely a few feet. We rather decided
to walk around the lake and enjoy the magical atmosphere.
The road which circles the lake is
another piece out of books. This time it would be a Victorian story of romance
and suspense. It was a graveled road, which made a crushing sound with every
step we took. One side of the road was a moss covered cliff and the other side
was the lake which might as well host the Loch Ness monster for all we knew.
There were street lamps on the road which wouldn’t have looked too out of place
to Holmes and Watson, walking down London in 1897.
About a kilometer or so down the
road was a temple. An otherwise unimpressive, modern building, it was made
quite interesting by the colours of the iron mesh which protected the main
temple from monkeys. The bright red and wild green made it look more like a
Buddhist monastery than a Hindu temple. We sat on a bench by the lakeside there
and chatted for a while. On the road there, I had bought a funny looking thing
which the seller claimed was a gel balloon. Essentially it looked like the soap
bubbles we used to make as kids, but these bubbles lasted longer and didn’t
blow up when you touch. Making the balloons looked much easier when the seller
did it. Actual attempt soon proved to be much more difficult. After a couple of
efforts which resulted in little more than a strange, sticky lump, I managed to
blow a ‘balloon’ of passable size and the shape of a human kidney. Prem seemed
to have a strange aversion to that balloon, even though it was sort of cute!
There were a few unfortunate and totally misleading pictures clicked during
that time. Taken out of context, those pictures can look pretty compromising
and since I am the subject of those pictures, we will refrain from mentioning
them henceforth.
After quite a few hours of roaming
around in the rain, it was getting darker and we thought we should head back to
the resort. Everyone decided to take a car back to the resort because it’s a
few kilometers and an uphill climb. I was very clear that I would walk and
thankfully I didn’t have to walk alone. Deepak, my eternal trek partner was
more than happy to accompany me. So, we bid adieu to the rest of them for a
while and started our serene and wonderful walk, back to the jungle resort. I
wasn’t very sure that I would remember the way back, because I know how bad I
am with remembering roads. Deepak was quite sure he knew the way back. As it
turned out, I remembered more than that ass did! But, my memory was not very
reliable either. We took a few wrong turns and had to trace our steps back a
couple of times. But I don’t regret that. Actually it was more fun because we
didn’t know for sure where we were going, nor were we on a schedule. We could
afford to get lost a little and explore new roads. This sums up one of the most
charming things about this trip. We had no itinerary to follow, no schedule to
keep, no checklist of things to do. We just roamed around the city and took
whichever road looked good and interesting. We were all aimless explorers
without any idea where we were going. We just went along the road, hoping it
would take us to some place interesting. After about 45 minutes, I and Bug
reached the resort and the next part of the fun was about to start.
We planned to play a card game
called Uno. Only 2 of us, Prem and Bug had played the game before, so they
started teaching us the rules. To our surprise we found that they themselves
couldn’t agree to the rules! After much debate, we decided to go along with Bug’s
rules because they sounded weird and funny. The result was a night of crazy
fights, many thrilling twists and turns and a few broken hearts. At last, after
a mildly disappointing dinner in the resort, we came back to the room and after
a few more hours of insane teasing and laughing and general tomfoolery, we
slept off.
Next morning I was the 1st
to wake up. The minute I saw the view of the jungle in the morning from the
cottage window, I wanted to go out. In a while all of them were waking up, so I
told them that I was going for a walk around the jungle and headed off. Deepak,
my faithful trek partner, joined me. It was raining a little, but the thick
canopy of trees over the narrow jungle path we took, filtered out most of the
rain. Whatever little rain fell on us only made the walk more fun. We were
chatting and walking, again completely unaware where the path would take us. We
just kept going higher on that path. On the road we didn’t see any wild
animals, though we were told there were many. We did see a few monkeys near the
cottage so we knew it was true. When we reached what seemed to be the top, we
were surprised to find a dilapidated house on the plateau. After a short
consideration we two came to the conclusion that this house must be a smuggler’s
den and we would be shot as soon as someone sees us. So, we hurried along
another path leading down from the house, laid with large stones. Here again we
had no idea if this path would lead us to the other side of Nainital! Luckily,
after a while, we reached the gate to the resort.
After breakfast at the resort, we
all headed back to the town for another day of carefree adventure. The sky was
clear that day and by the time we reached the lake again, it was filled with
tourists like it’s supposed to be. We thought it would be a good chance to take
a couple of pedal boats to the lake. I, Sakshi and Sri took one boat. Prem and
Bug took another boat, which looked suspiciously like a love boat, with a swan
shape. The boat ride was also quite enjoyable. The view of clouds drifting
along the mountains was majestic from the lake. The sun was also playing a
never-ending game of hide and seek. Suddenly it would be too warm and then
again, the clouds would cover the sun and a cool breeze would blow. After an
hour we docked the boats and went off to a place called the Cave Garden.
Someone told us it was about a kilometer from the lake so we started walking.
Soon we realized it was either a lot more than a kilometer or the steep hike
was tiring us too much. After a short break in a shady little restaurant where
we ate Maggi, we walked again. Thankfully now the place wasn’t that far. Before
going in, we had our doubts if Sakshi would be able to go inside all the caves,
because she was already breathless due to the steep climb and her weak lungs.
But it’s a testimony to her courage that she still said she would come along,
because she knew if she didn’t go in, none of us would have gone. We went
through the first cave called the Tiger Cave and it was quite fun. These were
natural caves and the rains had made them a little slippery, so it was
interesting. When we came out of the Tiger cave, Sakshi said she wouldn’t
continue. Sri stayed back with her and the rest of the three of us went ahead
to the other caves. Nothing had prepared us for what we were going to face!
The next cave was called the
Panther Cave and it was much narrower and much more challenging to cross than
the previous. Prem almost banged his head on a rock. Once we were out of that,
we were really excited to confront the rest of the caves with incredibly
intriguing names like Flying Fox, Bat, Ape and Porcupine! Those caves tested
our agility and mental fortitude a lot. I am sure if any of us was alone, he
would have given up after one of them, but as the company of three, we were
ready to face them. Encouraging each-other and pushing ourselves, we crawled,
climbed, jumped and squeezed our way through the caves. By the time we came out
of the last one, none of us were unscathed. Our hands were filthy, our cloths
had mud patches and we were tired and filled with adrenaline!
By now Sakshi had rested a little
and regained her strength, so she wanted to take a ropeway to one of the
viewing points. We hiked back to the ropeway place, but unfortunately it was
filled for the day. This proved to be a blessing in disguise because soon after
that the day became clouded again. Had we taken the ropeway to the viewing
point, all we would have viewed would have been frustrated tourists.
The fellowship decided to head back
to the resort after a rather tiring day, but again I and Deepak were not satisfied
yet. So, we headed back towards the lake to walk that path again. This time we
went much farther than we did the previous day. We actually walked all the way
to the other end of the lake. The clouds were getting denser and pretty soon it
felt like we were walking through a cold steam bath. It started raining and we
headed back to the resort. That walk was amazing! It was really clouded and was
raining all through. We two started talking about religion and its various
aspects. It was such a pleasure talking to a fellow atheist who was intelligent
and educated enough about religion! We both had read some of the religious
texts so we both knew how twisted religion can be. I didn’t even realize when
we reached the resort.
That evening, we didn’t play. We
just sat and chatted. We talked about everything from our college days, to our
love lives (or the lack thereof). Again, after a dinner which wasn’t bad but
left us unsatisfied, we headed back to the hotel. Another round of nonsense
talks followed and ended with us falling asleep halfway through the talks.
The last day in Nainital came too
soon. Thankfully we had booked train tickets for return and had to leave the
resort by 12:30. As usual, I woke up 1st and had packed my bag.
After breakfast I decided to go for another trek. This time it was a solitary
walk as the rest of them had to get fresh and pack bags. I took one of the
uphill roads from the resort. This was also a comparatively deserted road,
though the weather wasn’t bad that time. There were some houses along the road.
After a while, I reached a point where there was a cliff on one side of the
road and a gorge dotted with trees on the other. I could see the lake from this
point, through the veil of trees.
The train ride back to Delhi was a
bittersweet experience. We were happy because we were all having fun in the
train and it was comfortable, but it also marked the end of the fairytale. We
all knew that we were leaving behind the magical kingdom where we had no
worries, no plans, no agenda and heading back to the cold and harsh reality of
everyday life. But atleast we had each-other. Atleast we can always count on
that. And we knew that we could revisit Narnia as soon as we all got back together
again. The true magic, after all, was in the bond between us friends.
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