Amritsar trip

Nothing was unusual about that Thursday (16.12.10) till I agreed to (completely unaware of the bodings) Lings request for dinner, while we were discussing about upcoming Dalhousie trip we thought of doing some good for this weekend. After some cerebration we settled for Amritsar as our weekend destination. I was mystified with Jagaedeesh’s vetrikuri, which prefaced endgame of the usual dinner when you move out with friends. I was today’s stooge.

Day-1 :

Involuntarily driven by premonitions, Lings decided to take a nap after his exhaustive morning chores. I took metro from Noida and reached Red fort around 7.00 PM to avoid last minute hurry burry. I was perturbed by the reply of our travel agent after hearing his actual time schedule. Before my chronometer marked 8.00 Lings joined me and I explained the situation to Lings. We discussed on efficient ways to waste our time and we decided to fill our bellies in Karims before our bus journey. After taking turns like pinball for seating space in Karims, we were lucky enough to curb a table and ordered chicken soup for the soul and briyani for the body.

Even after our leisure dinner we had more than an hour to spare. We decided to cover the distance to Redfort by foot redressing for missed out jogging and workout enjoying meek breeze of Delhi’s harsh winter. We lost our way enquired rickshawalas for the way, their directions and fares charges were as diametric as the Delhi’s climate. We decided to go by our instincts thinking how it would feel to miss the bus in spite of reaching the boarding point 3 hrs earlier. Finally we reached Redfort and we waited on and on for our bus. After our short query we were sent to a bus. Mercedez benz (atleast that’s what the bus name says). We were allotted a sleeper without windowpane!!! (Though we knew it’s the excitement which makes tours memorable, travelling without a windowpane in this climate is definitely an overdose). Finally we ended up in a better (of the worst) sleeper. Even Ilayaraja’s tonal pattern was unable to salvage us from the bus’ ambience. Occasional roaring of the engine failed to incite the tires but our sleep was not spared. Starter pistol was shot at 11.45 after last few seats were filled by hapless passengers.

Day-2:

Scheduled arrival at Amritsar was by 6 AM, we were crawling and covering ourselves in our jackets against early morning cold snap till 8.00AM in the bus, after which Lings woke up with a thrust from inside(Don’t mistake this for some spiritual enlightenment from within). It’s unfortunate that our body can’t act like a proletariat even for a day to accumulate at least water. His body’s irrepressible feelings too increased with every inch our bus moved and finally he managed till 10.30 AM. As we hadn’t planned for overnight stay in Amritsar our need for hotel was to fresh up after some dickering we ended in a hotel for 350 ` in a nearby hotel. Had morning coffee and got a coffee waiver from hotel staff with some plausible arguments. Since we were delayed by our bus journey we squeezed our schedule to must see places.

Golden Temple: Took a rickshaw to golden temple and explored some interior roads of Amritsar, it was more like fight sequel sets in a Tamil movie. Rickshaw guy dropped us in front of Golden temple (Harmandir Sahib), the holiest shrine of Sikhs. This place also holds the record number of NRI visitors round the year. Irrespective of your perspective on god you feel some peace and harmony inside call it god or noetic science. After few photos around the lake (fed by an underground spring) during circumambulation we went to the main structure. It’s is a piece of marvel with a mix of Hindu and Muslim architecture and no restriction on cast, creed and religion. Even this shrine place couldn’t hold us we were joshing a nipper from Canada and Lings parallel executing his own bave bave with Punjabi fillies. After visiting the main structure, Har Ki paure (steps of god) the clock ticked two and I thought of moving to Jallian walah bagh as we had to reach Sukhdev travels by 3.00 PM (our 50 ` was at stake). But Lings was reluctant and he was not ready to miss the main must do activity at Amritsar, free lunch at Gurudwara. We decided to give a try though we were let down by the way they served considering their service mind and the quantum of work they do, we were happy for those who are benefitted by this free kitchen scheme.

Jallianwalah Bagh and Wagah Border: We had quick lunch in Gurudwara and we proceeded for Jallianwalah bagh memorial, a place that is marked with great reverence in India’s independence struggle. Bullet marks were visible on preserved walls. After few snaps we proceeded to Sukhdev travels to board for Wagah border. We were short of change and the guy refused to give change for 500 `.We even checked nearby platform shops as per GAIL’s foreign opportunity analyst’s ideas, but the results were futile as usual. Finally our very own Sardar emerged out of nowhere to help us and we boarded an Omni along with 4 students and a couple for our jaunt. All the more I was concerned about my change, and I was not ready to re-establish myself as a no-hoper after yesterday’s bus travel. Lings secured a strategic position in the Omni and our Sardar driver flagged off to Wagah border. After an hour of cramped journey followed by a guava treat we moved for the retreat ceremony in our desi Berlin wall. Lings was awestruck by our cavalry’s way to maintain order among public, to explain in terms of road rules, it’s like driving a fast moving truck in opposite direction of traffic for establishing a lane (Sounds impressive???? definitely not to experience). Some feeling of oneness satiated our hearts. The ceremony was gaining momentum, with every step of our BSF men and our vociferous cry from vandhe matharam to Bharat Matha ki Jai grew exponentially. As usual, any party contains spoilers, an energetic, to say over energetic lad tested (luckily non-destructive) Lings ear drums with some out of synch war cries. Though we hadn’t experienced pumping iron in our gym we experienced pumping patriotism at the border. With loads of feelings we rejoined our Sardar driver waiting for remaining 6 co-passengers. The couple started complaining about one another to us and this made Lings question their credibility.

We planned to revisit Golden temple to experience it in illuminated condition, But our decision was short lived, we got down near railway station and were roving for a decent hotel. After perambulation of one kilometer on either side we settled exactly at the point where we started and had our dinner at crystals, I would strongly recommend anyone to try crispy threaded chicken in this restaurant. Thinking of our bus journey we dragged ourselves towards railway station (our departure point). Though we had a sizeable response from our travel agent we were skeptic about our return journey we enquired him frequently about the condition of our bus and we explained him our nightlong sufferings we had in onward journey he assured us a better service in our return journey. Lings was pleased by our travel agent’s mellifluous dialects, but unfortunately it was short lived and we were directed to other agent and we continued our complaining spree to the new guy questioning a dozen times on bus condition. We boarded a tempo (share auto) along with our co-passengers, Lings and I occupied seats on either side of driver, around 4 in the middle seat and a foreigner in the rear seat (Amy). Our mind voice echoed one more gonna glean the fruit of online booking. To our dismay it was the same bus in which we had our onward journey. We knew that there’s no point in questioning about bus’ departure schedule. So I retired for the day and Lings too followed after some time.

As the bus’ engine came to life our windowpane slowly gave way for winter breeze as a function of vibration and time. Lings tried every dressing tips he heard over his 24 years as one layer over another, hoping they would spare him from the chillness. Intermittent resetting of windowpane and customized masks (from yesterday’s T-shirt) came as handy rescue. Though we faced difficulty I won’t say our return trip was full of unfortunate things, we were lucky enough that our break in the nap coincided with bus’ intermittent stop, which ensured at least internal trouble free journey in the morning unlike our onward journey. After our break around 5.30 AM Lings fought and succeeded against delhi winter with 3 hrs non-stop sleep in our Mercedez. We were roused by the cleaner in delhi around 8.30 AM and only to find the bus in desolated state But Lings was lucky enough to get his shoes which were unattended (may be due to special aroma it rendered).

We felt a sense of achievement as we came out of the bus. We searched for the directions and a rickshawala came at our service, while I took a snap for my memory about our Benz, Lings casually looked his finger (I envied Lings at least for this- The bus gave him a scar to Lings in its memory).

Though we had some mixed feelings all day, we never felt bad for our experience it’s the unexpected incidents that gives us moments to cherish and our Amritsar trip was never short of excitement.

Bodhgaya trip

After tiring office tours we [Shobith (KCS), Jeevan Prakash (JP) and Arun (me)] were lucky enough to get some space for personal tour to one of our colleague, Vivek Chandra’s marriage in Dhanbad, The black diamond city of India. KCS was thrilled and he was in cloud nine visualizing his first visit to Jharkhand and Bihar.

Day 1: Delhi - Koderma BB RJD express

we were scrolling railway bookshops and after listening to their irresistible 50% cash back offer (*of course with terms and conditions) we decided to go for some time pass novels KCS settled for Sheldon’s novel after hearing authors credit from us, Jeevan in search of spirituality went for Paulo Coelho’s Eleven minutes and me after some vacillation between Almost single and Life of Pi settled for Life of Pi. We boarded our train from Delhi to Koderma in Bhubaneshwer Rajdhani. Within few minutes we realized that 1K spent on our novels was of no use, thanks to the kvetch one of our co-passenger (referred as Mr.X from now on), may be apt if I say cartoon in North Indian terms. Even before train’s whirl he started his. From Schedule of trains to Quality of food in Rajdhanis nothing was spared. We were presented with facts and figures on ticket fares comparison between Rajdhanis and their poor siblings and the inference was never dare to look out of your book. “It’s time to party” said our IRCTC caterer completely unaware of Mr.X in our cabin who started yelling for poor quality of food when he travelled last time and reason for delay of that day’s train. Mr.X was handed over snacks and he started his derivation of his own theorem after counting on individual prices of the snacks and food handed over to him he was happy to prove,

Fare Of Rajdhani > Normal Train ticket + cost of Food and snacks supplied in Rajdhani.

From add on soups to extra ice creams Mr.X seized every achievable task in Rajdhani. And today we found the answer why Rajdhanis’ get booked much before other trains. Many people in India like Mr.X suffer from Binge disorder.

Day -2 : Vivek’s Wedding

We were happy our train made up to some extent for the delay and we reached Koderma and Vivek’s Bro (clone might be an apt term) dropped us in Hotel Krishna International. ().

After having our lunch in groom’s house we headed to Dhanbad, for Shaadi. Around 7-8 vehicles from xylo to scorpio were screeching through the calmness of Jharkhand roads. Like minded groups were formed whose interest varied from whisky to brandy and vodka to beer have to be taken care of. Vivek’s Uncle was in charge and he opted our vehicle we couldn’t read his mind but one of the two is for sure.

1. He thought we were responsible and matured persons (at least I don’t have a trace of that in my face)

2. He was a savvy to identify real culprits who should be on close vigil.

After herding the vehicles we reached Dhanbad around 9.00 PM. We froze down in front of the baraat hall. North Indian winter is not to be blamed one more International hotel tonight (pretty heavy dose , twice in a row).After some shopping for pre baraat preparations, We headed to Sushaant International trying every geometrical figure possible and every figure conceivable by human mind on the roads of Dhanbad except the route advised by Vivek’s Jijaji. Finally after the baraat starting time we boarded in hotel Sushaant international (International till the reception lounge). After some oil companies patent fights the receptionist agreed that both companies are PSUs so for the betterment of nation they shall imbibe tonight.

With little time to spare and a complete project to be executed our 2 years experience in project management was tried that night. Every tool of time management like prioritization (which dish to open first based on ABC analysis & Pareto analysis), scheduling (time per peg) to self motivation (reason for boozing is to dance) was used. After dressing up with shiny suits, we heard our soul’s cry “YEH DIL MAANGE MORE” so we settled for one more peg.

Though we intended to dance only in baraat we started our teasers in stairs of hotel itself. We headed along with other colleagues in our rhino. This time we surpassed our previous attempts in finding way to hotel we went out of dhanbad and finally we reached after 1 hr noticing silent progression of the bands in the baraat. Jeevan enounced this is not the way a baraat should be and soon band played music and within minutes police came to ascertain silence. Then the dance started again all the way till dance floor. Stars of the day came for Jaimala and we retired for the day back to the hotel.

Day -3 Bodhgaya

We headed to Bodhgaya with our left over antique resource. We started from Dhanbad around 8.00 and reached Bodhgaya by 11.30 AM thanks to intermittent refreshment by sugarcane juice guy fresh from farm. Jeevan’s retrospect started as we entered Bodhgaya, he did his preliminary schooling in Bodhgaya. We were looking for hotels and fortunately we were lucky enough to get a non- international hotel. After a short survey we settled in a hotel nearby railway station for 650 Rs. The spiritual town where Buddha attained enlightenment greeted us in its ruined state. Jeevan wanted us to have traditional food of Gaya we tried Litti, though it tasted fine it reminded me of old cricket cork ball.

We hired an auto (incase if you are short of thrill in your life try this option) with almost 30 minutes roller coaster ride we reached temple complex. Different countries built their monasteries with different style and paintings with their own tradition. We were lucky to visit Bodhgaya on Dec 10-11, International chanting ceremony was organized in Bodhgaya. Monks from Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar, Sri lanka etc. took part in the ceremony. From the temple complex we went to Bodhgaya temple, Place where Buddha attained enlightenment. On the way back to the auto guy gave us much more entertainment on our return journey. While Jeevan and I were struggling to keep us intact within auto rickshaw, we were stunned to see KCS performing dangerous stunt ever tried by human (like sleeping in an auto rickshaw in Gaya). May be the influence of Buddha’s preaching (forego desires- desire to live).

Day-4 Vishnupad and return

Since our train was scheduled at 2.30PM, we thought of utilizing our fore noon session. We made a short visit to Vishnu pad, 220 yr old temple. Mythological references say 40 cm long foot print visible in the temple is foot print of Vishnu when he subdued Asur Gaya (in his famous play around the universe in three steps.)

On our way back, Jeevan and KCS bought some Tilkut and Lai, traditional sweets famous in Bihar and we purchased our kambals (winter gear for our night ahead in SL). Planned to get down at GZB hoping the train would live upto its reputation (5.30 AM scheduled time conventional delay – 5 hrs so 10.30 AM min). But Bodhgaya express made its way into the fog on time and we reached NDLS by 6.00AM.

Overall had a nice journey with some new experiences but felt bad for the state of Bodhgaya such a spiritual city with rich history unattended and unpreserved.