The You-Know-Which-Trip...dissected Part 2

This blog is dedicated to all my friends at MMC...U guys seriously rock...

9th March 2010, 4.00 A.M.

Mohnish's alarm woke me up from a deep slumber I was in. Even though I could hear the alarm ringing, I ignored it because honestly, I did not want to get up. My body had still not recovered completely from the exhaustion it had suffered yesterday. But anyway, cursing Rohan Ji for again setting up the time so early, I got up. "What the hell" I thought. He could have easily arranged for the evening safari, and let us sleep in peace for one day at least. First the excitement of the trip, and then the trip itself had not let me sleep properly for the past few days. Rubbing my eyes, I looked around in the dimly-lit room, and then i realized, I was alone.

Baffled, I turned on the lights. I saw Mohnish sleeping in his bed, but no one else was there. No Rohan Ji, Mohit or Danish. The last thing I remembered about the earlier night was me going to sleep and Rohan going out for a smoke. What happened next? I had no clue. I woke Mohnish up, and asked if he had Rohan Ji's no. He gave me his phone and I dialled, thinking where the hell is everyone. 

"Haan dude" came the reply from the other side before I could even say Hello. "Uth jaa saale, kahan so rahe ho tum log. 4 baj rahe hain, safari par jaana hai ya nahi" I asked him, thinking to myself he must be really furious for me waking him up. But, I was in for another shock. "Bhai hum to poori raat soye hi nahi. Main abhi room main aa raha hun, fir tujhe poori kahani batata hu", he said and kept the phone down. 

Upon his entry, I rained Rohan Ji with a flurry of questions. Slowly, the picture became clear. Apparently, Megha had brought some 'Limca' along with herself on the trip. Though the quantity was not even enough for one proper peg, but she had carried it anyway. And from that our ace photographer, Mohd. Ujaley had taken it all in one go. And that lead to a two hour session on C.V. building, Resume updating and name givings by the new lovology proffesor, Ujaley Mia. The entire two hour session was captured by various cameras, including mobile phones and handycams, and the memory and battery of all of them had exhausted from the gyan. The lecture was attended by Rohan Ji, Mohit, Ratika, Garima, Megha and Danish. Laughing, I went into the loo. Everyone changed clothes and skipped bathing (again) because it was early morning. I too was ready.

5:00 A.M.

All ready and raring to go, we stepped outside our room. The walk to the girl's room can be simply described as "Road to Hell". Pin drop silence, jungle looking our way, and about 500 mts distance. Braving, we went to their rooms and checked. Everyone was almost ready. By 5.30, everyone had gathered and had the early morning tea. And then, disaster struck.

You see, we were supposed to reach Rampur by 6.00 a.m., so that the Jeep Safari could start early and we could maybe catch a glimpse of the yellow striped animal. Everyone was ready by 5.45, including our course head and his wife. We went to the gate of the resort, waiting that everyone would assemble there. And then, during head count Rohan ji realized that there were 2 people missing. Upon inquiry, we came to know that two juniors were missing. The reason given was that one junior had just gone in to take a bath. Filled with anger, I told Rohan "Let's move dude. Nahi aa rahe to naa sahi, hum kyu apna trip kharaab karein". But Rohan ji insisted on waiting, saying that it must be another 5 mins. We urged everyone else to move to the bus. With the hotel manager, Mr. Shiv leading the way in his dinky Maruti 800's lights, and a chowkidaar with a torch in the end, everyone moved. Me, Rohan Ji, Mohit and Megha stayed back.

After what seemed like a lifetime, the two juniors emerged from the shadows of the resort. With no source of light, I asked Rohan Ji to switch on his camera flash and we moved. What angered me even further was that those two juniors did not utter a word, let alone an apology. I shared my thoughts with Megha, who was as angry. Anyway, we clicked a few pictures of the sun coming out of his sleep and reached the bus. The bus finally moved at 7.30 a.m.

8.00 A.M.

I was excited as hell. My father used to tell me stories about the time he visited Corbett in 1986 in his Fiat. How he got stuck while crossing the river, where half of our belongings floated away. How the spark plug of the car malfunctioned and he had to get down to fix it. How the resort at which they stayed did not even have proper locks and one wild sway of the tiger's paw could have broken it. How he insisted on getting a picture with a fox, and when my grandmother refused, threw tantrums around. I was looking for a little bit of mayhem myself this time.

After reaching Rampur, we could see several open gypsies lined up. I could not contain my excitement. "This is it" I thought. " Tiger, here I come".

After getting down from the bus, we were told that the gypsy could only carry 6 poeple. My head started to do the math. Me, Danish, Rohan Ji, Mohit, Keerti and Tanya. 6 people. I think this is how it will work out. But then, fate had something else in mind. I was forced to go in a jeep with 6 girls. And there I first interacted with the 3 deviyan of our batch - Apoorva, Swati and Gitika.

In all fairness, I had interacted with them before. During lunch breaks, when they used to come out of their new media class, we used to chit-chat, but that was about it. But spending a 3 hours in a safari jeep was not my cup of tea. But, to my relief, I also had Ratika, Garima and Megha with me, who are my corp. comm batch mates. Braving everything, I stood up in the jeep.

Man, could the jeepwallah drive. The man must be hitting 80 at the tight curves of Rampur. My face was going both hot and cold at the same time. Water was flowing from my eyes as if someone had newly installed a motor in them.  Hands went VERY cold, and I was standing at the edge of the jeep. Holding on to the bar for dear life, I made a small 10 sec video featuring the occupants of the jeep.

8.30 A.M.

After getting the required permissions and lots of pictures, our jeep finally moved inside the jungle. There is no single word to describe the jungle, and it certainly feels different when you sit in front of a TV to watch Nat Geo or Discovery. When you go inside, you understand how delicate the balance of nature is. Everything is where exactly it should be, and it still looked completely random. The jungle makes you excited and nervous at the same time. You do not know what might be lurking around the next bend, and what might spring up from the side of your jeep the next moment. It was very cold, and wind was playing spoilsport. But what was really enjoyable was the landscape. Elephant grass stretched for kilometers, and  you always have the anticipation that you may see something soon. A little later, we started to see deers and grey langurs. A funny incident happened here. We stopped to click some pictures of deers, when we sensed drops falling on our jeep.Looking up, we saw a langur sitting on the tree. "Humare upar pee kar diya" said Apoorva. Incidentally, I was the major beneficiary of Langur pee. Everyone laughed, and I could sense my face turning red. But the guide confirmed that it was in fact dew drops that had collected over the night. Relieved, we moved on.

The first stop inside the jungle was a stopover for some tea.The entire area was surrounded by electrical fences, which were powered by solar panels.  Small shops also lined up the area, where you could buy some merchandise. Some girls brought small tiger stuff toys, and I wondered why. They were easily available in Delhi too. But maybe they wanted a souvenir from Corbett. Swati asked Rohan Ji wether it was the end of the safari. Before I could intervene, Rohan Ji sensed the opportunity. "Haan yaar, bas yahin tak tha, ab yahan se vaapas". I could see dissapointment in Swati's face, but I joined the party too. "Bas yaar itna hi tha", I said to her, looking at Rohan Ji and smiling. But till then, she had got what we were trying to do. She miffed us away.

9.30 AM

The real safari started. We realized that we were going deep in the jungle. The guide asked us to remain quite and enjoy the scenery. But how is it possible when we have the biggest chatterbox in MMC standing with us? Enter Megha Jain. You see, there are people who can talk and then there are people who can talk. Megha falls in the latter category. She had not slept in the past 24 hours, but still had enough energy to talk the entire course of the journey. Irritated, I asked everyone to play a game. "Sab 5 min chup rahenge. Jo pehle bolega, wo haar jayega". I had only started to appreciate the beauty of nature, and think how sly I am, when Gitika interrupted. My hope and will were both shot dead.

Though we did not see many animals, and also missed the coveted yellow stripes, I was happy with the experience. This was something I had never experienced before, and I wished that it would not end this early. But as all good things, this also came to an end, and we were left at the bus by our jeeps. I got down early for a quick picture of the empty river, and then rushed back towards the bus.

10.30 A.M.

A debate ensued. Should we first go to Garjiya temple, which was another 10 kms, or go back to our resort and then come back? In the end, religion won. We decided to go back to the resort because students were apprehensive about going to a temple without taking a bath. Also, everyone was pretty tired and hungry. The bus took a U-turn.

11.00 A.M.

Upon reaching the resort, Rohan Ji announced that everyone should be ready by 2 so that we can go to Garjiya temple and the Corbett museum. Everyone agreed. We all went inside our rooms, took a bath and came out for breakfast.

After breakfast, we sat down to chat. Me, Rohan Ji, Ujaley, Gitika, Keerti and Swati were standing inside a dome shaped structure, talking about the safari. Megha was sleeping next to an empty swimming pool, and Mohit was asleep in a make-shift bar. At around 1.30, Rohan Ji started rounding up people. At about 2:30, everyone had their stomachs full with lunch and were ready to go. Some students were strolling around the resort, while some were still sitting in the restaurant. At around 3, everyone was ready to make a move (I mentioned in my earlier blog, punctuality is not our class's forte), when we got to know that some juniors are not coming. Surprised, Rohan Ji asked the reason. While one person was unwell, the rest were just not in a mood to go. Rohan ji got irritated." Ye kya baat hai yaar, hum yahan official trip par aaye hai ya apni apni personal trips par?". He told C.P.Singh this, and he finally decided to take coercive action (though against his wife's wishes, she was adamant to leave everyone behind and just go).

After about 45 mins of waiting, we departed. Everyone was angry and irritated, because we were told that Corbett museum would close at 5., and we would miss out on something that we wanted to see. Again, no apologies from the junior's side.

5.15 P.M.

After playing F1 with the bus, the driver finally put the bus to a halt at Corbett museum. We went inside and saw stuffed tigers, tigresses, deers etc. Each one had a plaque stating the date of death and the reason of death. While some were killed because they had become man-eaters, some died a natural death. A baby-elephant was killed in a stampede of elephants. Seeing the life-size tigers, i realized that though we were very excited to see tigers in the morning, but even if we would have seen one in its glory, we would have either dirtied our jeans or screamed the entire course of our journey. Anyway, after clicking a slew of pictures, we left the place at 6.

6.30 P.M.

We reached Garjiya temple , which was sitiuated bang in the centre of a dried river. Legend has it that the temple came flowing down the river and established itself in the middle of the river. Being an atheist, I did not go inside. I instead stayed back and did Chaukidaari for everyone's footwear. Everyone went in and came out quick. Then we proceeded towards the shallow stream flowing, to witness the antics of a man known as Mustaquim Mia.

In this trip, something had got inside Mustaquim Mia. Maybe it was an ill-cooked chicken, or a cup of stale tea (i'm quite sure he would have drank it anyway). You see, my mental image of Mustaquim Mia was a gentle, caring, silent kinda guy. But since the starting of the trip, he had been behaving differently. Climbing trees, taking swing at ropes, he was the next Tarzan in the making. Here too, he was the first to step in the river. And by step I mean go stand in the middle of the river with his jeans folded up to his knees and shouting "I'm the king".

Nevertheless, I preferred to stay on the shore, and so did Rohan Ji. everyone else went in and got pictures clicked. I thought I was going to go blind with all the camera flashes. Thankfully, it stopped. We all went towards the bus, where Rohan ji passed highway toll slips as meal vouchers to everyone. Surprisingly, not even one of them looked at them, and kept them in the pocket. I was surprised.

8.30 P.M.

We all got down in front of the 800 mts trek to our resort. While everyone moved, Roahn Ji, me, Ujaley, Sam Sammy and a couple of juniors stayed back. Rohan ji had spotted the ultimate treasure. We went there and brought a full and a half 'Limca'. Anticipating the night to be fun, we went back to the resort, where we had dinner. After dinner, we sat down chatting in Megha's room, joined by Apoorva, Swati, Gitika and Tanya. After about an hour of chatting, they decided to bunk in their room. Then is when Rohan Ji brought the 'Limca' out. And boy, did we 'doobo in taazgi'. But more on that later.

End of part 2