This blog is dedicated to all my friends at MMC...U guys seriously rock...
10th March 2010, 12:00 AM
Everyone seemed to be excited and nervous at the same time. After all, not many of the audience had tasted 'Limca' before. Rohan Ji poured out small ones for the first timers first. The list included Ratika (I don't remember whether she had or not, this is just a guess. Blame it on poor memory), Garima, Danish, Tanya, Mohnish and Keerti. Though Mohnish tried to act like a seasoned player, but my doubts were confirmed after his second helping only. Anyway, for helping ease their pain, we had Kurkure and Uncle Chips as stand-byes. Also had the real Limca to boost the flavor.
Me and Rohan Ji had decided to savor the flavor, and therefore wanted to take this in slowly. So was everyone else. But then, we forgot whom we had with us. Enter 'I'm a Jain'. We all cheered, and Miss Jain gulped the entire thing in one go. I could see what was in store, and in spite of our repeated requests, Miss Jain did not budge from her gulping sessions. We continued.
1:00 AM
After everyone was tight (some were tight after the first and only peg only, special mention to Keerti who said her head was spinning and decided to rest herself, only to show her true colors later), me, Rohan Ji and Danish decided to walk back to our room. We had just barely reached our room when we got a call from Tanya saying that Keerti is laughing non-stop. We hurried back to their room, only to see Keerti sitting soberly. "Kya hua?", Rohan ji asked, flummoxed. "Kuch nahi yaar, ye sab to pagal hai", Keerti said, rolling her eyes. We again started to leave for our room, when Rohan Ji's now charged up mind was flying like a horse. "Dude, chal dekhen Ujaley kya kar raha hai", he said to me. Unwilling, I went went with him. Though we could not see anything, we could hear conversation inside. Then Rohan Ji thought of a new prank. "Inki MCB down kar ke bhaag jaatein hai". "Paagal ho gaya hai kya, upar hi C.P. ka room hai, bachche chilayenge to woh zaroor neeche aa jayega", I told him, hoping against hope that he would listen. But who could debate with him at that time. "Kuch nahi hoga saale, lets do it", he said, winking at me, waving his hands in his trademark style. We went by the side of the room, turned their MCB off, and ran and went inside Keerti's room, where we shut the lights and pretended everyone was asleep. We had done this prank once before, so no one came out for 5 mins. After that Ujaley's head popped out of the room. Also, we saw a watchman coming with a torch. We all were giggling, holed up inside the room, while Megha and Keerti started shouting words incomprehensible to us. We asked them to remain quite. The watchman moved around for sometime and turned their MCB on. He then started coming towards our room. The scene looked like that out of a suspense/ thriller movie. We were dead silent, and were looking at the watchman as if he was a gangster moving towards our room with a gun, looking for his victim. He flashed his torchlight in our room for a couple of times, but could not detect us. Confused, scratching his head, he went away. We gave a huge sigh of relief.
After 10 mins, when we did not see any movement, we decided to head back to our room. Though Rohan Ji was adamant that we turn off their MCB one more time, this time I was persistant and dragged his ass back to our room. Here, Rohan Ji thought of another prank. Mohit was sleeping in our room alone. Though he may look tough, but he is actually pretty scared of ghosts n stuff. So Rohan Ji decided to scare him. Covering his face with a blanket, and me with a quilt, we approached him. "Moooohhhiiittt" Rohan Ji growled, trying to sound as scary as possible. In one flash, Mohit got up, removed the blanket from Rohan's face, and asked politely, "Haan bhai, bol?" We rolled in laughter, and Rohan Ji was left pretty red-faced. Anyway, because we had a wake-up call at 5:00 again, we decided to sleep. Once we hit the bed, we had no clue what happened next.
5.30 A.M.
After hearing Rohan Ji's Christian Rock alarm ringtone for the umpteenth time, I finally got up. I turned his alarm off, and tried to wake him. But how can you wake a person who hasn't slept for the past 48 hours, to get up so easily? Giving up, I headed towards the washroom. Finally, Mohit's booming voice and vigorous shakes to Rohan's body made him open his eyes. At first he was adamant that he wouldn't go. But then he also decided to join us. We all changed and went to the girl's room. There, we got to know that Miss Jain had taken her stomach's content out twice the previous night. Laughing, we enquired about everyone else. Here, we came to know that Megha, Ratika, Garima and Tanya had decided to skip the walk. Finally, after everyone had their cups of tea, we ventured out on our 'Jungle Walk'.
7:00 AM
The jungle walk was a pleasant experience. The calmness and serenity of the jungle around us was to be soaked in. But how is that possible when you are surrounded by 30 other people? Me and Rohan Ji were walking in the end of the trail, trying to keep everyone together, but in vain. The juniors walking in front of us were going at their own speed, as if they had come for a stroll in the park. Some seniors were busy getting their pictures clicked. I would have actually cursed all of them in my mind at one point of time or another. What is the point of a jungle walk if the people around you are so completely ignorant of the entire purpose of this walk? No one was willing to even walk properly, let alone be quite for some time. Also, another thing I realized was that most of my friends had the 'city' syndrome. Walk for 15 mins and their lungs gave up, they twisted their ankles, fell down, and walked as if their knees had no life at all. Surprisingly, Rohan Ji, who is known for his love for the tobacco stick, did not pant even once. Again, I was surprised.
The walk was pretty uneventful, except maybe Divya slipping at one point and Gitika twisting her ankle. Apart from that, I came to know of some nicknames Rashneer and Divya had given to some of us. While Danish was called 'Sutli bum', I was called 'Hydrogen Bum'. Amused, we walked back to our resort.
12.00 PM
After washing up, sleeping and getting our breakfast, we were all set to leave the Jungle Club Resort. We had very beautiful memories of the place, and some events that would be remembered for a long time to come. We were all packed, and thanked Shiv, the hotel manager for his exceptional service and food. He again, did his duties of carrying our luggage to the bus in his 800, and even came back to take a bunch of juniors who wanted a free ride downhill on some pretext. We all settled in the bus and the bus rolled on. Our next stop : Corbett Fall.
Here, Rohan Ji decided to take revenge on everyone. He did not spare anyone from this hardship, not even himself. You see, the fall was about 2.5 kms from the main gate of the entry. The bus could have easily gone inside and saved us about an hour of walk. But Rohan Ji decided otherwise. He made us all walk. In the blazing afternoon sun, we walked. Cursing Rohan Ji and the cars vrooming by us, we walked.
Finally, we reached Corbett Fall. The first thing that came in my mind was, why didn't I pack my trunks? You see, my entire time spent in Corbett, I wanted to take a dip. Either in the swimming pool, or anywhere else. But so far, that all did not happen due to one reason or other. Cursing myself, I anyways went inside the fall, folding my lower up to my knees. The first to enter was Mohit, followed by me.
We had a really good time at the falls. We all got our pictures clicked by the dozen. rested our feet in the ice-cold water, and enjoyed the scenery. After about 2 hours, despite us wishing this would never end, we walked back to our bus. The entire freshness of the feet were gone, and we were back to being our old, tired, miserable self.
3.00 PM
After we reached the bus, everyone stocked up on the resources for the journey to Nainital, when the girls realized that they had to pee. Suddenly, some guys (me included) also realized the same. We went to a nearby resort where we were outrightly refused to use their facilities. Hurling abuses at them, we left and went back to the bus. The bus driver was instructed to stop at a place on the way where everyone could relieve themselves. Finally, the bus moved.
The bus wouldn't have moved 2 kms, when Divya started to shout "Mera camera nahi mil raha". She looked everywhere, but did not find it. She asked Mohit to ask the driver to take a U-turn and go back. I thought, would the driver actually take the bus back? And why is Divya asking Mohit to make the bus take a U-turn? After all, she could do so herself. Suddenly, the camera was discovered in Rashneer's lap. Thinking about the hara-kiri jsut caused, I slumbered to sleep.
I woke up when the bus had stopped moving. I asked Rohan Ji who was sitting next to me why had we stopped. "Dude, pee karne ke liye bachche utare hain, do you want to go"? Realizing i had to too, i stepped out. Rohan Ji instructed me not to let anyone click pictures here. I was a little amazed. Why would people want to click pictures at a place where we were getting down to pee? But knowing our mates, I stepped down, looking for the odd shutterbug. But thankfully, people did what they had stopped the bus for.
5.30 PM
I woke up in Nainital next. I missed the whole journey to the hill station, and was told that Rohan and Mohit had gone to the hotel to check stuff up. But, me snoozing was captured in someone's camera. When I saw the picture, I was amazed my neck had not broken off in the angle it was resting in. Anyway, I started to peep outside my window. Motorcycles were zipping by, with the riders wearing jackets and gloves. 'It could not be that cold' I thought. After all, the bus felt reasonably warm. I decided to step down, stretch my legs. For precautionary measures, I took my jacket along. As soon as I stepped down, the icy wind slapped me in my face, as if angry that I questioned its authority. I quickly zipped my jacket all the way to the top and strolled lazily around the bus. The bus was parked at a tourist taxi stop, in front of the Cave Park. I thought this must be exciting. Since there was no itinerary fixed for Nainital, i thought of putting it in my to-do list.
After waiting for about an hour, all hell broke lose. The loose details that we had got about why we were not going to the hotel were as follows:
1. The driver had outrightly refused to budge his bus, and wanted us to walk, carrying our luggage.
2. C.P. Singh and Deepak Sir had gone with them, leaving no authority over children sitting in the bus, except C.P. Singh's wife.
3. The juniors were getting impatient, ridiculing the fact that they were being forced to sit in the bus, without a solution in sight.
4. Apparently, the driver had gotten more pissed because of a scolding he got from his boss and then simply refused to help us in any way.
5. Rohan and Mohit had arranged for a couple of taxis for luggage transport, and they were coming back.
Amidst all this confusion, one junior tried to act smart. "Rohan has called me, he wants to take our luggage out of the bus and get down". I was surprised. If such an announcement had to be made, he would have conveyed it to me or to Danish. But not giving it much thought, we got down and took our luggage out.
After about 15 mins, when we all had got down, we saw Rohan Ji and Mohit walking towards us. Meanwhile C.P. Singh's wife was hurling abuses at him over Danish's phone. "Khud to wahan jaa kar baith gaye ho, mujhe yaahan chhod diya hai. Main kya karun yahan akele? Ye saara saama lekar kaun jayega? Main jaa rahi hu tumhara saaman yahan chhod kar, khud le jana". Controlling my urge to laugh and thinking of C.P. Singh's expression, I moved towards Rohan Ji to clarify the details. Rohan ji came marching in. "Who asked you to move the luggage?" He asked me. I told him the junior's name. He then went on to chat with the junior, who had a reason of his own. Apparently, he had done so without Rohan's consent, and because he thought that everyone was getting impatient and therefore decided to take matters in his own hands. I could not believe my ears. Can anyone be this stupid? Here, someone is trying to co-ordinate things that the faculty members should be doing, and on the other hand, he has to bear with such dumb-witted students. Angry, I walked away.
While Rohan was trying to convince everyone that taxis were coming, some juniors decided to walk towards the hotel. Even after repeated requests, they did not listen. I asked Rohan Ji to let them go. After all, we are not here to take care of them, nor were we obliged to. "Let them do whatever they want to", I told Rohan Ji, fuming. "Chill dude", he said. I was taken aback. If I would have been at his place, I would have actually punched someone in the face. But he said " Things have been taken care of. Tu tension mat le. These guys will have it back".
As promised, two taxis showed up to take our luggage. One taxi had C.P. Singh's wife along, while the other had a junior sitting in front. These taxis came back for another round, and took some girls who did not want to walk. Only Neera and Megha decided to stay back. We started to walk towards the hotel.
6.30 PM
We reached 'The Pavilion'. The hotel looked pretty from the outside, giving it a old, English inn look. I went inside, fuming. How inconsiderate can people be, I thought. No acknowledgment of a person who is doing so much for you, just because he took the command of the trip. At least show some respect to him. I was so angry, I took Rohan Ji's case. "Yaar tu in c***iyon ke liye kyu kuchch kar raha hain, marne de saalon ko", I told him, with smoke coming out of my ears. He mellowed me down, saying he has the perfect spoiler for them. We ate our brunch, and then Rohan Ji disclosed his plan.
Actually, Rohan Ji had enough of the trip debacles. After all, he was mortal too. So, he decided for a little payback. Apparently, he had kept the best rooms for us. By us, I mean all the seniors, and the biggest reserved for us boys. The girls got huge rooms too. Juniors were given comparatively smaller rooms. He said even if they would complain, he would not change the room, simply because the rest of the hotel was booked. I was still not convinced. "Dude, ruk ja, you will see", he said, smiling. I hoped this time he was right.
After some confusion erupted on rooms, with Rashneer and gang shifting downstairs because they did not like the room, and juniors been given a room to house 3 girls which could hold 5, we finally entered our room. The room looked pretty ordinary, till we opened another door. It had a huge living area with a balcony attached, and finally after 3 hours, I smiled. Rohan Ji had taken his revenge well, I thought. Later, Rohan Ji told me that the room was not taken because of the size, but because it had a 21 inch flat screen Samsung TV. After all, boys will be boys.
Later, C.P.Singh decided to do a round of all the rooms. We went to all the rooms with him, and he in the end came to our room. To relax the atmosphere, I asked him to feel at home. Taking my advice literally, he jumped in the bed, took the quilt and cozied himself in! Rohan Ji looked at me, his eyes saying "Why Ravi Why"?, while I looked at him sheepishly. After about 10 minutes, he decided to move. Almost out, he asked us, how would you 5 guys adjust in this room? Suddenly Mustaquim Mia appeared out of nowhere, and tried to show C.P. the additional room. And then started Operation Mustaquim.
You see, we did not want C.P. to see the additional room. After all, the organizing committee could afford a few luxuries. So we had locked up the additional room, and pulled the curtains. But Mustaquim Mia, being the journalist he is, wanted the truth to come out. As soon as he tried to point to the additional room, the following things happened within 5 seconds.
1. Rohan Ji threw down a slip, asking aloud whose slip was it, bending down and blocking Mustaquim's way.
2. Mohit came in front of the door, standing in between the room and Mustaquim Mia as if there was a celebrity holed inside and he was the bouncer.
3. Mustaquim Mia was frisked away to the side, and me, Mohnish and Danish gave him a glaring look. Mustaquim Mia slipped away.
After all this we decided tor rest. The girls wanted to go for a leisurely stroll down the mall road. But we kept on postponing it. Finally, when we moved at 9.00, we were told the market had closed. After getting a few pictures clicked, we came back to the hotel.
11.00 PM
After stuffing ourselves with dinner, we decided to take a stroll in the hotel park. The night temperature had dropped significantly, and it was pretty cold outside. Me, Rohan ji, Danish and Mohnish went for the walk. Upon returning, we realized there was a bed and quilts missing in our room. The explanation given to us by the standby receptionist was that everyone (the hotel staff) had gone to sleep. Therefore, nothing much could be done. Shocked, we sat in the reception area only where we waited for some solution. Divya also came to join us, and said a quilt was missing in her room too. Finally after 15 mins, Rohan Ji went with the reception guy and got our bed and quilt. We went back to our room at 11.30. Thought the bed was very uneven, i decided to sleep anyway, because my body was screaming for rest. By 11.45, I did not know where I was lying, but had excitement in my heart, about the day which was about to arrive.
End of part 3
10th March 2010, 12:00 AM
Everyone seemed to be excited and nervous at the same time. After all, not many of the audience had tasted 'Limca' before. Rohan Ji poured out small ones for the first timers first. The list included Ratika (I don't remember whether she had or not, this is just a guess. Blame it on poor memory), Garima, Danish, Tanya, Mohnish and Keerti. Though Mohnish tried to act like a seasoned player, but my doubts were confirmed after his second helping only. Anyway, for helping ease their pain, we had Kurkure and Uncle Chips as stand-byes. Also had the real Limca to boost the flavor.
Me and Rohan Ji had decided to savor the flavor, and therefore wanted to take this in slowly. So was everyone else. But then, we forgot whom we had with us. Enter 'I'm a Jain'. We all cheered, and Miss Jain gulped the entire thing in one go. I could see what was in store, and in spite of our repeated requests, Miss Jain did not budge from her gulping sessions. We continued.
1:00 AM
After everyone was tight (some were tight after the first and only peg only, special mention to Keerti who said her head was spinning and decided to rest herself, only to show her true colors later), me, Rohan Ji and Danish decided to walk back to our room. We had just barely reached our room when we got a call from Tanya saying that Keerti is laughing non-stop. We hurried back to their room, only to see Keerti sitting soberly. "Kya hua?", Rohan ji asked, flummoxed. "Kuch nahi yaar, ye sab to pagal hai", Keerti said, rolling her eyes. We again started to leave for our room, when Rohan Ji's now charged up mind was flying like a horse. "Dude, chal dekhen Ujaley kya kar raha hai", he said to me. Unwilling, I went went with him. Though we could not see anything, we could hear conversation inside. Then Rohan Ji thought of a new prank. "Inki MCB down kar ke bhaag jaatein hai". "Paagal ho gaya hai kya, upar hi C.P. ka room hai, bachche chilayenge to woh zaroor neeche aa jayega", I told him, hoping against hope that he would listen. But who could debate with him at that time. "Kuch nahi hoga saale, lets do it", he said, winking at me, waving his hands in his trademark style. We went by the side of the room, turned their MCB off, and ran and went inside Keerti's room, where we shut the lights and pretended everyone was asleep. We had done this prank once before, so no one came out for 5 mins. After that Ujaley's head popped out of the room. Also, we saw a watchman coming with a torch. We all were giggling, holed up inside the room, while Megha and Keerti started shouting words incomprehensible to us. We asked them to remain quite. The watchman moved around for sometime and turned their MCB on. He then started coming towards our room. The scene looked like that out of a suspense/ thriller movie. We were dead silent, and were looking at the watchman as if he was a gangster moving towards our room with a gun, looking for his victim. He flashed his torchlight in our room for a couple of times, but could not detect us. Confused, scratching his head, he went away. We gave a huge sigh of relief.
After 10 mins, when we did not see any movement, we decided to head back to our room. Though Rohan Ji was adamant that we turn off their MCB one more time, this time I was persistant and dragged his ass back to our room. Here, Rohan Ji thought of another prank. Mohit was sleeping in our room alone. Though he may look tough, but he is actually pretty scared of ghosts n stuff. So Rohan Ji decided to scare him. Covering his face with a blanket, and me with a quilt, we approached him. "Moooohhhiiittt" Rohan Ji growled, trying to sound as scary as possible. In one flash, Mohit got up, removed the blanket from Rohan's face, and asked politely, "Haan bhai, bol?" We rolled in laughter, and Rohan Ji was left pretty red-faced. Anyway, because we had a wake-up call at 5:00 again, we decided to sleep. Once we hit the bed, we had no clue what happened next.
5.30 A.M.
After hearing Rohan Ji's Christian Rock alarm ringtone for the umpteenth time, I finally got up. I turned his alarm off, and tried to wake him. But how can you wake a person who hasn't slept for the past 48 hours, to get up so easily? Giving up, I headed towards the washroom. Finally, Mohit's booming voice and vigorous shakes to Rohan's body made him open his eyes. At first he was adamant that he wouldn't go. But then he also decided to join us. We all changed and went to the girl's room. There, we got to know that Miss Jain had taken her stomach's content out twice the previous night. Laughing, we enquired about everyone else. Here, we came to know that Megha, Ratika, Garima and Tanya had decided to skip the walk. Finally, after everyone had their cups of tea, we ventured out on our 'Jungle Walk'.
7:00 AM
The jungle walk was a pleasant experience. The calmness and serenity of the jungle around us was to be soaked in. But how is that possible when you are surrounded by 30 other people? Me and Rohan Ji were walking in the end of the trail, trying to keep everyone together, but in vain. The juniors walking in front of us were going at their own speed, as if they had come for a stroll in the park. Some seniors were busy getting their pictures clicked. I would have actually cursed all of them in my mind at one point of time or another. What is the point of a jungle walk if the people around you are so completely ignorant of the entire purpose of this walk? No one was willing to even walk properly, let alone be quite for some time. Also, another thing I realized was that most of my friends had the 'city' syndrome. Walk for 15 mins and their lungs gave up, they twisted their ankles, fell down, and walked as if their knees had no life at all. Surprisingly, Rohan Ji, who is known for his love for the tobacco stick, did not pant even once. Again, I was surprised.
The walk was pretty uneventful, except maybe Divya slipping at one point and Gitika twisting her ankle. Apart from that, I came to know of some nicknames Rashneer and Divya had given to some of us. While Danish was called 'Sutli bum', I was called 'Hydrogen Bum'. Amused, we walked back to our resort.
12.00 PM
After washing up, sleeping and getting our breakfast, we were all set to leave the Jungle Club Resort. We had very beautiful memories of the place, and some events that would be remembered for a long time to come. We were all packed, and thanked Shiv, the hotel manager for his exceptional service and food. He again, did his duties of carrying our luggage to the bus in his 800, and even came back to take a bunch of juniors who wanted a free ride downhill on some pretext. We all settled in the bus and the bus rolled on. Our next stop : Corbett Fall.
Here, Rohan Ji decided to take revenge on everyone. He did not spare anyone from this hardship, not even himself. You see, the fall was about 2.5 kms from the main gate of the entry. The bus could have easily gone inside and saved us about an hour of walk. But Rohan Ji decided otherwise. He made us all walk. In the blazing afternoon sun, we walked. Cursing Rohan Ji and the cars vrooming by us, we walked.
Finally, we reached Corbett Fall. The first thing that came in my mind was, why didn't I pack my trunks? You see, my entire time spent in Corbett, I wanted to take a dip. Either in the swimming pool, or anywhere else. But so far, that all did not happen due to one reason or other. Cursing myself, I anyways went inside the fall, folding my lower up to my knees. The first to enter was Mohit, followed by me.
We had a really good time at the falls. We all got our pictures clicked by the dozen. rested our feet in the ice-cold water, and enjoyed the scenery. After about 2 hours, despite us wishing this would never end, we walked back to our bus. The entire freshness of the feet were gone, and we were back to being our old, tired, miserable self.
3.00 PM
After we reached the bus, everyone stocked up on the resources for the journey to Nainital, when the girls realized that they had to pee. Suddenly, some guys (me included) also realized the same. We went to a nearby resort where we were outrightly refused to use their facilities. Hurling abuses at them, we left and went back to the bus. The bus driver was instructed to stop at a place on the way where everyone could relieve themselves. Finally, the bus moved.
The bus wouldn't have moved 2 kms, when Divya started to shout "Mera camera nahi mil raha". She looked everywhere, but did not find it. She asked Mohit to ask the driver to take a U-turn and go back. I thought, would the driver actually take the bus back? And why is Divya asking Mohit to make the bus take a U-turn? After all, she could do so herself. Suddenly, the camera was discovered in Rashneer's lap. Thinking about the hara-kiri jsut caused, I slumbered to sleep.
I woke up when the bus had stopped moving. I asked Rohan Ji who was sitting next to me why had we stopped. "Dude, pee karne ke liye bachche utare hain, do you want to go"? Realizing i had to too, i stepped out. Rohan Ji instructed me not to let anyone click pictures here. I was a little amazed. Why would people want to click pictures at a place where we were getting down to pee? But knowing our mates, I stepped down, looking for the odd shutterbug. But thankfully, people did what they had stopped the bus for.
5.30 PM
I woke up in Nainital next. I missed the whole journey to the hill station, and was told that Rohan and Mohit had gone to the hotel to check stuff up. But, me snoozing was captured in someone's camera. When I saw the picture, I was amazed my neck had not broken off in the angle it was resting in. Anyway, I started to peep outside my window. Motorcycles were zipping by, with the riders wearing jackets and gloves. 'It could not be that cold' I thought. After all, the bus felt reasonably warm. I decided to step down, stretch my legs. For precautionary measures, I took my jacket along. As soon as I stepped down, the icy wind slapped me in my face, as if angry that I questioned its authority. I quickly zipped my jacket all the way to the top and strolled lazily around the bus. The bus was parked at a tourist taxi stop, in front of the Cave Park. I thought this must be exciting. Since there was no itinerary fixed for Nainital, i thought of putting it in my to-do list.
After waiting for about an hour, all hell broke lose. The loose details that we had got about why we were not going to the hotel were as follows:
1. The driver had outrightly refused to budge his bus, and wanted us to walk, carrying our luggage.
2. C.P. Singh and Deepak Sir had gone with them, leaving no authority over children sitting in the bus, except C.P. Singh's wife.
3. The juniors were getting impatient, ridiculing the fact that they were being forced to sit in the bus, without a solution in sight.
4. Apparently, the driver had gotten more pissed because of a scolding he got from his boss and then simply refused to help us in any way.
5. Rohan and Mohit had arranged for a couple of taxis for luggage transport, and they were coming back.
Amidst all this confusion, one junior tried to act smart. "Rohan has called me, he wants to take our luggage out of the bus and get down". I was surprised. If such an announcement had to be made, he would have conveyed it to me or to Danish. But not giving it much thought, we got down and took our luggage out.
After about 15 mins, when we all had got down, we saw Rohan Ji and Mohit walking towards us. Meanwhile C.P. Singh's wife was hurling abuses at him over Danish's phone. "Khud to wahan jaa kar baith gaye ho, mujhe yaahan chhod diya hai. Main kya karun yahan akele? Ye saara saama lekar kaun jayega? Main jaa rahi hu tumhara saaman yahan chhod kar, khud le jana". Controlling my urge to laugh and thinking of C.P. Singh's expression, I moved towards Rohan Ji to clarify the details. Rohan ji came marching in. "Who asked you to move the luggage?" He asked me. I told him the junior's name. He then went on to chat with the junior, who had a reason of his own. Apparently, he had done so without Rohan's consent, and because he thought that everyone was getting impatient and therefore decided to take matters in his own hands. I could not believe my ears. Can anyone be this stupid? Here, someone is trying to co-ordinate things that the faculty members should be doing, and on the other hand, he has to bear with such dumb-witted students. Angry, I walked away.
While Rohan was trying to convince everyone that taxis were coming, some juniors decided to walk towards the hotel. Even after repeated requests, they did not listen. I asked Rohan Ji to let them go. After all, we are not here to take care of them, nor were we obliged to. "Let them do whatever they want to", I told Rohan Ji, fuming. "Chill dude", he said. I was taken aback. If I would have been at his place, I would have actually punched someone in the face. But he said " Things have been taken care of. Tu tension mat le. These guys will have it back".
As promised, two taxis showed up to take our luggage. One taxi had C.P. Singh's wife along, while the other had a junior sitting in front. These taxis came back for another round, and took some girls who did not want to walk. Only Neera and Megha decided to stay back. We started to walk towards the hotel.
6.30 PM
We reached 'The Pavilion'. The hotel looked pretty from the outside, giving it a old, English inn look. I went inside, fuming. How inconsiderate can people be, I thought. No acknowledgment of a person who is doing so much for you, just because he took the command of the trip. At least show some respect to him. I was so angry, I took Rohan Ji's case. "Yaar tu in c***iyon ke liye kyu kuchch kar raha hain, marne de saalon ko", I told him, with smoke coming out of my ears. He mellowed me down, saying he has the perfect spoiler for them. We ate our brunch, and then Rohan Ji disclosed his plan.
Actually, Rohan Ji had enough of the trip debacles. After all, he was mortal too. So, he decided for a little payback. Apparently, he had kept the best rooms for us. By us, I mean all the seniors, and the biggest reserved for us boys. The girls got huge rooms too. Juniors were given comparatively smaller rooms. He said even if they would complain, he would not change the room, simply because the rest of the hotel was booked. I was still not convinced. "Dude, ruk ja, you will see", he said, smiling. I hoped this time he was right.
After some confusion erupted on rooms, with Rashneer and gang shifting downstairs because they did not like the room, and juniors been given a room to house 3 girls which could hold 5, we finally entered our room. The room looked pretty ordinary, till we opened another door. It had a huge living area with a balcony attached, and finally after 3 hours, I smiled. Rohan Ji had taken his revenge well, I thought. Later, Rohan Ji told me that the room was not taken because of the size, but because it had a 21 inch flat screen Samsung TV. After all, boys will be boys.
Later, C.P.Singh decided to do a round of all the rooms. We went to all the rooms with him, and he in the end came to our room. To relax the atmosphere, I asked him to feel at home. Taking my advice literally, he jumped in the bed, took the quilt and cozied himself in! Rohan Ji looked at me, his eyes saying "Why Ravi Why"?, while I looked at him sheepishly. After about 10 minutes, he decided to move. Almost out, he asked us, how would you 5 guys adjust in this room? Suddenly Mustaquim Mia appeared out of nowhere, and tried to show C.P. the additional room. And then started Operation Mustaquim.
You see, we did not want C.P. to see the additional room. After all, the organizing committee could afford a few luxuries. So we had locked up the additional room, and pulled the curtains. But Mustaquim Mia, being the journalist he is, wanted the truth to come out. As soon as he tried to point to the additional room, the following things happened within 5 seconds.
1. Rohan Ji threw down a slip, asking aloud whose slip was it, bending down and blocking Mustaquim's way.
2. Mohit came in front of the door, standing in between the room and Mustaquim Mia as if there was a celebrity holed inside and he was the bouncer.
3. Mustaquim Mia was frisked away to the side, and me, Mohnish and Danish gave him a glaring look. Mustaquim Mia slipped away.
After all this we decided tor rest. The girls wanted to go for a leisurely stroll down the mall road. But we kept on postponing it. Finally, when we moved at 9.00, we were told the market had closed. After getting a few pictures clicked, we came back to the hotel.
11.00 PM
After stuffing ourselves with dinner, we decided to take a stroll in the hotel park. The night temperature had dropped significantly, and it was pretty cold outside. Me, Rohan ji, Danish and Mohnish went for the walk. Upon returning, we realized there was a bed and quilts missing in our room. The explanation given to us by the standby receptionist was that everyone (the hotel staff) had gone to sleep. Therefore, nothing much could be done. Shocked, we sat in the reception area only where we waited for some solution. Divya also came to join us, and said a quilt was missing in her room too. Finally after 15 mins, Rohan Ji went with the reception guy and got our bed and quilt. We went back to our room at 11.30. Thought the bed was very uneven, i decided to sleep anyway, because my body was screaming for rest. By 11.45, I did not know where I was lying, but had excitement in my heart, about the day which was about to arrive.
End of part 3
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