sHiMLa....

so now is the time to write about the last weekend.. why !!!

because i got the snaps today... writing about the trip without pictures is not really fun !!! so here i am...

friday evening... the bag was packed in 15 minutes... and me Aditya and Shubhika left for the metro station.. both of them had not seen the metro from inside so far, and the excitement was justified... so we took at bus ( we got on at 2100 hrs easily) and reached the Rajiv Chawk Station... huh !!! its the CP station... grabbed the tokens and took the train.. the crowd at this to take this train was nothing less then the Kolkata Metro !!! tooooo many ppl at the platform... thankfully when the train came to the station it was empty and we could get in with ease...

the Delhi Main Station... or the Chandni Chawk station has two exits... one which takes you to the Fawwara Chawk and the other ( which i took for the first time) which takes you to the entry of the Old Delhi Railway Station... Love you DMRC... going to the Old Delhi Railway station is fun now !!!

there were a total of 21 ppl who were going... all very excited... we quickly ate some sandwiches and searched for the bogie... and took our seats.. had to make some adjustments to sit together... so we asked a lot of ppl to exchange the seats with us... and they had no option... afterall who would like to sleep in between a group of 21 ppl.. we are expected to make noise right ?

the guys who wanted to have drinks enjoyed the drinks after the train moved.. and the other group... with 6 girls were getting bored... and then the game of dumb sharades started... and it was real fun for about 2 hours before some ppl woke up and asked us to sleep... but we could not stop... and carried on for a while this time controlling our voices...

reached kalka in the early morning around 0500 hours after i managed to sleep for about 3 hours...

tried getting a seat in the two trains scheduled to go to Shimla...but Shivalik Express and the Himalayan Queen were both full !!! and there were ppl waiting and fighting the TT because the idiots and taken waiting tickets and wanted a seat... anyway... we moved out of the station to find out alternatives to reach shimla...



took a joyride in a small truck to the Gandhi Chawk bus stand... and waited for a bus there... we could've taken three qualises for 100 bucks per seat... but we chose not to and waited more for a bus.. and finally a Himachal State Transport deluxe bus took us to Shimla... we managed to reach Shimla around 0930 hrs and spend about 1.5 hours looking for a hotel... and finally checked in to the Maharaja Palace near the Kali Badi Mandir... checked in... got ready... and moved out by 1300 hrs... had a wonderful time eating chinese food at Alpha near the LIC of India Office on Scandal Point... and then spent the rest of the day just walking around the Mall Road... what crowd !!! manh !!! i have not seen better girls in this quantity for a long time... the place was FULL of people.. and a good percentage of this PEOPLE was CHICKS... yummy !!!



some of the people got really tired and went back to the hotel while me and a few more decided to stay back on the Mall... i was one of the ppl who stayed back.. took some pics... watched some chicks... and then called everyone for dinner at one of my favorites The Plaza near Guptajee's on the Mall.. both of these restaurants have been the places i make a point to eat at whenever i am in Shimla...



managed to sleep around 0030 hrs... had to wake up early to go to Kufri...we managed to hire 2 Sumos and one Alto... some view points... lots of mules in kufri... and the nature park walk... some rain... a wonderful view point... some pictures... and some great kashmiri pulao and wonderfully tasty pineapple raita followed...


we reached the shimla station @ 1600 hours a good 2.5 hrs before the toy train was to leave Shimla...we had planned to take the general tickets... and to kill time we just kept our bags inside the small ticket counter area... and started what i am never going to forget ever in my life...



the next two hours saw me, Rajat, Lalit, Shivasheesh singing songs loudly.. and on request...we even were asking the other passengers for just 5 bucks for any songs.. hindi, english, marathi, punjabi, sanskrit.. whatever... after sometime the show shifted to the platform where we had the entire passengers of Shivalik Express as our audience.. and we even managed to Sing our way to 5 bucks from a foreigner.. in addition to about 50 bucks that we earned from within the team by singing songs of their choice !!! i will see if i can get one of these videos and upload it...

and as soon as the train arrived... the general dibba was full :( and we did not have a place to sit... so we quickly graduated to a sleeper class compartment and talked to the TT about the extra fare... and made the payment !!! nice... 30 seats in one compartment and 21 of them were with us !!! so no points for guess what followed...

about 4 hours of non-stop singing... with all of us singing at the top of our voices... and me adding some beats to the songs by picking up two empty water bottles and using them for managing the tempo of the songs... a personal question hour.. one Chichora hour... and some non-veg jokes followed... and this journey from Shimla to Kalka because one of the most interesting and well spent journeys of my life !!!

kalka came...we took our seats... and were back in Delhi by 0700 hrs in the morning... so a weekend very very well spent in the company of some amazing people...these are the times when you know life's good !!!



the next weekend is already here and i am not doing much this time...

and i noticed that starting Sep'05 i have managed to be one a outstation trip every month !!! i am praying to God that this continues forever !!!

Amen !!!

oh... and i almost forgot... the fotos have been uploaded to flickr... you can check them out by clicking here