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14/04/06

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

25 comments:

  1. Sounds a lot of fun! *Jealous* Cos I was stuck with college submission. *Nevermind*

    Nothing next weekend?
    Ooooooh. For a change?! :P


    Pineapple Raita?
    MUJHE BHI TRY KARNA HAI!


    Chicks? And that too 'Yummy'? I wonder what that means. *Ok nothing gross*


    Pics are nice. You've done majorly what you're good at. I left some comments there.


    Singing! That's the most fun! I remember we were singing horny songs in the train while coming back.. :D

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  2. beautiful pics....and poor girls... :)

    i've been to shimla like 20 times but still love that place and regarding one trip per months....AMEN man...

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  3. # rohit...
    :D congratulations on being the first person to comment on this post...

    why "J"... i think you will get to see more places then me... just the right time needs to come looking for you... and you better be around to greet him...

    next weekend.. not thought of as of now...

    pineapple raita was one of the best ever i had !!!

    chicks yummy yes.... what hott gurls around there... phew !!! nothing gross

    pics.. thanks...

    singing...yes.. the best part of the entire trip!!!!

    # alice...
    girls were not poor... they were rich with beauty appeal... and what not ;) and were obviously dressed nicely to be looked at...

    shimla is not one of my favorite places, but yes i like it for a few good things...

    and AMEN :)

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  4. Nice snaps of the sky. Looks like you guys had loads of fun.

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  5. # subbu...
    yeah... loads of fun...

    i saw one of the best skies ever in shimla this time !!! can't tell you how much i missed a dSLR...

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  6. awesome pics..nice write up!

    was it paach rupees per song..kitne income ho gaye..hehe

    Masti karo ..kush raho!

    I hav an idea..will dicuss on orkut!

    And ya me planning to go to Vaishno Devi next weekend..wanna join?

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  7. another feather in ur cap....way to go.
    interesting and well descriptive post, as always n yes plz do upload the video u talked abt....m sure it wud b fun to watch.
    pics are as gud as ur post:)

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  8. # ankur...
    thanks bro...

    yes it was 5 bucks per song... for the firangies it was initially $2 but then we reduced that to Rs. 5 as well later after a lot of peer pressure and the janta sms votes :)

    @shweta...
    yea.. another feather.. not long before i start looking like one of the hens in a poultry farm :D

    video yes.. i iwll get that and post the link here...

    good you liked the fotos...

    #tushar..
    yea !!! now i am really really waiting for the drive.. fatafat plan bata... so that we get two more ppl...

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  9. sounds like loads of fun....kahan ka group tha ?
    pics are wonderful.......shimla when no full of tourist is a beautiful place....and i like the restaurans u have mentioned.....kashmiri pulao and pineapple raita......yummy as always
    agla trip kahan ka laga raha hai ?

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  10. i luv the white flowers waali pic!
    n khanaa also sounds yum.. n the whole trip sounds soooo much fun!

    hey btw... tht reminds me to ask.... whch cam do u use??

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  11. as always, sounds like great fun.

    love the white flowers wali pic. and as a said,the sky is looking awesome in all the pics.

    very nice.

    keep travelling!!
    i'll do that too someday. :)

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  12. Well, you seem to have had loads of fun. Though i do not envy you in the least...Shimla..you make it sound like heaven on earth...

    Leaving my preferences aside....have to admit your travel posts are really very nice.

    Also...you won't be able to reach my blog for i deleted the darn thing. Too much of bad luck!!!

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  13. Hey nice trip ..
    mujhe masoori trip ki yaad aa gayi ..
    n ur badal pics ..just awesome ..

    sach mein u manage to capture the MeGHDOOT :)

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  14. main kabhi shimla nahin gaya....

    but this trip sounds fun... who were the other 20 ppl?

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  15. Seems like real fun...snaps were great too!!

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  16. # deepak...
    these were the people from the helpdesk i support the tools for... they were planning this trip for a while.. i just overheard a few of them... recommended the logistics... and joined them...

    shimla is special for me because i experienced snow for the first time there... some emotional bonding i have with the place because of that trip !!!

    next trip is to pragpur, dharamshala and Mcleodganj.. with you, tushar, radha and one more passenger...

    # convivial...
    thanks.... the trip was excellent yes !!!

    i have a canon 3000V film based SLR with a bundled 28-90 mm lens....

    # richa...
    yea.. it was big fun...

    the while flowers were very very pretty.. and they are apple flowers :)

    i wish you loads of travel the way you want !!! God bless !!!

    # mayuri...
    yea... loved everything about the trip....

    i just ate the pulao and raita... lots of it actually... wanted to eat light.. but the taste made me stuff myself with food :P

    songs'c clips yes.. soon...

    captions right !!! actually uploaded the pics in hurry.. and that is why no captions...

    good you love shimla too !!!

    # kanu...
    heaven is everywhere... you just need the gods or godesses [ as in my case ] hehehee.. which were there in abundance...

    thanks for the compliment...

    i checked your other blog about the books.. not sure if i would be regular visitor there thanks to me not being a avid reader of books... why did you delete the other blog.. it was nice....

    @ chitra...
    yea.. the clouds were the best there...

    :)

    #aseem...
    to chanlna next time i go !!!

    #bhaskar...
    yea.. it was fun !!!

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  18. aww.. i feel jealous of u now :( i have not been to an outstation trip for abt an year now.. last one being to bombay arnd early may last yr.. prob is my parents wont allow me to go out on my own/with frens only :( n just to keep harmony at home i dun push the issue either.. but i just get so restless wen my frens go nd i dont :( anyways gud to see ur pics.. the one aove that subzi mandi pic with clouds nd sun is an awsome pic..made me remember my trip to nepal.. and saw almost the same scene :) just a li'l more clouds and a each single ray coming individually thru them.. i was awstruck then :) just din have a camera with me then..

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  20. The blog invited too much bad luck...that is what i think. I am glad you liked it and want to thank you...but like everything...it too had to end. The only sad part is..it ended too soon.

    No worries...even i dont post on that blog regularly. Books...are my first love....

    Hope your Goddesses always bless you with their presence in your life!!!! :)

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  21. @ kishley...
    arre do not be jealous.. i hope you get your chances of roaming around the world the way you want to !!!

    do not get restless though... tumhaara bhi time aayega.. for sure...

    good to know you liked the pics.. hope u keep liking what i click...

    @ kanu...
    hmm.. bad luck and blog... ok.. but i used to like reading it.. anyway... i hope something starts soon too... for a long time...

    books i understand... somehow i could never get into reading books... cannot do that even today...

    Goddesses.. yes... i hope so too :P

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  22. just read this.
    reminded me of the bombay goa trip I went to an era back. we sang the whole night and then in the morning some passengers wanted us to wake up so we could sing bhajans. Never thought of asking for money.
    rotfl at chichora hour. Thats a new one on me. I usually call it shady central.

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  23. #pratibha....
    i just hope that i remember your name right :)
    bhajans... oops... good that no one wanted us to sing bhajans.. coz we wouldhave been miserable at that.. we tried a couple of them.. but then after the first few lines... had to give up :P

    chichora hour is going to be a regular in all my trips now.. if they are with a lot of ppl that is...

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