Re-Defined: 2

9:00 pm. Tuesday. Mumbai.

Two Hours. Only a matter of two more hours. And then…

It is unbelievable, almost fantastic, to think that one’s life can change so drastically, dramatically in a day’s time. And yet, that is how it has to be. Such an irony to think that the person you believed to be your well-wisher is to be the one who stabs you in the back. I guess it is true when they say keep your friends close, enemies closer.

Heck, there will be lots of time for philosophy later. For now, I just need to get to the garage as quickly as possible. I do hope Roy ready with everything as promised. I desperately need to get this deal done in time so I can cross the border immediately. That is the only way I can be sure of being safe.

Safe. I wonder how it might feel. It pisses me to the core to think of the things one has to endure to ensure a good, SAFE life. Unlike most people with normal lives, safety isn’t a given when you have seen a downfall in your life caused by someone you thought was your own. You tend to develop a fear of people. You begin to distrust those around you, even the closest of friends. Suspicion consumes you and everybody feels like an enemy and you are left completely on your own, for life. Imagine this happening to an eight year old. I can never forget those dark days…

To see your father being betrayed by his own brother, to see his hardwork of 17 years being stolen overnight, and your family being brought down from riches to rags in a matter of minutes. To see your mother suffer in pain as she sees your father kill himself, to have poverty as your steadfast companion on hungry nights, to see this hunger drive you to rob and beg and weep, and eventually, when all doors seem shut; to eventually let go of the one thing left with you – your pride. Suffering indignation at the hands of the ones habituated to using and throwing women like disposable tissues is the ultimate humiliation one can suffer in one’s lifetime.  And when that happens, your soul is on its way to a slow death.

Gradually, all emotions in you begin to die until you are turned into a stone yourself. That, my friend, is the tipping point of your life. From that point on, you give up on looking back. You begin to live for yourself and yourself alone. Means do not matter anymore as long as you are getting the end that you desire.

Yes, it is a bit of an irony to have desires without emotions. Human minds are complicated like that, aren’t they? So it sometimes chooses the weirdest alternative to meet its desires. I can’t deny of being any different. I was consumed as crazy by my desire to be rich again and throw it in the face of fate. To reverse the damage it had done to me. Silly of me to believe the damage can be undone. That time shall never come back, I know. But when opportunity glares you in the face, the numb mind trained to distrust and despise can only think of the uglier ends to means. Had it been otherwise, the sane me, maybe today I wouldn’t have been in this car right now driving at full speed to escape the country. But it all happened in such a spur of the moment, there was just no time to be sane!

Oh these flashes keep coming back to me again and again like a movie set on a loop! I know this memory is going to haunt me for a long, long time to come. His bloody face from few hours ago, with the shocked look on his face, stumped at seeing what I had done to him. How unrecognizable against his face from two years ago - that fine shaven face, that smell of fresh cologne, those gleaming eyes looking at something behind my eyes, that smile of his telling me he wanted me and he wanted more of me than what had been presented to him. Yes, he had been my client back then. Yes, he had fallen for me at the first sight. Yes, he said he was willing to leave his wife for me. And yes, despite all my coldness, I let myself go along with it.

Since then there had been no looking back. He got me a modest flat to stay at Versova. He would visit me almost 2-3 times a week. I was okay with this arrangement. It gave me my space, and the exclusivity meant I got paid more for half the effort. Of course, gradually the frequency of his visits went on increasing, and I knew that he had begun to lay his trust in me. I too kept him close to me; it was the best deal I was to ever get (since it is no rocket science to know that in this business we need to make the most while we are on the right side of age). His affection towards me kept steadily increasing. I know he shared with me what he could not share with others. He trusted me completely. Until this morning.

I guess I was still hungover from the drinks the previous night when the noise woke me up. So I thought I had misunderstood it at first. But then I heard it once again, louder and harsher this time. And I knew this was it. His yelling from the living room and the sound of things being thrown astray left no doubt about the extent of his angst. I woke myself up and saw my cell-phone laid on the bed, unlocked, the screen displaying the chain of text messages from Roy from last night. He had read it all, and now he knew of my deal with Roy - the details of our meeting point and payment that I will be receiving in exchange for his, yes HIS diamond necklace.

It began last evening. He came over late, but ecstatic. He had carried with him a bottle of champagne and was clearly here to celebrate. He told me he had struck a huge business deal – the biggest he could have ever dreamt of (I am not quite sure of what his so called business was – I never cared too much about these things as long as my fees kept coming in on time – but I do have an idea that it was not a clean one). To add to it, he said, he had received the advance pay in the evening and that was big money right there. So for celebrating this success, he had got me a gold chain from the money. It was lovely, I won’t deny that. But what he said next was what piqued my interest. Normally he wouldn’t talk to me much about his wife, but today in his excitement it slipped from his mouth that he had got a gift for her as well – a real expensive diamond necklace. Well, a pendant for me and a necklace for her. It got me real curious to see this pretty thing. I thought maybe I could have a look when he would fall asleep. In fact, it was the first time I was going to see a diamond necklace, so it got me so keen that I wanted him to fall asleep as quickly as possible. To do that, I got him drunk real bad. Unfortunately, I myself got quite drunk in the process – my biggest mistake.

As soon as he was down and out (which I knew happened real quickly after he was done fucking me), I got off the bed and went straight to his bag. As I was rummaging through his bag to find the necklace box, my hands found a certain packet. I opened it shamelessly. And boy; was I glad I opened it! It was raw cash! All green notes. I counted through it hurriedly, nervously. I could not believe the figure - a full one lakh fifty thousand. No wonder he was so thrilled. I could not let go of the packet, so I held it by my side while I started looking once more for the necklace. This time I found it and it was sheer beauty! So big! It must be worth lakhs I was sure. I went numb for a moment. Here I was, with a ton of money in my hand – something I had always wanted ever since I had been robbed of my rightful luxuries. This was my one shot that destiny had chosen to provide me. I had to decide right away whether to take it or let it go. Just then it struck me. There was one person who could help me out.

Roy had been a client of mine once, but once he found true love, he had felt compassion towards all the women he had slept with. Since then he tried to help all his women in ways that would legally not have been possible, since obviously, that was what he did after all. I dialled his number immediately and he was, of course, on-board with me. He said he will get back to me in an hour with a detailed plan on how I can get a good deal on the diamonds and then quickly escape from this hell before the sleeping bastard can find out about what hit him. I put away the packet and the diamond in a suitcase under the sofa, packed his bag and made it look untouched, crept into the bed next to my master and waited for Roy to call. I guess that’s when the hangover hit me and I must have fallen asleep.

Once awake, I could see Roy’s missed calls and messages on my phone. He had tried reaching me several times, but maybe when he could not get through, he had left message that he will meet me at his garage tonight, along with other details for the deal of the diamonds. This is what he had read and figured out he had been robbed by none other than his mistress of two years.

I rushed to the living room. He was there throwing things out from inside the shelves under my sofa like a crazy man until he found the money and necklace in the suitcase. As he did this he saw me standing in the passageway and he rushed at me in long strides, grabbed me by my hair and threw me on the floor. His look was like that of a lion ready to pounce on his prey. He grabbed me by the neck, dragged me to the wall, pulled me up and pushed me hard against the wall and let out a roar unlike I had ever heard. He was all red with rage and his eyes spoke what he was truly capable of. I knew I would never be strong enough for him. But then my hands found a stronghold. It was something hard and metallic and I grabbed onto it for my life. His clench got tighter on my throat and my knees were giving up and in that moment, my hands got a mind of their own and reached out to the back of his head in a full swing motion. Before I could understand what I had done, I could feel his fingers lose the grip around my throat. Slowly he fell to the floor, and I saw the red puddle gather around where he lay.

It happened in the heat of the moment. I was a thief yes, a whore yes, but a murderer – no.  For a full hour I simply sat there staring at his bloody corpse. I think it was afternoon when I was shaken out of blankness by the phone’s buzz. It was Roy.

I told him the full story and he heard it like he was hearing out some business deal. When I was through, he asked me he will take care of it. He asked me to pack my bag and he will call me in an hour’s time. I did as he said, and true to his word, he called me within an hour. He told me he had arranged for my escape to Bangkok. I needed to meet him at the garage at 11 pm sharp, where he will give me the documents I will need for my new life. He had also arranged for the guy for the diamond deal who was going to be there with the cash, and that should take care of my needs for a fairly sufficient time. And so, here I am, on my way to Roy’s garage.

I don’t think I feel guilty about what happened. Shocked; yes. What happened was in the spur of the moment, and definitely beyond anything I had intended. But then, I had learnt it a long time ago to not trust anybody – not even closest of kin – when it comes to money matters. Loyalty aside, the world only worshipped money. So I cannot completely empathize with what happened to him. He should have been more careful – the way he was around me about his wife. He allowed himself to be drawn into being duped, and I grabbed my one shot with both hands. Too bad it ended so badly for him. But I’m not going to let the same happen to me. Soon all this will be over. Once I get through this deal with Roy’s man, I will finally be on my own. A new me, with my past behind me.

I feel, somewhere, all of us live with our past. All of us allow it to shape our future. But some of us know how to shrug the past. I think that is who I am...and that is my blue sapphire.

THE BEGINNING

Roopkund

It is said that treks are more about mental strength than about physical strength. It couldn’t have been any truer for Roopkund. Located at 15,750 feet in the heart of the Himalayas, this trek endures one as much as it mesmerizes. Perhaps that is why despite all the hardships and self-doubts when one reaches the summit, the joy of victory tastes utterly sweet. Perhaps, that is also why upon returning back to the city life one realizes that a part of the soul is left behind…

The trek to this mysterious lake began at Lohjung which serves as the base camp for the 6-day trek. At 7,600 feet, this small village in the Gadhwal range is exactly what a traveller would desire. A tiny village set amidst the mountains with just the bare minimum at your disposal. This was also the day we get to have our last warm water bath before we set out for our 6-day adventure. Introductions with the team were brief, instruction session long. Our first introductions were with the few trekkers who had returned halfway and were awaiting their teams before heading back home. We were told that 95% of each group completes the trek. Which meant the remaining 5% did not. Would that 5% from our group be us?

The next morning we proceeded to the base village which was a half hour ride. Anticipation was building up simply looking at the vast ranges around us. We began through the dense green trail of coniferous trees arching high up to reach the sun. Several birds singing sweet tunes kept playing hide and seek with us through the woods. Every once in a while a local house would pop up with kids standing outside wishing us Namaste and asking us for chocolates.

The stone trail gradually grew tougher and steeper. The climb started leaving most of us breathless – and this was just the first day! The first relief was the cool stream of Neel Ganga. The fresh splash of the chilling water was most refreshing. With rejuvenated vigour, we quickly replenished our bottles and got back moving. Albeit, our enthusiasm was short lived. The energy was getting rapidly exhausted, each step was proving to be a challenge. Some of the more experienced trekkers were way ahead of us and the gap was widening – causing all the more despair. Our sweeper Mr. Vijay was our only source of motivation. His constant mantra was “bas aa gaya, aage hi hai, aur 10 minutes bas”. He went on with this for at-least one hour.

Finally, after almost an eternity, we could see tiny black spots in the distance. Campsite at last! Ghairoli Pataal is the quintessential campsite set in the middle of the woods. It gave a rustic feel with the logs lying around, a herd of sheep passing us by and the campfire burning bright. The realization of being isolated from the world was beginning to sink in. As night set in, the only sound was of leaves being caressed by soft gushes of wind. Nature’s lullaby put us into an instant deep sleep.

The second day was a light one. We were told to be up by 5:30 am, and were to depart by 7 am. Of course, being Indians, we took the liberty of following our own timezone. Nonetheless, we took a final headcount and started on our way to Bedni Bugiyaal. We had been hearing a lot about Bedni ever since the start of the trek. It was claimed to boast of the highest meadow in the world. But before that, we were to cross Ali Bugiyaal on the way - which was another pleasant meadow that was known to be a photographer’s paradise. We couldn’t wait to see it for ourselves.

After ascending for a fairly long time when we still couldn’t see any opening, we were beginning to lose hope out of exhaustion. And just then it appeared. The landscape suddenly turned from brown to green. The sky was draped in the purest shade of blue. Strokes of white clouds washed over it like a painter’s strokes. The snow-capped peaks of the Trishul and Nandagunti peeped at us in the distance painting a mesmerizingly beautiful picture. A small rock temple in the centre of the meadow, a team of horses rolling in a pit of dry sand, and an unbelievably beautiful carpet of yellow, purple and pink flowers completed the picture of this heaven on earth.

If Ali Top was heaven, then Bedni made us feel like residents of heaven. An endless stretch of the moor with a tiny pond in the backdrop, soft winds gushing unobstructed and the view of the snow mountains in the forefront. What more can one ask for! Oh, and we get to live there!

As if the view was not enough, we were in for another adventure. The army camp was set right next to ours. And when our group set out to play cricket, even the uniform could not stop them from joining us. And what a game it turned out to be! Team Army seemed to be pretty experienced in their game and set a target of 55 for Team Indiahikes. Poor team Indiahikes barely knew their teammates, let alone knowing their strengths. Needless to say, they got into a bad start, inviting several funny humiliations from the army opponents. But hold your horses. These underdogs were not to be mistaken for amateurs. After a Lagaan style game thriller game, the decision boiled down to the last ball, when Team Indiahikes hit a 4! A four at the last ball! A memorable win for Team Indiahikes!

The cricket game combined with steaming hot pakodas served as true ice-breakers for the group. Suddenly the group turned chirpy. Bedni had worked its magic and given us some amazing memories to cherish for a lifetime.

From Bedni to Paatal Nauchni and from there on to Bagwa Baasa, the trail changed its form from rugged rawness to snow-laden slipperiness. The rock structures became sharper and the valleys grew deeper. Each one of us seemed to have developed acrophobia all of a sudden when walking over the narrow paths overlooking the valleys. The might of the Himalayas was now becoming evident. Yet, sometimes whining, sometimes cheering, we proceeded slowly each day towards our campsites. The campsites were another spectacle by themselves – facing deep valleys without any obstruction, allowing the wind to blow over the plain camp area mercilessly. The temperature also started to drop steeply from this point on, and we knew that the most challenging part of the trek had just about begun.

At last, the summit day was here. As told by the technical team, the way forward was now to be an expedition and not just a trek. And truly, it was a test of determination and mental persistence more than the just physical strength. As we crossed one snow-clad mound after the other, energies started getting exhausted, technical difficulties began to increase and courage began to diminish. And yet, one step at a time, we moved forth. The lake continued to play hide and seek with us, making us believe that our destiny laid just beyond this last ascend, and then hiding again behind yet another small climb.

The Summit – at last we made it! What a feeling, what a rush, what a sense of achievement! The energies were revitalized just at the sight of our frozen lake. Our joyful cheering would have surely awakened the so called meditating monks had they been around. But what can one do, the exhilaration was beyond what can be expressed in words.

As a last word, I cannot say how many times during the 6-day period we would have questioned our decision to put ourselves through this pain through a conscious decision - decided to embark on this unpredictable journey in the mightiest mountain range of India with 20 strangers, to live through the difficult conditions, sleeping in cramped bags on hard rock or freezing snow, going without a bath for 6 days straight,  enduring aching knees and ankles and shoulders and necks day after day, finding that ounce of motivation from some hidden corner inside us to step out of the comfort of the tent to visit the shaky washroom tent or struggling through the chilling breeze to get a cup of coffee, and most of all, each day fighting and facing our fears and taking that “one more step” to keep going until we would finally get a sight of the tiny dots on a barren stretch of land that marked our campsite.

I found the answers in several forms during the course of this 6 days – sometimes in the form of the support from our guide and sweeper, sometime in the form of cheer and motivation from our trek buddies, sometimes in form of the reward that the Himalayas bestowed upon us in form of incomparable splurge of beauty, sometimes in the form of the rush and thrill we derived after successfully completing a difficult patch. But mostly, the best answer was the one I got only once I returned to the chaos of the city-life and began to feel this emptiness that craved for one more glimpse of the mountains that allowed us to trespass them and accepted us as a warm host only too happy to shower its mirth upon its guests. The answer hid in the answer to yet another simple question – would I do it again? Yes, a million times over!

Re-Defined

She knew that if she spent another minute pondering about it, she would break. And she could not afford to be broken. Not even if every cell of her pained body pleaded her to give up.

She struggled to get up. She failed. She tried again, this time a little more slowly. She tried to move her arm so it could support her broken body. It refused to budge. How was she ever going to live through this? No, I mustn’t give up, she kept telling herself. So she tried again and failed again and tried again and failed again, until her body refused to put up any more with the struggle it had been bearing for a very very long time now. At last she collapsed. Right next to the man she had murdered just a little while ago. Her mind, too burdened with the weight of the vacuum that he had left in her, began to drift. This time, she allowed herself to daze away into the unconscious emptiness that her mind was leading her into.

And so she just stayed. Stayed there for what might have been hours, perhaps even days, she couldn’t say for sure. Time seemed lost on her. 
Finally she woke up. Realization dawned upon her. The weight of her action struck her with such force it shook her up and made her jerk up from her dizziness to face her dead husband.

Only now, as she looked up at this dead man’s body, she felt different. Her emptiness was being slowly replaced by something else. She felt something move inside her. Very slowly, but surely this something was creeping inside her and moving to her heart. She let out a loud gasp! And then it was done. The heaviness, the unsettled feeling, the emptiness and the fear – all of it was gone, just like that. The creepy feeling now made its way up her throat and touched her lips. It made her mouth curl up very slightly. Very slowly it went up to her cheeks, and after a very very long time they showed a glimpse of colour. Finally, it reached her eyes. And it seemed to her that for the first time she actually saw. As if awakening from a deep trance, she realized finally that he was not around anymore. That she didn’t have to be afraid anymore. Saw that the endless cycle of hurt and pain had finally ended. Saw that she was free. 

And then she felt. No, this was not the feeling of guilt for taking a man’s life. It wasn’t the feeling of death. This was something else. It was the feeling of life. It was the feeling of her being her. It was the feeling of finding herself. It was; her redefining.

Un-Defined

She opened her eyes to see him at a short distance from her. Instantly, a cold fear gripped her. She was afraid. Not of this man. Not of what she had done to him. Not of his damaged body that lay lifeless in the dark corner of the house she had called home for the last 11 months. No. It was something else. Something deep enough to unsettle her very being. Something strong enough to weaken her soul to the extent of causing such turmoil in her mind and heart that she could not bear to think about it for even a moment longer. She knew she had killed a man.

And she knew she had done the right thing. She did not fear the consequences of a murder. Yet, she was afraid. Afraid of that unknown fear that gripped her from within and suffocated her in a way that made her feel as if she were drowning. Maybe she was indeed drowning. Was that how it felt to drown? Surely she was unable to find her breath. And her body wasn’t following what her mind was saying. What was her mind saying anyway? That she had murdered the man she once loved. Why was she not crying then? Where werethe tears? How can she feel so numb? Maybe she was dead too. Dead by drowning in fear? Was that possible? Yes, that was it. She was dead. She had been dead for a long time now.

The constant fear of this man had killed her soul long before he could harm her physical being. Fear of those drunken eyes and how they glared down at her. The eyes that once had affection and love floating in them, had gradually given permanent refuge to anger and arrogance – arrogance that turned this caring, affectionate man into a monster. Her body shivered as she looked at the dead eyes that had humiliated her every night, the limp hands that had hit her face with any object they could find around, the broken legs that had not hesitated to kick her in the abdomen on the days she had taken the bottle away from him. How did it matter that her body still had life remaining in it? Her soul was long dead. She had been full of life once. But this man had taken the life from her and replaced it with fear. And when he left, he had taken away this fear along with him, to leave behind emptiness. That was all that she was now. A piece of undefined emptiness…

Agra Confessions...

This post is dedicated to all the awesome memories created during this very unplanned and unlikely trip - which in fact turned out to be a one very special and close to all our hearts. 

It was unplanned for we had not really been looking forward to it, had not anticipated that we would actually end up going for it (though the tickets were booked long ago!) - especially looking at the trend of our plans in the past which clearly indicated the fun part ended at the discussion stage. So, when at the last minute everybody managed to figure out an excuse to drop out from office for a couple of days, the plan was finally on!

Before I begin, here's an introduction of the characters:
Ankita: The Bride
Sneha: The late lateef
Mansi: The townie
Jinesh: A harrowed guy
Surbhi: A family girl
Suken: Let's not describe him :P
Aditi: That's Me!

Here was our planned itinerary: 

Day 1: Suken and Sneha to leave for Agra in afternoon

Day 2: Suken and Surbhi to attend the Sangeet. Jins, Mansi, Surbhi and I to leave for Agra

Day 3: Jins, Mansi, Surbhi and myself to reach Agra in evening. All 6 to attend the night wedding

Day 4: Fatehpur Sikri, Agra market

Day 5: Taj Mahal, Agra Fort and any other place feasible. Depart for Mumbai by night train

Day 6: Reach Mumbai

Here's what actually happened:

Day 1: Sneha manages to almost miss the train - again!

Day 2: Sneha misses us in the middle of the night...shares the phone with Suken?

Day 3: Surbhi raids the rooms

Day 4: Epic impromptu dance by Suken & Jins

Day 5: Monkey fight

Day 6: Robbery!

How did we manage to get so off the plan? Read on...

Day 1: The Ritual

As it is a well known fact by now, a trip cannot be complete unless Sneha manages to almost miss it. The record remains unbeaten till date - thanks to the fact that despite leaving well in time for the train (for a change), Sneha and Suken managed to enter the 3:00 pm train at 2:59:59 pm. Of course, we shall not blame her because it is obviously never her fault :)

Day 2: The Chaos

The Train: Adi, Mansi and Jins realize they are all in different compartments! Incidentally, Surbhi, who had booked her ticket separately manages to get a seat right next to Jins. So much for ladies quota! 

After about 5 trips to and fro between the 1st and the 6th compartment, and after having all the passengers in these compartments memorize our faces, Mansi and I manage to shift to the same compartment as Jins and Surbhi. The trip had finally begun! Fortunately for us, the uncle who was travelling with us had booked all 6 seats for his family, but could not be accompanied by them due to last minute changes. What was more fortunate was the fact that he had not cancelled those tickets - which meant we could have THE ENTIRE BOGIE OF 6 for ourselves upto Jhansi!

No sooner had we settled in when Surbhi does a Surbhi when she accidentally blurts out about her "family planning". (Please refer to the appendix for a full list of trip dictionary). This wasn't enough. So Mansi does a Surbhi too when she plugs her cell phone on charging and begins cribbing endlessly that it is not getting charged - only to have Jins point out that she has not put on the switch :)

Meanwhile at the Sangeet: Sneha was having a very nice time when she mixed some 2-3 varieties of drinks and started feeling reallllyy good. Things only got better when she started playing games.........

Back to the Train: Just as the lights were turned off and we were about to go to sleep, we get a message from Sneha: Miss you girls! That was it. Jins was offended that he wasn't being missed and we got extremely curious as to what made her miss us so much as to message us at such an odd time. She told us she was just playing games. Well, the next 2 hours were spent knowing more about the games Sneha was playing ;) For some very odd reason, only one of Sneha and Suken would talk at a time. Strange, isn't it? 

Day 3: Lessons of Life

This day turned out to be a crash course for Jins on "What Women Want". Okay I'm exaggerating. Actually it was just what we girls do that he may or may not have known earlier. We entertained him with a nice hour long session on how to spend an hour removing and applying nail paint and teaching him the difference between bright orange and neon orange. The session also added some more words from the female dictionary - the easiest one being "Awwwwww!!!". I can proudly say he has learned the usage of these words very accurately :) For those who think we girls completely overpowered him - hold on. He had his own fun when he taught us the mannerisms of an upmarket townie lingo which included some expressions such as being harrowed and mannerisms on how to make things look decent. 

We were having a good time enjoying the compartment to ourselves. But like everything good - this good time too came to an end - for an even better time. Enter Mr and Mrs Dadaji and his grandson. The three of them were travelling to Delhi to get the granny operated. She was such a sweet thing, smiled and said it all with her expressions, without uttering a single word for hours. Well, her husband more than made up for it. What started with a seemingly innocent query of "Where are you all headed to?" resulted in 2-3 hours of non-stop elocution by Mr Dadaji. In these couple of hours we got to know almost everything about him (quite an intelligent, learned, broad minded, interesting old man), his family (in all parts of North India), his achievements in life (being the Sarpanch of his village at some point), his opinion on politics (that was because we saw Mayawati board our train at some random station) and also got enlightened about some random topics ranging from India's freedom struggle, Gandhiji's biography etc. etc. etc. But the best part were the unforgettable 2-liner poetries he made up on the spot:

"Chai garam honi chahiye

Swabhaav naram hona chahiye"

And with that amazing session of chit chat we reached Agra...

The Wedding: Anki's wedding was bound to be the grand affair that easily qualifies for the title of a Big Fat Indian Wedding. It had all the essentials that a Marwadi wedding must have - an awesome venue in the Mogul Sheraton banquet hall, a royal dinner with more dishes than one can count, the Band Baaja Bride experience with extravagant dresses donned upon by both families, and of course, who can forget the belly dancers (Yes, that's right - belly dancers on the side stage throughout the reception procession)!

The expose: Well, Anki looked stunningly gorgeous. She made a beautiful bride :) Little did we know at that point that there was already another wedding being arranged at that very moment, right under our noses!  Enter Ms. Surbhi with her amazingly ancient cellphone. Surprisingly, we had noticed her spending a looooottt of time on her phone throughout the trip. Definitely something was fishy. So this time when she left her phone carelessly on the table and it buzzed, Mansi managed to steal it away and lo! The screen was flashing a message pop-up. The moment she read the pop-up, she left out a shrill scream and came running to Sneha and me. Our reactions were almost similar when we read the flash on the screen. It said:

"I hope I am not crossing  my limits"

Yes, it were exactly those same words. Surbhi was coming running behind Mansi to get her phone back, but of course, it was too late by then. Poor thing had to explain the entire story to us in detail. That's how we got to know of Mr. Jay (or Jai Ho! as Suken addresses him). Congratulations Surbhi! We let her enjoy her time and had our own fun seeing her blush at every mention of Jai ho!

The dinner: We wished her and then proceeded to the dinner area. Now, there were just so many options on the menu that we had a difficult time selecting what to eat and what to skip! Bust somehow, we managed to finally reach the Pav Bhaji counter. A point to note here is that by this time all of us were almost full, so we wanted to simply "taste" Pav Bhaji. Obviously, as everything else on the trip, this also had to go weird. So here's what happened. Suken got us a plate of Pavs and Bhaji. We finished the Bhaji but were left with Pav. So he went back and got more Bhaji. This time we finished the Pav but were left with Bhaji. So he went back and got some more Pav. Again, we finished the Bhaji but not the Pav. So he went and got some more Bhaji. And the same story repeated for about 5-6 times! As you can guess, we were too full for any desserts :)

The Pheras: Finally, the reception dinner was over and we had some time to relax before the actual wedding. So we freshened up and changed to something lighter, mingled with Anki's other friends, the normal chit chatting here and there. When the ceremony finally began, it was almost 3 am, and the bidaai was to happen after 7 am or so. We were too exhausted by this time to wait up through the ceremony, so we decided to head back to our rooms and take a nap so that we could be back for the bidaai.

Well, going by the exhaustion we had had through the 2 days, one would have expected us to be asleep within minutes. Once again that was not to be. As Mansi, Surbhi, Sneha and I got into our bed, we suddenly felt at a loss of sleep. Someone brought it up and someone else suggested that if we are not sleepy, we shouldn't let the guys sleep either. Surbhi, however, was an exception and still felt drowsy. So we told her that she can go to the guys room and go to sleep there. But first we must wake up the guys.

So we headed to their rooms and knocked. The moment they opened the door, Surbhi barged in, practically raiding the room. Before we could figure out what was happening, she had occupied the bed and slid into the blanket. The rest of us, including the guys, were left standing, surprised at Surbhi's speed of the takeover.

Anyways, after a while of nonsense chit chatting here and there, we headed back to our rooms, setting the alarm for 6:30 am. Needless to say it was snoozed and dismissed without even realizing, and we missed the bidaai. Sorry Anki!

Day 4: Expect the unexpected

The next day was thankfully pretty uneventful. after a quick relocation to another hotel, we headed out for a visit to the Fatehpur Sikri and Agra market. It was a lovely day and the place was even more lovelier - except for the honey bee hives that occupied practically the entire roof of the Sikri.

After a delicious lunch at the Sikri, we returned to the city for some shopping in the city. This is where the guys sort of underestimated the girls and had to re-do the shopping ;) After an awesome session of hogging on street food - Alu Chaat, Gol Gappas, Tokri Chaat, Rabdi and the likes - we headed back to our hotel. today we had planned for a night-out and couldn't wait for the excitement to begin.

Later that night, we and Anki's other friends assembled in our room for the night sessions. A night full of craziness, silliness, weirdness and madness had just begun. After a happening game of cards and some other silly games, Anki's friends had to call it a night for they had an early morning checkout next day. So it was just us from then on. At some point, Jins and Suken lost some sort of a bet and had to give us a dance performance. Surprisingly, they agreed!

What followed next was mind blowing. A 5 minute long duet performance on Chhammak Challo with atleast 6-7 different variety of steps, and all in sync! We were astonished beyond words! Not just were they both sporty enough to agree for the dance, but each of their moves, each one's expressions and each step! It had to be seen to be believed.

Day 5: A chase sequence and a robbery

It was our final day at Agra and we wanted to make the most of it. We woke up with the driver's call. He had already arrived and we were still asleep, too hungover from the previous night. Somehow we gathered enough motivation to get out of the bed and pack up our stuff for the day. The plan was to check out and keep our luggage in the hotel lobby while we go visit the Taj Mahal, Agra fort, Vrindavan and Mathura. then we would return to the hotel in the evening, collect our bags and board the return train. Based on the time our driver had explained to us, it seemed like a perfect plan. Of course, we had been forgetting that we had Sneha with us :)

The Taj was beautiful. More than beautiful actually. Floating amidst the winter haze and soft white clouds, it looked like a fairytale woven in dreams that had just decided to come down to earth to mesmerize us petty human beings with its spellbinding beauty.

We then moved on to visit the Agra fort where our guide had amazing stories to tell us about the Moguls and their court at the time. We then headed to hog on amazing parathas for lunch. With our stomachs full, we were now ready for a long journey to Vrindavan.

Here we visited the local gullies of Krishna's hometown. Later we headed to the newly built temple of Vrindavan - a massive structure with fascinating murals and beautiful lighting that threw lovely patterns on the artificial scenes created to depict stories from Krishna's life.

It was already evening by the time we departed for Mathura, so a little crunched on time. But we are not the people who give up so easily. Mathura here we come!

The departure: We could not make it to old Mathura. We did manage to see the new temple there outside the original boundaries, but were running too late to visit the Yamuna. So this had to be it. We needed to get going if we had any intentions of not missing the train AGAIN!

We were running so late by the time we reached our hotel, and the hotel guy just wasn't being cooperative. We were all completely harrowed! We were trying to gather our bags and other belongings, when suddenly some guests from another room came to the reception and began complaining to the manager. Apparently they had a terrible sleep the previous night because of some chaotic noises coming from the floor above theirs. Okay, we realized that should have been our noise. Hmm...glad we were checking out.

Quickly we rushed out of the place and got into our car. We had exactly half hour to board the train and within this time we had to manage loading our bags into the car, dodge the evening traffic to the railway station, settle the driver's payments and climb the bridge with bags and find the correct bogie. Oh, and not to forget the pedas! With pin drop silence we made our way to the station and having realized we had some time to spare, quickly rushed to purchase the pedas. Thankfully we were able to board with five minutes to spare.

Our trip had been a super success and it should have ended at that point (after another awesome dinner of course). But as it were to be, picture abhi baaki thi!

Robbery!: We were to reach Mumbai very early the next morning. A couple of hours before that, Jinesh gets a call from his brother in the US. Now some background here - Jinesh was staying alone in Mumbai at that point and since he was travelling, his house was locked and empty. Or atleast that is how it was supposed to be. But that is not what his brother told him over the call. He was in fact quite surprised to know Jins was still on the way, in  train. Who had spoken to him over video call just a few minutes ago then?

According to his brother, Jins had received his call over Facetime just 5-10 minutes ago. Though they were not able to speak, but the description of the background - a brown sofa, a well built guy answering the call - quite resembled Jinesh and his house. Was it what we were thinking it was? Immediately Jinesh's sister in law (in US with his bro) panicked. We were worried too. There was definitely something spooky here.

Either his brother had dialed a wrong number or someone had broken into his house. Wrong number over Facetime was not a possibility. So it meant a robbery was taking place at his house right this very moment! The thief must have picked up the tablet and when he saw the incoming call, he must have accepted it in his panic. So the guy Jinesh's brother saw on the video call must be the thief himself!

This was beyond anything we had ever anticipated. What could we do sitting here in train? Was there actually a thief at his place? Likely - he said. Just a few days ago there had been an incident where the rods of his window had been widened when they had been out - as if someone had tried to break in. Maybe the thieves had been keeping a close watch on his movements all along! And so this time they grabbed the opportunity.

Jinesh placed a call to his neighbour and requested them to open his house with the spare keys he had left with them. The neighbour aunty, very gutsy indeed, agreed to help. She went into the house and checked every corner of it to be double sure. No thief there. His ipad was also on the bed - right where he had placed it before leaving for the trip.

So no robbery. Thank God! But then, who was it that his brother had seen on the call? Nothing was making any sense. Well, nothing we could do at the moment. So we urged them to take it as a case of cross connection and ignore it atleast for the time being. At the back of our minds, though, we were all still worried.

Mystery un-revealed: We reached Mumbai before sunrise. Exhausted with the endless ordeal of even after event, we just wanted to go home and crash for a while before heading back to the routine of our jobs. Only, there was the mystery of the robbery yet to be solved. And solved it got. The next day Jinesh explained to us all as to what had actually happened. The silly error that led to this huge chaos. Here's the gist of it: Jinesh had visited the US just a couple of months ago and had taken a temporary sim card there for using during his stay. When he returned, he had discarded the number. But the telecom company had not. They had re-assigned it to some other guy (also well built, and who stayed in a house having brown sofas similar to the ones at Jinesh's place). His brother had the US number still saved, and that night, had dialed the US number instead of India number. The other guy had received it from his home in US and caused all the confusion.

Wow! Who could have imagined that! But we were all super relieved after hearing this. No robbery AND no mystery. And an awesome trip with loads and loads of memories. Well, all's well that ends well. But for us, it was a new beginning of a treasured friendship of lifetime :) Cheers!

Appendix: The Trip Dictionary

1. Family Planning: A planned outing with your family

2. Doing a Surbhi: Managing to innocently pull off a joke on yourself
3. Townie: A person who often attempts to flaunt his or her lifestyle through usage of superfluous words such as "harrowed" etc. or through high handed behaviour

4. Harrowed: Expression used by townies when they feel annoyed

5. Awwwww: A feminine expression used by girls to either a. express warmth or b. annoy guys

6. I do!: A term that always succeeds at scaring off guys
7. Decent: An act of good doing done solely with the intention of showing off your nicer side - just for the heck of it
8. Playing games: Left open to audience interpretation....

Ladakh Lore

Ladakh Lore

I had never believed it when people claimed Ladakh to be one of the most spell bounding places in the world. Surely they were exaggerating, like anybody who has had a great vacation with some great company. But I was proven wrong. This “Sacred Roof of the World” is truly deserving of all the appreciation that has been bestowed upon it, and perhaps some more.

This unforgiving terrain, wonderfully maintained by the Border Road Organization, mesmerizes each one of its visitor in its magical beauty. With almost all of the world’s beauties in one single place – a desert and a lake, rivers and plains and mountains, snow and sunshine – one does not know what to make of this place. What is it really? It’s a funny place if you ask me! Why do I say so? Take a look at the below 2 images yourself, and I can bet you will not believe that these are from the same river at different times of the year.

       

 
But then, that’s how Ladakh is. It is everything at one time, at one place.

We had been warned of the rugged roads that connect the vivid zones of Ladakh. But only once we took up the travel through them that I realized that all of its ruggedness – the roadless roads, the pine shaped rock formations, the arid mountains and the sandy dunes – were infact a part of what made Ladakh so captivating in the first place. You can’t help but wonder how, a place abandoned by rain and left so arid; contain so much beauty within itself. And then when you happen to spot of lush greenery in the middle of a desert, you start believing in the magic of Mother Nature.               

               

And just when you think you have seen enough of the ruggedness, you reach Nubra, where the double hump camels await you to take you on a journey through the sand dunes of one of the highest deserts in the world…

And that is not the end of the story. The icing on the cake is when you reach the next destination. After a 5 hour long drive from Leh, when you reach this signboard, be prepared to lose your breath:

Yes, it is THE PANGONG! Now, you may have seen Pangong a million times in movies – the most famous one being the last scene of “3 Idiots”. I am also sure you would have found it a lovely view when you watched it big screen. But believe me when I say that that was nothing compared to how you feel when you see it in real. The Pangong Tso is the largest lake at such an altitude ranges more 134 km and only about one third of it is in India. I am left speechless when I begin to describe this wonder. Its beauty is beyond charming; its clarity and vivid shades will leave you wanting for more. But if you were to ask me to define Pangong, I would say it is something that redefines “Blue”.

                            

I would love to go on and on about Pangong Tso, but I know that no matter what I say or how I say it, I will never be able to do full justice to its enticing beauty. So I will leave it for you to feel it yourself.

As for my final takeaway from Ladakh, I would like to complete the story with the people that make the place what it is. Every person you meet here will be wearing a smile on their face. Every person welcomes you into their haven with such warmth, that you would instantly feel at home. The spirituality that lingers in this place (brought in by the numerous monasteries, stupas and Buddha sculptures sprinkled across the region) is clearly reflected in the eyes of its residents, who seem so happy in this small little world of their own.

   

Ladakh is not just a place. It is a feeling, a collection of emotions, a form of art, which its connoisseurs would take back with them to treasure for a lifetime.

JULEY!

The Indian Revolution in the making?

This happened while I was returning today from work. I had taken an auto rickshaw home and when it halted at a signal, the auto guy pulled out and put on his Gandhi topi with slogans of the Aam Aadmi Party printed in bold black font on it.

I casually asked him if he was a follower of the party. And here is what he had to say:

"Yes ma'am, very much so! Kejriwal is a nice guy and his party is very honest. I feel everybody must support him. Yes, he has committed some mistakes. But then, who hasn't? They are new and also learning. They have only good intentions in their mind and that is what sets them apart. Sometimes you need to forgive and give a second chance to the right people. In fact, you must try and meet the members of the party to understand how committed they are to the cause. I got the urge to join just by looking at their will to do good to the country. You should join too ma'am, if you wish to support the honest ones in their honest cause."

And then it was time for me to get down, so he stopped at that. I paid him the fare and wished him luck before getting down. 

But what left an impression on me was how happy and proud he felt by being a part of the party. I may not be sure about the potential of AAP in making the country better. I may not be sure of AAP winning in the first place. But my heart sends out a silent prayer for them each time I see AAP's success - not in terms of the change they brought about in the policies of the country, but in terms of the change they have brought about in the people of India - by making them more conscious than ever of their role in Indian governance, by bringing out the goodness of the people and their will to do good for the country, by inspiring them to come forth and do their bit, and by creating a wave of this consciousness among each one of us. For this, I salute the party and wish it all the very very best for all its endeavors!