It was supposed to be a day trip from Haldwani to Ranikhet via a detour through Nainital.
Sounds simple enough,doesnt it? Well that's where we were wrong.... Murphy's law sufficiently proved itself right! *sighs*
Well, the day began with us somehow getting up and ready ON time ...and then gearing up for the short journey....we went out and it was already raining....we reached the bus station and got into a somewhat rickety sort of bus to Nainital.And yes it kept raining till the time we reached nainital....it took us about 2 1/2 to 3 hours.
After reaching Nainital,with my backpack AND a big bag of lay's in my hand,ends of my trousers folded up to save them from getting wet(which didnt really help though)....we took a walk through the long Mall road.So far so good.Then Pinchu demanded that we go get a new backpack for him....because he had left his at home and was carrying his stuff in a funny looking aunty-ish handbag!=P
So then we made our way through the muddy lanes of Bhutiya market and after much browsing...the details of which i'd spare you with...we finally chose a backpack for him!
*phew*
Yes, I've made a mental note not ever to go shopping with him!
After just walking around he suddenly remembered his school friends from his Nainital days and asked me if i'd like to go with him to see if any of them still lived there.In the full-fledged adventurous spirit, I said WHY NOT!!!...which I later regretted when i had to walk on a road ,straight uphill:
Darn....I kept stopping inbetween asking him....HOW MUCH MORE?...He kept saying with an unsupressed grin....JUST A FEW MINUTES MORE.
Unable to walk any further I dropped down on a stone and told him - MAIN NAHIN! MAIN NAHIN! in my usual signature style of resignation!But then PINCHU wouldnt be PINCHU if he couldn't drag me to that place....by pulling me to my feet and dragging me behind him!
My long sigh of OO EEJA!(meaning OH MUMMY in my mother tongue ) drew a very weird and startled reaction from a local man passing through who had obviously taken us for tourists.
Finally we reached his friend's place and met two friends and one's mom and all for a while.Nice people and when PINCHU introduced me as his niece, they assumed I'd b younger to him....but burst out laughing when he told them that i was older AND a teacher! WHY god, WHY???:
After saying our goodbyes,we headed off to a restaurant which i had tried earlier and found to be pretty good.The place turned out to be more crowded that day and the food...nothing impressive.Besides with a very tiny apetite of his own,PINCHU loaded my plate wid 80% of the food.I was feeling like a big hog by the time we left the place=S
At around 5 we reached the bus station....WHEN WE WERE TOLD THAT THERE WAS NO DIRECT BUS FROM NAINITAL TO RANIKHET!:::DAYEM to the power of infinity!
We hurried off to the nearest Sumo-stand....Those who are aquainted with the Uttaranchali transport system would know that there are mainly 3 ways of public transport- 1)Getting into a sumo with around 9 more ppl 2)Getting into a jeep for small distances.3)Getting into a dilapidated and stinky bus.
As expected by us now...there was no direct sumo to Ranikhet either.We went to Bhowali in the sumo ...infront of us were sitting two HEROES of the hills....one had his earphones of his cellphone stuck in his ears and he was talking to his friend so loudly...bragging about what not.....maybe to impress the girl sitting in a SADA(sada =rotten n annoyed btw) mood opposite him..:...when finally his friend told him that he did have two ears!=S
Finally THAT part of the ordeal passed and we reached Bhowali infront of a stinking hell that was called the bus stand.
Someone told us that the bus was supposed to come there in a few minutes...We waited:
I was getting tensed and PINCHU was busy trying to click a picture of a long-haired funny looking uncle in a sweet shop...while this muscled guy at the same shop was kinda making some poses while standing thinking that PINCHU was clicking his pics.=)) ....He even walked before us again..I told PINCHU maybe that fellow got some wrong signals from him!=P and we even flattered ourselves by thinking that maybe he thought that we were some new age directors in search of fresh new talent for Bollywood!=P
Well, then we managed to get a crowded bus to Garam pani where the driver played such bad Hindi songs....renovated versions of oldies...=S...........utterly unbearable...I plugged in my mp3 music frm phone and left PINCHU to face it all!=D
Meandering through the curves of mountains and bravely keeping motion sickness at bay, we reached Garam Pani from where we were supposed to get ANY mode of transportation to Ranikhet.By this time it ws already getting dark and a man told us that all vehicles to Ranikhet had already left. Damn it all! We were in a soup and we knew it now:
Suddenly an Alto car which was ferrying passengers stopped and luckily it was going to Ranikhet....I sat in the backseat with a guy on left and an old uncle ji on right.
The turns of the mountaneous roads in a fast car are the worst for the person sitting in the middle...and this line will henceforth be known as Rashmi's law!B-)
Well, while we were mentally congratulating ourselves at the prospect of reaching home soon....the guy on my left started feeling sick and we had to stop the car on the side.He started crying and said that he couldn't feel his limbs=S
It was kinda creepy....We had to stop there for about half an hour......finally we managed to convince him to move so that we could reach the town sooner.*phew* ...Oh by the way...it DID bring something good.The sick fellow made the driver stop playing those himesh reshammiya songs!=D
I called up my cousin whose home we were going to and told him to fetch us.Incidentally, my chacha decided few years ago to build a home at the bottom of a steep mountain....which is really very far from the city and travelling there by foot is an ordeal!
Anyhow as I was thinking that we were going straight home when PINCHU declared that how could we go empty handed?:
I tried to reason out that we could get the Mithai next day but he was adamant , so we had to walk to the end of the market to get it :
I cursed PINCHU all the way: Oh and the walk was a nightmare...with a cremation ground on my left and a burial ground on the right.=S It was dark and I used light from my phone to see the way...I held on to my cousin to keep myself from falling down...Once I held on to PINCHU and I almost fell down the mountain because he almost fell down too:
By the time I reached chacha's home,my legs were shaking and I was thanking God fervently!*sighs*
and the ordeal was over at last!
Sounds simple enough,doesnt it? Well that's where we were wrong.... Murphy's law sufficiently proved itself right! *sighs*
Well, the day began with us somehow getting up and ready ON time ...and then gearing up for the short journey....we went out and it was already raining....we reached the bus station and got into a somewhat rickety sort of bus to Nainital.And yes it kept raining till the time we reached nainital....it took us about 2 1/2 to 3 hours.
After reaching Nainital,with my backpack AND a big bag of lay's in my hand,ends of my trousers folded up to save them from getting wet(which didnt really help though)....we took a walk through the long Mall road.So far so good.Then Pinchu demanded that we go get a new backpack for him....because he had left his at home and was carrying his stuff in a funny looking aunty-ish handbag!=P
So then we made our way through the muddy lanes of Bhutiya market and after much browsing...the details of which i'd spare you with...we finally chose a backpack for him!
*phew*
Yes, I've made a mental note not ever to go shopping with him!
After just walking around he suddenly remembered his school friends from his Nainital days and asked me if i'd like to go with him to see if any of them still lived there.In the full-fledged adventurous spirit, I said WHY NOT!!!...which I later regretted when i had to walk on a road ,straight uphill:
Darn....I kept stopping inbetween asking him....HOW MUCH MORE?...He kept saying with an unsupressed grin....JUST A FEW MINUTES MORE.
Unable to walk any further I dropped down on a stone and told him - MAIN NAHIN! MAIN NAHIN! in my usual signature style of resignation!But then PINCHU wouldnt be PINCHU if he couldn't drag me to that place....by pulling me to my feet and dragging me behind him!
My long sigh of OO EEJA!(meaning OH MUMMY in my mother tongue ) drew a very weird and startled reaction from a local man passing through who had obviously taken us for tourists.
Finally we reached his friend's place and met two friends and one's mom and all for a while.Nice people and when PINCHU introduced me as his niece, they assumed I'd b younger to him....but burst out laughing when he told them that i was older AND a teacher! WHY god, WHY???:
After saying our goodbyes,we headed off to a restaurant which i had tried earlier and found to be pretty good.The place turned out to be more crowded that day and the food...nothing impressive.Besides with a very tiny apetite of his own,PINCHU loaded my plate wid 80% of the food.I was feeling like a big hog by the time we left the place=S
At around 5 we reached the bus station....WHEN WE WERE TOLD THAT THERE WAS NO DIRECT BUS FROM NAINITAL TO RANIKHET!:::DAYEM to the power of infinity!
We hurried off to the nearest Sumo-stand....Those who are aquainted with the Uttaranchali transport system would know that there are mainly 3 ways of public transport- 1)Getting into a sumo with around 9 more ppl 2)Getting into a jeep for small distances.3)Getting into a dilapidated and stinky bus.
As expected by us now...there was no direct sumo to Ranikhet either.We went to Bhowali in the sumo ...infront of us were sitting two HEROES of the hills....one had his earphones of his cellphone stuck in his ears and he was talking to his friend so loudly...bragging about what not.....maybe to impress the girl sitting in a SADA(sada =rotten n annoyed btw) mood opposite him..:...when finally his friend told him that he did have two ears!=S
Finally THAT part of the ordeal passed and we reached Bhowali infront of a stinking hell that was called the bus stand.
Someone told us that the bus was supposed to come there in a few minutes...We waited:
I was getting tensed and PINCHU was busy trying to click a picture of a long-haired funny looking uncle in a sweet shop...while this muscled guy at the same shop was kinda making some poses while standing thinking that PINCHU was clicking his pics.=)) ....He even walked before us again..I told PINCHU maybe that fellow got some wrong signals from him!=P and we even flattered ourselves by thinking that maybe he thought that we were some new age directors in search of fresh new talent for Bollywood!=P
Well, then we managed to get a crowded bus to Garam pani where the driver played such bad Hindi songs....renovated versions of oldies...=S...........utterly unbearable...I plugged in my mp3 music frm phone and left PINCHU to face it all!=D
Meandering through the curves of mountains and bravely keeping motion sickness at bay, we reached Garam Pani from where we were supposed to get ANY mode of transportation to Ranikhet.By this time it ws already getting dark and a man told us that all vehicles to Ranikhet had already left. Damn it all! We were in a soup and we knew it now:
Suddenly an Alto car which was ferrying passengers stopped and luckily it was going to Ranikhet....I sat in the backseat with a guy on left and an old uncle ji on right.
The turns of the mountaneous roads in a fast car are the worst for the person sitting in the middle...and this line will henceforth be known as Rashmi's law!B-)
Well, while we were mentally congratulating ourselves at the prospect of reaching home soon....the guy on my left started feeling sick and we had to stop the car on the side.He started crying and said that he couldn't feel his limbs=S
It was kinda creepy....We had to stop there for about half an hour......finally we managed to convince him to move so that we could reach the town sooner.*phew* ...Oh by the way...it DID bring something good.The sick fellow made the driver stop playing those himesh reshammiya songs!=D
I called up my cousin whose home we were going to and told him to fetch us.Incidentally, my chacha decided few years ago to build a home at the bottom of a steep mountain....which is really very far from the city and travelling there by foot is an ordeal!
Anyhow as I was thinking that we were going straight home when PINCHU declared that how could we go empty handed?:
I tried to reason out that we could get the Mithai next day but he was adamant , so we had to walk to the end of the market to get it :
I cursed PINCHU all the way: Oh and the walk was a nightmare...with a cremation ground on my left and a burial ground on the right.=S It was dark and I used light from my phone to see the way...I held on to my cousin to keep myself from falling down...Once I held on to PINCHU and I almost fell down the mountain because he almost fell down too:
By the time I reached chacha's home,my legs were shaking and I was thanking God fervently!*sighs*
and the ordeal was over at last!
