Nostalgic!!!

Hi... am back again... Its been months that i didn't pen down anything. I was so busy with my work schedule, I just could not sit down and write down my thoughts. With my day starting at 6.30 in the morning and getting over at 12.00 in the night with a 9.00 am to 8.00 pm job, i find it extremely difficult to keep blogging... But yes, I make a promise to myself now to keep updating my blog.

It so happens that you come to a new place, start criticizing it, praise the old one and then start slowly loving the place and liking the people around you. I am going to write down about the same kind of feeling I found myself in the midst of today.

I left Hyderabad 2.5 years back and took a job at my hometown. I didn't leave a stone unturned to criticize the Goa office and the environs here. Always fussy and comparing things with my office at CA Hyderabad. Missing my group and friends and Hyderabad became part of my life.

I had an apprehension about the kind of group I would find here at office. I remember the first day I joined here, I went with Sriman since he worked here too. I hardly knew people here. I went to lunch with Sriman's group. That was the first time I got introduced to Saif and Sonal.

Saif, a Chubby, bubbly and talkative fellow and Sonal, very attentive, naughty and with a very sharp memory who is always ready to grill you with her questions. I just seemed to strike a perfect rapport with the group. Though i missed being with my group. Days passed by and we started getting along so well, I wouldn't feel missing Hyderabad the way i felt before.

It has always been fun ever since with this Group. Though it is not the way like how it was before with my group where we would go out for dinners and on weekends, it feels nice to be a part of it.

It was the last day of Saif in the Goa office today. He has taken a transfer to Pune. We knew about this for a month or so, but it didn't feel weird or bad about it until today. Today when we said bye to Saif, it felt real weird and sad. I started remembering all the past 2 years and the fun we had in the group.

The name calling, the silly arguing, the secret talks, the secret code names... It felt like the group was being ripped apart. I was remembering the day I left Hyderabad in tears. My group must have felt the same way when I had left. I could feel the same way how Sabita must have felt bidding me adieu.

It was a nostalgic feeling for me. People meet and people part, but memories remain forever. Wish we didn't feel the pain of parting and wish it was always full of smiles...

In the same kind of morose mood, I thought of penning down these thoughts and guess what, I hit Sabita's blog wherein she just was missing Hyderabad after joining at Kolkata.
I just happened to login into Facebook and there goes Krushna's status... "Missing Hyderabad".
And it continues... I thought.

Wow I say to myself, today should have been declared as "Nostalgic feelings day". Jokes apart, I'm sure Saif will not life the Pune environment for the first week or so and then slowly will start adapting to it, and finally he will fall in love with the place. It always happens that we start liking the place that we stay for long and we get attached to the people we spend time with.

So here's wishing Saif a very eventful and happening new life. May his wishes come true and luck follow him where he goes. All the best Saif!!!

Vacation 2010: Nainital and Kausani

Nainital And Kausani



I somehow am very fascinated by the North Indian places to visit. My favorite being Himachal Pradesh. I had a long pending vacation which i had been planning some 10 months back, literally since my last Vacation to Kerala. I make it a point to visit 2 far flung places in a year... one being a place in the North India. My heavenly abode where i leave back all tensions and become one with Nature.

Sriman and Me had been thinking of Shimla and the places surrounding like Chail and Kufri etc. The start date being subject to the leave permission allocated by my client back at work. Luckily she did not make me cancel my plans, but we had to pay a hefty flight price from Goa to Delhi. Cribbing aside, I am quite relieved i went ahead with the trip.

Ok. Let me describe where we went and how we got there. Due to commercialization of Shimla, one of our colleague suggested to go to Chopta and Auli(had never heard them before). Auli happened to be costly for us and we decided against it. After taking some reviews from colleagues and tour organizers, the place for the Vacation was decided as Nainital and Kausani. wow... I was finally going to Nainital, the City of lakes... the place i had been longing to go since Childhood. The city nestled in the Kumaon range of the Himalayas...and yes.. the one thing that we had decided to walk rather hike most of the time to enjoy the beauty of nature ...

The dates had been decided 10 months earlier... as usual to coincide with my Birthday and Valentines day clubbed together. Earlier we decided to start on 12th of Feb 2010, but 13th(My birthday) happened to be Shivratri and Sriman had to perform some religious rites at home. We started from Goa on the 13th of Feb by flight to Delhi. We took a train to Kathgodam on the same night to reach there in the wee hours of the morning. our destination: Nainital was 35 Kms from here. We hired a cab to take us to our designated hotel, Hotel Welcome Park in Nainital.( I still have to write some nice reviews of this hotel. It was a wonderful place.)


It was chilling cold in the morning and the jackets we took from home started falling short of its designated duty... to keep us warm.
Tired of the journey, we just rested for some time and went to explore the beautiful Naini lake in the evening, the exotic lake which gave Nainital, its name. The calm serene waters of the Naini makes you forget all your tiredness and makes you feel relaxed in the vicinity of nature. We did boating at the Naini lake.

The boat rower cum guide told us all the tales in the folklore of Nainital. After the boat ride was the time to go to Naina Devi temple. We walked up to there in the cold. After taking the 'darshan' we roamed in the nearby China market. We bought some warm clothes for ourselves to supplement our already existing stock; jackets, gloves, monkey caps etc.
We walked back to our hotel in the night. Naini looked so pretty...

On the 2nd day(15th Feb) we got ready at 9.00 sharp after a breakfast of Aloo Parathas. We had a designated driver to take us around all the points in Nainital.
The first point we saw was the place from where Naini appeared to be perfect 'Mango Shaped'. The second point was the China peak(snow view point). We had a nice view of the Majestic Himalayas... the Himalayas i go mad for... We were also told that on the other side of the Himalayas is the China border.



We were then taken to the Suicide point and lover's point. I just dont understand why its called lover's point... but be it. the place was beautiful though.The next point was the rock climbing institute which we were not very keen on visiting and hence we moved on. We were taken then to the Cave gardens. various caves belonging to porcupines, tigers, flying foxes, bats etc were shown.

we could traverse right through some and make it to the exit, but some were too creepy and small for us to enter...


Then we were taken for the Lake darshan... which included Bhimtal, Saattaal, Naukuchital etc. No wonder Uttaranchal is called the land of lakes. the lakes were calm and peaceful. I would if possible sit on the bank for hours ingesting the beauty. But we had to move on...


On the way was another point, Hanuman mandir with a too too big Hanuman idol...








We moved on to see the Nainital Tea estate. Reminiscences of my Vacation at Munnar... I love the Tea gardens... We were then dropped back to our hotel. We had food and rested for the day. We had clicked some nice snaps by now...

Our hotel was on the hill from whose peak we could see the Himalayas. There were also the sky trolleys. We decided to hike our way up till that point. We started in the evening at 4.45. We had to start late as it rained that day in Nainital. The Naini looked pretty with the rain clouds above it. We hiked and reached the top of the hill. Took a break for some hot Tea at a local Tea shop high up there. I sweated badly in the Chilly weather!!! We reached there at 6.15. But the trolley service had already closed by then. We saw the Himalayas though. Climbing downhill was much more fun... We reached back in just half an hour while it took us an hour and a half to ascend.

After a quick hot water shower, we had nice food at the hotel and slept for the day. We had to start for Kausani-The Switzerland of India on the 17th Feb morning.
We checkedout of our hotel at 10 in the morning of 16th Feb. It is a 4 hour journey to Kausani. We reached Kausani at about 2 in the afternoon. We had light food and relaxed. The hotel: Hotel Sagar had arranged for the best view room for us, the room had a full view of the Himalayan range. We could see the Nandadevi range along with the Trishul parvat, we were told. but hard luck had its way, The Himalayas had been eclipsed by the thick clouds. So on Day 1 at Kausani, we couldnt see much of the Himalayas.

I had this excitement to see the Himalayas during the Sunrise, I got up at 6 the next day(17th Feb), but that day also we were given a partial glimpse of the Majestic Himalayas.
There are not many points to see in Kausani, and the hotel staff suggested the Kausani Tea estate. But we were too used to seeing Tea gardens by now, decided against it. The hotel we stayed in served only Veg food. So we climbed down the hill to find a local eatery which served the Non veg food that Sriman so so liked. After the lunch, we again decided to hike up the hill to get a better glimpse of the Himalayas.



We started ascending the hills, the point we came across was the Anasakti yog Ashram where it seems Gandhiji had stayed for some time. It was about 4.30 pm that we reached there. By 5.00, many people had started gathering there. We came to know that people come here for a view of the Himalayas at sunset.

So we stayed back till Sunset. and what we saw was marvelous. We then decided to go to our hotel from where we would get a full view. The Himalayas had changed its color by now. It had a dark pink to reddish hue and it was a wonderful sight to see...

After the Sunset, we had come nice hot French Fries and Coffee to give us warmth in the extremely chilly climate. We waited till the sun was totally down and there was the last bit of Himayalas that I could see... It felt as if I was thirsty to see them...

After downloading the snaps to the computer, we watched TV till dinner was served. We had to start our journey back home the next day with loads of memories of the wonderful vacation that we had had.

The next day 18th Feb, i got up at 6 in the morning to see the clear Skies and the Himalayas in the backdrop as clear as crystal. That was the moment i had come to see at Kausani.



We then Checked out of the hotel. the Cab we hired earlier to drop us to Kausani dropped us back to Kathgodam. Kathgodam is a common entry point for Kausani and Nainital. We stayed at the Government rest house at Kathgodam which is in close proximity to the railway station. On the way to Kathgodam, at Almora, we bought the 'Baal mithai', the famous sweet of Nainital. We took the Uttaranchal Sampark Kranti train to Delhi on 19th Feb. We had an overnight stay at Delhi.

The return journey started back with the Goa Sampark Kranti on 20th from Delhi to Goa... thus ended our wonderful vacation, though not from out memories. It was a wonderful, much needed and much awaited trip for me. It made my mind refreshed, so that I could start the next day in office with a much more relaxed mind...
I would like to thank Sriman for the most wonderful moments that he spent with me on this vacation. I already have my next vacation place in mind...