Ahh! Its so good to be back home! Especially when you have had a harrowing experience travelling on short notice and getting stuck in bad weather.
I had to launch myself for a surprise trip to Uttarakhand on Thursday. It was an official trip for my mom, and she asked me to give her company during the two day trip.(no one else was ready to go, so I was the easy option left,grr) In a way, I was hoping to evade the crazy Delhi weather, and was thinking that the area where we were going would be bright and sunny(as it should be at this time of the year). Plus I have a weakness for mountains and Tibetan soups(yeah I’ll tell ya ahead), so I couldn’t resist.
So, when we reached the place on Friday, a school in a sleepy cluster settlement near Mussoorie, it looked alright, but soon enough all my thoughts were washed away, as rain came pouring down in the evening. We had planned that we would go Mussoorie that evening, and have a bowl full of exotic Tibetan treat- Thukpa, at a small Tibetan eating place(yeah I cant even call it a restaurant). This place is located near the LBS academy for civil servant’s training (my life’s goal, I want to be there, training for my job in a year or two). This Tibetan guy’s place has been there for years. When my mom became a civil servant, she also went for training at the same academy, and many a times she used to order her meals from this Tibetan place. She was the one who took me to this place initially, and I fell in love with the food. Its small shabby looking place, with ancient looking furniture, not much space to sit. There are only two guys working in that place, one is the owner and the cook and the other is the helper( so if ya expect the food to arrive point blank in 5 minutes, then you rather go off to another place). This is a place where you are not supposed to be in a hurry at all. The meals are cooked in the traditional way, and take time, as there’s only one cook. Even the noodles are made from an ancient looking noodle making machine, from fresh dough. So it’s all worth the wait.
They have THE best wonton soup that I have tasted in the world, along with the Thukpa, garlic chilly noodles, hot and sour soup, and tomato egg drop soup. Wonton is my favourite, so I never leave that one out when I go there to eat. Absolutely lip smacking stuff! And its priced so modestly, I often feel as though I’m back in time.(aap ke zamane mein baap ke zamane ke daam!)
Yeah so due to the rain, we couldn’t go that evening. We went to Mussoorie the next day at noon. I had made sure that my stomach was absolutely empty for the lunch time meal(YUMMY!). I had Thukpa(half shared with my grandpa) and wonton soup(my staple), mom had hot and sour(her fave) and others had a bit of everything, chilly garlic noodles with sweet and sour sauce, etc.
It was a cloudy day, and clouds were kissing the hills of Mussoorie. We spent the rest of the trip to the city roaming here and there around the city,doing a bit of window shopping.
the famous Mussoorie Library
a busy street with clouds, Mussoorie
bhuttaa! corn on the cob
a guy selling local berries, Mussoorie marketInitially we had planned to return to
1pm-we ate our lunch, and I called up my sis to tell her we were on time and mom was feeling much better.
2pm-all the left over packing done, I was still talking to my sis on the phone, discussing random things like the last IPL match and such stuff(mostly the shyt related to cricket)
2.05pm-suddenly, I shivered, there was a sudden drop in the temperatures, the wind was picking up, I looked back at the window and found a rising cloud entering into my room. I wasn’t bothered at first, because it was a usual scenario that that place, clouds usually climbed up to the mountain, and we were located at the slope of that mountain only.
2.15-the windows started clanking because of the growing wind speed, I was still on the phone(yeah its so damn unusual for me to talk so much on the phone). My mom came into the room, and tried to pull the curtains over the windows, but they were flying like a wild horse! At that moment suddenly the sky started darkening. Within a minute the wind was howling and our windows were crashing into each other, I knew I had to hang up now. I reached for the windows and tried to close them, but they were not coming within my reach. I and mom, both were struggling with the windows, the winds were so strong that we literally had to put in all our strength to close them shut.
It was clear by now, we were in trouble. I went to the phone again, to call up my sis again and tell her that we might not be able to leave for Dehradun on time. We were in the middle of a mini cyclone again!!
It had turned so dark at that time that I couldn’t see the numbers buttons on the phone! I dialled like a blind guy. Thankfully I dialled the right number, told my sis about the storm, actually I had to shout to get my voice across. The wind was screaming!
The winds were so strong that at one point we thought the roof of that resthouse would blow off. Sheer gale force winds! There was hail, sleet, and pouring rain. It was absolute nightmare. We knew if we dared to drive through this storm, it was certain that we would be blown off the road and thrown into the steep valley. So we had to wait for the storm to sober down. The people working at the school told us that they hadn’t seen anything like this ever in all of their tenure working at that place. We have brilliant luck you see!
3.22pm-the winds had mellowed down a bit, the sky was becoming clearer. Dehradun was visible again from our window. The rain had turned into a drizzle. It looked like it was coming to an end after all.
3.30pm-we take a slight risk, and head off to the highway, in a bid to reach Dehradun in time to catch our train.
3.50pm-We had covered only a third of the distance to the station, when we got halted on our way because of a massive traffic lock jam. The line of cars could be seen going down the spiralling road to kilometres stretch. We were in trouble again…………..
News was that a massive tree had fallen on the highway during the storm(not the only one to fall, we saw many on the way). Therefore the traffic was stuck due to the road block. The tree was removed quickly, but we still couldn’t move on, as many reckless people had stuck their cars in a double line along the road, and thus the cars coming from the other side didn’t have any way to go ahead. It took us 40 minutes to get going from that point ahead.
4.30pm- our driver was trying desperately to move fast, so that we would reach in time, but the traffic was too slow and chaotic. It was a losing battle against time as the train’s departure time was 5pm sharp, and we not even reached the outskirts of Dehradun.
4.55pm-still on the roads on Dehradun city, the driver even took to the by-lanes of the city to avoid traffic and lights, so that we can reach on time. But it looked like a never ending journey towards the station. We were now hoping that they delay the departure somehow, but alas it was too much to ask.
5.07pm- we finally reach the station, only to find that we missed the train by just 2 minutes. DAMN!
We were tired and broken from all the tension of trying to reach in time. And now we were heart broken as well. We wanted to reach
Then someone from her staff suggested that we do a JabWeMet scenario, i.e. we further travel by road to
Suddenly there was light at the end of the tunnel!
So we travelled to
We caught our train from
At that point I almost felt like screaming-I WANNA GO HOME!!
Finally now I’m safely back in
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