Wednesday, May 6, 2009

My Sikkim trip - I

What with the Taliban's doings in the Swat valley, the great principled battle that is the Lok Sabha elections (waged in extremely Gandhian fashion by kum. Mayawati and Shri Mulayam), the Whatchamacallit Premier League and other things that the newspaper chaps like to put on page 1, I daresay I haven't been missed.

It's not that nobody loves me. The folks at Loop Mobile keep calling me up to find out how I am doing, and whether I would take up their brotherly offer of a free sim card. ICICI bank is another one keenly interested in my financial health and offers me very attractive insurance proposals that can have nothing but disinterested love motivating it. But the people who count don't seem to have really suffered the agonies of separation.

But first, footnotes. On a lunatic impulse, I decided to take off to Sikkim with three other friends namely Harshad Tirodkar, Sushil Soman and Sanjeev Thakur. The first named is an avid trekker and Himalaya freak. He waited for us to book our tickets and hotels and then told us that we would be trekking at high altitude. And, to further bolster our spirits, he suggested we save money by not booking our return tickets because, as he charmingly put it , "body free mein aati hain", a reference to the possibility that we might not make it back alive.

His concern was touching. All of us rushed out to get our blood pressures and electrocardiograms checked. Someone suggested we carry an oxygen cylinder, which mercifully we did not (not available at the chemist's shop), because as it turned out, at the locations we went to, the other tourists were aunties and uncles way past their seventieth year, showing no sign of distress. We would have been the laughing stock of north sikkim.

On further lunatic impulse, we decided to go from Mumbai to New Jalpaiguri by train. Some 48 hours of train travel. The idea behind this was to sample the flavour of the country but we chickened out and traveled by AC 2 tier instead of 2nd class..........


13 comments:

Lavanya said...

Welcome back, shenoyji! We did miss you much :)
Body free mein aati hai was a total gem :D


Oh and i must say, you look dapper :D

Idling in Top Gear said...

Welcome back, Mr. S!

"body free mein aati hain" LMAO!

And train travel, regardless of class, sucks coz 1) bathrooms, regardless of class, are nasty, and 2) coaches, regardless of class, have roaches.

SRK said...

ooh, Sikkim... lucky you!

and i'd disagree with idling... train journeys have a unique charm, and dirty toilets and roaches are a part of it... flights are so boring!

J. Alfred Prufrock said...

Oye! Where's the rest of the post, eh?
Snap to it, sir, because your audience has been long deprived and their appetite may get the better of their civilised veneer.

J.A.P.

Anonymous said...

What makes train journeys interesting is the food served 'on board'. If you can spot a small dumpling of potato submerged in a pool of dilute yellowish liquid, its a 'jhol/curry'. Otherwise its a 'dal'! Other delicacies include 'de-veggie-fied' veg. cutlets and Somalian Biryani, served cold.
Waiting for Part II.
Cheers

Partho said...

Gosh you're taking what, about five vacations a year? Seeing the seventy-plus uncle and aunt co-tourists and your plans to take oxygen cylinders, I'm guessing you went the La-chung La-chen Gurudongmer lake route, right? Awaiting part deux.

slowtumblinglife said...

aah.. was wondering where you disappeared!

sikkim seems awesome! did you catch the brilliant momos?

Nikhil Narayanan said...

NS,
Just this much?
What Google Reader threw up as blurb and what the post had was almost the same!
Part II kodi saar!!

-Nikhil

Vivek said...

Welcome back!
Was planning to send my dog to sniff you out. (With some command sounding like the place you visited).
:D
Looking forward to more train tales and the such!

Anonymous said...

Finally you are back! :)
Awesome post, and yes we missed you a lot!

--Saranya

Cynic in Wonderland said...

ah finally you are back.

Pitu said...

Body free mein aati hai!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! How subtle is your friend ;-D

buddy said...

nice..waiting for more