So this was the camp that we attended organized by Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR)..
Day 1
The day began when I saw the dream of missing train. Ah,
that was something like flash back towards my earlier tour, where we missed the
train, just because we could not identify it. We went to college to attend
couple of classes, and then after having our super quick lunch, Amish, Susant
and me; we left for Chittoor. Susant had to go Banglore, and we had to rush
towards Katpadi, Vellore. It was 12.40, and train arrival time was 2.20, and we
had not yet got the bus. The journey was 45 minutes from our place, however we
got the bus at 1, and reached to the station at 1.45. This station looked so
messed up to us, nothing managed. However, we got inside the train, and sat on
the top. We both had our seats top!
I had movies on my cell phone, Achyut Ghimire’s audio on my
cell phone, however, I thought of starting Malala’s book. So, I started
Malala’s biography, in the train. Vodafone’s Internet Pack was another way to
pass time. Egg Biryani, plus our Tiffin Box had something to eat for dinner.
Night was cold!
Day 2
Day to began in the train itself, and we bought some fruits
to eat at Nagpur junction. So, deciding not to eat anything unhygienic, we had
fruits. Malala’s book was getting interesting, and the movement of train was
getting strong. There were few third genders, who came to our seat, but we had
learned that we should ignore them, and if they act too much, it’s rather wise
to pay them Rs 10. We did not reach to the stage of payment though, we just
ignored them. We reached to Itarsi, at 4. How good it was to see Dharmashala
just from the station. However, when we reached there, they didn’t had the
rooms, or maybe they did not want to give to some young fellows. That was fine,
and we were habituated of such reactions in hotels of India. So, we went to a
hotel, and after getting fresh, we thought of going somewhere instead of
staying in the room itself. We took the bus and went to Namrada Ghat, because
that was the only nearest place around there as per Google’s suggestion to
visit. It kind of reminded me of Venaras, however despite being Aarati Time, it
was not that Veneras type.
The place was good though, and religious indeed. How come,
we saw people throwing magnet into the river tied with rope into the river.
Ahh! That was the way they were collecting coins that people threw in the
river. Tea was good of that place, however, Pani Puri – I felt ‘South Indians
can never give the taste of Pani Puri, no matter what!’, IT WAS AWESOME!!
We returned back to our room, and went around looking for
some good hotels to have our dinner. That gave us an excuse, to visit around
the market during the evening around 8. You know the surprising thing? There
were Nepalese in this corner too! And, how funny, they were with the stall
written ‘Nepal Famous Biryani’! We did not go there, because it looked
unhygienic to us, and we also had experienced, showing emotional respect
towards the next Nepalese in India, they will pretend, and look for their own
selfishness. I really feel this part of Nepalese habit bad.
Finally we had fine dinner, and went back to room, did
nothing but slept.
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| Namrada River... Kind of Small Venarasi? |
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| I kind of remembered Aarati of Chetan Bhagat's Revolution 2020 |
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| Maybe this is like Prithivi Chowk of Pokhara for this place! I don't know! |
Day 3
As soon as we woke up, we got fresh and moved towards the
railway station. We had to catch train to Bhopal! We got the ticket of local
seat, and we got into the train. Standing on train is not that bad as standing
on the bus. We stood up for entire two hours, till Bhopal came. Now, we had to
look for Palash Residency. We had our google maps. It was, we took an auto
there, and moved towards the hotel.
As soon as we went, we saw this guy coming too. We had to
stay three in a room, and we were two – Me and Amish. This guy was sent to us
too, and his name was – Joy.
Yes, his name was Joy, and I made this up… His name is Joy,
he came from Andhra Pradesh, however he stays in Rajisthan, he wears the cap of
Goa, and then he is from Sri Lanka! And, he came to this camp to Enjoy! He was
a B Tech Student – mechanical engineering.
So, we went into the room. I made the most horrible tea of
my life, to make use of the boiler, milk powder and tea bag provided, and all
of us, we had it. I was now wondering if I there was wifi, because my internet
pack was not working in the room. They told me it was just in the reception,
where I saw others people, who looked like someone from the camp too there by.
Now, my ego did not let me talk to that group of Afghans or
Sri Lankan group. I kept on surfing the facebook, posting some tweets, posting
photos on Instagram that I had of day before hearing these Afghans and Sri
Lankans talking. We were called for lunch, and the lunch was like ‘wow’! At
least, we got to eat something really good than that of South india! I felt! After
having lunch, I heard few Nepali voices too, they were just coming! Are Nepalese always late? Had they been male,
I would talk, but it was not wise to talk to them as soon as they came and
because they were ladies.
The tour officially began, when we were taken to two
museums! Ah! I hate museums, though I made a quick round up visit. I probably
was the first one to get out. I was almost scared, if this camp would be that
educational where I would be learning some history around India. It was not
just Amish and me, there was this Afghan guy, who was not much interested and
got out quick too – Kaif! He was born in Pakistan, and raised there, till he was
16, and he studied his Bachelors in India, is doing his first years of Masters
in India too. This guy was cool! That was what we gained, this guy with us on
that boring museum! Thank God! They took us to Upper lake, that almost look
like Phewa Lake of my country, where we went into the cruise with some rough
dances in the evening! It was perfect to look setting down of sun from the
lake.
Day 4
We got fresh, and were all set to go to new place. We had
our breakfast, and got into the bus. We went to Bhojpur, temple of Shiva, that
they said were some oldest temple, and then to Bhimbetika – World Heritage Site,
that was around 1 hour drive from Bhojpur. Bhimbetika had some old paintings,
that they said were made by early men who used to stay over there. That was
fine, but I did not like that place much. The lunch in the highway was okay
there. We then moved for a real long journey, Sanchi’s stupas the other World
Heritage site believed to have pillars from third century BC to 12th
century AD. This was again 46 kms away from Bhopal, so we had to travel back to
Bhopal and move towards Sanchi. This place was much more beautiful than the
earlier world heritage site. I felt!
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| Sanchi |
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| Sanchi |
Day 5
Early morning after the breakfast, we got set for the
longest journey – 400 kms from that place of our camp. We had nothing to do,
but to sit around and talk, I did not thing but inserted ear phone and listened
to few latest tracks of Sugam – Timro Yaad, Sanjeev Singh – Timi ra ma, and few
OSTs. Ahh! These Afghans started some great stuff that everyone in the bus had
to sing! How plain would it be if some one easily accept the condition. I and
Kaif, we refused to sing! Ahh! We were all so hungry, and we finally got our
highway treat – Lunch! We had already started teasing Chumki Rani – yes, the
another interesting part of the trip!
We had to wait for lunch, despite being there at the place,
because of some time difference. However, we had it, and again started the
journey. I completed the entire play list that
I had set there, and we again started singing songs, where the guide
‘Junge’, Mr. Abdesh sang good Hindi tracks too. The evening was moving and the
bus was getting noisy. Teasing Chumki was more interesting when we got peoples
from ICCR and guide too teasing her! The long did not get that long, because we
were singing, asking Chumki to sing, and teasing her. We almost opened Chumki’s
Fan Club! This indeed was interesting.
We reached Jawalpur around at 8 pm. We checked in! Thank God!
WiFi was in room, where we were all engaged. The level of coldness was
increasing, and we were shivering. We had our lunch, and then had few chit
chats around and then slept. We were all tired, so could not make a second
thought of waiting long. Ahh, it was Nisha’s Birthday – How would we know? No
Invitations! No Informations!
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| Sunrise |
Day 6
We got set after the breakfast. We got to know about Nisha’s
Birthday, and talked to our selves, had we known, we would cut the cake at
least! But no worries, we though and made a plan to celebrate Kaif’s Birthday.
At first we thought of Joy, he did not agree, Kaif was fine with it, and we
made it up! The hotel was good, but they did not provide complimentary water,
and they mentioned that ‘Rs 35 per mineral water bottle’! What we did was we
kept additional bottle of water, with the note ‘Come to Nepal and Sri Lanka, we
will provide water on free!’, and we left the key and went for breakfast. This
guy came asking ‘Who was at this room?’, we understood as he had the bottle and
note, ‘You left this at your room!’, we pointed each other, and took it as if
nothing had ever happened.
We were all set to move towards Bhedeghat when the bus did
not work at all. They managed some other bus up to Bhedeghat, though late’, and
the boating was fun. Yes, boating between the rocks indeed was something really
memorable moment of entire trip. It was interesting, and a different
experience. The boat guide was interesting, as he showed us elephants, World
Cup that was made from marble there. A guy from the top was ready to jump if
someone would pay him Rs 20, we said we’ll pay and he jumped from the top and came
to the boat swimming!
We then went to the water fall. The water fall was nothing,
small one when compared to Sundarijal or Davi’s fall, however there was huge
promotion made thereby. There was cable car to see it, Ahh! They even
worshipped, and there was huge local market around.
It was already time for lunch! It was 2, but we still had
60kms to travel for lunch, oh this guy told us 80! We had our lunch somewhere
in the highway, and it was kind of cold. And then we moved towards Khajurao.
We reached there at around 7, and checked into the rooms!
Day 7
Trinnng!!!!
Someone rang our bell at 4! Huh!! Did I sleep for even 4
hours? I wonder! The bus would leave at 4.30, so I had thirty minutes. I
remember, wearing that blue wind cheater. Since, I am from this hot corner, I
normally don’t buy winter cloths, unless I have to be back at Nepal. So, the
bus took us to Panna National Park, at 5.30! I probably took nap in the bus,
and as we reached there, we were notified that the national park opens only at
6. So, we tried to sleep in that cold there itself. But we barely could. So the
clock ticked at six, and we were out! I was freezing! It was cold! And, we were
all shocked to see that there was a jeep! Yes- Jeep for National Park safari,
with its’ back all open. We had to sit five of us, so it was me and Amish – and
three Nepalese girls from Delhi – Palpasa, Alisa and Susmita! We were all
freezing! They were from cold place, they should have brought something! My bag
was trying to cover my chest, handkerchief was trying to protect my face from
the wind, and we were moving!
‘If you make noise, you wont see any thing’ this another
guide told us. I did not want to see deers, but tigers. We kept on moving. I
did not want to click any pictures of peacock, some strange cows making hand
movement in that cold, but I did. Because others did! So, we reached to this
place, where they were lightening fire! We got ourselves warm there, and again
returned back in the cold thinking ourselves unlucky! Ah! We did not see
anything except peacock and deers in Chitwan National Park too. I must
beunlucky then! Or Jeep safari is not for me!
We took our breakfast, and got ourselves warm in the
sunlight. And then we went to this amazing Khajurao temple, that was near from
our hotel. This was amazing temple, of various sex positions crafted on stones.
They do have it in Nepal as well, but this one was huge and enlisted in World
Heritage Site! There were confusions if Kamasutra got inspired from that temple
or if Kamasutra was inspired that temple! Histories were too long.
We went back for lunch, at around 4, and then we went for
the cancellation of ticket. We missed some place to visit, but we found this
old person who told himself sick and was going to Gwalior for treatment. He
treated us too good, but we could not cancel our ticket that was on waiting
because of delay in time. Planning to do it next morning, we returned, when the
bus was again ready to take us somewhere.
This was lightening show, where they took us for some
history explanations. It seemed that they had huge investments there, and maybe
it was kind of similar to Akshardham of Delhi, but realistic and dramatic one.
We returned back, and went nearby for cake! We did not find any cake to fake
birthday, however we found a place, who delivered us. On the way back, we found
Chumki, and the interesting thing was she was buying Kamasutra’s book there?
Huh!!
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| Arts |
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| Night Light |
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| Birthday of Kefayat! |
Day 8
So, after breakfast, we were all set for next place, which
was really far! This place was Orchha! We reached Orchha during lunch. The
place was interesting, but less maintained. We even touched UP state then, and
Orchha was in MP again. So, we took photos there, there was guide explaining
lot of things. I was less interested. The lunch was really like having in
heaven, because it was state owned hotel, that was made within the palace. It
was different experience!
We then moved towards Shivapuri. It was kind of slight rainfall,
and new year’s eve! Wow! So, we celebrated the new year’s eve by sleeping, when
this Kaif called us to this dance party! We had our lunch at 11, and were
hanging till 1 in the night! It was new year’s eve anyway!
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| Orchha! |
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| Orchha! |
Day 9
The weather was bad, and we could not get into sightseeing!
That was bad, but good too because we could do Tatkal Booking from the hotel
itself, and yes, we were lucky that we got two tickets to our place! So, since,
we could not go for sight seeing, we moved towards Gwalior! We were already
emotional and sad by this time, because this was going to be the last night at
Gwalior!
Day 10
Next day’s morning was really sad one, because all of them
were in mood of bidding farewell. After breakfast, we did our formal stuffs of
collecting certificates and we sat all together taking snaps. While others were
planning to go to Agra, we were still there, because we had our train at 8.30
pm from Gwalior. We were surprised earlier to see Nisha and Pratima being so
relaxed about ticket until we realized that they had someone back in their place
for their tickets. So, the place was getting emotional thereby. Here, emotional
attachment was more, and the fear of same mess food was there too. Everyone
started remembering the food of their place! We were okay with our mess, but
still, when same routine is followed, that becomes boring!
We took a lot of pictures! And even had our lunch! Now, the
thing got really sad when Chumki started crying, Antara started crying! We
hugged each other, and departed like we were family members. I know this sad
part, because while I was in training camps before, I used to feel the same!
This was one such event, but with wider family of different regions. We bid
everyone farewell, and few of us who were remaining went around old market of
Gwalior. We were Sri Lankans, one Afghan and Joy who were remaining!
So, by the time it was 3, we were back to hotel, and we bid
everyone farewell. Now it was two ICCR’s representative and Amish and me who
were left in one single room. We sat till 7 and talked about everything possible
from ICCR to India! The TV was with some prank showing on! The hotel was so
lonely without all of them!
So at 7.30 we left the hotel. We went to railway station
where we figured our train was 2.5 hours late. So we waited, and the train came
at 10, we got inside, found our seat. Did we eat anything? I was not hungry!
And we slept in the train.
Day 11
The whole day was in the train, where we had fruits for tea
and cookies for our lunch. I had Malala’s book for time pass, I almost
completed the book in the train. There was only one charging port but some
intelligent guy had brought multi plug, where I could charge my phone and check
few round of updates on facebook, twitter and instagram! There was this guy
down my seat, a kid infact calling me ‘Mota Mass’, which was some bad character
in his local cartoon. The day passed in train, where we had nothing to do!
Day 12
We woke up at 6, had the train been on time, we would be
there at 4. We did not realize when Chennai came too. Early at around 7, we
dropped at Katpadi! We caught bus till Chittoor, from Chittoor we took an auto!
And the hostel was already waiting for us! Suman had kept breakfast for us!
2 comments:
It is a REALLY LONG travelogue! I got lost in the middle where you mentioned about opening a Fan club! It would have been better if you shared short yet many stories of this travel. The pictures look really nice!:)
Thank You Anandeeta for the comment. I would have never thought of that way if your comment would not be here. I will certainly work out for that in days to come.
Thank You Again! :)
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