After a week-long discussions and innumerable con-calls, finally….the five families…mutually agreed to a New Year bash in the pink city Jaipur. The hotel was booked …a lovely one with an old-fashioned name – the Om Niwas – and a tempo traveler was booked to ferry a dozen people from Gurgaon to Jaipur and back.
The preparations had begun with Manik and Atul suggesting the fun to begin from 30th night – stay together at Manik’s home on 30th night and start off for Jaipur early morning – which was shrugged off by the Mishras (Saket & Varshaji), Sharmas (Mohit, Monica & Saumitra) and Vermas (Sudhir, Varsha & Vinayak) as they knew the night-long party would leave everyone too tired to start off the day early. But, the party had begun…for Manik (Aparna had gone to her parents’ place for the New Year eve) and the Pandays (Atul, Prachi & Luv).
The day did start off early – with phone calls at the Mishras, Sharmas and Vermas at 3’o clock in the morning. While Saket Bhai (as always calm and poised) chatted with Manik and Atul, the phone call at Sharmas disturbed Monica’s sleep...the Vermas slept peacefully (they were wise enough to leave the phone in the drawing room!).
Though the day started off early, everybody assembled at Manik’s home around 9.30 and the caravan began at 10 in the morning (Not bad for sleepyheads!). Everyone went ga-ga over seeing the tempo traveler – what fun to be together in the same vehicle! Though the seats were not that comfortable…but when you are having fun…who cares?
A few metres from Manik’s home…and everyone were thirsty…for beer…in no time Coronita bottles popped up from the carton carefully kept alongside Manik. Everybody was enjoying it…while poor Mohit kept looking hungrily at the Coronita bottles getting emptied too fast…as he could not await the deadline of 12 o’ clock…because of his bricks & bats condition. Varsha, who does not likes beer, asked to stop at the next wine shop to pick up some Bacardi Breezers! So, naturally, the first stop was a wine & beer shop…in Gurgaon itself!!!
Fully loaded with all the necessary beverages, the caravan began…the Coronitas & Breezers doing their wonders. While the kids were sitting quietly, watching movies on their portable DVD player, the adults were having fun…the all-time favourite ‘Dumb Charades’ session had started with Saket Bhai & Varshaji coming up with movies unknown to our ears. Everybody was enjoying…and no one seemed to bother that the tempo traveler was moving at a snail pace – the traffic was simply pathetic…it proves how Delhites await to run out of this shit place!
The journey which normally takes 4-5 hours stretched to almost 9 hours…we reached our destination Om Niwas at 7 in the evening. The tired faces were fresh again to see the beautiful property of Om Niwas (Thanks to efforts of Saket Bhai & Varshaji!). The rooms were neat, the décor lovely – and the terrace garden inviting!
But, who had the time to enjoy the beauty of the property…there was more to go…the passes to Jaipur club for the New Year’s party were collected by Atul & Saket Bhai. Everybody gathered in the lounge at 9.30 – all dressed up for the party!
Once at the Jaipur club, Prachi & Monica were overjoyed to see the dance floor – ‘Vow! This is what I wanted,’ exclaimed Prachi happily while Monica seconded. One peg down and both of them were on the dance floor…merrily dancing to the tunes. The Varshas joined in after a while…soon Varshaji returned to our ‘adda’ at the Jaipur Club (a round table where drinks & snacks were ordered). Rest of the troupe also did a jig at the dance floor but nothing to match the energy and charisma of Prachi & Monica.
The clock ticked 12…ever body hugged each other and wished a very happy new year…may everyone have a beautiful and memorable year ahead !
The guys were enjoying the high of their drinks…and the favourite topic of conversation had started - the IPM days!!! Though all of us would have forgotten what we studied there, we all remember the anecdotes from those two years – the teachers, the classmates, and the badly located IPM campus near the ‘ghoda aspataal.’ J
After all the drinks and snacks…everybody relished the Rajasthani cuisine at dinner…the food was sumptuous and palatable. But the party was not over…there’s still more to go! Everybody huddled in the tempo traveler and came back to hotel – but not to their rooms…everybody gathered at the terrace garden! The ambience was perfect … the weather perfect …and most importantly, the togetherness…. Children were coaxed to sit in a room so that we can have unadulterated fun!!! Saumitra & Vinayak were behaving their best – both set of parents were definitely proud!
Atul, the photographer ‘dost’ and Sudhir – another amateur photographer, showed off their photography skills to each other while rest of the group chatted, oblivious of the ticking clock. When the clock ticked 5, everyone thought it’s time to sleep…unwillingly everybody dispersed to their respective rooms.
1st Jan 2012, 12 p.m. – time to check-out from the hotel and start off for a return journey. The Sharmas stayed back…they had a week-long holiday and went towards Mount Abu …to meet their reverend Guruji. Rest of the troupe reluctantly boarded the Tempo Traveler…it seemed too soon to end the trip!
On the way back, Vinayak missed Saumitra’s company and had to be entertained by the already tired parents. The best way was to buy him a movie DVD…so ‘Double Dhammal’ was bought…and whew! the whole troupe enjoyed the movie…even people who were sleeping sat upright and watched the comedy flick. Totally energized, the group now wanted drinks…so out came ‘Black Dog’ and ‘Smirnoff.’
The child wanted more entertainment…no DVD shop in sight….so the poor chap thought he would join in the fun of Dumb Charades – he was happy to give movies to everybody to enact! The favourite game was back and so was the energy! Manik, the poor guy who was unwell since New Year’s Eve, played the game with ‘rajai’ over his head. Varsha, who was sleeping most of the time, quipped in the name of the movie, when she thought the disturbance was too much for her to sleep.
The Tempo traveler was moving at a slow pace again – seemed half of Delhi went to Jaipur for the New Year ’s Eve! We reached Gurgaon around 12…everybody was hungry…the options were brainstormed…Manik (who was sleeping throughout the return journey) was asked to take a front seat and guide the driver to take us to the eating points. We went to Park Plaza for some Biryani, but after seeing the price tag of Rs 500 per plate, we thought street food would be a better choice. Time for more exploration…few nocturnals showed the way and we reached the dhaba outside Convergys, which luckily was open. Then, everybody ordered a lavish dinner – chickenzzz, parathansssss, paneerzzzz, dalsss, maggiessss, etc….. Everyone gobbled food – I am sure nobody remembers how it tasted!
Finally, we reached Manik’s society…wait, the adventure is not over. Saket Bhai’s car lost its battery…atleast that’s what apparently looked. Saket Bhai broke the news, rushing towards everybody. Everybody’s shocked – somebody stole just the battery and not the Scorpio? Oh my God! We all rushed towards the Scorpio to see what has gone wrong. Sudhir called upon the security guard and asked how somebody can steal the battery from the car, right in front of their eyes as the Scorpio was parked just there. The guard gave an ugly look and disclosed the secret of the year gone by – “bhaiya aapki gaadi ki light jal rahi thi jo lup-lup karke thodi der pehle hi band hui hai.” Another shock, this time for Saket Bhai….
All in all, the trip was lovely – 20 hours in Jaipur and 22 hours in Tempo Traveller – but still we all were together for 42 hours….and this is what matters!
No comments:
Post a Comment