Saturday 20 October 2012

Trek Experience Part-5


Day5(Taluka- sankri- hanumanchatti)(3rd October 2012)

The day started with fresh enthusiasm as 1st half of the trek was already over and we were all healthy and fit. It was a complete scheduled bus journey that day. We were to board our bus at Sankri which was 11 kms away from that place(Taluka). We decided to have our breakfast at Sankri. So we started early without wasting time there. We had to cross the landslide point that we navigated at night time in our very 1st day. The local administration had cleared some portion of it by that time- 1 bulldozer was at work when we reached that place. Our GL had arranged jeeeps for us for our journey…

            I practically slept the entire journey from Taluka to Sankri as I had already taken an avomine. Sleeping inside a jeep with one hand holding the rod above head which was attached to the roof and practically no place to seat is the last thing one would wish after 4 days of trekking. Actually after so much boring lectures at academy, we are now capable of sleeping in any circumstances- one type of sleeping that I have mastered recently is that, sleeping almost upto 50 percent with eyes closed and at the same time listening to teacher and opening eyes in between, jotting down something, nodding head few times and again sleeping.Some people like Krishna(who sits beside me) are genious- He sleeps during lectures but wakes up when ever a question is asked and tells the right answer everytime!!!).

            Coming back to trek, we reached Sankri at around 8.30 am. This is the place where one can get all the required civic amenities. I went to the nearby shop to buy some biscuits and chocolate for bus journey. I heard something noisy- I came out of shop and to my utter surprise, I saw people from trek group no.1 who had come to trek to Harkidun had just reached the place. It was nice feeling seing fellow OTs. I could see people hugging each other- just like ‘bharat milaap’. In academy I had never seen people this courteous and affectionate to each other!!. People were looking different too- with 4 day old beard and sun tanning. We kept on discussing our trek experiences. They advised us regarding some precautions about the trek to Dodital( the final destination we were heading towards). We came to know that some OTs of group1 had made some parallel Mahabharat- i.e. dealing every incident of Mahabharat with a different perspective, mostly the sexual angle. This is what you expect from the deady combination of engineer turned civilservants+bakar+ khali time+ alcohol+few girls around!! and the guy who had been instrumental in making this theory being named ‘Baba Bhokali’!!!. With so many technocrats now in civil services one can expect some fancy names for Govt programmes in future!!!

            We had our breakfast together at Sankri. We loaded a cartoon full of water for journey and started at around 11 am for Hanuman chatti(our destination). It was a 130 km travel. We reached at Purola at around 1.30 pm. Bus stopped for a 10 minutes break. Mobile network was available there- so people were seen busy with their phones. I called home from Manish’s mobile( that nokia wala) as my mobile was discharged. The married and committed people were seen talking for longer time and were standing farther away from bus and were seen doing some interesting hand,head and mody movements while talking!!!. After 25-30 mins or so we thought of starting for destination- but the driver was no where to be seen. After a while he came and said that he had gone for his mobile recharge!!! We wasted around 1 hr there and consumed some 10/15 packets of namkeen. We should have taken our lunch there rather than wasting our time but ‘Badkot’ was the place where we had thought of having our lunch. So we started for Badkot- it was supposed to be a big town…

            It was around 4.15pm when we reached Badkot. We went to the GMVN guest house but were denied food. Finally we went to a hotel who obliged. I went to a nearby saloon to do trimming of my beard, because it had started itching. I came back to the hotel, people were busy watching TV- expression like people watching TV for 1st time in life could be observed on the faces of OTs!!!. Few other people who had gone for shaving came back with ‘chikna’ looks. Manish( Basir Bhadra) had cleaned his French beard too- so was looking smart and different. We kept on waiting for food for some more time but our wait continued. One person went down stairs to ask what exactly happening- later we came to know that the hotel had only one small tawa for roti making, so will take more time. The more the delay was prolonging, the more the fear of trekking during night was coming to my mind. Finally food came at around 5 pm.

            We left Badkot and headed towards Hanumanchatti. It is a famous pilgrimage route. People who go to Yamunotri travel through this route. So we could see number of road side dormitories and hotels all along the path. So the feel of going away from civilisation was not there in our mind. We reached Hanuman chatti at around 8 pm. We were welcome by one of our games faculty member with typical ‘hello ji’ ‘how r u ji’ greetings and as usual girls got some extra attention.. We came to know that one of our teachers too had come there to accompany us next day. The academy wala  ‘insecure’ feeling started creeping in… We headed towards the GMVN guest house. Its location was awsum, just on the banks of Yamuna. The Govt people always occupy these prized lands!!… Room was also very good- with electricity, running water in tap and clean toilet!!!!!!, those were nothing less than 5 star amenities for us. I recharged my mobile. I was sharing my room with few OTs from south India(Ragul, Chako, Balamurali) and Shiv. I and Shiv had been sharing room almost everytime during the trek. He is a nice guy, particular and straight forward( probably He’ll get odisha cadre!!! Good for us). After some time we were called by our Games faculty for dinner. These instructions and ‘feel- like- a- kid’ irritates me. Anyways we rushed to the dhaba just like what we do in academy- rushing from one place to another for no reason!!!

            Our teacher also joined us for dinner. He is a nice man who loves to talk, very friendly, full of energy and enthusiasm. One can’t fine ‘fullstop’ in his statements as he goes on and on… He started his stories of his experience during his trek- how he killed an animal for food when they ran short of ration!!! Any ways the food at dhaba was good, we got egg bhurji also…

Next day was a trek to Dharwa top. In trek briefing we have been told that we would get mess food at that place- with varieties like chicken and mutton. We came to know that Annaji(one of PT faculty who happens to be an army man) is there to arrange things for us. So, the feel of ‘gone to the wild’ was no more there in our mind with so many academy people around us. I called up home, wrote something in my diary(as electricity was there) and went to sleep…





1 comment:

  1. As usual I loved d blog.....is it d krishna bhaskar u hav mentioned!!!two stalwarts sitting together...ppl i admire d most...keep on writtin dada...njoy!!!!

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