25.3.06

Oh to pack my bags and leave again...

Yes my bags are packed and I am ready to leave for Calcutta. Ten days of lolling around. I am so excited.

This is exactly the kind of life I want to lead. Pack my bags every week. Last week this time I was leaving for Palampur and Mc Cleodganj. It was an amazing trip. I can still feel the cold mountain air. Actually I was working on a story and stayed at a tea plantation for a day in Palampur. It was beautiful, the snowcapped Dhauladhars, the gurgling brook in the valley...that reminded me of Tennyson's Brook...you know that poem with the refrain 'Men may come and men may go but I go on forever'.

There was yummy homecooked food rustled up by the cooks at the estate. They were such people. Sarwan and Dharmo. They belonged to the local tribes -- the Gaddis and Dhogries. They reminded me of the good old servants who take care of you and make you feel cherished. Sarwan's gajar ka halwa was one of the best things I had on the trip.

The highlight however was my walk back to my cottage at night from the lounge area which housed a television. It was a Sunday night and I was desperate enough for Desperate Housewives to stay back in the lounge at 10 pm. The whole place was eerily silent by then. Everybody had gone to sleep. Now leopards are commonly seen prowling around the estate. All I could do was sit with an irregular heart beat and check my watch every 5 minutes to see whether it was 11 yet and when the soap would end. It was that bad. I was shit scared. Further the owner had showed me photographs of the British planters who owned the estate in the 1800s. And a picture of the planter's wife who had died here during the devastating earthquake of 1905. I kept looking at the glass doors thinking that any moment I would see a face staring at me. And I swear when I swtiched off the lights of the room and ventured out, I heard a rustling in the tea bushes. That was it. I ran for my life and for the shelter of my cottage.

It did not end there. You see I am rather a coward. I just couldn't go to sleep. I called up E who thought it was adventurous and sounded fun. "It must be good for newly weds. Roam around in the morning and have sex in the evening when there is nothing else to do," she mused. Even trying to read an MB didn't help.

Next morning I set out for Mc Cleodganj where I had spinach and potato momos for Rs 2 each (they were delicious especially as it was drizzling with a cold wind blowing. A monk called Tenzing egged me on saying they were the best momos to be sold there), listened to the Dalai Lama and couldn't make out anything of his Tibetan chants, saw nice looking firangs most of whom seemed like they needed a bad bath, searched for a monk I knew at the Namgyal Monastery but was told to look at the archives so didn't bother, bargained with a ruddy faced Tibetan junk jewellery seller who didn't relent much, sat down in a cafe and enjoyed piping hot coffee with macaroni and walked down to the St John's Church in the Wilderness (where Lord Elgin is buried) and thought I would get raped and thrown down the forest (it was that deserted, on top of which it was a dark and windy day). I did as much as I could do in a day before I set out for Delhi in the evening.

Now I have made some more plans. This time it goes like this: six months of the year I can spend in Goa, from October to April. The rest of the year in Mc Cleodganj.

Now I have to figure out some way to do this.

26 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ohhhh....ohhhh....OOOOHHHH.....I want to go to Mcledoganj too...I want to drink hot coffee while it rains and I want to have potato momos....waaaahhhh...and u and I have the same job and u get to do all this and me nothing....ITS NOT FAIR...So stop complaining! BTW, Being Cyrus got grrreat reviews ;D

Sonia said...

see, this is why i think you have an awesome job!

So what if you have to suffer Akshay Kumar's pj's for a while (which really, is no big deal as far as i'm concerned, even without the travelling).

When I come to delhi (whever that is!), i'm gonna call you and make you take me to all these wonderful places! (if you don't mind?)

Sonia said...

just realised akshay kumar is the only proper noun that is capitalized in the previous comment! yeeeesh! ( i don't really like him! HONEST!)

First Rain said...

Sigh! and Siiiigh! Oh what I wouldn't do for a holiday.

Anonymous said...

That sounds like an amazing trip......sigh...wish my life was this exciting....enjoy your trip to kolkata......its been soooo long for me. Good thing is that my parents will be here in MTL as of April 28th......I'm happy about that :-)

Anonymous said...

I remember that poem by Tennyson......that takes me wayyyyy back to my school days.....

shub said...

absolutely love the mountains (there is something about the fresh cool air, isn't it?) and beaches equally, to death...
have u been to pondicherry? really quaint lil place:)

mad angles said...

Right, so here's what we do. We set up a travel magazine of our own coz everyone I know wants to quit and travel this way, we can do both. Sounds good no?

Rohini said...

Glad to see I am not the only one ready to go to any lengths not to miss a single episode of Desperate Housewives. By the way, in addition to the show on Sunday at 10 p.m., there are also reruns on the following Saturday at 5 p.m. and Sunday at 12 p.m.

Sue said...

AB, Essar, may I please join you at your travel magazine? I can write well when threatened. (Don't go by the blog...)

*Trails away sheepishly and draws circles in the dust with her toes*

Jay said...

You mean even James Denton and Jesse Metcalfe and Doug Savante weren't enough to distract you from thoughts of leopards and restless spirits?!

mad angles said...

People, may I please add something. I have just learnt that out friend AB's great love for Goa and McLeodganj is actually rooted in her love for a) a monk she met at McLeodganj and b)a scuba diver that she met at GOa.
(They're probably not THAT pretty huh)
Sue, sure you can join. The more the merrier.

Sue said...

Ooh, cool then I can leave my current job. Yippee! Where do you want me to go first? Will I get a cute photographer to come with me?

Mint Chutney said...

Hey! If Sue gets to come then I want to tag along as well.

AB, where are the pictures of the monk and scuba instructor and mountain and wedding?

Anonymous said...

Hey AB,

Are you talking about the same net-savvy monk we met at Namgyal last year? He never did reply to my emails.

Anonymous said...

ur post made me very very jealous of u, i wanna go to the hills as well, its been so long :-((

AB said...

Nikita: It's that damn thing called M. You know what I am talking about na?

Sonia: I had a thing for Bobby Deol for a short time after meeting him. So it's ok...And of course we are gonna paint the town red;)

First Rain: Nothing compares to a holiday.

Amy: I was passing by your house the other day when I was out for a walk and felt so bloody nostalgic. I am sure your folks must be happier because they would be missing you very much otherwise.

Yeah...Tennyson ... Flights of Fantasy...which in turn puts in mind The Highwayman...

Shub: No not been to Pondicherry. But heard a lot about it. I love that cold mountain air. It almost wakes you up...I don't know how exactly I mean it but it does.

Essar: Cool. Get the moolah babe and I am yours.

Rohini: But somehow I always manage to miss the reruns. And nothing like watching it 'fresh':)

Sue: Come join. The more the merrier. Oh by the way you can find us a sponsor as well na?;)

Jay: Have you been to a place like that before with such terrible possibilities???

Essar: Hush...

Sue: Any cute guy is ALWAYS welcome.

Mint Chutney: Pix are there but don't know how to put them:(

Tony: Yes it is the same monk. He used to write so regularly at one point that I was convinced he was going to come to Delhi soon. But he was sweet.

Anon: Oh don't be jealous. I lost two chances to go abroad because of my damn passport or rather the fact that I haven't renewed it.

The Marauder's Map said...

Oooh, what an awesome job you have!!! Can I have it, pleeeese? Oh wait, i do have it already, but nothing as remotely exciting ever happens to me. I don't even get to meet Akshay Khanna. Wouldn't even mind a few random leopards, i'm that bored.

BTW, McLEODganj, not 'Mc Cleodganj'.

8 by 52 said...

You mean to say you couldn't find that monk who used to mail you and who had got you chocloate prasad at the monastery a coupel of years back? My sympathy... Btw, I have finally posted something.

Gamesmaster G9 said...

Gap filled? :D

AB said...

marauder's map: Aha. I was a bit confused I might say about the spelling. Hello you just came back from Goa!

8 by 52: Bitch:-) Where are you?

gamesmaster: ??? What gap?

8 by 52 said...

I am very much here. Where are you? I thought you had gone for ur friend's marriage, but I saw her fiance (now husband I assume) at work long after you had left for Cal.

Sue said...

Uh, crossed wires there. I was expecting you guys to provide me with the cutie.

Anonymous said...

Hi people
I do not know what to give for Christmas of the to friends, advise something ....

Anonymous said...

Hello. Good day
Who listens to what music?
I Love songs Justin Timberlake and Paris Hilton

Anonymous said...

Very cool design! Useful information. Go on!
»