Cheap Thrills
'Speed thrills but kills' proclaims a signboard.. I am pretty sure it is the job of BRO. it is their trademark style.. of course, our sumo driver .ehmm I have forgotten his name.. my weak memory is playing tricks nowadays.. let us say Mr X who is in a tearing hurry to reach Pauri probably does not read English or knows that even the BRO trucks ignore these warnings.. but anyways this log is not about Mr X or BRO or speed and its thrills but is rather about a place called Pauri and another one called Khirsu and some cheap thrills that we had in a not so distant past..
and it is not that cheap thrills just like speed does but some cheap kind of thrills that I am talking abt.. the ones that propel ppl to climb rocks without ropes or even climb on ropes over rocks.. what is cheap for one may not be so cheap for others.. anyways, I suppose u get the idea that I am talking abt stuff that u do to prove that not everything is controlled by god or nature or luck or some such thing and u have taken control of at least ur life.. or maybe it is the otherway around.. u want to prove that there is such a thing as destiny and so u can get away with anything simply because it is not yet ur time to bid goodbye.. but this log is not even abt goodbyes.. as I have already said, it is abt a place called Pauri, and a place called Khirsu and some cheap thrills there.. and before I lose any more readers, I should stop this blabber and move to my semi-professional travel writer garb. So, here it goes.
Pauri is approx 100 kms from Kotdwar, the last train terminus and commands imposing views of Upper Himalayan peaks, most notable of them being Chaukhamba with Nanda Devi etc providing a wider background. and Mr X was taking us from Pauri to Kotdwar via winding roads of Ghookhal, the broken bridges of Satpuli and the tall trees of Buakhal. and we reached Kotdwar by Mussoorie Express from Delhi.. and the 'we' that I am talking about is a long list and since we are dealing with facts for now I should compile the list first: 'Amit, Hruta (Amit's wife), Dharmista (Amit's sister), Amit's Mom (and no I do not know her name), Shourya, Sonali (Shourya's wife), Mohit, Rahul, Upi, Goldie, Ashok, Bhide' and of course I was there to record all this. So, you see not everybody hates travelling with me, at least as yet.. We reached Pauri and were disappointed to find that there were no tourists; yeah I know I always try to avoid tourists.. but wait, I have not completed yet.. there were no tourists but a multitude of locals.. as we found out, Pauri is quite a big town irrespective of the fact that not many delhites are aware of even its existence.. having such a large group meant that we booked ourselves at two hotels and after a cleanup job we were onto a small trek to Kondolia hills.. of course, ppl intent on prolonging an unscheduled afternoon siesta had to be literally dragged out of bed for the trek.. and how did I forget that Poto/Jumpi (Amit and Hruta's son) was also there.. and of course, the trek included him and this brings me back to my good old theorizing mood.
Strong Shouldered Father Theory : The theory simply states that gym and weights do not make your shoulders as strong as fatherhood does. Amit carried Poto on his shoulders almost throughout the many short treks that we did in those 3 days without any visible discomfort whereas we, of which quite a few are irregulars at gyms were in obvious discomfort when we carried Poto for very short fractions of the walks..
So, we watched a sunset from Ransi stadium, about a km further from Kandolia Hills and managed to watch a few peaks that were peeping thru the clounds trying hard to catch our attention. A round of frisbee was followed by a walk in fading light to the hotel and banning of torches in this moonlit walk provided the first of the cheap thrills that I talked abt some time back, and which u all have forgotton.
The next day we decided to move to Khirsu, where we were promised of no locals, dense forests and lots of roses.. yes, roses because the Khirsu GMVN TRH had a garden of roses in the middle of nowhere.. strange that I am calling lush green forests and the mighty Chaukhmba towering over the TRH as nowhere.. but since it was the middle of nowhere that we wanted to go to, it remains the middle of nowhere.. from our room (rather dorm: we rented 2 dorms at Khirsu), we could see a temple on the top of a nearby hill and we decided to walk to the hill and then we had ppl slipping and falling on leaves-covered gentle slopes and ppl slipping but not falling on steep leave-covered steep slopes.. but I shld not rush things up.. So, we walked for 2 kms on the road, followed by a mildly ascending trail that was unreliable at best and absent at worst.. However, a grp of 12 and bright sunlight does not let thoughts of getting lost in a jungle seep into your mind and so we marched on and on and reached a temple at last, only to realize that it was not the temple we had seen from the TRH. Well, a temple is a temple and you can pray there, and a hill top is a hill top and you can have a wideangled view from the hill top.. so, this is what we did.. some of us prayed at the temple and all of us enjoyed the wide-angle view of the vallyes down and the mountains up from the hill top..
We had a late lunch, followed by some games.. or was it games followed by lunch.. but whatever the order may be,the aloo paranthas were delicious and the games (DumbC et al) in the mild sunlight were fun.. the spirits lifted, we decided to find our way down from a slightly different direction; or was it our longing for cheap thrills that prodded us to leave the relative safety of the trail.. whatever it might be, we soon came to a place where slippery leaves enveloped slippery ground on a slippery slope, that fortunately was not steep. of course, with such a large group, it was highly probable that one of us would slip and since we were not using the improbability drive of the 'hitchhikers' guide', Hruta complied and slipped.. now since it was a gentle slope, she came to friction-induced halt just a few metres away and it would not have been an event to find mention in this log if not for the fact that Poto for the first time realized that the idea of walk and treks is not all that fun.. However, the intelligent kid that he is, he soon realized that the best strategy is to reach the safety of the TRH as quickly as possible and stay there.. So, the march down led us slowly, but more steadily now, back to the TRH. and of course, something else happened before that.. as we reached near the TRH, any fear of heights and slips over leaves disappeared and I suggested to Ashok to scale up a relatively steep slope enveloped with, what else, slippery leaves.. The proximity of TRH led to increased confidence in Ashok and he started following me on the path that leads to cheap thrills.. On all fours, we started moving slowly, but not so steadily this time, to the top of the slope.. as we reached near the top, Ashok looked down and it became immediately clear to me that he did not like what he saw... someday, somebody needs to come up with a theory on why slopes look steep from down, steeper from top and steepest from anywhere in between, especially if you do not have any ropes.. anyway, coming to Ashok, the look down almost brought Ashok's downfall as he slipped and... he stopped slipping as he probably got hold of a twig.. and with my running commentary on what to lay his hands on and what not to, Ashok managed to reach the top.. and then the look on his face said it all: I am never ever again going to fall for any of your cheap thrills.. but well, I knew I would have new volunteers looking for cheap thrills.. as losers in hindi movies say about buses and girls : 1 jayegi, doosri aayegi.. and even though doosri does not always come in the case of girls, I knew I would get more volunteers looking for cheap thrills..
so, onto the next cheap thrill.. ever since a walk on a moonless night at Dhanolti awakened me to the limitless possiblity of cheap thrills that were hidden by lack of light, I have taken every chance to walk in the dark.. and a suitable hilltop was chosen for an after-sunset walk after reaching the TRH.. Poto, clever with experience, decided to skip it but I am sure with some more years, he will join the volunteers list. Anyways, a much shrinken group proceeded towards the hilltop which had steep slopes and gentle slopes and mild slopes.. the night made the possiblity of thrills possible but the moon played spoilsport.. the steep slopes made the game interesting but the lack of leaves, oh those slippery leaves, took away some of the challenges of the game. However, the walk down provided us with enough thrills, of the cheap kind, to justify all the effort put in for the walk.. As I have said so many times, walking down is just so much more fun than walking up: no drill, only thrill.. And in an effort to cool down after the day's thrills, we lit up the bonfire, sang some songs, tried to get some more fun at Ashok's expense and slowly but steadily moved to our beds for a well-deserved rest. and of course, I do remember some people getting bumps before dinner for singing songs like 'Mere Piya Gaye Rangoon, wahen se kiya hai telefoon' but somehow the name slips my failing memory.
The next day was the day for river-hunting.. yes, you read it right: river-hunting.. we had planned for a riverside picnic, the hidden agenda being a river-crossing.. but the harsh summers had ensure that the rivers had all but dried up.. we finally hunted out a reasonably suitable spot where river crossing was possible, only that it needed one to only jump over rocks at a few places and cross the river.. but of course, we had our aloo paranthas and our games to cover up this shortfall in water.. however, our thirst for cheap thrill not completely satiated, we ventured further and fugured out that at places the rocks were slippery and river crossing at those spots presented one with the possiblity of getting some more cheap thrills.. and of course, we had some fun especially since at least one person slipped and half-fell and I am not going to tell you who the person is.. I am still not used to talking about my falls.. The aloo paranthas over, we moved on to catch the train back to Delhi from Kotdwar.. and of course, we played dumbC and also some bridge, of the card kind, on the way back.. and of course the train brought us back to Delhi without any further thrills.. and just to maintain the tradition, here are the details of the places..
Date of Travel: May 1,2,3 2004. Delhi-Kotdwar 7hrs by train Kotdwar - Pauri 105 kms , 3.5 hrs by jeep Pauri- Khirsu 18 kms, 35 mins.. Local buses connect Pauri to Kotdwar at regular intervals.. however, there is only one bus to Khirsu from pauri.
And before I finally end, I must admit that the title 'cheap thrills' or rather 'cheep thrills' was most probably coined by Sonali.