Quest World

Dec 2008 “Present”:
Its more than two weeks, for having nothing much to do in office. Enough with two weeks of chatting on internal chat client, stumbling upon the Internet, going through a few interesting blogs (though I like it when company still pays me for doing these activities).

I don’t know what made me check out Ankush’s blog one more time, but again my “Time-pass” instincts overtook me and I  read his blog post-to-post, to finally stumble upon (I use these words a lot these days) this post.

Ankush, I would like to add backstage fun to this cool expedition of three super genius minds.

So ladies and gentlemen (may be “ladies and gentlemen” don’t read my blog), here I am telling you all behind-the-scene stories about our “Not-so-famous” Pachmarhi trip.

“Down the memory lane”:

Feb 2007:
The plan to have a day or two vacation at Pachmarhi kicked off, when yours truly three super genius minds, out of nowhere, decided to appear for NIMCET exam. The exam was supposed to be held in Bhopal, so a great chance for us guys to get the permission from our parents for such a trip (Well most of our trips had “academic” reasons behind them). But that was the only time when we actually discussed about the trip. The next time when we had a talk about it was when I dropped at Ankush’s place to prepare for NIMCET, two days before the date of exam. (Yes guys, now you know about the secret-strategy behind our successful academic records- we usually study a day before).

May 2007:
So that’s when Aditya, popped up the question, “Are we going or not?” Well I think he was talking about appearing for exam,anyways I took it for trip to Pachmarhi.So, dropping off from our “sincere” preparation for exam; we began collecting  information for the trip. The next day we were on a bus to Bhopal – ‘our base camp’.

Bhopal:
We took a room in lodge nearby the examination centre. The first thing me and Aditya noticed is that there was a theatre nearby playing a B grade Mallu movie, may be that’s the reason that we zeroed on that lodge.Ankush, after having a piece of rum ball, declared -”I am going to study all night, at least now we should study”. Next thing I know Ankush was snoring, fast asleep, well actually I and Aditya didn’t let him study.

Next day we gave our exam at MANIT and then at afternoon, I and Aditya checked that hilarious B grade mallu movie (hey Aditya remember,’Nani ki dawa’) while Ankush preferred to stay at the room. In the evening, we had a pleasant walk by the Bhopal lake (it’s great in evenings), and then not so pleasant walk back to the lodge.

We took a bus to Pachmarhi at 1am from Bhopal bus stand.Aditya with his superb Indorian negotiation/bargaining skills,managed to get two sleeper berths for three of us (Aditya, I am proud of you).So that’s how our actual trip to Pachmarhi started, three of us in a berth for two, that too the very last one of the bus. How exciting na …the excitement remained throughout the journey… none of us slept.

Pachmarhi Day 1:
Finally we landed in Pachmarhi at around 7 in the morning. I stepped out of the bus, stretching myself looking at the morning sun above(ohh It was beautiful).Back on ground, somebody shouted at a point-blank range of my ear -”Guide?”. Well the gentleman helped us to find a room in a hotel- yes, hotel Arihant,where we got a room at cheap price of 500/- for a day n half (hats off to Aditya’s bargaining skills). We took a bath, had our breakfast and called back at our home from a nearby STD booth (Yes, there’s no mobile phone network in Pachmarhi, just yours truly BSNL).

We purchased a Pachmarhi guide book(not up to the scale, which we realized it later), and came to conclusion that one can cover entire Pachmarhi on foot. Well we came to know about our foolishness, an hour and a long walk later, when we have to come back to same place, hire a gypsy and again set forth to visit tourist locations in Pachmarhi.Again we pushed our bargaining skills to maximum to hire a gypsy making it as cheap as possible for us (Well one has to do that in India, now and then).

The gypsy ride was fun, the driver being skilled using 4×4 power of the machine to drive in the steep and curvy, unmetalled roads of Pachmarhi.We first went to Pandava Caves; a legend says the caves were sanctuary to the Pandavas (well I wonder about Draupadi, no room for her).A road by its side, accessible only on foot, leads to Apsara Vihar- a nice fresh water pool besides a waterfall. We decided to have some fun in the pool, completely ignoring the fact that we were without spare undergarments or any swimming costume. We easily drew attention of other people enjoying their time in the pool, that’s may be because of Aditya whose physique made others feel quite inferior, or may be Me whose struggle to swim looked more of a lunatic act in water or may be they were looking at Ankush in a deadly combination of a bong beauty and water(Have you ever imagined Tanushree Dutta coming out of water,well Ankush is a negetive of that picture). Well we enjoyed our time in the pooland then outside in sunlight to dry ourselves and our undergarments. After that we had our lunch at some dhaba, delicious but costly. After the lunch we set for Bee Fall. A long drive and then a walk downhill, we were at the foot of Bee fall splashing water at each other. Seeing a gang of NCC cadets enjoying just below the waterfall, we took our chances, stripped to our undergarments and stood just below the fall. It was freezing and each drop of water felt like a nail hitting our back .After a few minutes, we were back with our ‘dry your clothes’ routine. It was already evening and at this times everyone visiting Pachmarhi sets off for Dhupgarh, the highest point of Satpura range. So we drove to Dhupgarh in our gypsy, the road testing the driver’s caliber and the drive’s power. Just as the sun was about to set, we managed to be at the top of the hill. Everyone captured the moment in their mobile phone or cameras, it was so beautifull.Looking at the Satpura forest in the dim light when the sun set is picturesque,Aditya cursed,”we should have brought the cameras”. He was looking at a beautiful chick that moment so I thought that’s the reason for it, but then, me and Ankush second his thoughts.

On our way back to the hotel, the trio was missing their classmates, wish they were here, sharing the pleasant journey in Satpura range…the chilling wind… (Hey Eisa, nikhil and Ashish, we missed you there!!).Back at hotel, we threw ourselves on bed. The point in talking about going to bed is that, when we threw ourselves to bed, I actually missed. Yes, thanks to dissimilar length of bed and bedding. So I was on floor, crawled myself to bed. The trio laughed their heart out…and went to sleep.

Pachmarhi Day 2:

Started this next day by checking out of the room..kept our luggage at the reception. We decided to roam in pachmarhi on foot. So again, the map, the trio and a “NatGeo” hunt. A walk to Jatashankar caves nearby was quite easy, but the real adventure  stated thereafter. After much of discussion(we are good at it), we decided to visit Handi kho, and set our sails in that 
direction. After an hour of walking, clueless, we got to a temple. The priest later told us it was Chamunda devi temple, a landmark on map just nearby Jatashankar caves. I told you earlier, that’s how we came to know about our ‘precise’ road  map.anyways the priest suggested us to visit the Mahal nearby. The trio, being adventurous left the temple with fresh energy.

The Mahal was in ruins, with no one around. The trio entered the Mahal, with Aditya in the lead. We began exploring room by room, wondering why Bollywood people choose such a ruin for shooting their films. A little later Aditya went into a room,  suddenly a dog’s bark echoed into the empty hall and I found Aditya running back senselessly. Dumbstruck, me and ankush 
followed him searching for the exit route. Yes, we found it, Ankush took the left stairs, Aditya the right one, no other option to go I took the airway, jumped from the middle of two, crash-landed but the dog’s bark again made me stand up on my  feet and run for safety. A few feet away from the Mahal the trio, turned around to check out – guess what, it was a puppy. We again laughed and laughed till our stomach felt the pain.

Regaining back to our courageous self, we decided to go further with our NatGeo hunt. We ventured further into the forest to  have a look at the rock paintings, as suggested by our ‘faithful’ map. As we moved into the forest, the traces of  civilization diminished. The trio, using their intelligence, took a wooden stick in their hand to protect themselves from wild animals. No signs of civilization around. Drop dead silence. Even a slightest sound used to scare us to death. But we went on with our hunt (may be we being together, gave us courage). Finally our courage paid off and we found the cave with those rock paintings. On our way back from forest, we enjoyed the surrounding, feeling proud about our explorations.
Returning back to the hotel, we were laughing, discussing the explorations we made that day. Finally, we boarded the bus  , back for Indore, in the evening. Same way- the trio on a sleeper berth for two, the last one of the bus. Same story, we never slept. But this time it was because of the joy of having a great trip.

Back To the Future:

As I was writing about this wonderful trip of ours, I wonder, “Hey buddies, How about another trip to Pachmarhi? Or may be Goa?”.

“Yeah, someday for sure”