It all started with only a wish from my senior, “Kaash hum
Shimla jaa paate yaar ! (Wish we could go to Shimla).” And it struck hard, real
hard and so hard that we decided that yes we are going to Shimla. We stay in
Delhi working for the no.1 airline of this country. After giving the departure
we were relaxing and getting ready for our night halt aircrafts and suddenly
all of this happened. It was our 2nd night and after that we were
having 2 off’s, and so the plan was on. We were 5 people(2 engineers 2
Technicians & myself) who decided to bang on and started preparing.
Siddesh sir(engg) booked a Swift with the help of his local
friends and it happened in no time. We ended that night somehow and left to our
places for getting ready and decided would meet at Akshay sir’s(engg) place @12pm.
But as usual we all were late and the one who was giving us the Car was also
late. But then happened a magical thing, we got a call from the person from
whom we rented this car that they are not having swift with them and that they
are upgrading the car to none other than XUV500. We jumped in excitation that
the trip started with a bang and all were happy. Soon we gathered, the Hunk Car
came and we started our journey by 3pm. It was all smooth and we were enjoying the
Delhi National Highway. Driving as there was no end to this vacation. We were
hungry as well as we did not have any food so after 2 hours we took a halt at
one of the finest hotels I have seen here named as ‘Amrik Sukhdev’. The very
first thing we did was to empty our bladders as it was too cold, so that was
totally natural. After that we went through the menu and to my surprise the
rates at this hotel were equal to roadside food. I was shocked like they are
giving this great quality with such reasonable rates. You just could not
believe as the hotel ambience was totally rich and after seeing only I had
decided that I would only take a cup of tea and one Lays packet, but eventually
ended taking Pav bhaji and that was yummy. Others took Chola Bhatura and different
styles of Samosa. After taking some selfies we soon took off from there and now
had decided that we won’t stop for the next 3-4 hours. So we drove with loud music,
fun and every little boy things that made that time really memorable. After some
time we reached near Chandigarh and took a halt again to empty our bladders and took
a cup of tea and raced to Shimla. Now it was dark and very cold as well. We had
to reach Shimla on time so that we could get a room in one hotel for night but
due to darkness and improper roads we reached the spot @12 am. We started
asking for room but the hotels were full. With the help of Google Maps we
started driving. The roads were covered with ice and the car was not getting
proper grip. The car was slipping while we drove the car on the roads with 30
degree elevation. We somehow managed to drive through but then happened a
nightmare. We were driving on a road were only one car can go or come. And that
we reached a dead end. It was a gate of school which was closed. Now how are we going to turn this hunk in such a short distance. But our prayers were answered and one security guard came out
to see what was happening outside his school gate. We asked him to open the
gate so that we could make a turn and leave. He opened one gate and the car
went inside. As we were turning the car the other gate was coming in the middle
so we told him to open it more to that he said it won’t open more. Now we got
stuck because there was no space for the car to come out. Somehow
we managed to turn the car but it was not at all possible to remove the car
from that gap as there was not much gap to turn. Even it was not possible for
us to go in the school and make a turn as the ground was covered all by snow
till knee length. During this skillfull process the brakes did not support us
and the car glided back while removing the car and ended with bonet fairing breakage.
Now what should we do? After sometime an idea strucked and that was to dig some
part near the gate that was not allowing it to open. And we did that, managed
to open the gate fully and we took the car from there without any further
damage.
We got some nerds telling us that they will
give a room in 2500/- but their rooms were not hygienic and this night turned
to be more adventurous as @3am we gave up looking for rooms and decided to
sleep in our hunk in Victory Tunnel. There was a loud thud near my window as I
was sleeping on the driver’s seat, to which I got up fast to see a hawaldar
knocking. He saw me moving and opening my eyes and told us to leave. I saw what
was the time and it was 7am. I shook my head in positive and again closed my
eyes. We did this mom-son thing for an hour and later finally @8am we got
up left the tunnel as it was not allowed
to park in the tunnel. My seniors had an idea of the next stop and so we left
for that place and it was none other than TARA DEVI’s Mandir. It was an 12km
ride away from Shimla back in the direction of Delhi. We drove and reached the
spot by around 9am. The road was too adventurous as its slope upwards was in
60-70 degree with snow all over the road. Yet we managed to come up the hill,
all thanks to Akshay sir’s driving. This temple was approximately 7200 feet
above sea level. As we went towards the parking we were happy to notice what we
were here for and that was a bed of snow. We dint even locked the car and
started taking selfies, pictures and playing in the snow. After an hour we went
into the Mandir(temple) and had darshan. The man over there suggested us to go
towards backside of the temple as he said we will love it. We agreed and by
God, we went speechless. It was nothing but a mountain of snow. For the first
time in my life I had seen this natural snow covering whole of the mountain. It
was like I am in heaven. There were stairs for some distance to go down as
there was a Temple of Shiva-The Mahadeo. So we decided to go down and look for
it. It was slippery we fell we rose but did not stop and went on walking and
enjoying through the snow. We were totally mesmerized by the sight. The
whiteness of that snow got me so happy from within that it is still glimpsing
through my eyes. My eyes were wide open in excitement to observe this beautiful
part of nature. How amazing it looks. I am just not able to express my feelings,
this really needs to be experienced and felt. Even though we were feeling cold
we did not stop ourselves to engulf in that snow and had our most amazing time
in it. We climbed back trying to gain our breathing rhythm with beautiful
memories. It was one amazing moment I would never forget ever in my life. Soon
we left from there and were going back to Shimla and also looked for rooms and
got one as well. At around 1pm we checked in and decided that we will leave for
the famous Mall Road by 3pm. We got fresh and left, had lunch and then started
to roam. The time I entered the place it was not at all looking like I am
standing in India. The construction, the environment, the cleaniness, the beauty
all were like amazing and people over here took a very good care of their own
place to keep this tourist place as it should be. My seniors took some things for their parents
and we returned to our hotel. We had a plan taking Hookah and soon we left for
it, we roamed a while but got nothing in return. We were disappointed and
hogged in our supper and went back to our hotel to have a good night sleep. While
sleeping I had this big smile on my face, as it was the new best trip of my
lifetime. Thank you Madhur sir, Mahaprabhu sir, Akshay sir and Siddesh sir for making this trip happening and looking forward to go for the next one very soon.
The next morning we cleared the bills and left for Delhi as
on this day we had to join the company on our normal schedule of night shift. We
reached safely by 6pm and reported on duty at 8pm. Suggesting you people to go
to Shimla and have the best time of your life as it really has an amazing
weather (T&C apply). You could see pictures of my Shimla trip on my facebook
account Siddhesh Sanjay Ganve
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