Even with taking a tea break- we hit shimla well within 4 hours and reached Woodwille palace, where we were to stay.. all were too tired to venture out but we had to be at the Mall as so we did after dinner.. a tiring day but which ended on a good note.. we got 2 cottage rooms were nice and cozy. The next morning we left for Chail and Kufri and we expected to sight some snow and so were we told. It was n't to be but the travel up to the Chail Palace was quiet something. It was steep and challenging. We were lucky not to encounter any land slides and hence no traffic snarls on the way. We reached the palace at noon and we had good lunch and relaxed for some time at the garden. The chail palace is now a hotel but we had no such plans to stay there. We waled around and then left the place for kufri.. we wanted to hit shimla before dark. Kufri was quiet a downer since after visiting white flower hall, there was nothing much left to see since the other points were on the way to shimla and truly not very exciting..
Next morning we decided to have a easy day and went to the mall to have breakfast.. we had good samosas and by the time we came back, the laziness struck and we decided to go to the market in the afternoon.. to walk again for 20 mins was not which any one was looking forward to but then that was the last day and once we left our rooms, it was quiet enjoyable.. we shopped and roamed till about 8pm when the shopes were actually beginning to shut. We had dinner and came back to our rooms. Next morning, we had to leave hence all of us were just too tired to do anything and we crashed in our rooms. After having parathas in breakfast we left shimla around 11am and that marked an end to a very short and enjoyable trip..
Diwali, almost every year we endear to meet at one place and this time it was to be at my sister's place; since they had moved house to a new bigger and spacious flat we had something else to look forward to as well.. every one was coming in from all directions and there were so many disturbances due to the trouble in protest of the overtones against north indians made in maharashtra.. Chandan was in Delhi, Papa & ma in Lucknow and Shinu was travelling to nBhubaneshwar on a India tour from Mumbai and myself to come via Kolkatta. Chandan and I reached, thanks to no cancellation and troubles but papa could not take the train on Oct 25 as the train was cancelled. He finally came on the evening, the next day. Shinu also reached in time after being on the road for 3 days but as soon as she came, there was as no signs of tiredness..
Left for Shimla on morning of Oct 2, 08.. met with my friends at the chandigarh airport on landing around noon.. had lunch and we took the car on our way to shimla.. had no idea how the next 3 days would go since it was really my first place to the former summer capital of india.. we ended up leaving around 3pm from Chandigarh, and the first thing of negative news that came to us was from the driver who told us that the roads are in pathetic state and would take 5 hours to reach the place.. the attitude of the driver was almost as negative and was through out the trip.. but that was all as far as any negativity related to the trip was concerned.
I had 5 days to relax without worrying about what is happening in office, also thanks to the blackberry there not functioning (apparently there is no service as yet). The Diwali day was nice, after pooja there was some crackers to be enjoyed.. all participated and by 0930, we all ended and had dinner.
Chandan is preparing for his engineering and hence had to leave on Oct 30, the same day I left for Mumbai. There was a second thought of staying back on friday and hence would have then stayed back for 3 extra days as the weekend followed. I decided against since the office was less on people and I was to report on Friday. All in all a very enjoyable and happy diwali in a town where I stayed for two years almost 12 years ago but it seems nothing had changed in more than a decade since I left. The people were still the same, no aspirational change on the ground.. slow and lazy life was the order of the day and at times, I was forced to feel as though the pace that I am used to is way to fast and need to slow down once day, when and how, don't have a clue as yet..
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