Day 6,Dalhousie:The Curse of being Enchanted...

The Sun arose in the sky with trepidation, as if it has inherited our mood. I woke up at 7am when Anant was still in his dreams. I gave him a subtle push to wake up. Then I went for the showers, for against the mundane days, the bathrooms were not occupied. As I got ready, Anant bestowed me with his bizarre whim. He said that we should straight away rush to the church in Gandhi-Chowk at noon, as he thought it to be the holy site where we would sight our ENCHANTRESS again. Moreover, that we might be able to see her again was the thing that my Heart whispered too.

We ate our breakfast and headed for our surveying work. After completing the theodolite work, we had a new task today. Plane Table surveying. My Group headed out with our equipments for the Station.I spearheaded to draw Dalhousie onto the paper. Navjot,Manjeet,Nishesh and Jhanvi took the measurements. Lokesh who advocated for NIYANTRAN(discipline) in the group at the starting was slowly losing Niyantran himself. The dormant Vishal assisted in a general way while Angad was pleased with his Geddas !(Through his Geddas he helped us a lot).Though the starting was slow,we soon covered up until we reached station-1.Station 1 consisted in drawing the whole Youth Hostel and involved fastidious drawings. Moreover, we were confused over our basic concepts. It ate our precious four hours and we packed up at half-done Station 2.

The Clock showed 5pm and I had not forgotten the plan. Therefore I waited for Aayush and Anant to come back.When they arrived,I clutched my DG Cam and announced that if we sight our enchantress again then we'll have a snap with her for sure(don't know why I did that).Anant too backed my idea and we headed out. Savouring Pani-Puri at Subhash Chowk, we reached the Church at Gandhi Chowk. The same church where our heart dreamt to embrace the beauty again. There we prayed our individual silent prayers and then waited. Waited for the Enchantress. Waited for our whim to prove itself correct.

But sometimes, what we yearn for need not fulfill itself. Thinking that 'sometime' to be this time, we came out of the church. To play the last resort, we carried ourselves to the Tibetan Market, coz like yesterday she might visit Tibetan market again. But No success.
Feeling like being failed, we rambled to the Airforce Area diverting uphill from the heart of Gandhi Chowk. After some stroll, we felt it's not worth to go more and hence we descended. As we reached Gandhi Chowk, ALAS!

She was there. Our Enchantress has returned. I could not believe my eyes and asked Anant to confirm(I was confused as she had used make-up today unlike yesterday).Aayush and Anant jumped. Yes, there she was. A beauty unparalleled. And then Anant went mad as if not able to bear her pulchritude anymore, as if she now controlled him. He trotted behind her clutching my palms. As we reached near her flagrant circle, She was treating herself with Pani-Puri. Then, I remembered a principle which governs every girl. A Girl would never agree to prison herself into a stranger's camera (Coz then a devil called Photoshop do exist).I tried to explain them this thing but then Aayush tantalized that-"Teri phat rahi hai" ! By then, seeing our chaotic moves, she build a bad impression into her mind for us(I am just guessing !)

But when I saw her going away,I succumbed to her power too. This was the CURSE OF BEING ENCHANTED .I signaled Anant-Yes ! And we rushed to the shop where the beauty was standing, Anant leading the torch. As we reached, we sighted Navjot. Anant asked her to say to our Enchantress that we three have got a dare (Remember the Game-Truth n dare?) to have a snap with her. She went to her and spoke the same. Then Anant said-"Would you please mind being clicked"? But missing a villain in our cute story, It seemed as if her mother appointed herself for the role. She grimaced at our request with a horrible face but we waited for the girl to say something (For our request was with her and not with her mother!).We waited for an impossible Yes, challenging her own mother's decision.

But then our heart broke as she went with her mother's decision and signaled a NO!.We retreated and went away from her. We, the three broken heart bearers, were gloomy now and were pacing ourselves to the hostel. Thus, a shadow followed between the adored and the adorer (We three).The Adorers never now wished to see their adoration again though they would not cease to embrace her. The Curse now was broken.

This was the story of the Enchantress of Dalhousie. But the Story of Dalhousie do not ends....It continues....

Day 5 : The Enchantress of Dalhousie....

The Morning of 26th June brought an epoch with itself. The Clouds seemed to romanticise with the Sun and there was something eerie in the air today. Rizwan sir too could not even evade this zeitgeist and declared the day as half day. The next part of the day was desolated for a trip to Panchpulla (its pulla and not kulla!) at a distance of 2.5km from Gandhi Chowk.

After surveying in the first half,at 3pm we geared up to stroll in Panchpulla. But hit by the Punjabi melee who were quite indecisive whether to take bus or taxi, we lost time. At last, we grounded for a private taxi leaving our Punjabi friends behind. We, here consisted of Angad, Aayush, Anant, Prabeen, Vishal, Nitin and ofcourse me!

By 5:30pm we reached Panjpulla and found it having nothing more than Sardar Ajit Singh memorial and a market until we found a way leading us for mountain trekking. Delighted, I ran naively(even those who had done it before ran as if its a plain ground) on the rocks with a tumultuous breeze to reach Rizwan Sir with Arshdeep, Rajat, Suveera, Sanah, Chand and Paramjot(they headed somewhat early and hence were ahead of us). The Result was we drained our energy and were out of breath when we reached them.Nevertheless, gathering some adrenaline by taking rest near a cool Lilliputian waterfall, we stood to conquer the rocks. Precisely taking every step and singing the oldies,we reached at around 400meters vertical on the precipice hindered only by the time constraint of 1 hr the taxiwalla threw before us(The nature was working in disguise for something)Instead of traversing back to hostel at 6:30pm,we destined ourselves to Gandhi Chowk.(Our mind abetting the nature too).

Rambling out of the same fat old Tibetan market, we were blinded by someone! A Feminist marvel. She possessed a pale, fair beauty so intense that no man could look at her without falling into the state of molten adoration. She possessed an eerie charm that blinded the eyes against all only to see her as if denying to gaze at something inferior. Her sight caused others to be non-existent. She was an ENCHANTRESS. When she went inside the Tibetan market with her girly group, me and Anant unable to bridle ourselves to this beauty of heaven, decided to go back to Tibetan market from rear (This was the first time in my life I was chasing and strolling behind a Girl!).On entering the market and forwarding few steps, we sighted her. Seeing us again, she giggled in a sort of élan that left us frenzied. We came out with a deep breath full of her flagrance.

Weave a nest for youself in the depths of my eyes.O your slender body that resembles a young tree growing in the garden of my heart.At the sight of a bead of sweat on your face I may suddenly die.

The Time is a devil which is not enchanted by anyone and keeps on running. Due to this devil running out, we left our enchantress and dragged back to the hostel for dinner .At night ,I confessed that I have seen no such pulchritude anywhere else, being rambled on the streets of Chandigarh, Delhi and Ahmedabad.Anant too agreed not to have seen such an unparalled beauty.

Was this the end of our story or the beginning of a new world, Neither I knew nor Anant. We were just austerely bewitched by our enchantress. Let the time sing the song....

Work is Religion:Dalhousie DAY 2,3 and 4

The Sun emerged to do its justice again. Being the first day of work, there seemed no problem to wake up and rise, after all the pain was to be felt in the ensuing days. Till then, we enjoyed our first lovely Dalhousie dawn. Breakfasted, we got ready for what we treaded all the way here-Surveying.

We were divided into 7 groups and I was filled in Group 5. Lokesh, Manjeet, Navjot,Jhanvi, Angad,Passang,Vishal and Me. A mixed nugget, our group consisted a sort of perfect blend of fun and work. Lokesh took care of the Fun part assisted by Navjot. Jhanvi found a clinch in scribbling down the readings. Vishal and I took the reading while Manjeet hounded to recheck it. Passang was dexterous with staff and Angad found pleasure in Geddas...

Sometimes ,it seems that the luck is against you and you are the one unforgiven .The same we thought when we were gifted to start the work with Station-12,near the bus stand. Every bus and car of Dalhousie seemed to cross our debut station,deafening ears to all sounds and we felt cheated. To add oil to the fire, Rizwan Sir came out with his own wanton remarks that caused us to boil. But in this hardship lied our success. Coz a hammer shatters a glass, but forges steel. At the end of the day, we completed a satisfactory numbers of stations championed by equal contribution from all the members.


At 5pm,Anant,Aayush and I decided to uncover the ecstasy of Dalhousie and we treaded on the tarmac to Subhash Chowk and Gandhi Chowk. On the way, our delight to prison ourselves in camera got unleashed. Tibetan God could not also save himself from having a snap with us evils.

Gandhi Chowk spearheaded to be the shopping hub of Dalhousie. We walked through Tibetan market there and various shops selling timber items like tray and penholder, pullovers, blankets, shawls, handicrafts etc. On the first day itself, we bought a beautiful wooden tray for our mom. Then, we seated ourselves in a restaurant for a quick partake that gave away the sight of hot gals for free! In sightseeing, we could not follow the watch and therefore realising that dinner might miss if we do not beetle up, we did the required. There was an insouciant walk in the garden after dinner and at 10pm,we went back to our rooms. Reading a novel, I bid goodbye to the lovely first day and gave way for dreams !

The next two days were just the extension of this day, where there was theodolite work and the evenings were spent in the same way eating Pani-puris and rambling in Gandhi Chowk.There happened to be Rakesh's(Our beloved CR) birthday on 25th June but i ll expand it in another article.
Something eventful occurred only after it on 26thJune that took me by my breathe....

Enter Dalhousie

After a plethora of contemplation and parley,Dalhousie was zeroed to be our survey camp location and it proved out to be no wrong conclusion.Due to a lot of labyrinth involved,frankly speaking no one would have come to attend the camp,had it been optional.But then due to the fear of suppli in a 2 credit course,all the classmates were ready to check out from their hostel on 22nd June dawn.
We had booked a bus(that seemed to collapse there and then,Credit:Rakesh) for Dalhousie.The Bus arrived and we thrived for a seat self-choiced.Anant took care for the baggage to be roped at the roof and I rummaged for two seats in sync.I grasped for two seats behind the seats of Suveera and Sanah,not knowing the jeopardy involved.Anant came after setting the baggage in clinch.Through the Hubbub,we all instigated our hill station trip(For me,it was first.Others had been when I was a juvenile and hence find no memento in my memory palace).Being a debut propinquity,the class was relatively silent as compared to the chaotic din in the journey in ensuing days.The seats turned out to be propitious for the trip as Saiwal predicted that the sunbeams will shine on the other edge of the bus.By then,Sanah was getting much amused by our technical quibble.GD was entertaining himself by the stark comments of Anvita.While Rakesh,Anurag and Nikhil behind us were in their own world.Aayush was lost somewhere at the rear with his Punjabi swathe. For a time pass,Me and Anant started to banter about earth,gravity,beams and trusses when Suveera beseeched us to stop studious talks(The Jeopardy claiming its worth now).After a second interruption from her,pondering why she was listening to our talks,we curled up listening to Metallica,Nickelback and Greenday in my Ming.
Reached Pathankot at 10:15am and the bus indeed collapsed and sucked our 2 hrs.We breakfasted and took rest while the bus was being repaired.When the bus was rendered fit,Change of Seat scandal was discovered propelled by Dont-Know-Who.The Girls were worst hit coz they reached the bus late.This led to a skirmish between Rakesh and Manisha,Manisha eyeing Rakesh's broken seat.It dissolved when some punjabis volunteered to give her their seats.The Bus left Pathankot at 12:30pm.Now I and Anant seated with Vijeesh.He asked us various puzzles which invited Anant to play his dassas on.To stop him from more dassas,I and he involved ourselves in Atlas,Saiwal being neutral.(Still the discrepancy exists,Who won it)

The Arrival at Dalhousie was marked by the cool breeze that toiled to revive us to life again.The welcome at Youth Hostel was done with a petty altercation by Suraj, Receptionist there against Anant,evaded only by the intelligent silence of Anant.Looking roguish by this,he soon came out of it.We chose our bed,18 of us, who were going to live as one for 12 days.After a quick ablution Me,Anant and Saiwal staged out for discovering the ecstasy of Dalhousie.We sipped tea,wandered through the Lhasa Market nearby at the bus-stand and had Chicken Momos and Chicken Manchurian in a Chinese Restaurant.The Clock tolled 7pm by then,time to be back to hostel to listen to a set of rules by its Warden and Rizwan Sir.We were dictated rules as if we have joined army.The Speech by the Colonels ended and we jumped for the yummy dinner.Rollicking in the garden after the dinner for sometime,we headed for our room.There we played cards and engaged in some cheesy talks for another hour when our nerves asked to pay homage to a tireful journey with a rest.We all collapsed to our bed one by one and waited for the sun to shine again next day.Until then,the Night was ours !