Mumbai Delhi Roorkee Haridwar Delhi

I was at Mumbai office for close to two weeks at short notice for a project that was abandoned by ‘the man who quit ‘. The trip happened at a time when I was quite low about work. Somehow it all ended up being a wonderful break in spite of the fact that I worked non stop for 11 days. I liked being in Bombay for few reasons

1. The warm and welcoming office and colleagues.

I have never been welcomed by people so enthusiastically and treated so well.

2. The amazing HR lady who did a few development sessions with me

3. The married colleague ( Who holds my place in Mumbai office ) who spent a valentines dinner with his friend who was leaving and a wife who let him.

4. The same colleague for telling me “had a great time with you here. You fit right in dont you? I have a feeling we will make a great team”. I mean I have heard ppl say I am good. But this is way better coming off someone who is almost competition.

5. The enthusiastic engineer who eagerly solved every problem that the project faced without feeling pressurized one bit

And above all I got a chance to see myself work. And unlike what I had concluded of myself, I am a people’s person if I find people of my wavelength. I am good at delegation if I have even moderately receptive soul, and I felt like I was looked upto and accepted.

The return journey was on saturday, and on the night of return, sipping a Chivas Regal with delicious chicken tikka at the CCD lounge in Mumbai airport, I almost decided to ask for a transfer… But I guess Delhi is still too much home to me.

On top of which was the drive to Haridwar!

My buddy cacofonix had to give a lecture at IIT Rorrkee on entrepreneurship. So sim and I joined him on the drive. Though it turned out to be an adventure we wud not forget. We left for roorkee from Delhi at 8 with no plan but to come back after his lecture at 3. But then, things change don’t they? As we drove up to roorkee in time after spending time at this splendid place called Cheetal Grand, we were running out of petrol. We reached Roorkee with an almost empty tank. Just out of IIT after an impressive lecture, we made a quick decision to go to haridwar. Then we stopped at a petrol pump and my buddy says “full tank”. As I stepped out to take a few pics of this incident, I notice the complete lack of credit card machines. I ask the guy “Aap card lete ho?” and at that point the counter was racing away to 1570. I screamed at him to stop, and reported the problem to sim and cacofonix. Stumbled, cacofonix checked his wallet, out came a hundred. So did I! hundred came out of mine too! Shit!! Credit cards spoil us dont they?. Sim luckily had the rest to add up and we rummaged through change. After paying up, what we had was 1570 worth of fuel and 45 bucks among the three of us.

We reach Haridwar only to find that we cant spot a single ATM on the road. Expecting to find one at the Ghats we moved in. We had no towels, no spare underwear and no cash! As SIm asked people for ATMs we managed to buy two towels for 40. leaving us with 5 rupees among the three of us. As cacofonix and I tried to formulate a proper algorithm to do the dip in the Ganga without

a. Wetting the underwear

b. Wetting the towels making them useless

There was none, and so we decided to go in with our underwear and leave the towel behind. Sim sat at the ghat steps taking care of the camera and clothes, Cacofonix and I stepped into the chilling cold water of the Ganaga. It was my first time, and there is nothing like the experience of immersing yourself in the freezing waters of the ganga to numb your whole body. After a minute or so, I was enjoying the feeling so much I sat down in the water for what seemed like eternity. Sim was clicking our pics and she threatened to make an MMS out of it The dip in the Ganages was an amazingly elevating experience. Among thousands of people washing thier sins off in the holiest of all rivers. The river almost seemed human for a moment, a motherly figure, forgiving sins of her million sons…

I was pulled back into the real world by Caocfonix who had already stepped out. As I rolled my pair of inner Lee’s into the secrecy of the towel while going commando. I felt like I could stay there at the ghats forever. Sim was enjoying/making light fun of the situation we guys were in as I carefully did my fly.. I had only heard the saying “paisa itna kam pad gaya ki kacha uthar gaya” Now it was happening to me. I got my underwear forced off me by lack of money!

The return journey was tough with terrible roads spoiling the fun of some over the top driving by Cacofonix and me which made him and her scream/ me and her scream/ he and me scream etc as we gobbled down truck after truck on the highway..

We had 5 bucks with us. Two hotels turned us down as we could pay only by card! Hungry, we were more than refreshed and thankful for finding a solitary SBI ATM after Muzaffarnagar! Post which, after some more terrific driving and countless number of times of singin/ listening to “Khwaja” from Jodhaa Akbar, we reached a Mall in meerut, had a Mc D meal and drove back.. just reached home only to find that the towels got exchanged along with the contents! All because I let the girl take a decision on whose package was what!!..women!

Note:- ( The meerut mall had the sexiest girl I had seen in recent times .. packed into a nice little denim trouser that was a tad small for what it was packing.. you get the point don’t you? )