Chapter 24
You know apart from academic studies there is one more thing which I found to be quite boring and somewhat difficult that is packing. This is because in studies it would be expected from you to know the facts, point to point details and having the understanding the knowledge of the subject doesn't matter much, on the other hand in packing you have to be more systematical and technical so that your bag would be light but you may won't be able to keep all those things that want you keep. All these things I have learned from our educational institutes and parents (especially father) and I don't know why everything should be so much factual, perfect, technical, specific order or punctual.
However, I am ( or my father) all done with packing, though I am not quite satisfied with it because I am unable to keep things which I want especially my diary and a pen because according to my father it has no use their and I was like this defines me please let me keep it (obviously in my mind). At the time of leaving the house except my father and brother all rest of the family start being emotional, asking me to call everyday, take care of myself and we will miss you. I just said out loud something that is
Siya: I am not going to die, why are you behaving like emotional person, show some excitement, friendly teasing and say bye with a smile. This behavior of yours is so much out of character (immediately after saying this, I clasp both of my hands on my mouth because I shouldn't have said the last sentence and these ladies going screw me up)
For the first time all of these three ladies have same expressions on their faces that is confusion and their eyes have a reflection of glare, on the other hand both of the boys snickering and have mischievous glint in their eyes. In my mind I am like run bro run but to my rescue the tour bus come and I just picked up my truffle bag with sleeping bag too and ran off in the bus, all I heard from behind is my father and brother laughing out loud. To be honest this is most peaceful scene to see someone smiling or laughing because of you, soon bus took the leave from there.
The bus is deluxe style double seat, at present there are only four people including me and rest of the twenty people would be boarding the bus from the next or simply the last stop which is around two hours ago. I am feeling excited, a bit tired plus hungry too as it almost its seven in the evening and I am feeling tired of all the packing done. With this I took out my packed sandwich from the upper zip of the bag and start eating because as I am tiredness I can sleep early and before eating I won't be able to have a peaceful sleep. So, after completing the food, I fall asleep.
The next I woke up around mid night, I can feel my shoes are somehow a bit wet as I look down to see the reason and I can see the floor is wet. Before I could thought of any possible reason for this, the voice of thundering clouds from outside give me the reason for the wetness. Now as I am awake, I look around the in the bus and it seems like now all other members are here too as seat are occupied now but I am the only one sitting on the back seat, it seems like no one else prefer to sit in the back other then me. However, I shift to window side of the seat and thankfully there are closed so, I can see outside without getting wet while looking outside, soon I again dozed off.
This time I finally I woke up we have reached and everybody is getting down from the bus with sulking face as if something is not good in this. However, I too pick up my bags and started walking towards the gate, though as soon as I stepped I notice the floor is still wet but I ignore it and walk till the door and the scene I see next shocked me.. whole road is filled with water and if I am not wrong its till ankle deep or a bit more and I hate it. Obviously, I am wearing shoes plus I am wearing tight jeans both will get screwed up, though having no other choice I stepped down and move towards the hotel where we would be residing for a day then we would be moving towards trek in the next morning.
Inside the hotel the group leader our group announced that because of the continuous raining from last night many of the hotel rooms are still occupied by the other guest so, technically we all have to share the rooms with another. All the girls in one room and boys in the other room, as per the announcement I go with other girls and when we reached there, I saw the room from inside I become completely relaxed because in total it has eight different bed plus a personal bedroom and lastly a balcony like place with a roof shelter, where we can we finally dry our clothes and other accessories. In short its pretty cool, comfortable and cozy place to stay in, I am loving it.
About two hours it take to all eight of girls to get fresh and we go down to dining hall for the brunch, where they have lasagna, fresh bread, pancakes with maple syrups and yogurt and we all eat the food silently. As our food got finished, the leader got up from his seat and go to help desk turn on the small LCD screen there and switch to news channel directly, on the other hand we all with confused and curiosity watching his behavior and soon we can hear some news which says that,
News Reporter: Due to cloud burst in the hilly are, all the trekking trips have been canceled because everywhere flooding has started, some roads had been broke and for the safety of human life and resources it is best they remain wherever they are now for a week maximum. The rescuing team trying there best to save human lives, please try to understand the situation and if possible some one in need in this situation.
As the news got over, some people created the chaos saying that they wanted to go home at any cost and most of them are boys majorly this surprised me because girls easily get scared but here opposite is happening. Though leader tired to pacify them as in such emergency situations nothing can be done, especially traveling back home or going forward toward the flood area but it seems like impossible to relax those guys.
On the other hand of the table a small group is also forming who are enthusiastically deciding which places to explore here, because they all thinking why not explore this town for a week and have some fun here and I am also in this group. Today, I learned from them that to live in present without worry of future so, probably after thirty minutes of thinking we finally come up with a list to do activities that is
- river rafting
- exploring the local market
- tasting exotic flavors of food
- watching monuments or tourist places including religious places too
- bonfire and some fun activities within the group only
With the list ready, we choose to divide duty among us to get information about these places by the night and next day in the morning during breakfast we would be choosing where to go first. I with some other persons got the duty to search for best food places to eat, to be honest I love this task as I love to eat different cuisine. So, I choose to ask the local people about it as they knows somewhat better and to start with it I initiated the conversation with hotel staff (HS).
Siya: Hello, I am Siya. As you know I come here for the trekking tour but somehow got stuck so, here we are planning explore this town. If you have some time to talk to me related to different food flavors of here?
HS-1: Sure, but I would suggest you to come with me to meet our kitchen staff and talk to them because they have more knowledge about that.
Siya: Ohh that's nice. I would love to come and talk to them.
With this I went to meet the kitchen staff, here I found all of them quite friendly as soon as I asked them the same question they start telling me about different restaurants near by where I can find every type of cuisine including Indian too. In short, within thirty minute I have ten restaurant listed out, I am overall quite impressed with my work. After saying goodbye to them I took my leave from there and go back to my other small group who are searching the same thing on google and making the list. Soon we cross check our list and found that we all have selected the same places.
All of us, as in the group which decided to stay back and enjoy here, during the time of dinner all of us are prepared with our list and we plan that after our breakfast tomorrow we would be first exploring some monuments first, then having lunch at some place then we would be visiting one of the religious place where some kind ritual is going on and our last destination would be eating dinner somewhere. With this plan in our mind plus full level of excitement we finished our dinner call it a night.
To Be Continued.....