The Memorable Gangtok Trip

During our fifth semester of Engineering we had a wonderful Gangtok trip. Along with me and my roommate Nair, Bikram, Mehboob and Mustaque also went for the trip. We boarded the train early morning from Guwahati Railway station. We reached New Jalpaiguri at around 2 pm and got down there. We took cycle rickshaws to go to Siliguri, which is at a distance of 4-5 km from the Railway station. Usually the rickshaw drivers charge four to five time the normal fare from travelers. Well, we were aware of all that from some of our Gangtok friends.

'Lal batti se jauge to 100 Rs and normal rote 50 Rs,' said one of the rickshaw drivers.

'Ye lal batti kya hai?' We were confused what is lal batti?

Mustaque was an expert in all those and immediately replied with his typical laughter, 'abbe, lal batti means Red light  area'

'Aree nahi bhai, normal route se le chalo,' Nair responded and asked the driver to follow the usual shortcut.

It is 4 to 5 hours drive from Siliguri to Gangtok, and we traveled in a regular shared taxi. Pretty soon we were ascending the elevation, driving through exotic dense forest. The scenery was mesmerizing. The zig-zag terrain and the elegant view outside, was magical. The forest looked refreshing with different varieties of strange and colorful flora. On the way, we encountered some fascinating waterfalls. Everyone was looking outside the window, enjoying the beauty of Mother Nature. But Mehboob was sound asleep with his mouth wide open. I was very confused, how could anyone sleep in such wonderful and thrilling drive. 

"Mehboob, Mehboob, kya so raha hai, gandu," just look outside, the view is so scenic.

"Haan yaar, bohut sundar hai, it’s really beautiful outside," Mehboob said and again went to sleep in the next couple of minutes. 

We reached Gangtok by late evening. We called our senior friend Digvijay, who is from Gangtok. He helped us in finding a reasonable lodge for our stay. We shared some good time and then Digvijay left for home. The next day he took us for sightseeing. We visited many places, including some monasteries, zoological parks and gardens. Later we had sumptuous lunch at Digvijay’s house. The next morning we visited Tsongmo Lake, popularly known as Changu Lake. Well, Changu Lake is the most attractive place to visit in Gangtok. It is a glacial lake in the East Sikkim, some 40 km away from Gangtok at an elevation of 12400 ft. Sikkim is really very exotic. The best part is, people are very kind and friendly, there. October is one of the best seasons to visit Sikkim. These days all the major travel companies offer different kind of Travel Deals, which give heavy airfare and hotel discounts. 

I remember Mustaque had an embarrassing stomach throughout the trip. Poor guy had serious issues in filling his tummy; he found it difficult to digest the kind of food we enjoyed, there in Gangtok. Well, this is where the branded food products like KFC or McDonald's plays the vital role. They never disappoints, irrespective of any place. Also the kind of Food Deals we get in such brands, is seriously tempting. But those days such yummy brands were not available in the market. Even if they would be available, our pockets wouldn't have allowed us to relish such sumptuousness. Mustaque was quite conscious about his condition. He tried to take extra precautions to avoid any kind of embarrassment, but then it’s difficult to fight one’s angry abdomen. 

We started early morning for Changu Lake. It was 3 to 4 hours of thrilling drive through the Himalayan terrain. It was the month of October and the snowfall could have started anytime soon. The locals told us that during winter the entire region is covered under snow. On the way all the vehicles stopped at a particular place for refreshment. The cab driver told us that we could use the washroom, there. He also told us that in Changu Lake we wouldn’t get such facilities. We tried to pull Mustaque’s leg and asked him to use the washroom as many times as he wanted. We strictly advised him not to showcase any drama in the venue, later. It seemed Mustaque’s stomach was in a good mood that time and he laughed at us with some of his trademark slangs.

Changu Lake is damn exotic. It was freezing cold. It was quite fascinating to see the alluring blue lake at a height of more than 12000 ft. During winter the entire lake would be frozen with a thin sheet of ice on the top. The place was covered with beautiful rocks all around. There were many tourists trekking all over the place. We also started to trek and after reaching a certain height, it seemed Mustaque’s stomach had a mood swing. He started to express his anxiety. We tried to ignore him but Mustaque was getting restless. 

"Tabhi bola tha kar le, gandu" Our irritation was at peak and we asked him why didn’t he finish it off in the place where the jeep stopped. Mustaque was not in any condition to give explanation. Somehow he managed to convince Mehboob to bring two bottles of mineral water. Mustaque thought he would manage to find a hiding place in between the giant rocks. Mehboob had to go all the way down to bring the water bottles. Mustaque’s wait was getting impatient. His stomach could have burst any moment. Mehboob appeared in ten minutes. But, what the hell? He just came empty handed.

'What happened? Why didn’t you bring the bottles?' Mustaque asked in panic. 

'The assholes are selling 10 Rs  bottles for 20 Rs. Also, it’s already late and I thought you might have finished by now,' Mehboob tried to clarify.

'Chutiya, asshole. Just bring the bottles even if they charge 100 Rs. I will pay the money, don’t worry. Just go and bring,' Mustaque desperately yelled at Mehboob, .

Mehboob was in no mood to go all the way down again, but then he went for it. Later, we saw a satisfying smile on Mustaque's face.

"With emerging technologies, the way people do business is changing. The competition is really tough and it’s not easy for the corporate to sustain in the market. Be it retailer sector, food industry or travel companies for instance, people have many options. People look for the best possible deal for them. Well, this is the era of deals and coupons. Initially I also ignored such offers and thought it’s just a marketing gimmick. But then, it’s more than that. Let’s say, four guys want to have a pizza party. They go to a Pizza Hut, satisfy their tongue and tummy. They pay a bill of say, 1500 Rs. With a little bit of knowledge on deals, or with a little bit of google search, they could have enjoyed the same party in say, 1000 Rs. This is the power of Deals and Coupons, these days"

Mr Beans

Last weekend we visited Mr Beans - The Coffee Lounge for the first time. Initially I thought the place would be similar to a CCD, but found it different both in terms of ambiance, as well as food and beverages. As we reached the place we saw a few people having their coffee while enjoying their cigarette drags. I was delighted that Mr Beans got a smoking zone outside. People, who are interested in a little bit of nicotine along with the caffeine, can take a table there. The atmosphere outside was pleasant with the cool breeze, blowing. But we thought to sit inside and entered through the main door. 

As soon as we entered in, we felt the rich aroma of various coffee flavors. The ambiance inside was pretty relaxing. Light music was being played and people were talking in groups, sitting on black leather couches. There’s enough space inside and there are different sections. We saw a group of colleagues enjoying their team outing in a separate room. It seemed Mr Beans had made some special arrangements for them. We noticed a few young couples, enjoying their date, talking and frequently embracing each other’s arms. We saw a group of friends having a wonderful time together. The place is Wi-Fi enabled; a pretty lady was sitting alone, busy with her lappy grabbed my attention. The design and ambiance of the cafe are such that it would make everybody feel comfortable and rejuvenated. Mr Beans is a perfect place for a business meet, a date, a hang-out with family and friends.

Established in 2001 in Indore, Mr. Beans now operates also in Jaipur and Bangalore. Mr. Beans has won the Times Food Award for THE BEST COFFEE BAR for two years consecutively (2013- 2012, 2012-2011). In Bangalore it is located at Kormangla 3rd block, next to Karnataka Bank ATM. Well, after a satisfying ambiance, now my tongue got hyperactive. I thought it’s a coffee lounge and didn’t expect much in their food menu. But it took me by surprise when I noticed a wide variety of yummy stuff, not only in their beverages, but also in their food menu. Mr. Beans has an extensive coffee menu ranging from signature hot and cold beverages. Apart from coffee there are many tea drinks as well, and non-tea, non-coffee people need not worry as they also have milkshakes, fizz drinks, smoothies and lemonades. 

I was having a thirst for something cooling and refreshing, so immediately I asked for an ice tea. My wife was smarter enough and she asked the guy about the most special drink of Mr Beans. A little later, he brought her a Brownie Millionaire. Their menu says it’s the king of all shakes served with brownie. I wasn’t very impressed with its fancy name and I was happy with my ice tea. My wife asked me to have a sip of Brownie Millionaire. As I had the first sip, it was impossible for me to stop there and I kept sipping till I realized the glass was already half empty. It was icy-chilled and the flavor of brownie was so refreshing. That was one of the most refreshing drinks I ever had. 

In the nearby room some people were enjoying Foosball. Our little Jia was getting restless, so I took her there. She was so interested and never wanted to return from that room. 

After quenching my thirst, now I felt about my stomach. Mr Beans got a diverse range of goodies to serve, right from tit-bits to whole-some-meal, from sandwiches to pizzas, from pastas to salads and yes, also some mouth-watering desserts. To view their full menu click here. We enjoyed some thin crust Italian pizzas. Well, those were much yummier that the pizzas we order sometimes from the well-known brands. 

We had a wonderful evening at the coffee lounge and stayed there for a couple of hours. Mr Beans is a cool hang-out place and definitely worth a visit.

Food On Credit

It seems food and credit has an age old association. I remember during my childhood days how my mom used to buy the groceries for the entire month on credit. Every month she used to make payment for the previous month. Quite often she used to take me for her horrific monthly shopping on Sundays. By the time we returned home, Sunday was already gone. But after my 8th grade I think I was no longer useful enough for my mom, as far as her marketing was concerned. When I joined engineering college it didn’t take us much longer to fall into the trap of credit. The Dhaba close to our hostel and the cigarette shop used to maintain register for almost every hostel guys. No one ever had to worry about our food and fag. Every time when we used to receive money from our parents it used to vanish in the first or at max 2nd week of every month. But it was never a problem as those registers never disappointed us.

Years later the story remained the same. Even now days also as soon as I receive my salary it disappears within a couple of weeks, mostly in making the payment of previous month dues and not to mention about my dreadful EMIs. Over the years I've become very much dependent on my credit card and usually I don’t carry cash with me. Well, I really hate going to ATM’s and because of this lousy habit I had encountered some annoying moments. Many times it happened that my wallet went completely void without even a single penny. In such situation when I use to visit any ATM, the machine usually would be out of service. Ultimately I’m able to withdraw cash in the 3rd or sometimes in the 4th ATM I visit. Earlier it was ultimate painful as the distance between 2 nearest ATM’s was huge. But now days situation has changed. There are hell lots of banks and hell lot of ATM's, but only my account always remains deprived of currency.

I remember one incident that happened few years ago. It was a Friday night and I came home little late from office. It rained cats and dogs that night. At around 10:30 PM my wife started to prepare food. All of a sudden she realized that there was not enough gas left inside the cylinder to continue the flame. We had a private gas connection those days with a single cylinder. We decided to order food from outside and collected few restaurant menus piled up in some corner of the house. 

"I don’t have a single penny with me. Do you have cash with you?" I asked my wife.

"No, I don't have cash with me. Why are you such an idiot? You always carry the card with you. Why the hell you didn’t withdraw money?"

I looked outside the window and it was quite impossible to go out in such terrible rain. Ours is a residential area and the nearest restaurant was quite far. Also in those days I didn’t have any vehicle. Out of desperation I started to shake the cylinder. Obviously, it didn’t work. It was already 10:50 PM and I tried my luck to order food online. That was for the first time I tried such a thing. Well, I used to do a hell lot of things online but food was something new for me. I was so delighted when I came across some websites through which we could have ordered online food. But most of the sites had only cash on delivery option. Then I came across one which claimed to deliver food till 11:30 PM. The website specifically mentioned that they deliver food even in drastic weather condition and on top of that the option of online payment was also there. We were so hungry and we ordered hell lot of things. I was so happy, such a rainy night with completely empty stomach. I was already mesmerized with the tempting smell of the food we just ordered. At around 11:30 PM all of a sudden the phone started to ring.

"Hello Sir, you have ordered food through our website"

"Yes, I did"

"Thank you for using our website Sir. Actually we are extremely sorry to say that at this point of time we will not be able to deliver your order"

I was totally demoralized "Why, what’s the problem?"

"As you are aware Sir, it’s raining very heavily in Bangalore at the moment"

"But in your website it’s clearly mentioned that you guys deliver even in drastic weather condition"

"Yes sir, we do. But at the moment as you can see it’s raining very heavily. Your money will be credited to your account in 2 to 3 working days"

What a KLPD that was. Fortunately we had bread inside the refrigerator and had to satisfy our hunger with bread and pickle.

Well, that was several years ago and after that we ordered online food countless number of times. I always prefer to pay using my credit card rather than cash on delivery. Old habit dies hard you see. From last couple of years whenever I ordered food from outside, most of the time I did it online. The online food industry is quite matured enough these days and it's only improving day by day. It's a competitive market and such companies often come up with exciting offers. Few days back I came across FoodPanda and instantly liked it. The website looks simple yet so attractive. They are fully operational in all major Indian cities and they have tie up with a wide range of restaurants and several other forms of modern eateries.

Well, I always prefer Indian food and sometimes pizza's for a change, but my wife enjoys continental food a lot. Whenever we order food we usually end up in some kind of a controversy. With such a great food ordering website like FoodPanda, we no longer require to waste our time browsing over the internet for ordering food of our choice. Right from authentic Indian delicacies to all forms of mesmerizing Pizzas, from SubWay to RollMaal, from Chinese to various other continental foods, one can order just anything from FoodPanda. Apart from 11 AM to 11 PM Toll-free customer care service they also have a live chat in their website. My experience with FoodPanda was really awesome and I frequently visit their site to look for latest exciting offers.

A little bit of Cookery

For the first time when I arrived in Bangalore, I was so mesmerized with the typical kind of cool weather out here. Even though it’s been almost a decade, but I still remember how I felt about the weather that time and it almost felt as if I directly arrived into heaven, all the way from hell. Well, before coming to Bangalore I was in Delhi for quite a few months and I hope Delhiites wouldn't curse me for this, as I’m simply comparing the weather. For the first couple of months, I stayed at a hostel in J.P Nagar 6th Phase and it seemed, the place was mostly occupied with students and job seekers. Initially, I was so much amazed with some of the food items on the street. Well, the first one is Gobi(Cauliflower) Manchurian. To be honest, I never came across that food item earlier. I was so much confused, yet quite delighted to see those red color things every here and there, while they're being fried on those big utensils. Initially I assumed them to be pieces of chicken. As my pocket was at a very pathetic and miserable condition that time, so I didn't bother to explore much. But then one afternoon, I just wanted to taste those damn chicken pieces and approached a vendor and asked "Boss, chicken plate Kitna?" How much for a plate of chicken?

The guy simply smiled and said "Boss, chicken nahi, ye gobi hai, Gobi Manchurian" Dude! it's not chicken, it's Gobi Manchurian.

That was a huge KLPD for me and simply wondered "what kind of dish is that?" I wanted to try that out and the price was also quite reasonable. As soon as my tongue encountered the first piece of gobi, it created some kind on an ecstasy inside my mouth and also deep within my soul. It was crispy and slightly juicy. Oh! The taste was simply out of the world. It all started that time and even today, I’m a big fan of Gobi Manchurian. I’ve no idea about the origin of the dish, but one could find it in almost every nook and corner of Bangalore.

The another popular food item out here is Chicken Kabab. One of my initial observations in the city was "one would find a Bakery and a wine shop within every 50 meters on the streets of Bangalore." Also the wine shops are meant not only to buy liquors, but one could also gulp as much quantity as they can afford, out there as well. Outside every wine shop, one could find someone preparing yummy fried chicken kababs in the evening. Even though, quite often my pocket had to face some kind of an embarrassment those days, but somehow my loyalty and affection with Old Monk remained intact. That time the market was gradually recovering from the recession phase and I hoped that my dream to taste all sort of kababs in Bangalore would soon transform into reality. Once my pocket turned little better and that too with those chicken kababs all around, my relationship with the monk got stronger and stronger day by day. Also, I was getting kind of obsessed with those kababs and the obsession was somewhat similar to the kind, I had with Momos during my college days. 

After I tied the knot, the monk must have been quite disappointed with me, as I couldn’t able to worship him on a regular basis. But my devotion continued over the weekends with my close and nearby friends. One day, I applied for a Life Insurance policy and I had to undergo a thorough medical checkup for that. Everything was perfectly fine, but the insurance company increased the yearly premium by Rs 500 and the reason they gave was that my cholesterol level was somewhat higher. I assumed that to be a silly excuse and was very much irritated with their attitude. After some flow of emails, I actually cancelled that policy. But my wife repeatedly insisted for my master health checkup and she was quite shocked with my reports. That time I got quite serious and started to work out a bit. I even consulted with doctor and according to his consultation, my relationship with old monk and fried kababs was jeopardized. Those roadside kababs look, as well as tastes very yummy. But the guys repeatedly use the same oil again and again, not sure for how many days or months.  I completely stopped to consume them and unwilling though, I had to dump my good old monk as well. Later, I tried to get spiritual with some budget scotch brands and even though it took sometime, but ultimately I was able to gain spirituality with them. Sometimes, but very rarely though, when I get very nostalgic, I would spend some quality time with Old Monk, along with some of my good old, old monk fans. 

Last weekend, I was missing those fried kababs so much that ultimately I decided to prepare at home itself. The recipe is quite simple and would like to share out here.

1. Ask the guy to cut the chicken in smaller and medium pieces

2. Also buy a kabab powder along with the chicken

3. Marinate the chicken (1/2 KG for a small packet of kabab powder) with very small amount of water.

4. Also mix one egg with it and again marinate it for a while

5. Mix ginger/garlic paste to it (I prefer fresh one)

6. Put it inside the refrigerator for around 15 minutes.

7. Deep fry the chicken pieces in either olive or refined oil in low heat for around 15-20 minutes.

Oh! It tasted much better than the kababs from good restaurants. I think, along with other important factors, good cookwares are also very important to create such kind of a magic. If you haven’t visited magickart yet, you should definitely have a look at it. Well, magickart.in is the leading online shopping portal in India for Kitchen appliances and Cookware. With their exclusive collection of Cookware, Bakeware and Kitchen Appliances, now days one could quite easily be able to create a wide variety of magic inside their own kitchens.

The Joy of Wishing and Gifting

Couldn't realize how and when my habit of buying greeting cards simply died out. In fact, during our early school days we’re encouraged to make greeting cards out of our own creativity. Even though I had a high level of expertise in the field of drawing/creativity kind of stuffs and that too, to such an extent that I found it extremely difficult to even draw my basic academic biology diagrams. But still I somehow managed to make few New Year/Diwali/Birthday greeting cards for my friends and loved ones. Later there was a phase in my life when I used to send E-Cards to my friends on special occasions. Well, that was much more convenient for me and just like earlier days, my emotional level more or less was still the same. Now days I usually wish my friends and relatives through Facebook post, but I don’t think I've ever compromised with my feelings and I wish them with the same level of love and affection, as I used to in my childhood days. Everything seems to be so commercialized in the present world, but it just couldn’t take away our sentiments. With time and technology the way we wish people on special occasions have changed, but the level of excitement and empathy remains the same.

Even now also whenever I use to receive gifts in any form from anybody, I feel as happy and excited as I used to be as a child. Gifts definitely have some sort of magical effects on most of us and I hope nobody would misunderstand me as a male  chauvinist, if I dare to say that the effect could be much higher for our superior female counterparts. With emerging technologies, like most other things the way of giving gifts have also changed. But the joy and pleasure of gifting hasn't changed at all. In today’s modern and sophisticated world we often forget to buy gifts, not because we don't intend to buy but may be we're just little too busy and tired. But with websites like giftisaha.com, one could no longer give any such excuses. Well, giftisaha.com is a unique gifting portal and they are the experts in the field of gifting. This Diwali you could very well surprise your near and dear ones with some amazing personalized gifts. giftisaha.com has taken Diwali gifting to a whole new level of personalization with their personalized Diwali Gifts.

As I am writing about gifts, so would like to mention a couple of little humorous incidents which are closely associated with the joy of gifting. We have a friend and during our bachelor days he was very obsessed about his birthday gifts. He used to irritate ask most of his friends to give him gifts on his birthday. For guys like us, he usually used to ask once or twice. But he had some soft targets and to them he used to torture like hell, reminder after reminder. Ultimately he was quite successful enough to receive a good collection of gifts on the occasion of his birthday, that too without giving any good damn party. 

During my college days one of our senior friends told us a story about his younger brother. The incident happened during one Durga Puja time, when his brother was in his 2nd standard. People were quite busy buying gifts and our little hero already received a couple of dresses from his parents. It seemed he eyed on a particular piece of new dress and he was pretty much determined to somehow get that. But his parents were not at all interested to buy him any more dress for that Durga Puja. The kid tried all possible ways but his parents were adamant at their point. So ultimately our hero thought of something offbeat and one fine morning he went to the nearby busy street and simply undressed himself completely. Whenever any known person used to pass by, they had a conversation with him. The little boy used to say “I don’t have any dress to wear. What to do? Even on the auspicious occasion of Durga Puja also my parents never bother to buy me any new dress” The kid stayed on that street for almost a couple of hours and then the news started to spread. By afternoon, his parents came to know about the incident and later on the same evening, the boy was extremely delighted to receive the same desired gift from his parents. 

Gifting is not only limited to friends and relatives, even the corporate also love to gift their employees on their birthdays, on Christmas, on New Year, on the occasion of their marriage and the list could simply be endless. Corporate gifts could be important for a company's image and might help in building a strong relationship with its clients. It’s already under the HR policies for many of the corporate. With more than 10 years of experience in the business of corporate gifting and catering to clients from various industries, giftisaha.com have effectively catered to more than 500,000 customers and still counting.

The Classy Heaven

Quite often we notice examples of bench marking all around us. Standards exist in every sphere of life and they are pretty much used as reference points. Let’s say a college going guy, also let us consider that he use to play good cricket, but his batting style is quite defensive. His friends might say that he's their "Rahul Dravid". If any girl is extremely bold, fearless and could literally take on any damn person, people might say "she’s our Jhansi Ki Rani". Presently in Bollywood there’s some kind of a benchmark and nobody is anywhere near to him. Excuse me, it’s certainly not the so called King,  I am talking about Aamir Khan. 

During my school days, we used to have a few "Shakuntala Devi’s" among us. Reference points could be either local or global and people use then accordingly, depending upon the gravity of the situation. Few days back, I got to read a fabulous story "Bill gates of Small Town" by Saru. Well, there would be countless, similar kind of examples and people across the globe, literally use them quite often. People have set standards for tourist places as well. In fact, there are different reference points for different kind of places. For rain forests, Amazon is the classic benchmark and Switzerland is often used as a point of reference for some some of the exotic hill station across the world.

There are so many fascinating hill stations and each of them would certainly feel a glow of pride, whenever people use to compare them with the mother of all hill stations and usually refer them as say, "Switzerland of India, Switzerland of the East, etc" As I have never been to Switzerland, so I sometimes wonder "what’s so special about that place?" Well, we have our very own Ladakh, out here in India. But whenever I use to view Switzerland in one of those Travel channels, or whenever I have the opportunity to see it's photographs, I simply remain silent and wonder "how could there be a such a place on this planet?"

Many of my friends visited Switzerland and whenever they upload their Swiss photographs in social networking sites, I use to feel little jealous :), yet so mesmerizing. Next month, one of my friend is getting married and he already planned his Honeymoon in Switzerland.


Wow! Switzerland Honeymoon, it would certainly be a dream come true for both of them and they could cherish the wonderful Swiss moments for their entire life.There's no doubt that Switzerland is the most hottest honeymoon destination.

The way tourism industry evolved globally over the last decade, gone are the days when Switzerland Tourism was considered only for the rich and the famous. In this pretty competitive market, travel giants like MakeMyTrip, usually come up with attractive packages year after year. Switzerland is quite an adventure tourist destination and MakeMyTrip have some exciting, as well as affordable and adventurous kind of Switzerland packages. Now a days, even the middle class people could very well experience the genuine heaven, it just require little bit of planning and determination.

Switzerland is one of my dream destinations. Let Jia grow up a bit and we would definitely visit this Classy Heaven one day.

Yet Another Heaven, Part-1

It would be an extremely difficult task to find intellectuals in India, who have never heard of Goa. Well there’s no doubt that Goa is the hottest tourist destination, in this part of the world. Goa got a very well Flights connectivity from all major cities. But I am pretty much sure that there would be many ignorant like me, who wouldn't have any idea about Gokarna. Well, I came across this name after a couple of years, when I came to Bangalore about a decade back. Few of my friends highly recommended the place to me much earlier, but it was only in November 2010 that I had the opportunity to experience the exotic heaven.

Gokarna is a town in the northern part "Uttara Kannada" district of Karnataka state.  Even though it’s a Hindu pilgrimage center but the atheists could equally enjoy out there in parallel, as the place is surrounded by some of the exotic beaches. Gokarna doesn't have direct Airlines connectivity and the nearest airport from Gokarna is Panaji, at a distance of 150 km. It was a marvelous trip and some of the events still flashes  out crystal clear in my mind. We traveled together in an awesome group of about 12-15, mostly our college mates. We visited during some holiday season and the guys planned it perfectly and quite well in advance. Initially some guys were more interested for Goa, as Air India came up with some exciting offers that time.

Some of the guys, who visited Gokarna earlier, suggested us not to travel by car and said that it would be much better to travel by bus. Gokarna is at a distance of approximately 500 km from Bangalore and by bus it almost took us 10-11 hours. On the way, in the middle of the night, might be somewhere in the Western Ghats, we felt the awesome jerks and our bodies continued to shake for a prolonged time. 

We reached Gokarna town early morning and from there we traveled in auto rickshaws to Om Beach. The surrounding was quite hilly and as soon as we reached Om Beach, my goodness, it was damn exotic. We already planned to stay in the shacks, very near to the beach. Even though the place was quite crowded, but unlike Goa, it was silent and one could only hear the mesmerizing sea sounds. As it was holiday season, it took us a while to get few shacks out there. We were very much excited to see our place of shelter, but it seemed my wife got little upset and she wondered "how could we stay in such environment, can’t we stay in a good hotel?"

That was the kind of place where I always wanted to visit. The entire surrounding was so fascinating and apart from Om beach, there are few more beaches to explore. I could recollect few names "Kuddle Beach, Half moon Beach, Paradise beach". We noticed that almost 80% of the tourists out there were foreigners and few Indian tourists mostly looked like students. Well, the place is definitely not for family outing.  After lunch at about 3 PM, every one of us went to explore a bit. We trekked through the hills and on one occasion, we even passed through a small tunnel. 

Well, if you visit Gokarna then don’t ever forget to carry torch lights with you. It took us almost 40-45 minutes to reach Paradise beach and as soon as we reached there it started to get slightly darker. We heard trance music being played all over the place and most of the guys were quite busy, as they prepared for their drag. We already got the smell and it was quite intoxicating, but one of my friends made me realize that we’re actually older enough, as he said "it’s OK, we guys are quite old enough and we had enough fun, let the kids enjoy." We simply had coffee out there and few of us satisfied ourselves only with the cigarettes.

We were about to return back to our shakes at Om beach, but there was a problem. It was completely dark and literally nothing was visible. We inquired whether there was any alternate way to go to Om Beach, but to our nightmare, there was only one way out. We started to get a little worried and wondered "how we would go back through the middle of the hills and on top of that, we even have to pass through a tunnel"

Next Part

Team Outing in House Boat

Few years back we had a memorable team outing. Some colleagues planned to enjoy the weekend in house boats in Kerala and our good friend, Abdul Raniz really worked hard for that trip. We had a pretty huge team that time and it was quite a difficult job to decide for a travel destination for such a large team. In almost every team outing we had issues with the destination. Some guys would always be interested for hill stations, while few other guys wouldn't bother to listen anything other than beaches but some cool guys usually don't bother much about the destination, as long as they have arrangement for booze.  

So finally it was all set and we looked forward to spend the weekend in the exotic backwaters of Kerala, in a place named Alleppey. Raniz is from Kerala and he did the necessary prior arrangements. As usual, all our female colleagues already backed themselves away from the idea. Well, most of the time they would only be interested for a picnic kind of day trip. We boarded the bus in the evening and all of us were damn excited. While we waited for the bus, most of us enjoyed few sips  to spice up our enjoyment and prepared ourselves to experience the wonderful  night journey. Well for our stay in the house boat, we already over packed our kind of stuffs. Almost half of the bus was occupied by us and as one can understand, we all just felt and behaved like college going guys. At night, one of the bus staff's turned on the TV and played some Tamil movie and that too in load volume. Few of our colleagues requested them to better play some Hindi stuffs but unfortunately they didn’t have any Hindi CD's.  After some initial irritation, most of us actually enjoyed the movie that night. I don’t exactly remember the name of the movie, but it was big Tamil blockbuster. It was quite a long journey and took us almost 12 hours to reach Alleppey. Now a days one can easily enjoy such trips with Cheap Air Tickets from JetLite and Indian Airlines.

Once we got down from the bus in the morning, we had to struggle for quite some time before we could get to our actual destination “The house boats”.  Actually Raniz kept the entire headache to himself, as he was the only local guy, we had out there. Finally we reached our destination and every one had a big smile, as we could see the famous house boats, which we quite often used to see in TV, in those travel channels. The houseboats were quite big and almost like normal houses. Raniz had already booked 2 big houseboats for our entire team. The boats had all the facilities which one could avail in any normal hotel.

The initial few hours were so mesmerizing, as it started to drizzle and we felt the refreshing sprinkles up from the heaven. The cool river breeze, the exotic view and the glass in hand. Wow..  it was some kind of an experience and it was very fascinating. But after sometime it got little monotonous for me, maybe I was a bit sick of water all around us and it reminded me of flood kind of situation in my state, Assam. We traveled through the back waters all day long and just before evening, it stopped near some sort of market, where we bought fresh fish, prawns and few CD's for the night.

Finally in the evening the boat stopped at some remote location and the boat men fixed the boat out there, for our safe night shelter. After dark, we prepared and arranged for the evening blast. The food we had that night in the boat was one of the best I ever had and the entire food was prepared in the boat kitchen itself, right in front of our eyes. 

Overall it was a memorable trip and everyone enjoyed like hell. I personally feel that such kind of house boat trip is more ideal for honeymoon couples, as it's damn exotic and one would have enough time and privacy for romance. Next day, we spent the whole day in a nearby beach. We played volleyball, little bit of cricket, football and some flying disc as well, in the beach.

                                    Some breathtaking bird's eye view of Kerala backwaters.