I Miss You..............MANALI.

Ever prepared for any exam without even opening the book? That’s exactly what I am doing now, and it’s indeed a rebellious thought.

Many days have gone by since the event that I am going to write about occurred, but the memories are still fresh. The most exiting event of my three years in college: The class tour.

So, I begin from the beginning. And as my classmates know, the trip’s tale can never be complete without the endless hardships that we had to undergo to make this trip a reality.

Many times in the first four semesters, (four times actually), we tried to get the trip organized, but due to reasons beyond our control, the attempts went in vain. This time, as soon as the entire class returned from the six weeks training, there was a buzz in the class. The words were clear, “If we don’t go early this semester, we won’t probably have even a single trip in our entire college lives”. And this was catalytic.

 It was decided by voting in the class that the destination for the tour would be the hill-stations MANALI AND ROHTANG, and the official industrial visit would be at a company at CHANDIGARH, MOHALI.

 The next was the daunting task of acquiring the permission from the college. Cutting a long story short, the final acceptance from our Director Sir took about a hard week to come. This week taught some of us the patience of waiting outside the faculty rooms, H.O.D’s office, and the Director’s office. It was pity to see some girls stand for hours at a stretch with us, in front of the above mentioned offices. But their commitment was appreciable. The two teachers who agreed to accompany us were Ms. Saru Chopra and Mr. Dinesh Gupta.

So, finally, after all the official formalities, came the task of actual organization of the tour. The bus to be arranged had to be comfortable, since most of the trip was going to be in the bus itself. For this, Mr. Vivek Tingloo, the Class Representative of our class, was the right man. The hotel at MANALI was suggested by another of our class mates, Mr. Dikshit. The IT Company at Chandigarh was arranged by me. These three arrangements were the most important, and everything turned out to be fantastic, as I will tell later here.

The day was 3^rd of September, 2009.

I hadn’t slept the whole night. I was among the first few to reach the college at morning six o’clock. There, a sense of accomplishment dawned upon me: we were really going! Slowly and gradually, students arrived. The bus was very comfortable, (with push-back seats). As soon as the bus rolled out, shouts, cheer-ups, songs, and Punjabi ‘boliyan’ floated in the entire bus. We took one stoppage before reaching the company, and by the time we reached Mohali, half of us had a sore throat.

CHANDIGARH 

The KMG Infotech turned out to be a surprise package. The boring but highly informative and technical seminars were followed by stupendous refreshments, and all of us cheered up, despite the delay.

We hadn’t been out of Chandigarh for more than an hour that the weather changed suddenly, and rain started to pour heavily. The students took the weather in the stride and enjoyed more exhaustively. They spent more time in the middle of the bus, than on their seats. Never had I seen my class mates so full of energy. Even girls, who always seemed lazy and tired, didn’t stop dancing till we took a stop in the evening.

The journey continued. Songs continued to be sung, jokes continued to be cracked, and we didn’t realize that the night had arrived. The class was together for the first time after the dark, and the feeling was both romantic and exhilarating.  Old songs poured out naturally, and we enjoyed a lot.

Apart from the poor dinner that we had at a dhabha, the first day ended with a complete success, and we still were in the bus. Some dozed off, while others continued to sing or chat. This was the time when the “VIP Cabin” sprung in action. Ankit Chitkara and Dikshit were two of the performers who were sitting in the driver’s cabin. Out of an amazing idea, they started recording and playing little poems or commentaries on various famous personalities of our class. The mobile phone, connected to the bus speakers was the only required hardware, and talent poured out. Such was the success that the students eagerly waited for the next audio clipping. “Bobby darling” episode was the most famous of them all.

MANIKARAN SAHIB , 4th september.

We reached Gurudwara Manikaran Sahib at 3 in the morning. The last few kilometers of the path was a really dangerous stretch of mountain road, and the entire class was praying, either silently or aloud. The ‘gurubanis’ played on the speakers created a spiritual aura. The rumble of BEAS at the Gurudwara’s entrance was deafening in the night. We had tea, before separate dormitories for boys and girls were allotted by the “Bhagat Ji” there, and we prepared to rest for a few hours.

                                                                          Entrance to Manikaran Sahib

Early morning was completely spiritual; we bathed and then went for “darshan” in the main Gurudwara premises. After having “langar”, we left for Manali.

The route to Manali is just beautiful. Snow capped mountains on all sides, river BEAS with crystal clear and chillingly cold water flowing along the road, apple trees on the road sides, the local residents in their local attire; everything seemed to welcome us into Manali.

It was afternoon, and our hotel was waiting for us. HOTEL SNOW PARK.
Like everything else, it turned out to be better than we had expected. It’s a three star hotel, just 1 km from main market MANALI.



Room in hotel                Hotel's Exterior

The evening was spent in the market, where everyone bought something or other; some for their family, and other for their friends. We also met our friends from Electronics and Computer Science branches there (even they had organized the same tour as ours, after ours was approved). Ms. Melia Mahajan ordered a Teacher’s Day cake for the next day at a bakery there.

Although we returned late, we managed to arrange a small dance party that night on the hotel terrace. Mr. Ankur Khera, with his own speakers, managed the music. Even though the night restriction for loud music made the party possible only till 10:30 PM, everyone enjoyed thoroughly. Some rested after that, while many of us gathered in the common space between the rooms to chat and play “dumb-shiraz”.

THE ROHTANG DAY

Next day, 5^th September (Teacher’s day) was scheduled for the ROHTANG MOUNTAIN PASS. But before that, we went to HADIMBA DEVI TEMPLE, a little distance from the city. The temple is historic, but a bit eerie and weird. The scenic beauty of the place where it is built is enticing and alluring.

As we returned to the hotel, the sumos and qualises were waiting for us. After a much delayed break-fast, we started for ROHTANG. En-route, we acquired long fur coats and rubber boots on rent, as suggested by our driver. Numerous shops that lend these coats etc are present on the road sides.

The mountain road to ROHTANG was just breathtaking. Numerous waterfalls adorned one side of the path, and Steep Mountain gorges on the other. With just one stoppage, it took about four hours before we reached the mountain pass.






The next two hours have just been imprinted on each of our minds. Snow, snow, and snow; regardless of the direction we looked. Snow balls started to fly around, pictures started getting clicked, and I just find myself short of words to completely describe the ecstatic feeling we all had in those moments.

Very reluctantly, we began our return around 5 o’clock. The beautiful mountain roads seemed glistening in the dusky sunlight. We even stopped at a waterfall, and I promise I still wonder how such cold water could be in liquid state.

BON-FIRE NIGHT

We reached our hotel around 9 in the evening, and had dinner. The cake we had ordered for the teacher’s day was waiting, and so was the bon-fire at the hotel’s terrace (we had arranged that in advance with the manager).

The actors of IT 07, including Ankit Chitkara, Lohit, Dikshit, Dharamveer etc presented many hilarious acts, and left all with their stomachs aching. Then followed the performances by our teachers. Saru ma’am sang a beautiful song, while Dinesh Sir copied some cool dance steps from our ace dancer Lohit. Dinesh Sir even rewarded students who danced solo there. All in all, the second night was a complete hit too, though I missed most of it, because I was paying all the balance bills at that time.

Then due to some reasons, it was decided that we will leave early in the morning at three. So, whatever sleep we had that night was in the bus.

6 September. Sunday

The entire last day in the bus was again full of dance, songs, some card games, and interesting tasks for those who lost in the card game.

We visited Gurudwara Aanandpur Sahib in the after noon, and the final stop before college was the Mc Donald’s just on the periphery of Jalandhar City.
                               
Nitin at Aanadpur Sahib
 
At Mc Donald.


After that, the nostalgic feeling started creeping over all of us, because no one of us wanted the fun to end. So we shouted extra hard, danced extra hard and sang extra loud as we entered the city. The bus stopped just outside the college, and loud cheers remarked the end of the fantastic tour that we had.

And almost everyone, even Saru ma’am, had a single question, “When are we going next?”

The four days, and three nights, have passed away, but I still miss each and every moment of the tour. The atmosphere in the class has changed drastically after that. The feeling of oneness and belonging has increased manifold after those 4 days. And we have become more than just a class. We have become friends. We have become “THE IT-07”.

God bless each and everyone of my class. And especially who made this trip a complete success.

Jai Mata Di.