3. YHAI Sarpass 2006 – 1 days before the trek

We left Amit’s home for ISBT. A bus journey….even the thought was giving me unbearable pains in my knees…Thanks to my 6 foot and more than 1 inch frame i just cant fit into any bus. But the thought of travelling with my long lost friends for about 18 hours was soothing. So we reached ISBT and took supplies (read about 10 bottles of water and Sunny took too much to eat). I forgot to mention our Sunny has an unbelievable stomach. He needs food more frequently than an infant in huge quantities. After a long waiting finally the bus came filled with weird looking foreigners. I mean they were not the type of “aliens” who looked out of the place thanks to their classy clothing and gadgets. They were normal looking chep who just weren’t Indians.

We boarded the bus and my luck we had some front seats with more leg rooms. So the wheels got rolling and we were chatting. Just catching up on old times. There were 7 of us that means one has to sit alone. But again the policy – leave no man behind. 3 cramped in a seat of 2 and the other 2 in front perched on the front seat like eagles facing the other 4 people.

We started pulling about the buried ghosts, we talked about girlfriends, friends we wanted to be girlfriends, boyfriends (cuz Eesha will feel left out :P), how our pointers were plunging, how Praths got a 10 pointer in first sem (die you boy, die) everything and nothing. By night we were feeling the old enigma again. Of being with each other, sharing everything, literally living in each others life. That bus journey was a lifetime for me and ironically my legs didn't hurt that much.

We stopped in Kurukshetra for the dinner. It was a small Dhaba with good food. We (- Sunny) ate and Sunny ATE. We clicked some pics there and there was a bewda who offered with full confidence that he can click for us. We proceeded and it was around 10’o clock.

The night was one which i feared the most.- sleeping in that cramped space with my legs all folded. It was going to be hell. But there was something to flash bonus in this hell. It started raining heavily and it got COLD. And with a flash a realization came to me that all our bags are on the top!! No warm clothes or nothing with us!! We asked the conductor to stop and he told that even if he did there was no way he will open the covering on luggage in this weather. The savior was one bag inside with us – a sweater, a bed sheet, one shawl. That’s it!!

So two people got in one sheet, the single guy took the sheet, 2 in eesha’s shawl and other two in second one..cuddled to fight the worst nights ever. It was raining like machine gun ricocheting off the window with winds that may have been the reason of swinging of bus. Finally it all stopped after some time and the dawn broke off. It was b’ful.

We were supposed to reach Kullu by 10o; clock in the morning. Everything was going just fine but the bus stopped at a pump. I mean it stopped exactly in he style it’ll if it wants the oil. But to our luck..it was actually broken down due to heavy swinging in night and the axel broke down. In fact there was a motor garage perched on a hill by the side. Coincidence!!

The surroundings were b’ful. Mountains one one side and a valley full of colorful flowers on the other. We trekked a little there and then came back to our lazy iitian selves. Prathmesh and Eesha proposed and teached us Bluff and then lost in it after some time (what can i say i am a chameleon).

The bus finally got running by 12o’ clock. Nothing eaten and frustration scaling - we finally reached Kullu by 3’o clock. A guy in bus helped us getting locations for nice rooms.

Me and Joshi (beings the Papa’s) went to see the rooms of 2-3 hotels and picked one.

It was a really b’ful small cottage type of hotel. The first thing on everyone's mind -

Shower?? Nah we are iitians. That's the last thing…food man foood…

With not much hope of getting good food in this small hotel we ordered half heartedly but no one had a enthu of scavenging it. Well when it came it was the typical – ghar ka khana with sadi daal and all. We stuffed us to the full and Sunny stuffed himself to death as he always do.

We decided to rest a little as we had to get rest of the items in our list (Gloves, Caps, Socks and all..) which we ditched in Delhi. We shaved as it was supposed to be the last shave we will get in next 11 days. At the evening we took off for the market. It was nothing like a market – a steep (you just cant walk on it with ease) descent with shops on both side. I got my biggest surprise – it was not the season of warm clothes..are you kidding me!!!

Somehow we managed to get these at an awful rate at one shop. You can’t blame the shopkeeper. We dragged him to the shop and made him open the shutter and all his maal came falling out. It took 15 minutes just to open it :P We saw a snow dog which lengthwise was bigger than me!!

On the way back our own junkyard engg. Sunny bought some eggs. We had no clue why but no one thought much about it. Sunny was weirdo – it was an axiom for us. While in the hotel he was working really really hard with scissors, a plastic and eggs.

Ta Da!! We got egg bombs in our shoes which will burst but will not render our shoes useless cuz of the lamination will contain everything (Ask Sunny for the blueprints..its not that simple) But much to his dismay we found it and gave him back. Not that we didn’t had faith in him that it’ll not spill just because we didn't wanted to do it. Sunny planted them at last in our rooms – for future visitors. One behind the sink and he rigged both the toilet seats so that you cant see the egg but it’ll explode like anything as soon as you use the toilet.

We called it a day, bought some good old Amul Cool and sipped it talking sitting on the window. It was memorable…

Next stop – Kasol The Base Camp!!!