2. YHAI Sarpass 2006 – 2 days before the trek

I will first introduce the cast of this madness…

We are the proud dwellers of the Yaar di Galli in Kota (in cyclic order)

Me – You all know me. If you don’t…to hell with you.

Praths – Prathmesh Prabhu. One word for this guy – phodu. He is a simply one of those genius guys who have some extra reserve grey areas in their brains and a NOS button in their hand to use when required. This guy had 14th rank in IIT and is studying Computer Science in IIT Bombay. He is a little abnormal in that sense - as for that much brain he must be the coolest guy in this world. He is a cultural kidaf guy and can pass for a Hindi poet on the first look.

Sunny – Another genius but a lazy one. The rules of science doesn’t apply on him…this guy got a AIR 33 without studying!! He also is with Prathmesh in IITB. He will just see the opportunity and hit it hard. (read sleep)

Amit – For the record he is my cousin – a not so far one. One of the best heart i have ever met filled with positivity. This guy literally should have an aura around his head. He is currently in Batti department of IIT Kanpur. He is a social worker, painter and member of counseling team in IITK.

Saurabh – He’s from Hathras…that's it. Hathras as described by Saurabh is a village near Agra. By his descriptions and fights for proclaiming every right an Agra-ite might relish we gathered that its so near…that if you pee standing on Saurabh’s roof it’ll land up in Agra. :P He is with me in IIT Roorkee.

Arpit Joshi – The josh machine. This is my closest friend. We lived in the same apartment in Kota. He is a ladies’ man and one of the whitest personalities i have ever met. This guy is an adventure lover and a perfect example of the Peter Pan syndrome. He is in BITS Pilani.

Eesha – That’s my cute little sister Eesha. She belongs to those bio people community and is making plans of doing an MS in Biotech from the UK. She is the crafty one with a good voice and all….

So back to the story….

So we were ready for the trek. Base camp – Amit’s home in Delhi which is going to be filled with 7 of the weirdest creatures Aunty will ever let in her house. (I think she remembered the day when she cooked for us in Kota and all the food supplies were exhausted and we demanded more :P Well that’s a diff story….)So with butterflies i climbed the stairs to his apartment in Patpadganj…I forgot to count the floors and there were no markings..But there was something guiding me..something divine..the sound of those friends filled my ears (probably because they were the only ones shouting unnecessarily in this upstate kindaf building).

The door to heaven opened when i was climbing the next set of stairs and there was light...I blame this daydreaming on the Happydent ad. Amit, Eesha, Praths, Sunny, Joshi, Arora were there smiling at me with full battisi. I was soaked in sweat cuz of the train journey in a general compartment but these guys had no problem in hugging me right away, that too in a manner that should be illegal in most the countries. Don’t blame them – we were seeing each other after an year after living with each other for 3 years. I was pulled inside the house…amid, Kaku(Amit’s Mummy) looked me top to bottom and sent me straight away to the shower…

We decided to control our emotional dam (read cut down the bakar) and went straight down to business..Eat and Sleep today, we have lots to do tomorrow…(tomorrow we have to eat more and sleep more) We ate with each other in our style after an year. And that to kaku’s expertise.. I remember the menu – Pav Bhaji and Dahi Bade. She should get an Padamshri for this courageous act to feed seven of us – all hungry after an year of shitty mess food. We played our good old UNO once more which is like a ritual we have to do every time we meet…and decided to sleep. But….

Someone who i don’t remember #@#$#%@$ asked me- abey tune kya kya laya hai?? And they opened the Pandora’s box. It was supposed to be a fun reunion. Ganda wala mazak kiya tha Praths ne hamare saath.

I will tell you what we needed for the trek -

A Rucksack.

Clothes – 4 pairs including some good jeans.

A winter gear – a jacket or jerkin which will protect you in Arctic.

A sunglasses cuz the atmosphere at top is so thin that ultraviolet radiations are strong and it can render you blind..(gulp)

A alternative to sunglasses as we cant have prescription glasses made in less than a day and almost all were chashmish

A rain sheet – the one like Rikshawalas do have with them. To protect you from rain, hailstorm, heavy snow or if your tent blows away :P

Sunscreen Lotion – the skin will burn down if you don’t have one at the top again thanks to UV.

Gloves, Monkey Caps and whatever you can use to protect you from winter.

First Aid kits.

Hunter Shoes

Toilet Paper and soaps and all.

Tiffin Box and Glass.

This is when we realized what we are getting into. We are going on a serious trek!! Only Prathmesh had all the items in the list (don’t blame him he’s Praths) and Eesha too had almost everything (including the bright colored Tupperware canteens which she didn’t used once in the trek ;P ). So at 2’o clock in the night we were out there in the living room talking down how to get the supplies. And ya i didn’t had even one item on that list except clothes – i was coming straight from the college. We decided to start early shop the next day and divided two groups to be more efficient.

The next day we woke up late!! But we managed to get everything we needed except gloves, caps. We decided to not waste time on them and buy them in Kullu. Also we took as much basic supplies from Amit’s home and left at 4’o clock for the bus.

The first Destination – Kullu !!!

Wait for the next blog…