As kids, Summer vacations in India was a time of joy-
Schools were on vacation, extended family & cousins make their way to each
other’s home & the scorching sun didn’t bog us down from running around the
trees. All in all it was time of action for all kids in the household. The elders in the Family got together &
in India when families came together it meant lot of food, unending discussion
on politics, weather, more food and food and food!! S & I(S is my younger
sister and partner in endless crimes) have been exposed to so many of these
conversations & after a point S would have found her nose deep inside a
mystery book and I would have found solace on top of a Guava tree in our
backyard talking to the birds and fighting my imaginary battle with the
squirrels!
Summers’ in our house also includes vacation; my parents
loved to travel & India being a big country we had many options &
terrains to choose from! There would be mountains, beaches, historical cities
and what not. Our mother would ensure S & I take care of the travel
logistics- the ticket bookings, the stay and the list of things we need to do during
our holiday; mind you I am talking of the era where there were no facebook, Trip
advisors and travel blogs. It meant S & I walking to the nearest railway
station to fill up a form and hand it across to the man on the other side of
the window- he does some typing and hands us a voucher which allows us to
travel in the Indian Railways to our destination only.
Figuring out things to do and stay was the most difficult
part of the journey. Like I said it was all in the late 80’s and early 90’s
where the internet boom was yet to hit Rourkela, a small yet comso town in the
sleepy state of Orissa. Rourkela is a small cosmopolitan industrial town in
Orissa & the Rourkela Steel Plant is a big incentive for people around the
country to come & settle down here. I remember a particular trip that our
parents had entitled us to plan: Agra-Delhi-Jaipur-Punjab-Jammu & Kashmir!
Now, S & I thought our parents were definitely kidding;
how the hell do you plan Jammu & Kashmir! So we sat down one summer
afternoon racking our brains and listing down the people we or our friends or
neighbours knew were from Jammu & Kashmir; there were none! Our usual
planning style would include drafting a questionnaire to be asked to the
natives our destination, sucking out as much information as possible- where do
we stay, what do we see, the entry ticket cost and what not.
Since, we couldn’t
find any family from Jammu & Kashmir we took help from a friend of our aunt
who introduced us to a group of people from Jammu who would roam state to
state, town to town selling woolen garments. Our happiness knew no bounds- we
finally found our Trip advisers! In the midst of the ongoing conversation came
the Lassis, the cola drinks & the rasagullas. S & I poured out our list
of questions that we had been drafting & redrafting, the pages of our
notebooks were scribbled with information on things to do, how to reach the
best of the places, the insiders tip on the doing things on budget & place
to stay; infact I remember Wajid uncle calling his friend in Kashmir from our
landline (No Mobile phones yet!) and booking a hotel room for us. Half a day later
we were sitting on tons of references and lots of love from uncle Wajid &
Shami who would continue to come to our home every summer with the best of
their products.
Our trip was anything but the best. We had a time of our life doing train journey
from Rourkela to Agra- Delhi-Jaipur-Delhi. From Delhi we did a road trip to
Punjab- Himachal- Rishikesh- Jammu-Delhi & train back home. Today when I look back, planning trips were
so much fun. It just didn’t include reading somebody’s blog and making notes it
meant talking and sharing experiences and making relationships for life.
Dedicated to all the wonderful people we met during our travel planning &
travel days for bringing us the stories from their homes in faraway land we
would remember for life!
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