I just saw Guru yesterday and I'm not here to give a review for the movie, but for the sub-titles. I watched the movie in a cinema hall in Montreal called AMC, where I have also seen the new Don and Lage Raho Munnabhai. It was a very sad state of affairs when it came to the sub-titles. Half the dialogues in the movie don't have sub-titles at all! And the ones that did, some of the words were written in hindi itself, except in italics! On the top of my head, i can remember the following words - jalkukdi, mirchirani, and there were more. There were quite a few Canadians in the cinema hall and I kept thinking what a waste of money it must have been for them. The songs haven't been sub-titled at all. Its very shoddy work by whoever has done it.
Don and Munnabhai had wonderful sub-titles. In fact, Munnabhai had such good ones that you would find it funny even if you had no clue about bambaiyya hindi (which is almost a dialect of hindi spoken in Bombay). Most words that rhymed in the movie in Hindi, were also made to rhyme in English. It must have been very tough to do, but they pulled it off great!
I have no clue who makes sub-titles for movies, but the team that did it for Guru was really bad. Looks like they had a 2 hr deadline and they did what they could in that much time. I tried going to the film's website - www.guru-thefilm.com - to give some feedback, but I don't think they want any because there is no link for feedback, suggestions, comments or even a chatroom. So I can just blog about it here.
If anyone knows who does sub-titling for the movies, please let me know coz now I'm just curious!
BTW, the movie was good, but the last monologue didn't touch me or convince me. Should have been deeper than that. But everybody's acted brilliantly. Mani Rathnam gets the best out of everybody!
Monday, January 15, 2007
Sunday, January 14, 2007
North Trip: Part IV – Happy New Year!
People: Alpana, Kashif, Saurabh, Rajesh, Chandan, Vicky, Ashish, Manish, Khushbu, Farhin, Pawan, Nishit, Kanika
Bhimtal is about 20 kms from Nanital and less popular, therefore less crowded, which is a perfect setting for us. We shacked up at the first hotel we saw because the place was just amazing. The rooms were spacious with a great view, the hotel property was large with lots of plants and one big rubber tire swing that we became children on and there was a big open-air eating area with a buffet space and a bonfire area. Staying there was going to cost us Rs. 650 for the night, inclusive of lunch, dinner and the 31st night party with the bonfire. We had some lunch and started doing our finances, something that was pending for quite long. Back to our hotel room, Golmaal (the new movie, not the old Amol Palekar one) was on TV and we all sat to watch it. Man I love Arshad Warsi!
In no time, the party had started and at 7 pm, the hotel staff came to remind us of that. Looked like we were going to be the main attraction of the party! Most hotel residents were either from Delhi or nearby towns. The music system was horrible and so Kashif and Manish set down to hook up our speakers and our laptop so that we could play better songs. All through the party, Kashif was the DJ and everybody totally enjoyed what he played. I guess he made a lot of friends that day, but it didn’t turn out perfect for me coz I didn’t get to dance with him too much. Sometimes he would come down to the dance zone to dance with me for one song, but that was about it. He did have a great time though, doing what he does best, and he completely loves it when people enjoy what he plays. And Vicky totally danced with me, which I completely enjoyed. He’s such an energetic dancer, its crazy! He leaves everybody breathless with his fast moves! In fact, he and Khushbu did a salsa number for everyone on “La Bamba” and were completely cheered!
Tequila flowed like water and I drank quite a lot! But Saurabh had given me the job of accounting for who drinks how much and so I had to keep my sanity to some extent! In fact, we even gave a Sardar-Sardarni couple some tequila. I think they were there for their honeymoon and we gave them a good time, dancing with them and having a lot of fun.
But it wasn’t all fun and games. There was a big group of Sardars from a nearby town who saw Vicky dancing and commented on it in a very sarcastic way and then said not-so-nice stuff on people from Bombay. Chandan kinda responded to that by singing “pagdi utaar, jatta, pagdi utaar” (remove your turban, jatta, remove your turban) as a parody to a song that asks them to take care of their turban, which I think hurt their egos. So they took Chandan into their circle and started dancing with him in a very intimidating way. And when Nishit saw that, he interfered and when men take on men like that, you know what happens! Well thankfully there wasn’t a fist fight, but there were some verbal niceties that were thrown, but eventually everything was fine because the actual clash was only between a few people in their group as well as ours. So the rest of the guys sorted the matter out, apologized (from both sides), and we got on with our party!
But no no no…it wasn’t over yet! One of the hotel staff at the restaurant flicked a bottle of Appy Fizz from our bag and was caught red-handed. Appy Fizz ha ha! But we eventually realized that a bottle of whisky was also missing and that’s when all the guys (again!) started fighting with him and asking him to return it. But they had probably already finished it and so stuck to the “We didn’t take it” routine.
The ending moments of the party were very memorable when a bunch of Nepali guys came in to the party. One of them had a guitar and played many good tunes with all of us singing along. It was just very beautiful, in the starry night, around the bonfire! Some Nepali tunes they played and sung were also very hummable. At the end, the night ended perfectly with a good sleep under the warm quilt!
The next morning, we left early at 7 am (after sleeping at 3…yawn) and the route back was uneventful. We had good mature debates on history and wars and so many more things. How we became adults while going back, I don’t know! I guess we were tired and it had dawned upon us that the fun was over.
One bad incident that happened to us on the way back was where we stopped for breakfast. The restaurant had 3 dogs, of which one was tied. The poor thing wanted to be free but they didn’t listen to our pleas either. The worst came when the dog dropped a chair amidst its whining and a young restaurant staff kicked the dog, and in his anger kicked the other dog as well. Now we might be unruly youth and we drink and smoke and can’t really be termed as inspirational, but we know humanity or dogity, whatever. None of us could stand it that such a thing was done in front of our eyes, customers. When we asked him why the hell he did that, he did it again. And that was it. We cancelled all pending order and refused to pay for all cancelled orders. We would only pay for what we ate. An old man, probably his father, apologized and asked us to pay all since they had already finished making it. We felt bad for him, paid and left, but didn’t eat anymore there, even though people were hungry. We would find another place. It was horrible, the attitude. The young man actually said that they take care of the dog so they can treat it in any way and we should not be interfering. I really wish our animal cruelty laws were stronger so that we could make a police complaint. Fuckers.
Anyways, we reached Delhi, dropped Chandan to the airport, but eventually his flight got cancelled and he took the train with us. Because of a last minute cancellation by Vedant, we had an extra ticket, so Chandan used that. Once in Bombay, the TC caught us. We were having too many arguments in this trip! Although we had all tickets, Saurabh, Farhin, Kanika and Vicky got off the train in Surat. Now the problem here is with the train ticket system. For 13 people, we got 2 tickets – for 6 and 7 people each. So although only 4 of them left, they had to take one of those tickets in case the Ticket Checker asked for it. So we were now 9 people who got off at Bombay with a ticket for 7 people. Unfortunately, the TC asked to see them and we were screwed. In fact, we even asked him to check on the computer system or the paper list of people and we would show them IDs. But the system is that we will pay now, and apply for a refund later! I hate the kind of bureaucracy every government system has in this country. Anyways, Roopali was there to pick up Manish and me and her tried to request the TC to let us go, coz we were honest people and have not broken the law. So eventually, he let us go, after Ashish apologized, coz for some reason he was most angry on Ashish! And with that, we ended our trip with one final dinner at Amar’s dhaba. Yummy yummy!
Bhimtal is about 20 kms from Nanital and less popular, therefore less crowded, which is a perfect setting for us. We shacked up at the first hotel we saw because the place was just amazing. The rooms were spacious with a great view, the hotel property was large with lots of plants and one big rubber tire swing that we became children on and there was a big open-air eating area with a buffet space and a bonfire area. Staying there was going to cost us Rs. 650 for the night, inclusive of lunch, dinner and the 31st night party with the bonfire. We had some lunch and started doing our finances, something that was pending for quite long. Back to our hotel room, Golmaal (the new movie, not the old Amol Palekar one) was on TV and we all sat to watch it. Man I love Arshad Warsi!
In no time, the party had started and at 7 pm, the hotel staff came to remind us of that. Looked like we were going to be the main attraction of the party! Most hotel residents were either from Delhi or nearby towns. The music system was horrible and so Kashif and Manish set down to hook up our speakers and our laptop so that we could play better songs. All through the party, Kashif was the DJ and everybody totally enjoyed what he played. I guess he made a lot of friends that day, but it didn’t turn out perfect for me coz I didn’t get to dance with him too much. Sometimes he would come down to the dance zone to dance with me for one song, but that was about it. He did have a great time though, doing what he does best, and he completely loves it when people enjoy what he plays. And Vicky totally danced with me, which I completely enjoyed. He’s such an energetic dancer, its crazy! He leaves everybody breathless with his fast moves! In fact, he and Khushbu did a salsa number for everyone on “La Bamba” and were completely cheered!
Tequila flowed like water and I drank quite a lot! But Saurabh had given me the job of accounting for who drinks how much and so I had to keep my sanity to some extent! In fact, we even gave a Sardar-Sardarni couple some tequila. I think they were there for their honeymoon and we gave them a good time, dancing with them and having a lot of fun.
But it wasn’t all fun and games. There was a big group of Sardars from a nearby town who saw Vicky dancing and commented on it in a very sarcastic way and then said not-so-nice stuff on people from Bombay. Chandan kinda responded to that by singing “pagdi utaar, jatta, pagdi utaar” (remove your turban, jatta, remove your turban) as a parody to a song that asks them to take care of their turban, which I think hurt their egos. So they took Chandan into their circle and started dancing with him in a very intimidating way. And when Nishit saw that, he interfered and when men take on men like that, you know what happens! Well thankfully there wasn’t a fist fight, but there were some verbal niceties that were thrown, but eventually everything was fine because the actual clash was only between a few people in their group as well as ours. So the rest of the guys sorted the matter out, apologized (from both sides), and we got on with our party!But no no no…it wasn’t over yet! One of the hotel staff at the restaurant flicked a bottle of Appy Fizz from our bag and was caught red-handed. Appy Fizz ha ha! But we eventually realized that a bottle of whisky was also missing and that’s when all the guys (again!) started fighting with him and asking him to return it. But they had probably already finished it and so stuck to the “We didn’t take it” routine.
The ending moments of the party were very memorable when a bunch of Nepali guys came in to the party. One of them had a guitar and played many good tunes with all of us singing along. It was just very beautiful, in the starry night, around the bonfire! Some Nepali tunes they played and sung were also very hummable. At the end, the night ended perfectly with a good sleep under the warm quilt!
The next morning, we left early at 7 am (after sleeping at 3…yawn) and the route back was uneventful. We had good mature debates on history and wars and so many more things. How we became adults while going back, I don’t know! I guess we were tired and it had dawned upon us that the fun was over.
One bad incident that happened to us on the way back was where we stopped for breakfast. The restaurant had 3 dogs, of which one was tied. The poor thing wanted to be free but they didn’t listen to our pleas either. The worst came when the dog dropped a chair amidst its whining and a young restaurant staff kicked the dog, and in his anger kicked the other dog as well. Now we might be unruly youth and we drink and smoke and can’t really be termed as inspirational, but we know humanity or dogity, whatever. None of us could stand it that such a thing was done in front of our eyes, customers. When we asked him why the hell he did that, he did it again. And that was it. We cancelled all pending order and refused to pay for all cancelled orders. We would only pay for what we ate. An old man, probably his father, apologized and asked us to pay all since they had already finished making it. We felt bad for him, paid and left, but didn’t eat anymore there, even though people were hungry. We would find another place. It was horrible, the attitude. The young man actually said that they take care of the dog so they can treat it in any way and we should not be interfering. I really wish our animal cruelty laws were stronger so that we could make a police complaint. Fuckers.
Anyways, we reached Delhi, dropped Chandan to the airport, but eventually his flight got cancelled and he took the train with us. Because of a last minute cancellation by Vedant, we had an extra ticket, so Chandan used that. Once in Bombay, the TC caught us. We were having too many arguments in this trip! Although we had all tickets, Saurabh, Farhin, Kanika and Vicky got off the train in Surat. Now the problem here is with the train ticket system. For 13 people, we got 2 tickets – for 6 and 7 people each. So although only 4 of them left, they had to take one of those tickets in case the Ticket Checker asked for it. So we were now 9 people who got off at Bombay with a ticket for 7 people. Unfortunately, the TC asked to see them and we were screwed. In fact, we even asked him to check on the computer system or the paper list of people and we would show them IDs. But the system is that we will pay now, and apply for a refund later! I hate the kind of bureaucracy every government system has in this country. Anyways, Roopali was there to pick up Manish and me and her tried to request the TC to let us go, coz we were honest people and have not broken the law. So eventually, he let us go, after Ashish apologized, coz for some reason he was most angry on Ashish! And with that, we ended our trip with one final dinner at Amar’s dhaba. Yummy yummy!
Monday, January 08, 2007
North Trip: Part III – Tiger? No Tiger.
People: Alpana, Kashif, Saurabh, Rajesh, Chandan, Vicky, Ashish, Manish + Khushbu + Farhin + Pawan
We reached Ramnagar which is on the outskirts of Jim Corbett National Park on the 28th afternoon and booked ourselves for the safari the next day. Only mistake we had done was that in order to go to the innermost part of the jungle that is covered in the safari, you need a permit that must be applied for 20 days in advance. This part of the jungle is called Dhikala. So we settled for the usual safari. For 11 people, it meant 2 jeeps as one jeep will carry about 6 people plus the driver. Each jeep costs about Rs. 2000 for a 3 hour jungle ride.
Khushbu, Farhin and Pawan reached our hotel early next morning, and found remnants of a bonfire we did on the 28th night. This was just a preparation for the real thing that would happen again this night. We got some potatoes and some ingredients from the market for a dip to have the baked potatoes with. The secret dip recipe is something only Kashif knows because although I was supposed to help him with it, I fell asleep and he did it himself without any complaints (you’re what dreams are made of)! It turned out to be excellent and everybody was raving about it when they ate it with the potatoes, freshly thrown in to the bonfire and removed after 10 minutes of cooking.
We then left for the 2:30 safari ride with me, Kashif, Manish, Chandan and Ashish in one jeep and the rest in the other. We saw many species of deer, a leopard in the distance running (that was really beautiful), peacocks and peahens, wild boars, and many types of birds. The deer and boar babies we saw were really cute and it was amazing how fast and agile the deer babies can run. Oh and yeah, we saw monkeys…sitting with deer and eating together. The driver told us monkeys and deer are very co-operative with each other. The monkeys throw berries from high trees to the deer below and also warn them of approaching tigers visible from the height. We didn’t spot any tigers which was very disappointing, but we did see pug marks on the way back – the driver suspected one mother and one cub – and it really got us excited. The jeep was stopped and suddenly everybody’s senses came alive. Every tiny sound suddenly seemed louder than before, every corner of vision was clear! It was a feeling I have never felt anywhere other than that jungle. I felt that I was really utilizing my sensory organs to reach optimum levels! Another highlight of the trip was a small hutment in the middle of the jungle which served as a snack bar and a “bio-break” for all visitors. There we saw a pet spotted deer which was walking amongst people with no reservations at all. I touched it and its fur was smooth and clean. In fact, even its horns had a lining of skin on it!
Information:
The spotted deer shed their horns regularly and when they grow a new one, it has a soft lining of skin over it. If its horn is hurt in the stage, it will bleed. However, as time passes, the horn gets harder and the skin completely disappears. An injury to the horn at this stage doesn’t result in any bleeding for the deer.
That night we set stage for the full fledged barbeque by the bonfire in our hotel, The Corbett International Resort. Kashif and Manish were the official chefs, but everybody helped in the whole effort. I helped start and sustain the bonfire by getting firewood, along with Pawan who was continuously fanning the flame. Farhin helped peel the garlic and Khushbu helped marinate the paneer. The chefs handled the chicken themselves, cleaning and marinating 3.5 kilos of pure delight and finally putting them on the barbeque. Chandan was the official photographer while Rajesh and Ashish were the official jokers. He he!
People: Alpana, Kashif, Saurabh, Rajesh, Chandan, Vicky, Ashish, Manish, Khushbu, Farhin, Pawan + Nishit + Kanika
The next morning we were joined by Nishit and Kanika on the day we were to leave Corbett. We decided to spend a night at a hill station called Kausani which had absolutely nothing to offer, except some caves about 150 km away which we eventually didn’t check out. We still had to decide where to spend New Year’s Eve and after a lot of evaluating, we headed for Bhimtal, which is on the outskirts of Nainital. Below: Our hotel in Bhimtal.
Information:
Bhimtal gets its name from the mythological Mahabharat story in which the Pandavas and Draupadi are in banvas in the mountainous jungles surrounding Bhimtal. When Draupadi gets thirsty, Bhim goes looking for water and when he cant find any, he digs all night long at the foot of a few mountains. The lake thus formed is called Bhimtal.
We reached Ramnagar which is on the outskirts of Jim Corbett National Park on the 28th afternoon and booked ourselves for the safari the next day. Only mistake we had done was that in order to go to the innermost part of the jungle that is covered in the safari, you need a permit that must be applied for 20 days in advance. This part of the jungle is called Dhikala. So we settled for the usual safari. For 11 people, it meant 2 jeeps as one jeep will carry about 6 people plus the driver. Each jeep costs about Rs. 2000 for a 3 hour jungle ride.
Khushbu, Farhin and Pawan reached our hotel early next morning, and found remnants of a bonfire we did on the 28th night. This was just a preparation for the real thing that would happen again this night. We got some potatoes and some ingredients from the market for a dip to have the baked potatoes with. The secret dip recipe is something only Kashif knows because although I was supposed to help him with it, I fell asleep and he did it himself without any complaints (you’re what dreams are made of)! It turned out to be excellent and everybody was raving about it when they ate it with the potatoes, freshly thrown in to the bonfire and removed after 10 minutes of cooking.
We then left for the 2:30 safari ride with me, Kashif, Manish, Chandan and Ashish in one jeep and the rest in the other. We saw many species of deer, a leopard in the distance running (that was really beautiful), peacocks and peahens, wild boars, and many types of birds. The deer and boar babies we saw were really cute and it was amazing how fast and agile the deer babies can run. Oh and yeah, we saw monkeys…sitting with deer and eating together. The driver told us monkeys and deer are very co-operative with each other. The monkeys throw berries from high trees to the deer below and also warn them of approaching tigers visible from the height. We didn’t spot any tigers which was very disappointing, but we did see pug marks on the way back – the driver suspected one mother and one cub – and it really got us excited. The jeep was stopped and suddenly everybody’s senses came alive. Every tiny sound suddenly seemed louder than before, every corner of vision was clear! It was a feeling I have never felt anywhere other than that jungle. I felt that I was really utilizing my sensory organs to reach optimum levels! Another highlight of the trip was a small hutment in the middle of the jungle which served as a snack bar and a “bio-break” for all visitors. There we saw a pet spotted deer which was walking amongst people with no reservations at all. I touched it and its fur was smooth and clean. In fact, even its horns had a lining of skin on it!
Information:
The spotted deer shed their horns regularly and when they grow a new one, it has a soft lining of skin over it. If its horn is hurt in the stage, it will bleed. However, as time passes, the horn gets harder and the skin completely disappears. An injury to the horn at this stage doesn’t result in any bleeding for the deer.
That night we set stage for the full fledged barbeque by the bonfire in our hotel, The Corbett International Resort. Kashif and Manish were the official chefs, but everybody helped in the whole effort. I helped start and sustain the bonfire by getting firewood, along with Pawan who was continuously fanning the flame. Farhin helped peel the garlic and Khushbu helped marinate the paneer. The chefs handled the chicken themselves, cleaning and marinating 3.5 kilos of pure delight and finally putting them on the barbeque. Chandan was the official photographer while Rajesh and Ashish were the official jokers. He he!
People: Alpana, Kashif, Saurabh, Rajesh, Chandan, Vicky, Ashish, Manish, Khushbu, Farhin, Pawan + Nishit + KanikaThe next morning we were joined by Nishit and Kanika on the day we were to leave Corbett. We decided to spend a night at a hill station called Kausani which had absolutely nothing to offer, except some caves about 150 km away which we eventually didn’t check out. We still had to decide where to spend New Year’s Eve and after a lot of evaluating, we headed for Bhimtal, which is on the outskirts of Nainital. Below: Our hotel in Bhimtal.
Information:Bhimtal gets its name from the mythological Mahabharat story in which the Pandavas and Draupadi are in banvas in the mountainous jungles surrounding Bhimtal. When Draupadi gets thirsty, Bhim goes looking for water and when he cant find any, he digs all night long at the foot of a few mountains. The lake thus formed is called Bhimtal.
Thursday, January 04, 2007
North Trip: Part II – Beautiful Mountains
People: Alpana, Kashif, Saurabh, Rajesh, Chandan, Vicky, Ashish, Manish
From Delhi, we reached Mussourie at 10 pm. The whole town was asleep and we got into the first hotel we saw. It wasn’t a great place, but had a beautiful view of the mountains and valleys from the room. It was amazingly cold and with no heaters, I had to rely on the quilt and cuddle up to Kashif to be alive. The next morning we got up and Saurabh, Kashif and Chandan went looking for a better hotel to stay the next night. Saurabh, by the way, is our very own personal travel agent. We can always count on him to get us the best deals in travel / accommodation / finances. They called us in some time telling us to come to the Himalayan Club. Trust me guys, if you want to stay in Mussourie, you must visit this hotel. It has great rooms with an amazing view and is priced very nicely. At Rs. 550 per room per night, it’s a steal. However, on 25th and 31st December, their prices shoot up to about Rs. 1700 per night. We were going to spend the 26th and 27th night here. We decided on spending one extra day in Mussourie simply because we loved the hotel!
That day, we went to Kempty falls which is really a disappointment because there is nothing great about the falls. Rajesh and Saurabh took a few pictures of themselves in the local attire. We left and went to the Municipal garden, on the way to which Manish realized that he left his bag containing the laptop in some small restaurant where we had eaten Maggi Noodles (slurp slurp). Me, Kashif, Manish and Ashish turned back to get the bag while the others went ahead to see the garden. Thankfully, the restaurant owner had kept the bag safely and we heaved a sigh of relief. I am told that the Municipal garden has nothing much to offer, so anybody planning to go to Mussourie, I don’t recommend going to any of the hyped up tourist spots.
Here's a look at Kempty falls:
It had been many days and we had still not opened the bottles of tequila we had brought along with us from Bombay. Tonight we were gonna party and so after some shopping at Mall Road, we bought some small bottles of vodka and whiskey to keep us company! The party was absolutely rocking and we danced like mad people! Kashif had bought speakers and an amplifier for the trip and it was total paisa vasool! All I was doing was jumping and you should really ask Chandan and Ashish about their “wall dance”. Hahaha!!!
The next morning we got up and went to Mall Road again. I got myself a small quilt for the train ride back to Bombay because it had been very cold in the train on our way to Delhi. Oh and which reminds me…I had no blanket and so I tried fitting in with Rajesh on the same berth, with my head near his feet. In the middle of the night, I woke up with a foul smell – Rajesh had farted and I had my head in the blanket! Ugh! I had to flap the blanket a couple of times to get rid of the smell. Damn you, Rajesh!
Anyways, we then went for the cable car ride in Mussourie in a place called Gunhill Point. Was not a great ride, but worth one go. There were some nice memorabilia shops at the top of the cable car stop and a very nice evening view.
After the ride, we had dinner at a place called MyShop bang in the middle of Mall Road. Its got the full glam quotient but the food sucks. Don’t go there for food. Instead, there is a small Tibetan joint near the Planet M on the road (don’t remember the name) which serves great Thukpa, which is Tibetan for soup. A must-visit place, it is owned by Tibetan people and the ambience is authentic. We tried the Lemon Chicken Thukpa and it was mind-blowing. The momo’s were good too.
Another cold night and we watched all the pictures we uploaded to Manish’s camera. Everyone fell asleep except me, Manish and Kashif and we had to down a few gulps of rum to feel warm. We left the next morning for Jim Corbett which was going to be the highlight of our trip. Jungle safari, here we come!
From Delhi, we reached Mussourie at 10 pm. The whole town was asleep and we got into the first hotel we saw. It wasn’t a great place, but had a beautiful view of the mountains and valleys from the room. It was amazingly cold and with no heaters, I had to rely on the quilt and cuddle up to Kashif to be alive. The next morning we got up and Saurabh, Kashif and Chandan went looking for a better hotel to stay the next night. Saurabh, by the way, is our very own personal travel agent. We can always count on him to get us the best deals in travel / accommodation / finances. They called us in some time telling us to come to the Himalayan Club. Trust me guys, if you want to stay in Mussourie, you must visit this hotel. It has great rooms with an amazing view and is priced very nicely. At Rs. 550 per room per night, it’s a steal. However, on 25th and 31st December, their prices shoot up to about Rs. 1700 per night. We were going to spend the 26th and 27th night here. We decided on spending one extra day in Mussourie simply because we loved the hotel!
That day, we went to Kempty falls which is really a disappointment because there is nothing great about the falls. Rajesh and Saurabh took a few pictures of themselves in the local attire. We left and went to the Municipal garden, on the way to which Manish realized that he left his bag containing the laptop in some small restaurant where we had eaten Maggi Noodles (slurp slurp). Me, Kashif, Manish and Ashish turned back to get the bag while the others went ahead to see the garden. Thankfully, the restaurant owner had kept the bag safely and we heaved a sigh of relief. I am told that the Municipal garden has nothing much to offer, so anybody planning to go to Mussourie, I don’t recommend going to any of the hyped up tourist spots.Here's a look at Kempty falls:
It had been many days and we had still not opened the bottles of tequila we had brought along with us from Bombay. Tonight we were gonna party and so after some shopping at Mall Road, we bought some small bottles of vodka and whiskey to keep us company! The party was absolutely rocking and we danced like mad people! Kashif had bought speakers and an amplifier for the trip and it was total paisa vasool! All I was doing was jumping and you should really ask Chandan and Ashish about their “wall dance”. Hahaha!!!The next morning we got up and went to Mall Road again. I got myself a small quilt for the train ride back to Bombay because it had been very cold in the train on our way to Delhi. Oh and which reminds me…I had no blanket and so I tried fitting in with Rajesh on the same berth, with my head near his feet. In the middle of the night, I woke up with a foul smell – Rajesh had farted and I had my head in the blanket! Ugh! I had to flap the blanket a couple of times to get rid of the smell. Damn you, Rajesh!
Anyways, we then went for the cable car ride in Mussourie in a place called Gunhill Point. Was not a great ride, but worth one go. There were some nice memorabilia shops at the top of the cable car stop and a very nice evening view.
After the ride, we had dinner at a place called MyShop bang in the middle of Mall Road. Its got the full glam quotient but the food sucks. Don’t go there for food. Instead, there is a small Tibetan joint near the Planet M on the road (don’t remember the name) which serves great Thukpa, which is Tibetan for soup. A must-visit place, it is owned by Tibetan people and the ambience is authentic. We tried the Lemon Chicken Thukpa and it was mind-blowing. The momo’s were good too.Another cold night and we watched all the pictures we uploaded to Manish’s camera. Everyone fell asleep except me, Manish and Kashif and we had to down a few gulps of rum to feel warm. We left the next morning for Jim Corbett which was going to be the highlight of our trip. Jungle safari, here we come!
North Trip: Part I - Con Capital
People: Alpana, Kashif, Saurabh, Rajesh, Chandan, Vicky, Ashish.
Seven of us from Bombay were on their way to a 10-day vacation to the north of India. The itinerary was unplanned and ad-hoc. All we knew was that on the 23rd of December, we had to take a train to Delhi from where we would head towards Mussourie and the 28th and 29th would be spent in Jim Corbett National Park in Uttaranchal.
I guess this trip started out tiresomely – we had a 28 hr train ride from Bombay to Delhi. There are other trains that take only 16-17 hours, but we couldn’t get tickets for those trains, and since we were budget travelers, the Rajdhani at Rs. 1500 per ticket was out of bounds for us. We took the Nizamuddin Express which stops at 44 stations in between! We got on at Borivali at 8:15 am to find that there were already people sitting on our seats! Confused, we asked and found out that this train is always full with local travelers till Boisar and with so many of them, we couldn’t really start a fight. Even the Ticket Checker told us “Sirf ek ghanta ruk jaao, yeh log utar jaayenge.” (Just wait an hour, these guys will get off)!! So we stood till Boisar, making sure that the guys taking our seats would have no peace of mind. We shouted and screamed and sang stupid songs and gave maa-behen ki gaalis to each other and till Boisar it really did seem like we were the rudest people alive. But what the hell, we were “bonafide passengers”!
We reached New Delhi in the afternoon to see a really bad looking station. Immediately, we hunted around for a hotel to stay the night and travel agent who would rent us a vehicle for the rest of the days up north. We got a hotel in a really sidey location call Hotel Klick, very close to the station. Cows, dogs and dung had to be passed to get there. Electric wires hung from the top of the streets like confetti during a party celebration! Some of them were so close to the top of some of my friends’ heads, it wasn’t funny! Anyways, Klick itself looked like a good hotel, but when we asked for towels, they said the laundry hadn’t come yet and when we asked for food, they said the cooking gas is over!
People: Alpana, Kashif, Saurabh, Rajesh, Chandan, Vicky, Ashish + Manish
Manish arrived later in the afternoon by flight and came directly to the hotel.
Information:
A ride from the airport to New Delhi station costs Rs. 100 by auto-rickshaw (they will generally quote you a higher price, but you mustn’t settle for anything higher that this). In Delhi, a rickshaw is different from an auto-rickshaw. The former is pulled by a man with a cycle whereas the latter runs on fuel. I cite this difference because in Bombay, we only have auto-rickshaws and so when we say simply rickshaw, it doesn’t involve any manual labor.
We called people we knew in Delhi and asked them what we could do for the evening. Chandni Chowk was said to be a must-see place and so off we went to the Metro station to reach there. I must say that the metro stations are so well done. Clean, with clear directions and security guards doing their jobs. Though I noticed one thing that in two different places in Delhi – one in the metro and one in a mall – there was no female security guard and therefore I wasn’t frisked. Quite a stupid security system, I must say! But once out of the underground metro, we got off to a place with minimal lights and almost no women. Delhi really seems scary for the ladies living there. Also, no auto-rickshaws run on the meter although they have completely state-of-the-art meters compared to the ones in Bombay! We crossed some really dingy roads to reach a Muslim food joint with absolutely awesome and cheap food. I ate this sweet bread – almost like a naan – called shirmal, recommended by my fellow foodie, Kashif. Stomach filled, we started looking for a vehicle to rent. And this is where our ordeal began.
We were negotiating prices with one fellow at the Red Fort area, which is where all the travel agents set shop in one big line that probably spans a kilometer. The deal is that a commercial car from Delhi must pay tax when it crosses the Uttar Pradesh or Uttaranchal border. For our travels, we would need to cross them both. Now each commercial vehicle can either pay these taxes on a quarterly or daily basis. However, if we hired a private vehicle (one with the white background and black numbers on the number plate, unlike the yellow background on the commercial vehicles’ plates), we could tell the cops on the way that the car was our own and we would not have to pay taxes. However, this can be a little risky and most private cars don’t have luggage carriers on the top which was essential for us. So we settled a deal for a Qualis for Rs. 7.5 per kilometer + Rs. 100 per day to the driver with a minimum payment for 200 km/day of driving. When we were just about to seal the deal, the guy suddenly did a volte-face and insisted that we had agreed on 250 km/day. Not only had we kept on saying that we wanted 200 km/day, this straight lie to our face was something we are not used to dealing with. I and this gang of friends of mine have been going out regularly for the last 5 years. We’ve traveled to Goa, Chandigarh, Shimla, Manali, Bangalore, Mysore, and trips to Manori, Lonavala, Pune, Matheran or Mahabaleshwar are almost monthly affairs. But we have never been lied to straight to our faces during any negotiation like this!
So we went to another travel agent, Mr. Khanna, who agreed to give us the specifications we wanted. While talking to him, the first guy came to his shop and started telling us to come back to him and that he would give us the car. Mr. Khanna, a much older person than the former, asked him to do his business in his own shop and not inside Khanna’s premises and there were a few abuses hurled at both directions. We found Khanna to be slightly nicer as a person and so we okayed the deal with him. Khanna took our numbers including a landline number for security and we went back to Hotel Klick for a good night’s sleep. Little did we know what was about to happen.
We were expecting the car at 6 am the next morning. Being completely bad at managing time, we all eventually woke up by 9. Seeing that the car was not there yet, we went out for breakfast. But at 11, when the car was still not there, we called Khanna who said that the vehicle he was expecting to come at 4 am had still not arrived and that he was trying to get another one for us. By 12, he got us a private Qualis without a carrier. Seeing no more options, we stuffed our entire luggage at the back and fit ourselves as we could. It was going to be one long journey. And to top it off, Khanna told me that he had called up at my home to do a background check and had spoken to my mom! Immediately, I called mom and let her know everything was fine and not to be worried about the call from a stranger asking questions about me. I was really pissed!
Information:
Mr. Khanna
9872177549, 9814194611
Satguru Travels
Shop No 1, Behind Bus Stand
Court Road, Near D.E.O. Office
Gurdaspur (Punjab)
Deep Travels
Shaheed Bhagat Singh Lane
Opp. Ramlila Ground
Batala
No Delhi address on his business card.
I strongly recommend you do not use this man’s services, though I’m not sure any other travel agent in and around the Red Fort area will be any better or less of a cheat.
We left the Qualis, filled the tank with fuel and when we were just reaching the outskirts of Delhi, the driver asked us, “Kitne din ka trip hai?” (How many days is this trip for?). When we said 8, the car was immediately turned around to go back to Red Fort with the driver astounded. He had been told only 4 days and the car was not free for 8. We had been fooled again. Khanna probably was buying time for another car that was free for 8 days and when we reached his shop he apologized and gave us a commercial Tavera after half an hour of waiting. At least this had a carrier, we thought. All taxes at the state borders were taken care of, said Khanna and we didn’t have to worry about anything except paying fuel costs till we came back to Delhi and made the final payment.
So we left again until we reached the UP border where our driver, Joginder, told us we would have to pay tax for the vehicle! Now this was getting too much. The worst thing was that nobody was giving us one figure for the taxes to be paid. The internet was not too helpful either. We couldn’t find one site that gave us any information on the road tax for commercial vehicles at the UP and Uttaranchal borders. At this point, though, I must say that the Reliance wireless card was a big help all the way whenever we needed help with maps, train information, or simply to find information when we were debating on the road!
Information:
For all commercial vehicles not from UP or Uttaranchal, a tax of Rs. 400 has to be paid for a day when crossing the UP state border. So for example, if you enter UP at 7 pm, you pay Rs. 400 as long as you cross UP till 12 midnight. If you cross later than that, you have to pay an additional amount of Rs. 400 for the second day the vehicle has spent in UP. For Uttaranchal, an amount of Rs. 2000 is levied on fixed quarterly periods of January to March, April to June, July to September and October to December. So if you pay the tax on 25th December like we did, it is only valid until 31st December, as from January starts a new period. I don’t know who comes up with such crappy systems, but the government sure is looting people. Especially because, if you want to travel from Delhi to Uttaranchal, you have to cross UP (there is a 4 hour road) and thus the UP tax has to be paid even though you never wished to do anything there.
And there we were, fighting with Jogi, calling up Khanna and fighting with him as well. Khanna eventually said he’ll be there at the state border to sort things out with us, but 1 hour later arrived a third vehicle, this time another private Qualis without a carrier! The driver got off and said that Khanna had sent this car which was private and therefore needed no taxes to be paid. Now we were really angry and decided that we are not going to reset our luggage once more and that enough was enough! We contemplated a police case, going back to Red Fort and getting another travel agent, but eventually called up Khanna and told him that we were taking the Tavera, would pay all taxes on the way, but at the time of final payment, would deduct the taxes we paid and pay the remaining amount. We had the car with us, we were 8 angry young people against 2 drivers, there was nothing they could do and so we finally left Delhi at 6 pm on the 25th. The whole of Christmas wasted, we abused the city for the lack of any business or ethical sense and made our way through the border, finally leaving the con capital of our country.
Seven of us from Bombay were on their way to a 10-day vacation to the north of India. The itinerary was unplanned and ad-hoc. All we knew was that on the 23rd of December, we had to take a train to Delhi from where we would head towards Mussourie and the 28th and 29th would be spent in Jim Corbett National Park in Uttaranchal.
I guess this trip started out tiresomely – we had a 28 hr train ride from Bombay to Delhi. There are other trains that take only 16-17 hours, but we couldn’t get tickets for those trains, and since we were budget travelers, the Rajdhani at Rs. 1500 per ticket was out of bounds for us. We took the Nizamuddin Express which stops at 44 stations in between! We got on at Borivali at 8:15 am to find that there were already people sitting on our seats! Confused, we asked and found out that this train is always full with local travelers till Boisar and with so many of them, we couldn’t really start a fight. Even the Ticket Checker told us “Sirf ek ghanta ruk jaao, yeh log utar jaayenge.” (Just wait an hour, these guys will get off)!! So we stood till Boisar, making sure that the guys taking our seats would have no peace of mind. We shouted and screamed and sang stupid songs and gave maa-behen ki gaalis to each other and till Boisar it really did seem like we were the rudest people alive. But what the hell, we were “bonafide passengers”!
We reached New Delhi in the afternoon to see a really bad looking station. Immediately, we hunted around for a hotel to stay the night and travel agent who would rent us a vehicle for the rest of the days up north. We got a hotel in a really sidey location call Hotel Klick, very close to the station. Cows, dogs and dung had to be passed to get there. Electric wires hung from the top of the streets like confetti during a party celebration! Some of them were so close to the top of some of my friends’ heads, it wasn’t funny! Anyways, Klick itself looked like a good hotel, but when we asked for towels, they said the laundry hadn’t come yet and when we asked for food, they said the cooking gas is over!
People: Alpana, Kashif, Saurabh, Rajesh, Chandan, Vicky, Ashish + Manish
Manish arrived later in the afternoon by flight and came directly to the hotel.
Information:
A ride from the airport to New Delhi station costs Rs. 100 by auto-rickshaw (they will generally quote you a higher price, but you mustn’t settle for anything higher that this). In Delhi, a rickshaw is different from an auto-rickshaw. The former is pulled by a man with a cycle whereas the latter runs on fuel. I cite this difference because in Bombay, we only have auto-rickshaws and so when we say simply rickshaw, it doesn’t involve any manual labor.
We called people we knew in Delhi and asked them what we could do for the evening. Chandni Chowk was said to be a must-see place and so off we went to the Metro station to reach there. I must say that the metro stations are so well done. Clean, with clear directions and security guards doing their jobs. Though I noticed one thing that in two different places in Delhi – one in the metro and one in a mall – there was no female security guard and therefore I wasn’t frisked. Quite a stupid security system, I must say! But once out of the underground metro, we got off to a place with minimal lights and almost no women. Delhi really seems scary for the ladies living there. Also, no auto-rickshaws run on the meter although they have completely state-of-the-art meters compared to the ones in Bombay! We crossed some really dingy roads to reach a Muslim food joint with absolutely awesome and cheap food. I ate this sweet bread – almost like a naan – called shirmal, recommended by my fellow foodie, Kashif. Stomach filled, we started looking for a vehicle to rent. And this is where our ordeal began.
We were negotiating prices with one fellow at the Red Fort area, which is where all the travel agents set shop in one big line that probably spans a kilometer. The deal is that a commercial car from Delhi must pay tax when it crosses the Uttar Pradesh or Uttaranchal border. For our travels, we would need to cross them both. Now each commercial vehicle can either pay these taxes on a quarterly or daily basis. However, if we hired a private vehicle (one with the white background and black numbers on the number plate, unlike the yellow background on the commercial vehicles’ plates), we could tell the cops on the way that the car was our own and we would not have to pay taxes. However, this can be a little risky and most private cars don’t have luggage carriers on the top which was essential for us. So we settled a deal for a Qualis for Rs. 7.5 per kilometer + Rs. 100 per day to the driver with a minimum payment for 200 km/day of driving. When we were just about to seal the deal, the guy suddenly did a volte-face and insisted that we had agreed on 250 km/day. Not only had we kept on saying that we wanted 200 km/day, this straight lie to our face was something we are not used to dealing with. I and this gang of friends of mine have been going out regularly for the last 5 years. We’ve traveled to Goa, Chandigarh, Shimla, Manali, Bangalore, Mysore, and trips to Manori, Lonavala, Pune, Matheran or Mahabaleshwar are almost monthly affairs. But we have never been lied to straight to our faces during any negotiation like this!
So we went to another travel agent, Mr. Khanna, who agreed to give us the specifications we wanted. While talking to him, the first guy came to his shop and started telling us to come back to him and that he would give us the car. Mr. Khanna, a much older person than the former, asked him to do his business in his own shop and not inside Khanna’s premises and there were a few abuses hurled at both directions. We found Khanna to be slightly nicer as a person and so we okayed the deal with him. Khanna took our numbers including a landline number for security and we went back to Hotel Klick for a good night’s sleep. Little did we know what was about to happen.
We were expecting the car at 6 am the next morning. Being completely bad at managing time, we all eventually woke up by 9. Seeing that the car was not there yet, we went out for breakfast. But at 11, when the car was still not there, we called Khanna who said that the vehicle he was expecting to come at 4 am had still not arrived and that he was trying to get another one for us. By 12, he got us a private Qualis without a carrier. Seeing no more options, we stuffed our entire luggage at the back and fit ourselves as we could. It was going to be one long journey. And to top it off, Khanna told me that he had called up at my home to do a background check and had spoken to my mom! Immediately, I called mom and let her know everything was fine and not to be worried about the call from a stranger asking questions about me. I was really pissed!
Information:
Mr. Khanna
9872177549, 9814194611
Satguru Travels
Shop No 1, Behind Bus Stand
Court Road, Near D.E.O. Office
Gurdaspur (Punjab)
Deep Travels
Shaheed Bhagat Singh Lane
Opp. Ramlila Ground
Batala
No Delhi address on his business card.
I strongly recommend you do not use this man’s services, though I’m not sure any other travel agent in and around the Red Fort area will be any better or less of a cheat.
We left the Qualis, filled the tank with fuel and when we were just reaching the outskirts of Delhi, the driver asked us, “Kitne din ka trip hai?” (How many days is this trip for?). When we said 8, the car was immediately turned around to go back to Red Fort with the driver astounded. He had been told only 4 days and the car was not free for 8. We had been fooled again. Khanna probably was buying time for another car that was free for 8 days and when we reached his shop he apologized and gave us a commercial Tavera after half an hour of waiting. At least this had a carrier, we thought. All taxes at the state borders were taken care of, said Khanna and we didn’t have to worry about anything except paying fuel costs till we came back to Delhi and made the final payment.So we left again until we reached the UP border where our driver, Joginder, told us we would have to pay tax for the vehicle! Now this was getting too much. The worst thing was that nobody was giving us one figure for the taxes to be paid. The internet was not too helpful either. We couldn’t find one site that gave us any information on the road tax for commercial vehicles at the UP and Uttaranchal borders. At this point, though, I must say that the Reliance wireless card was a big help all the way whenever we needed help with maps, train information, or simply to find information when we were debating on the road!
Information:
For all commercial vehicles not from UP or Uttaranchal, a tax of Rs. 400 has to be paid for a day when crossing the UP state border. So for example, if you enter UP at 7 pm, you pay Rs. 400 as long as you cross UP till 12 midnight. If you cross later than that, you have to pay an additional amount of Rs. 400 for the second day the vehicle has spent in UP. For Uttaranchal, an amount of Rs. 2000 is levied on fixed quarterly periods of January to March, April to June, July to September and October to December. So if you pay the tax on 25th December like we did, it is only valid until 31st December, as from January starts a new period. I don’t know who comes up with such crappy systems, but the government sure is looting people. Especially because, if you want to travel from Delhi to Uttaranchal, you have to cross UP (there is a 4 hour road) and thus the UP tax has to be paid even though you never wished to do anything there.
And there we were, fighting with Jogi, calling up Khanna and fighting with him as well. Khanna eventually said he’ll be there at the state border to sort things out with us, but 1 hour later arrived a third vehicle, this time another private Qualis without a carrier! The driver got off and said that Khanna had sent this car which was private and therefore needed no taxes to be paid. Now we were really angry and decided that we are not going to reset our luggage once more and that enough was enough! We contemplated a police case, going back to Red Fort and getting another travel agent, but eventually called up Khanna and told him that we were taking the Tavera, would pay all taxes on the way, but at the time of final payment, would deduct the taxes we paid and pay the remaining amount. We had the car with us, we were 8 angry young people against 2 drivers, there was nothing they could do and so we finally left Delhi at 6 pm on the 25th. The whole of Christmas wasted, we abused the city for the lack of any business or ethical sense and made our way through the border, finally leaving the con capital of our country.
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