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!
