26th-28th Dec 2010: Me and Mom left for Jaipur on 26th. The bus journey wasn't as pleasing as it usually used to be because of the numerous flyovers under construction on the highway. We still made it in around 6 hours. I always get overjoyed when I’m back in Jaipur and that time was no different. Chachu n Chachi had to leave for Kolkata in the evening, so I spent some time catching up with them in the afternoon. In the evening I had my coffee with Dadi in her room telling her about what all transpired with me in that semester. After Chachu and Chachi left, and my younger cousin got back to his studies, I got engrossed with my broadband internet... the only time I get every 5 months with a net that's speedy enough to stream YouTube videos in real time. This time it was even better, because the gprs net I used in Delhi had made my net life worse than hell...! I know it sounds boring but you can't guess what it’s like until it happens to you...
29th Dec 2010: The appropriate title for this day would be ‘Around Jaipur in 80 minutes’. First let me tell you a bit of the background of this day…. It so happened that it was Sumit’s (one of my best pals) birthday on the 23rd. But as you know I was in Delhi on the 23rd. So Sumit or Sumi as we call him now days (dunno why, hardly makes a difference to the length of his name) was nice enough to postpone his birthday treat for me…. So after I was in Jaipur, it was decided on the 28th that 29th was going to be Sumi’s treat day. Now this is a transcript of conversation between Sumi and his dad as I imagine it the night before…
Sumit: Dad, kal dosto ko treat de raha hoon… kaafi paise lagne waale hain to main zaraa shaan se kharcha karna chahta hoon, mujhe kal ke liye gaadi chahiye. Waise bhi Shantanu aur Devanshu rote rehte hain ki main hamesha khaali ladkiyon ke liye hi gaadi lekar aata hoon. To plz dad plz plz plz…
Sumi’s Dad (after a little thought): Haan leja to…..
Sumit: Dad, kal dosto ko treat de raha hoon… kaafi paise lagne waale hain to main zaraa shaan se kharcha karna chahta hoon, mujhe kal ke liye gaadi chahiye. Waise bhi Shantanu aur Devanshu rote rehte hain ki main hamesha khaali ladkiyon ke liye hi gaadi lekar aata hoon. To plz dad plz plz plz…
Sumi’s Dad (after a little thought): Haan leja to…..
After this, according to me, Sumi’s dad must’ve left the room and he must have engaged himself in a celebration dance (alas, he was not aware of the future !) So… coming back to the 29th….. Sumi reached my house at 2’o clock in the afternoon (my house is usually the meeting point of all friends because it is miraculously located at the midpoint of the line joining my friends’ houses when picked two at a time – There that proves I’m an engineer :P ) . I was already to go and hadn’t eaten any lunch because I had all the intention to dry Sumi’s pockets that day. But to my horror Sumi said “3 baje chalenge , tabhi ka time diya hai sabko (means Shantanu and Sumi’s college friends Rajat, Tarandeep and Vikas) waise bhi koi nahi aata time pe” (No wonder you are so punctual Sumit Sangatani!) . I agreed, thinking that I could keep my tummy empty for an hour (alas, I too was not aware of the future!!) So we spent the next hour watching random videos and movies on my lappy and filling Sumi’s (actually his sis’) lappy with TV series and movies which I had. Finally clock struck three and we were about to leave when future (yeah right – the one me and Sumi were not aware of) revealed itself in all its glory in the form of…. Well…. Ahem…. Sumi’s mobile ringtone… Sumit picked it up , it was Sumit’s dad (now again, below is what Sumit actually spoke and what I imagine his dad spoke from the other end, judging from Sumi’s expressions)
Sumi: Haan?
Uncle: Gaadi chaahiye, kaam hai zaroori 5 baje, ghar par aa jaani chahiye 5 baje tak…. Kaam waam kucch karta nahi, bas gaadi lekar nikal jaate hain nawaabzaade….
Sumi: Par aapne to kal raat kaha tha ki….
Uncle: Haan aur ab keh raha hoon ki gaadi chahiye 5 baje tak…
Sumi: 5:30 baje taka a jaun? Aapko kab nikalna hai?
Uncle: Kaha na 5 baje chahiye, matlab chahiye, kaamchor ke saath saath bhaira bhi ho gaya hai….
Sumi: Haan?
Uncle: Gaadi chaahiye, kaam hai zaroori 5 baje, ghar par aa jaani chahiye 5 baje tak…. Kaam waam kucch karta nahi, bas gaadi lekar nikal jaate hain nawaabzaade….
Sumi: Par aapne to kal raat kaha tha ki….
Uncle: Haan aur ab keh raha hoon ki gaadi chahiye 5 baje tak…
Sumi: 5:30 baje taka a jaun? Aapko kab nikalna hai?
Uncle: Kaha na 5 baje chahiye, matlab chahiye, kaamchor ke saath saath bhaira bhi ho gaya hai….
Sumi; Theek hai, 5 baje tak le aaunga…
He cut the call, told me about it. We were already in his car en route to Shantanu’s house. We checked the our watches , it was already 3:30. “How the hell am I going to finish the treat and get back home in 1.5 hours? Papa bhi na… kal bole le ja…. Aaj bol rahe hain le aa” , Sumi cried out in despair (hehehe… well not really). I said,” Koi baat nahi, abhi Shantanu ke ghar chal, wahaan dekhte hain kya karna hai.” So we reached Shantanu’s home in about 10 minutes. There, after debating for a long time (actualluy the long time was due to the fact that we were playing Star Wars on Sumi's sis' lappy)… we three finally concluded the venue for the treat and that we would be going to Sumi’s place first to ‘drop’ his car… yes you read correctly, we were actually going in a car someplace to drop it!! This was more bad news for my empty stomach which had started growling questions at me “You trust these guys’ sense of timing Devanshu Kaushik, really? Really?” But in the end, I decided to take( Actually not to take eat)…. One for the team. Now is the point where I tell you where Sumi’s home exactly is…. An hour’s drive away from Shantanu’s place… so it being 4’o clock when we were about to leave after Rajat’s arrival (he played the pivotal role in this mission as he was the guy with the Desire…. Yeah… the guy… with…. Swift …..Desire) …. It would not be 30 minutes past 6 before we would actually get our treat. So at 4’o clock, We split our group into two vehicles: Me, Shantanu and Sumi in Sumi’s car and Vikas and Rajat in Rajat’s car (the Desire) and set on our mission to drop Sumit’s Wagon R (there…see the poet in me ;) ).
He cut the call, told me about it. We were already in his car en route to Shantanu’s house. We checked the our watches , it was already 3:30. “How the hell am I going to finish the treat and get back home in 1.5 hours? Papa bhi na… kal bole le ja…. Aaj bol rahe hain le aa” , Sumi cried out in despair (hehehe… well not really). I said,” Koi baat nahi, abhi Shantanu ke ghar chal, wahaan dekhte hain kya karna hai.” So we reached Shantanu’s home in about 10 minutes. There, after debating for a long time (actualluy the long time was due to the fact that we were playing Star Wars on Sumi's sis' lappy)… we three finally concluded the venue for the treat and that we would be going to Sumi’s place first to ‘drop’ his car… yes you read correctly, we were actually going in a car someplace to drop it!! This was more bad news for my empty stomach which had started growling questions at me “You trust these guys’ sense of timing Devanshu Kaushik, really? Really?” But in the end, I decided to take( Actually not to take eat)…. One for the team. Now is the point where I tell you where Sumi’s home exactly is…. An hour’s drive away from Shantanu’s place… so it being 4’o clock when we were about to leave after Rajat’s arrival (he played the pivotal role in this mission as he was the guy with the Desire…. Yeah… the guy… with…. Swift …..Desire) …. It would not be 30 minutes past 6 before we would actually get our treat. So at 4’o clock, We split our group into two vehicles: Me, Shantanu and Sumi in Sumi’s car and Vikas and Rajat in Rajat’s car (the Desire) and set on our mission to drop Sumit’s Wagon R (there…see the poet in me ;) ).
Finally with Sumit’s car ‘dropped’ , we all made our journey back from Sumi’s house in Rajat’s ‘Desire’ to Shantu’s house…. If you are wondering why weren’t we still going to the venue, that’s because now that we had dropped Sumi’s car,we had to ‘pick up’ Shantanu’s car! Sounds absurd? But that’s how it was…. Not too fortunate for my empty stomach, but apparently nobody gave a damn, all they wanted to do the whole day was go on silly car rides…. Grrr….. :P
So, we reached Shantanu’s place again,where Tarandeep (aka Paape) was waiting for us, ‘picked up’ his ride, a Hyundai Santro which buzzed like an F1 Ferrari when Shantanu ‘Schumacher’ Miya Bazaz was driving it :P and we made our way to ‘Cheelgaadi’ restaurant. ‘Why the hell is that a name of a restaurant?’ Well… ‘Cheelgaadi’ is Hindi for Aeroplane. Finally, this absurdly long story gave you some gyaan…. ‘But still, why name a restaurant after an aeroplane?’ That’s because it was located right next to the runway of Jaipur airport, from where we could see many Cheelgaadis fly into the sky above..… So we reached Cheelgaadi which was apparently empty because no one took lunch at 6:30 in the evening (pun intended)! After our lunch cum evening snack cum dinner, we wandered aimlessly around Mansarovar (this part is another story,but for another time perhaps) and ended up at GT (Gaurav Towers, Jaipur’s oldest ‘happening’ place) at 9’o clock. There after an expresso coffee at a thadi (yep folks, expresso, thadi – only in Jaipur) Rajat packed some dinner for home and some Pizzas for ummm….how to put it…. Someone special (correct me if I’m wrong here Rajat *wink* ) . Then the herculean task of dropping me and Sumit (yeah, people finally got dropped that day) rested on Rajat’s shoulders and his….. yep , you got it right….. Desire. We first headed to Durgapura to drop of the Pizzas…. Wink,wink…. And then , Rajat dropped me and Sumit to our respective homes. Thus ended my longest trip within Jaipur, and even on an empty stomach mmost of the time, it was really worth it…. Hope to enjoy such times in the future as well.
[Part III coming soon…… ]
So, we reached Shantanu’s place again,where Tarandeep (aka Paape) was waiting for us, ‘picked up’ his ride, a Hyundai Santro which buzzed like an F1 Ferrari when Shantanu ‘Schumacher’ Miya Bazaz was driving it :P and we made our way to ‘Cheelgaadi’ restaurant. ‘Why the hell is that a name of a restaurant?’ Well… ‘Cheelgaadi’ is Hindi for Aeroplane. Finally, this absurdly long story gave you some gyaan…. ‘But still, why name a restaurant after an aeroplane?’ That’s because it was located right next to the runway of Jaipur airport, from where we could see many Cheelgaadis fly into the sky above..… So we reached Cheelgaadi which was apparently empty because no one took lunch at 6:30 in the evening (pun intended)! After our lunch cum evening snack cum dinner, we wandered aimlessly around Mansarovar (this part is another story,but for another time perhaps) and ended up at GT (Gaurav Towers, Jaipur’s oldest ‘happening’ place) at 9’o clock. There after an expresso coffee at a thadi (yep folks, expresso, thadi – only in Jaipur) Rajat packed some dinner for home and some Pizzas for ummm….how to put it…. Someone special (correct me if I’m wrong here Rajat *wink* ) . Then the herculean task of dropping me and Sumit (yeah, people finally got dropped that day) rested on Rajat’s shoulders and his….. yep , you got it right….. Desire. We first headed to Durgapura to drop of the Pizzas…. Wink,wink…. And then , Rajat dropped me and Sumit to our respective homes. Thus ended my longest trip within Jaipur, and even on an empty stomach mmost of the time, it was really worth it…. Hope to enjoy such times in the future as well.
[Part III coming soon…… ]
Comments
Post a Comment