Ankur and I have been extremely close friends since fate decided to dump us together in NIT Jamshedpur. After four incredible years there both of us got busy in our jobs. Though we regularly stay in touch, meeting each other and spending much leisure time with each other had remained more of a wish than a tangible reality. So when Ankur told me in mid June that he would be coming to Dehradun for a week starting 3rd July, I immediately agreed to be in Dehradun during that period. I even got the tickets booked and was impatiently waiting for the time to arrive when Ankur called me up just 4 days before the D Day and rather sheepishly told me that he had forgotten to apply for leave. Ankur over the years has changed but it's really difficult to go against one's grain and so Ankur remains purposefully forgetful. Remembering to do stuff he is supposed to do is just not his deal. Also it is never his fault. The fault always lies in the friends who forget to remind him. So after I profusely apologized to him for my forgetfulness we decided to reach Dehradun on the next weekend. I got the old tickets canceled and booked new ones. Ankur also managed to get his leave request approved. It was decided that we would meet each other on the night of 10th July at the Nizamuddin Railway Station.
I managed to reached Nizamuddin station at about 11 pm on the 10th. The train was at 11:55 so there was sufficient time to have dinner together. It must be noted that in the 30 minutes I took to reach Nizamuddin Ankur called me 6 times to ask how long I was going to take. When I finally reached there I was not surprised at all to find him waiting at the other entrance of the Railway Station. After all Ankur is supposed to do all this stuff. Jokes apart it was nice to see him after so long. He has managed to put on some weight and so have I. We grabbed a burger each and settlled down in the train.
Something unprecedented happened in the train. Despite all the distractions [:D] we were just listening and talking to ech other. And our topics were different too. We talked about our jobs, our offices, professional lives and if this wasn't enough discussed business challenges that our respective clients were facing and how we were helping them overcome the challenges. We even discussed stuff like cloud computing. For the first time we were behaving like grown up people and discussing the kind of stuff that we had only heard our parents discuss. We ran out of intellectual juices at about 2 am and went off to sleep.
When we woke up at about 6:30 am the train was already at the platform in Dehradun. We left for our homes promising to meet later in the day. When I reached home my parents informed me that Ankur and his parents would be visiting us for lunch today. Ankur arrived with aunty and uncle for lunch and after enduring some leg pulling by our parents over lunch we decided to go out on our own. Btw i noticed that parents derive a lot of pleasure in pulling legs of their kids when their kids grow up. I had seen this happen to my cousins before and now it had also happened to Ankur and I. As we were leaving Mom asked me to visit a temple also as "Sawan" had started. Being the nice and dutiful son I am [:D] I said yes. Ankur suggested that we visit the Shiv temple that is 19 km from Dehradun on the Doon-Mussoorie road.
We were lucky to find a immediatley and soon reached our destination. Ankur remarked that maybe this was some form of divine intervention that had ensured such a comfortable journey for us. After visiting the temple we walked to a road side Dhaba and had some Maggie. There was a board by the road side that read "Rajpur-3km". We had decided to go to Rapur from there as see a popular park there. Since it was just 3 km from there we decided to walk the distance. After walking for some distance there was another sign post by the road that read "Rajpur - 4km". We were so busy in our chats that we decided to ignore the implications of the board and ignored it. Also I must mention that we were NOT going in the oppsite direction.
Night was settling in and we were walking along the road that goes through a heavily forested area. To add spice to our situation, Ankur deemed it appropriate to tell me that a leopard had been sighted in the area very recently. I decided to use Google latitude on my phone to estimate our current position. The map that came up had Mussoorie on it and Dehradun was completely missing from it. However the sign posts by the road did indicate that we were closer to Dehradun. After walking for some more time I again tried to locate us on Latitude and the results this time around were actually encouraging. We were on the Rajpur road that goes right through the Malasi Reserve Forest. Dehraun was there on the map and Mussoorie was no where to be seen. After some more time our parents called us and we explained to them our situation and Ankur's parents decided to come and get us. We were told to wait at Rajpur and they would pick us up from there. Finally after walking for a long time and covering a total of 7 km on road that goes through a forest we reached Rajpur. After some time Ankur's parents came and picked us up. Needless to say that some more leg pulling followed. Two adults getting lost in their hometown is unheard of but we managed to do it.
It had been an incredible , a day that I would not forget for a long long time. It was one of those days that took us back to college days when we used to set out to Dimna and Chandil on roads that went through thick Sal forests. It was also one of those days when the boundations of time and the responsibilities of work had just melted away for some time. It was just like the days in college. I felt free and liberated after a long time.
Thanks a lot for this Ankur.
I managed to reached Nizamuddin station at about 11 pm on the 10th. The train was at 11:55 so there was sufficient time to have dinner together. It must be noted that in the 30 minutes I took to reach Nizamuddin Ankur called me 6 times to ask how long I was going to take. When I finally reached there I was not surprised at all to find him waiting at the other entrance of the Railway Station. After all Ankur is supposed to do all this stuff. Jokes apart it was nice to see him after so long. He has managed to put on some weight and so have I. We grabbed a burger each and settlled down in the train.
Something unprecedented happened in the train. Despite all the distractions [:D] we were just listening and talking to ech other. And our topics were different too. We talked about our jobs, our offices, professional lives and if this wasn't enough discussed business challenges that our respective clients were facing and how we were helping them overcome the challenges. We even discussed stuff like cloud computing. For the first time we were behaving like grown up people and discussing the kind of stuff that we had only heard our parents discuss. We ran out of intellectual juices at about 2 am and went off to sleep.
When we woke up at about 6:30 am the train was already at the platform in Dehradun. We left for our homes promising to meet later in the day. When I reached home my parents informed me that Ankur and his parents would be visiting us for lunch today. Ankur arrived with aunty and uncle for lunch and after enduring some leg pulling by our parents over lunch we decided to go out on our own. Btw i noticed that parents derive a lot of pleasure in pulling legs of their kids when their kids grow up. I had seen this happen to my cousins before and now it had also happened to Ankur and I. As we were leaving Mom asked me to visit a temple also as "Sawan" had started. Being the nice and dutiful son I am [:D] I said yes. Ankur suggested that we visit the Shiv temple that is 19 km from Dehradun on the Doon-Mussoorie road.
We were lucky to find a immediatley and soon reached our destination. Ankur remarked that maybe this was some form of divine intervention that had ensured such a comfortable journey for us. After visiting the temple we walked to a road side Dhaba and had some Maggie. There was a board by the road side that read "Rajpur-3km". We had decided to go to Rapur from there as see a popular park there. Since it was just 3 km from there we decided to walk the distance. After walking for some distance there was another sign post by the road that read "Rajpur - 4km". We were so busy in our chats that we decided to ignore the implications of the board and ignored it. Also I must mention that we were NOT going in the oppsite direction.
Night was settling in and we were walking along the road that goes through a heavily forested area. To add spice to our situation, Ankur deemed it appropriate to tell me that a leopard had been sighted in the area very recently. I decided to use Google latitude on my phone to estimate our current position. The map that came up had Mussoorie on it and Dehradun was completely missing from it. However the sign posts by the road did indicate that we were closer to Dehradun. After walking for some more time I again tried to locate us on Latitude and the results this time around were actually encouraging. We were on the Rajpur road that goes right through the Malasi Reserve Forest. Dehraun was there on the map and Mussoorie was no where to be seen. After some more time our parents called us and we explained to them our situation and Ankur's parents decided to come and get us. We were told to wait at Rajpur and they would pick us up from there. Finally after walking for a long time and covering a total of 7 km on road that goes through a forest we reached Rajpur. After some time Ankur's parents came and picked us up. Needless to say that some more leg pulling followed. Two adults getting lost in their hometown is unheard of but we managed to do it.
It had been an incredible , a day that I would not forget for a long long time. It was one of those days that took us back to college days when we used to set out to Dimna and Chandil on roads that went through thick Sal forests. It was also one of those days when the boundations of time and the responsibilities of work had just melted away for some time. It was just like the days in college. I felt free and liberated after a long time.
Thanks a lot for this Ankur.
