The Kanatal Trip – the Trip up the mountains

28^th December’09: Monday morning, 0430 hrs.

“Phew! We are lucky to have made it in time..”, I say as the train leaves. The fun factor has risen to another level thanks to our near escape from missing the station. Our hands and feet going numb due to the chill in the air, we move towards the exit to look for a taxi booth.

I was surprised to see the auto and taxi walas up at that hour. Hovering like bees to honey, coolies and taxi drivers ask us where we wanna go.We asked for the location of the taxi booth and one driver pointing to the right said, “वोह उस पेढ़ के पास है”. At that moment my glad eyes spot this huge billboard reading Prepaid taxi Booth.

“कनातल का  taxi मिलेगा?”, we ask the old guy at the booth. Rs 1710 to Kanatal (one side mind it)!! Our calculation seems to not match what the ol’ man is saying coz after all Kanatal is around a 100 km from Haridwar. “यह Tehri के rates हैं |यहाँ यही चलता है |”. Negotiating with the man is useless more so because it was a prepaid booth… Nothing going in his pocket after all!

Sanghi and I look at each other and discuss what should be done. Since a cab from the prepaid booth is definitely the safest bet, we take the cab and wait for our ride to come.

UP07J 2762: white Ambi. “Hope this doesn’t die down on us”, we say to ourselves. Well, we are not going to meet the queen so the car should do fine as long as it gets us to our destination. We ask the driver to put the luggage in the boot and get into the car.

The driver needs a special mention here:  गौतम, Gautam (we later found from one of his phone conversations that he's bengali). A super hyper guy humming some local song in the wee hours of the morning, lost in his own world. Kanatal doesn’t have a taxi stand per say so we ended up taking this guy for the return journey as well. Two 1000 rupee bills dangling in front of his eye as he explains that charges for keeping the cab over night will be extra.

Throughout the trip he’s the source of some senseless and hyper questions/ statements that entertain us. Sanghi quite rightly named him a gate crasher with some lucky stars…lol! The first statement of  his was when I asked him what is the route to Kanatal. His prompt and defensive reply was "आप जो सोच रही हैं, ऐसा नहीं है | यह एक संस्था है |" You are deeply misconstruing 'coz this is an institution!

0500 hrs, the road journey starts. A quick call at home to inform we’ve reached along with passing the cab number; we head to our final destination.

Sleepy, tired and shivering from cold, I take out a sheet that I packed in my nap sack for emergency cases (the incessant packing and shopping did prove to be helpful here). I’m not sure if that insufficient cotton sheet provided warmth to any of us, but the mental satisfaction that we have another layer around was enough.

The sun did not rise till 0700 hrs hence majority of our road trip was in the dark with minimal traffic. Driving through the mountains with the sound of silence, looking at the valley with lights twinkling from houses, the chasteness of the majestic mountains...Euphoria sets in... Rushing to get off at the station, extreme cold and windy morning, numb hands, feet and legs-Its all worth it!

 After two small stops (one for petrol and one for driver wanting some tea), myriad hues in the sky at the time of sunrise, numb feet and 3 hours of patience, we reach the camp site. Yes!! All smiles