Sudhanshu and Monika’s wedding was to be the event of the year and that’s when we decided that since the wedding is on Sunday, we can very well go to Amritsar on a weekend trip, on Saturday and then from there on we can move to Ludhiana where the wedding is to take place. Okay now let me introduce you all to ‘we’ first. The ‘we’ includes: Nitant, Reetu, Ankur, Richa and myself.
Firs the plan: Monika and Sud’s wedding was on 7th December and we decided that we shud therefore plan to leave Delhi on 5th evening, which happened to be Friday. Reach Amritsar on 6th. Go to golden temple and then move to Attari border. Go back to hotel and leave for Ludhiana via a late night train. What an idea sirji.
We went about the plan, booked all the tickets. They were all in the waiting list but we hoped that they would get converted.
On the D-day, i.e. on 5th we found out that we had ‘hoped against the hope hopen’. We had to cancel all the tickets as none of them were confirmed. But then thanks to Nitant’s jugad we were able to manage a cab. Thus we went from rail to road. From compartmentalized boogies to open road. Some votings, some arguments and a few brain storming went over before we all unanimously voted for cab. Though I must say that Nitant and me had our two thumbs up for the cab from the very beginning.
It was a late start though I must say. Had it been train we would have started at around 8:30 pm but the cab took long time to reach our office itself. We all had our bags packed and got them with us to the office.
Enough was said and commented about my bag, which was the biggest of all. Though Nitant also had a similar kinda stuff but then I happened to be popular target. By the time cab arrived, Reetu was through her first phase of sleeping, Nitant and me had helped ourselves with a slice of pizza each, Ankur had got his bag packed and Richa, well, she was everywhere.
So finally we left office at around 11 pm. And decided that the first stop would be at Murthal where we would have our dinner. By the time we reached Murthal we had done a lot of gossiping, leg pulling and commenting. Thank God we didn’t discuss much of work. Reetu was thru another phase of her sleeping.
We got down at Gulshan Dhaba. It is one of the fav food joint on the highway towards Punjab. So we ordered ourselves different varieties of Paranthas, gobi, aloo, paneer,etc. Topped with butter and all the greasy stuffs that any health conscious person would have avoided, but then we were not that type and had no problems in indulging in such delicacies of life, and it so happened that the dinner at Murthal was like a curtain raiser for the whole trip. By the time we were done, it was a bit over 2:30 pm. We had bought two packs of cards to pass time.
Nitant taught us how to play bluffs. We also played flash and Richa, a rookie at the game, was lucky in cards, as we all lost. An after thought, unlucky in cards doesn’t always mean that you are lucky in love, all those who lost that night must have felt that way. The driver felt sleepy and that’s when Ankur took over. We had another stop in the way, from there on it was Nitant. Nitant drove till Jalandhar. The foggy surrounding, was good enuf reason for shutter happy people like us to go gaga and take a few snaps. I tried my hands at the wheels for a brief period before the driver realized my potential and asked me to hand over the reigns to him. So atlast the driver got to do the thing that he was supposed to, drive.
We stopped at a roadside dhaba before entering Amritsar, where we had tea and biscuits. Took some snaps at a nearby sarson da khet. Ankur was spotted in some compromising positions, we have the snap to prove it. And then we set off to Amritsar. We reached Amritsar at 8:30. We checked into a hotel very close to Golden Temple. It was a decent one, named Hotel Lucky.
Overnight journey took its toll as Nitant and Ankur, decided to sleep before moving out. So we decided to rest. We all got ready by 1:30 pm and decided to have our lunch.
Bhrawa Da Dhaba was the destination. Me having visited Amritsar earlier was the guide, though unacknowledged and unrecognized. We again indulged in some bad food habits and ate as if we would be dying tomorrow. Post the big lunch we went to Golden temple but then we were getting late for the retreat at the Attari border and the line at the temple seemed to be too big, so we decided to give it a slip and come back in the evening.
The retreat at the border was awesome and brought a sense of patriotism. We went snap crazy, as Reetu took a snap with lamp post, Richa with a realllllyyyy tall army guy, Ankur, Nitant and myself with anything and everything.
We returned to Amritsar, and thank god the Jalianwala Bagh was open. I mean it usually closes at around 7 but then it was open at 7:30. So we visited it. Again took some snaps and then went shopping. I bought a kirpan (a traditional weapon used by Sikhs), and all of us got ourselves papad, amritsari papad. Then we went back to hotel. At hotel we had nothing to do before dinner, so we thought of doing something different, which meant no Antakshari, no cards so we played truth session. Which is as the name suggests anyone can ask a question to anyone in the group and that person has to give an honest reply. It was fun and of course some skeletons did tumble out of the closets. But then things are too classified to be disclosed here. We then had our dinner, went to the temple. The temple was closed but then you are allowed inside the premises. So we roamed around a bit and then went to back to hotel. We reached hotel and all crashed. The next day we woke up early and went to Golden temple, post darshan had the Prasad. Richa and me had the most.
After the darshan we returned to hotel packed our bags and left for Ludhiana. On our way to Ludhiana, again we went snappy-happy. Cliked ourselves in a sarson da khet, Ankur flew a kite, we had tea, and got in the cab and drove away saying our final good bye to Amritsar, which was an awesome place.
We had our lunch at Haveli. It’s an awesome place. I mean the authentic settings and the ambience was awesome. Post the halt at Haveli we finally drove to our destination. Pokharwal Road, Ludhiana for the wedding. After asking a few people for direction and callin Monika and her brother Goru for n number of times, we managed to reach Monika’s house.
We reached wedding in time. Sud was still on the ghodi. The wedding was fun, then we decided to return. The driver was drunk and Nitant, the best driver of us all. Took the wheels in his hand. He drove 80 kms. Then we halted, had tea. Richa was fast asleep by then. The driver took over. Nitant got some rest. We all went to sleep. And by the time we opened our eyes it was Delhi.
The trip was awesome and definitely refreshed us all up. A welcome break is how I put it. One thing I learnt is no matter where you go and whatever the place may be… it’s the company of friends that matter. So the next trip is to….
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