How I Learned a Basic Trekking Lesson the Hard Way

When you are an amateur trekker, you tend to make mistakes, and I had made my share of mistakes early in my trekking vocation. I was a terrible traveler in the beginning, but the good part is that I learned from my blunders, the major one of which was over-packing things. A night before the road trip would begin, I found myself struggling to stuff things in a bag that always felt too small to accommodate my stuff. On my first trek to Triund itself, I learned the fundamental lesson that I should never pack redundant stuff for a trekking expedition.

Triund trek

So the problem began within the first kilometers of our route. The Triund trek is considered an easy one, and seasoned hikers are known to finish it while climbing one rock after another. However, I was the worst member of my group who was panting badly, one because my bag was too heavy, and two I had not worked out in years before that day. Both the reasons made me miserable, so much so, that I would sit after every 300-400 meters. I wanted to kill myself for packing that extra makeup, clothes, and snacks in my bag. Although my backpack must have been under 7-8 kilograms, it had become a mammoth weight on my back. I can swear to anyone that I wanted to get rid of every surplus thing in my bag, and I did throw away a few things.

It was hard to part with the book, Vagabonding, that I wanted to read on the mountaintop. However, I made peace with it and thought that I would buy it again when I go back home to Noida. When we were taking cheap car rentals, I had thought that what difference does it make to pack a few extra things? We had the boot of the car in the end. But I was highly mistaken, even when we are traveling in a car with many people, we have to be rational with the things we take along because every bag in the car makes a difference. My friends were clearly irritated when I showed up with a trolley suitcase and a backpack. I had disregarded their irritation at that time, but I was actually apologetic when I understood that I should have paid heed to the online articles that talked about minimal packing, which seemed exaggerating at that time. Nevertheless, I had learned my lesson when I had to part with my expensive makeup, a few clothes, a hat, and that extra pair of sunglasses in my bag.

The Kheerganga trek

Now I was again back at that point of packing for my next trekking trip. I had forgotten to research about the difficulty level of this trail, but thankfully my bag was much lighter this time. I had not made the mistake of keeping makeup and extra clothes this time. When we were leaving from our basecamp, I dropped every unnecessary thing in the car. Thankfully, I managed to trek well even though the route was even more difficult than the Triund Trek.

However, when I reached the top of the valley, I again peeked into my bag, and realized that I could have left behind that extra pack of biscuits and a T-shirt that I had thought I might use. I, with my boyfriend and friends, successfully climbed up and down the mountain. The Kheerganga trek was a memorable one as I did not have to handle many challenges like before, and I would surely follow the rule of minimal packing in future as well.

How I Met Wonderful Travelers in my Hometown

When you are there in your hometown after a long stint in the metropolitans, your main focus is to enjoy and have homemade food as much as possible. I was doing the same thing when I went to my home town in Alwar last month. I had to stay there for three weeks, which meant I was going to put up a lot of weight. However, I am in a serious business of social media promotions, which means I cannot afford to gain a lot of fat at this point of my life. Therefore, I joined a gym where I would just go and mind my own business for most of the time. I had this wrong perception in my mind that I would not get along well with people, so I barely bothered to talk to them.

I was entirely wrong in my preconceived notions as it turned out that a few people were actually had interesting lives. I took off my earphones one day and decided to run on the treadmill like that. It was unusual for me to do that, so it took me a few minutes to adjust to the noise of the gym, the atmosphere of which was certainly not very gym-like. However, I happened to overhear the talks of a group. Three guys were talking about their biking trip to the Spiti Valley.

Now that’s what caught my attention. After a long time, I had found my soul brothers in Alwar. I went closer, hopped on to another machine and listened to their tales of adventure. For some reason, they also noticed that I was smiling hearing them. Unlike Delhi, where people often take offense at such acts, these guys invited me to join them.

The first thing they asked me was about my city of residence. I was not surprised about their judgment because I look evidently different from people in Rajasthan. After I introduced myself, I told them that I also want to go to the Spiti Valley next year, and if they could suggest things. Naveen was the guy who got along particularly well with me. I shared my contact details with him and asked me to join them for a bike ride the next morning. They all were going to see the local historical monuments and have food at exotic restaurants.

I would have been a fool to say no to them!

A Yes immediately came out of my mouth, and I joined them at 5 am the next morning. While exploring the local wonders, we had great moments of laughter and deep discussions. I suggested that we can look for cheap car rentals for our road trip to the mountains, which was a naïve idea to them, but they happily agreed to it.  

It was a wonderful day indeed, and I had an amazing time. I hope to meet them soon when I will go to Alwar again, which is not too far for sure. Home calling!

How the Mumbai Rains Messed with Me Driving a Car

Whenever it rains in Mumbai, the entire metropolitan becomes a massive swimming pool, at least most of the times. I have been to Delhi as well, and it is no fun to admit that our national capital also comes to halt whenever we experience heavy rains in the country. However, I have, sort of, made peace with such situations and I just tackle my car rather than lecturing around everyone. The first thing that I do is to get my car serviced and have the brakes in immaculate condition so that they do not fall flat whenever there is an emergency.

I try to drive at a modest speed rather than speeding too much because no matter how perfectly my car works, the car may skid on wet roads. It has happened with me once when I was in my early twenties. I was driving at a speed of 80 kilometers per hour, and I had to apply the brakes immediately to escape hitting a kid on the road. I did not hurt that child, but the car skidded, and I banged into an electricity tower. After that day, I made a mental note never to race with anyone when it is raining.

Since I am fond of road trips, I rarely avoid driving when it rains. However, I prefer not to drive after dark while the water is still pouring from the sky. I have driven once or twice during heavy rains during the night time, and it feels scary as hell. I have realized that it is no use driving at a speed of 20-30 kilometers per hour just to reach a place, which I might never do at all in case something worse happens. The truck drivers in India are infamous for their notorious driving skills. Even if I give my best efforts to drive carefully, I have seen these guys driving without caring for anyone else’s life. That is why; it is better to stay away from them, especially during rains and foggy winters.

I also prefer to use headlights and taillights to keep my car as visible as possible during rains. I had hired cheap car rentals once to go for a road trip to Goa. However, I ended up paying a lot of money on repairs of the car because it did not perform well on the slippery roads. It is another story that the company reimbursed my bills following their policies.

The last thing to keep in mind while bearing heavy rains is that I never park my car under a tree or near electric wires looming over. Both these things can fall over the car, and the wires may even electrocute the car in the worst circumstance. I have seen this happening with someone’s car in front of a Mumbai mall, and I took a lesson from that incident. Better be safe than sorry. I don’t want to die in a car, at least, even in my worst nightmare.

What pissed me off during a movie in Mumbai

It was a busy quarter of the year in office because of a few professional commitments, and I was desperately waiting for a small break. I don’t watch movies frequently, so I was waiting for a nice movie to release so that I could take a breather. The movie, Raazi was about to release, and when it did, I booked four tickets for my family.

We planned to go for a movie and then dinner. Since I do not feel the need to keep a car in Mumbai, I decided to look for cheap Car Rentals so that we can have a great time together with family. After searching for an hour, I booked a Swift Dzire to go for a long drive on a Saturday evening. We went to the theater, fetched burgers from McDonalds first, gulped them down, and then went ahead to reach the movie hall.

Finally, the movie started!

But no, destiny had some other plans for my weekend!

Two kids began shouting, screeching, and yelling in the movie hall. I expected, and so did other people, that one of the parents of the kids would pick up their kids and take them outside to pacify them. But no, they did not budge from their seats, and left them playing in the cinema hall. They gave them their mobile phones, and the kids knew the button to turn on the flash lights of the phones. Imagine the disturbance that the naughty kids caused for everyone else in the room with the flashlights blazing in the pitch dark movie hall.

When the other kids saw them having a good time, they also started crying their eyes out for mobile phones. Their parents also, instead of soothing them, gave them their cell phones. Now my most-awaited movie is running on the huge screen, but no one among the audience could concentrate on the it because of five flash lights were glowing in five different directions. The cherry on the top of the cake was the shrieking voices of kids arguing and playing. At least someone got up from the seat and called the assistant and asked him to let the parents know about the agony of others sitting right there. Even then the parents did not calm down their kids, they just took away the mobile phones from them.

What the parents were supposed to do

The kids went on and on with their pranks, which pissed me off. Completely. I was not frustrated because of the kids, but the parents. Kids will always make noise; they do not know the etiquettes, but their parents do. The parents are adults, of course, and they are consciously spoiling the supposed quality time of at least five hundred people who have paid a fortune to watch a good movie, which was anyhow turned into a worthless experience. Such parents should leave their kids with a guardian or watch movies at home, but please refrain from disturbing hundreds of other people just because they cannot handle their children.