Trespassing into the territory of oblivious jaywalkers

Travel tales

I had packed my bags on a Sunday night even when I had the luxury of doing it on Monday. The reason: I was too excited, so was my wife for our trip to Lansdowne which was scheduled for early Tuesday morning.

Another reason for this anticipation was that my new friend — with whom I play cricket every Sunday — was finally coming on a trip with us.

We left Chittaranjan Park at 6.15 am on Tuesday. Garwal Express was scheduled to leave Old Delhi railway station at 7.20 am. We boarded the chair car compartment and the conversations in Bangla veered towards Rabindarnath Tagore to Subhas Chandra Bose, M.S Dhoni to stock market, Satyajit Ray to Rituparno Ghosh and our
childhood stories.

Time spent over food and debate was more like in my friend’s photography term ‘time-lapse’. By the way, I am an investment banker and my wife Rakhi works for an
immigration company. 

After reaching Kotdwara station in Uttarakhand at 2.15 pm, we hired a sturdy SUV and reached our destination - Fatehpur village which is 18 kilometre away.

Before going to this place, we four (including my journo friend’s wife) had decided not to nest at the heart of Lansdowne, as we wanted to stay far away from the maddening crowd. Thus, we kept Lansdowne 20 kilometre away from us.

The place we chose was SB Mount Resort. It shares boundary with Jim Corbett National Park and that was the most enticing part of our tour — the hope to see
a predator!

Electricity if not saved here, can leave you in darkness under the glittering celestial bliss with the sounds of crickets giving you musical company, accompanied by the ripples of the young rivulet that ran parallel to the resort.

We reached our destination around 4 pm and before dusk “walkdown”, we jumped into the stream to take a bath.

Aah, the chill and gush of the water! The dawn-rising tired physique got a thorough rejuvenation.We spent some half an hour in the water and rushed back to grab some snacks and tea. It wasn’t cold at all, but the change in climatic conditions left a thin shawl of shiver on me.

We sat for a chat as we welcomed the heavenly show of the Venus, along with its ensemble cast of constellations. As my friend’s wife, Debapriya, knew a bit about the stars, she taught us about Orion and Big Dipper, while an unknown fact about my friend gradually unfolded as he whistled my most favourite songs for me. It was indeed heaven on earth as the juxtaposition of the whistle with the sounds of the nature made my night.

 It was already 8 pm and Satpal, our cook, came to ask our preference for dinner. We ordered chicken and chapatti with salads. We kept praising him for at least 45 minutes and the 38-year-old Garwali kept blushing.

We preferred going to bed early as we had plans to explore the banks of the stream next morning.

We left around 7.30 am and walked on the pebbles, sometimes also in the ankle-deep water. During the sojourn, we heard irregular yet monotonous cacophony of birds
and insects.

It was an oasis of serenity far from the bustling city life. We could have spent more hours in the dew-wet woods, but we had other exciting plans!

Soon after returning, we had our breakfast and tea, and went fishing.

It seemed Satpal was still enchanted by the overdose of last-night appreciation, as he shared some fishing techniques with us. They, in fact, came pretty handy as we managed to catch around 12-15 fish and feasted on them for lunch.

We left for Lansdowne next and visited the Garwal Rifles Cantonment, Bhulla Taal and Tip-n-Top. We came back to our hotel around 7 pm, had tea and then settled for a game of cards.

The only thing that didn’t work in our favour, especially mine, was the long-nurtured dream of watching a tiger. I had high hopes since our caretakers — Satpal, Uttam and Robin narrated how they would spot wild animals at the riverbank at night and dawn. But somehow, by now, I had made peace with myself and realised that tiger-sighting was no more a valid dream for me — at least during this trip.

We left around 7 pm next night. Our train was scheduled for 9.45 pm. The caretakers in the hotel suggested an early departure as roads are often blocked by pachyderms.
We didn’t feel any difficulty though, but a jaywalker did bid us adieu and proved his territorial supremacy. It all happened within second: My friend, Jaydeep was seated beside the driver and suddenly he shouted ‘leopard’! It was at least seven-foot long, crossing the road. The beast with rosette-shaped marking seemed to be out for an evening stroll, completely oblivious of the car speeding at 60 kmph.

Ironically, my friend, who was clicking photographs throughout the trip, missed this one. Perhaps, certain things are better left undone for a sequel, waiting to be made into the interiors of Jim Corbett National Park next time.

The writer is an investment banker with a leading bank. He loves reading books,
playing cricket and football, and  travelling. He has immense interest in wildlife.