A trip of a lifetime....

It all started as a simple Routine trip some 12 days back and  got converted in to such a  wild,captivating,eventful,mesmerising and a completely memorable journey.

The whole thought took me away from the busy Leh Airport to few days back.When Neeru called me to tell about the Ladakh trip,I was in two minds about going for a trek and started thinking of the long and dusty never ending trails which screws the life out of you(as if mine had not been screwed enough through my  years of sales experience).With just a graduation degree,I feel I have had a fair share of good experiences working with a MNC for many years.

My parents belonged to a modest middle class and never understood what I was doing and where will it lead me to.I don’t blame them because they themselves were never exposed to the world to guide me through.I am the proverbial peace  and happiness loving individual and I am lucky to have got enough good experiences in life.

Any way Coming back to the trip idea,yes,I must take the onus to tell about Neeru, my cousin, first as she is the most near and dear to me.She is someone with whom I had the most lovely moments when we studied and with a lot of disagreements on many things,we happened to share a lot of commonality in ideas so we were very near when it came to caring and sharing.She is very warm and so receptive that even a stranger feels comfortable in no time,when in her company. She is very popular with her students. Neeru has been travelling and trekking at least a few times in all these years while I am completely out of touch with any kind of tour,leave alone trek.(The last I went on a trek was ten years back).But during my school days I have been to many treks and tough ones in Uttarakhand and Himachal.

But the idea of Ladakh excited me and something from inside me told me that it would be a soul searching spiritual trip(it turned out to be much more).After almost two days of deliberation on how I will convince my boss, I gave the thought  for a few minutes from my heart and called up Neeru to confirm my presence on board. Neeru was delighted and with much of details,sent me an itinerary immediately on mail.which I honestly never read,except the date when I would reach Delhi and the date when I start back from Delhi.Rest all was planned by Neeru, so I was bindaas not thinking about any of those.

Talking of other Members,Neeru told me Sally, would be there.I have happened to meet Sally only once. Sally was one girl whom I have met in my life,who is full of confidence and is a self made individual.When she thought of starting her own business some  years back,everybody thought she was crazy and was wasting her time.Today because of her grit and endurance she is a proud owner of a business that is booming and she is very well known in her place.She is really a great entrepreneur and a very good inspiration for many around her.

Preeti,a fashion designer was to be another member of the group.I have met Preeti a couple of times. I had never spent enough time with Preeti as she used to be junior to us in college.But through Neeru some interactions with her happened and I found her to be very cute and confident girl with a lot of ambition to become big in life.This trip,would give me something more to know about her also.

The fourth,last but not the least was Ria and she was the only one completely unknown to me.Except for the fact that Neeru told me she was a financial consultant and a dynamic,young,outgoing girl.Her father being a bit conventional was quite protective so she was not moving around so much.This trip would probably be her longest outing in life till now.

Ah! In all this spate of introductions,I forgot to think about one crucial factor.It was going to be a one is to four ratio in the group.I could sense the pressure of handling four girls,all professionals in their own field,hard nosed,I felt, going on a wild Ladakh trip.I told Neeru about this  very fact next day.She asked me to chill and not read much into the one boy four girls theory.She asked me to just think about the trip and the program she had sent me on mail.I generally am a guy driven by sixth sense and do not like too much of analysis of the situation.So I just thought of the date when I had to reach Delhi.and the date when I have to start return journey from Delhi.Whatever in between will flow naturally,I thought.

Mostly we were known to each other except Ria who I was meeting for the first time.My sixth sense said she may be quite a lively person.For this one more time my sixth sense was bang on target.What I had thought about Ria was very less to describe her.We will get into the details as we go more into the journey.

My boss was a bit shocked to hear that I wanted 15 days leave.He could not believe his ears,so asked twice.After much of deliberation and the commitment of completing all unfinished work before going and completing the backlog by month end after coming,he agreed to sign my application.I was delighted because this,I think was the single biggest hurdle to the trip.

I was on the moon and gave a call immediately to Neeru to confirm having received the leave sanction.She was startled that after giving confirmation for the trip I had managed the leave.Little did she know how sales guys operate. She had taken all prior permissions from her university boss and planned the trip.And Here was I who did it just the other way round,and still got through.

I told her how I did screw up happiness of my boss and she advised me like a granny not to use these words as I would be in all girls company for the next few days.I must be a gentleman,even if for her sake. Neeru is such a person who will not be able to hide her smile when such things are told,sometimes she laughs also when she cannot hold it further but within seconds she will act as a moral  inspector, say this,this is not polite enough,this is not light enough,it is a bit cheap…blah..blah….Who would explain to her that dark humour is not cheap.Lot of people pay a lot of money for it.But all said and done my cousin is the best.

I was the first one to land at Delhi,followed by Neeru who came two hours later as we settled in a small home cum guest house owned by a crazy Chaudhary sahib who apart from staring at us all the time was overboard with the description of his place and the services it offered.Although reality was far from this.In the evening we got confirmation on Sally and Ria boarding their flights from their respective places and we started for the airport to receive them.They were to almost simultaneously so that saved us one extra trip to the airport.

Ria’s father being a retired army officer and a great disciplinarian, he brought her to the airport as early as 6 pm for a flight which was at 9 pm,as if she had to do 2-3 check in dress rehearsals before finally boarding the aircraft.She sat at the airport and probably knew about all the flights operating between 7-9pm before she could board her own at 930 pm.As we got confirmatory message about their departure I and Neeru reached the airport.Sally was the first to come out followed by Ria and there she was,just like I had thought!

She looked at me standing next to Neeru and waved.Not realizing for a moment also that she was waving at Neeru, I also waved at her.Confusion right at the beginning.As the duo reached the taxi,Sally started telling Neeru about what all she had packed starting from medicines to cosmetics to jeans to so many other items and told her still a lot of things have to be bought at Manali which was our frst night halt in Himachal Pradesh. I wondered whether sally was going to permanently stay at Ladakh with the kind & variety of items and large baggage she was carrying.A gentle tap at my shoulder took my attention away from Sally.It was Ria,her face partially covered by a flock of hair which was flying unattended.She obviously knew about me what Neeru had told her.I must admit she was very open right from the word go.

She must be around 30 years,I thought,around same age as Preeti, and looked very attaractive in her pinkish T Shirt and body fit jeans with a trademark navel showing at the point where her T shirt met with her jeans belly buttons.She was cool and quite excited about the trip.Every time she had to make a point to me,she would tap at my shoulder during our journey from airport to the Chaudhary mansion,where the Chaudhary stood as if a ghost was doing overtime at 11 in the night.All of us had quick dinner and as we were tired with our journeys and had to wake up at 4 AM because our flight to Kullu was at 6.15 AM.The first day at the base ended abruptly after dinner with excited short discussion about the next day and the trip and then we retired in our respective rooms,I mean I went to my single room and girls stayed in the large room which they had for themselves.