Trip to Shimla

This weekend my travel destination was Shimla. I had chosen this place to enjoy the snow. This trip was planned during the Indian Republic holidays, due to unavoidable circumstances I had to postpone the trip. Since my weekend was Friday & Saturday I started my trip on Friday morning and returned on Sunday morning so that I can return to work on Sunday. The trip went well as planned with little hiccups, which is unavoidable. I was able to convince two of my roommates to accompany me.

The complete trip was planned to travel by train. We had taken the Himalayan Queen from New Delhi to Kalka. The 307kms was traveled in 5hrs and 20mins. Then we took the connecting Himalayan Queen from Kalka to Shimla. It is a toy train and the 96kms was covered in 6hrs. It was traveling at the speed of 20k/p. After the first hour of journey itself we got bored, because the train was too slow. During our return we had taken the Shimla Kalka express, which is also a toy train. From Kalka to New Delhi we took the Kalka Howrah Express.

Our train was scheduled 0600 from New Delhi. Form our house it takes approximately 45mins by auto, we had booked a cab at around 0430, having in mind if the cab comes around 0500 then we should be safe enough reaching the station. To our dismay the cab did not arrive and by 0510 we had to take an auto. We told the driver with our known Hindi that we should reach the station at least by 0550 so that we can be safe. After getting settled and crossing around 2kms we came to know that the auto’s speed limit is only and 40km/p. Hence we reached the station exactly by 0600 and had to run the platform #2 to get our train. Since IST means Indian Stretchable time, the train did not take off, and we managed to get seated. On the way to Kalka, we had an encounter with an Ali (Half woman Half man). We were 3 and I was sitting near the window, one friend in the middle and other on the Aisle. The Ali came into our compartment and starting collecting money from everyone around. We were quiet even after she/he came and asked to give some money. We were quiet for around 10-20mins and after that she/he leaned towards my friend who was in the middle and murmured some words. Immediately that guy took out his purse took a Rs. 10 note and gave it to her/him. We did not understand and after she/he moved away we asked that guy what did she/he tell and why did he pay that amount. The word she/he murmured was “if you itself give me money, whatever money you give I will accept it. Otherwise I will wipe out every single penny you have.” After hearing this we were not able to sustain our laughter. After that till the time we reached Shimla everything was fine.

The rest to come…