Day 0

Setting Off
Waiting at the B'lore Airport.

Sanjeev, Sreepad and I got out early from office at around 3:00 PM. The flight was at 8:55 PM. But we had some last minute packing to do.

Ranjith (Dada) came and then some repacking and double-checking etc. was done. A City Taxi was called to ferry us to the airport. The four of us set off at around 7:00 PM. Chandan was to meet us directly at the airport.

Rajesh (KP), Premkumar, Arun Babu and Shaji came to the airport to see us off. What a support !!! Thanks, Guys.

The 8:55 PM King Fisher Airlines flight was rescheduled to leave at 08:25 PM. 30 minutes early !!!! Chandan wasn't there yet. Since we had a lot of bags to be checked in, we decided to do the check in and then wait for her. The ticket clerk kept reminding us that, if the 5th passenger hasn't reached in 5 minutes, she will miss the flight. I kept telling her that if somebody had informed us of the rescheduling, the confusion itself would not have happened.

Finally Chandan reached and all of us boarded the craft and set course for New Delhi.

Kannan was to meet us at Delhi. He reached Delhi at 10:00 PM and went straight to the house of Dennis - Our batchmate from college. We were supposed to meet there.

We reached the Capital at about 11:15 PM. Sanjeev's friend Ajay Rathore had come to pick him up at the airport. He was to spend the night with him. Long lost friend etc. etc. The rest of us boarded a taxi and set off to Dennis's place near Gol Dak Khana.

Kannan had bought the tents and sleeping bags from USA. Now we had 3 tents and 6 sleeping bags to carry, in addition to the 7 big bags, 6 backpacks and two sets of sleeping mats. We knew it was going to be a nightmare.

We tied the 3 tents together. The total number of luggage pieces thus came to 22 including the sleeping bags !!!! The sleeping bags were to be carried separately by each person, in addition to his/her backpack, and one/two other luggage piece(s).

We had to get up at around 4:30 AM in order to catch the Shatabdi to Haridwar. Hence, we hurriedly did some packing and slept at around 3:00 AM.