As the sun of 2011 sets...

I stared at the beautiful dull-red sun trying to kiss the earth at the horizon, in between hiding behind the distant mountain range shyly for the last time in the year of 2011.It was a view worth more than just a camera click, the whole scene carefully sketched in mind with the soft brush strokes of same beautiful colors that God has chosen to paint with ,would be more justified. It was the last sunset in 2011 and I was standing at a lone spot in the bustling-with-people Mall Road, Shimla taking in the nature's beauty with every breath.It was divine!!!

Two years ago, I witnessed the sunset at similar time in another picturesque setting in Diu.This time, it was Shimla.Journey to Shimla began from the Interstate Bus Terminal, Delhi as the clock struck midnight.Getting bulk tickets in a Volvo on a weekend was a mammoth task which was tactfully performed by my team mates. But travelling in a public bus mar the fun associated with the journey as sooner or later fellow passengers’ comfort is being considered and everybody soon fall asleep or at least silent. As the bus reached our stopover(zirkpur),we lazily shifted on to our cozy traveller and one of the colleague's family was waiting for all of us with open arms in the wee hours of morning. After being fed the morning tea, piping hot bread rolls and sumptuous paranthas, we embarked on our journey further. Soon the plains gave way to the twists and turns of the mountain roads.

The whole scenary in mountains is always worth capturing as we rode on with mountains on one side and gorge on another, with songs on lips of everyone. The stops at the rickety tea stalls in between were our savior in the chilly morning.Finally,we reached our destination -the capital city of Himachal Pradesh. After a frantic search for hotels, we settled into one (though little expensive but considering no pre-booking and peak season ,it was modest one).A bath in the lukewarm water, washed away all the lethargy and we were ready to explore the city. The count of tea cups keep mounting as the trip progressed(there was special demand of Ginger infused tea by a cute friend)A trip up the hill to Mall Road left us all tired and hungry. After a regular north-indian lunch at Sagar Ratna(safer option),a few camera clicks at different points with distinct poses in the chilling weather were mandatoy.Few hours down, it came the beautiful sunset in Shimla which left me pondering upon the year that was sliding away. But an offer from team-mates for hot Chinese noodles lured me away before I trot down the memory lane. As the time neared the midnight, more and more drunk hooligans were seen making their presence felt in the middle of the Mall Road and this made us to leave the place and retire back to the hotel. It was an unanimous decision as rowdy crowd was most expected in the partying joints and it was better to spend the New year night chit chatting.

Quickly all available blankets were arranged and we all sat down in a big circle with another round of ginger tea down our throats and a riot of laughter followed leaving us all gasping for our breath. Some unfolded secrets and leg pulling sessions ensured that we enter in the new year with big smiles on our faces and nutty choco lava cakes melting in mouths(yaa,new year backward countdown was there too!!).Party hoppers may term it as a boring way to celebrate but for me,it was best :) After a cheery start of the year,sleep laden eyes led all to retire in beds.

All alarms buzzed together at sharp 8 am and were put to snooze just as well :).Tring.. Tring.. our intercom rang,and on the other end was a guy claiming to be from reception and mumbling something about when to deliver morning ginger tea,my irate friend put down the phone whining about stupid people calling others at such an hour. Later when the story unfolded,we came to know that it was a prank call from one of our friends only but at the end real ginger tea subdued our anger :P.After quick bath, gorging on aloo paranthas was a perfect start to the day ahead in Kufri.Our little traveller rode further up the hill to Kufri and after an hour or so we reached the point where we had to choose between pony ride or track up the hill on foot. We chose the latter and prepared ourselves of tackling uphill terrain on foot. The track was good but the whole stretch reeks of stench from pony dung.Also,the both side traffic of ponies made it little difficult to move ahead. Our deterioting stamina (because of so less physical activity in normal life) and love for pics made us take pic breaks after every few hundred meters. Finally we reached the top and there we had our 'Kufri me kulfi' Maggie!!(Kulfi here refers to us who were shivering ;) ).The view from there was mesmerizing, layers of mountains were laid out and clouds above them looked like dollops of whipped white cream on moutain tops.Had it been less crowded, it would have been a perfect place to get lost in nature's beauty. As the air was getting chilly, we started the journey on foot back to our vehicle.

Soon it was time to bid adieu to Shimla as we saw another beautiful sunset with sun playing hide and seek with us as we zip-zapped down on the twisty roads while parody customized songs were sung as a souvenir for this trip.

The journey was a memorable one which will be etched in mind for quite some time but more than Shimla it was the friend group that made it so awesome.Like I always say

                     It is more about the people and less about the place!!