Jim Corbett- An Unforgettable Journey with Friends

It was Dec 2007, and Santy’s room was full of noise and squeal. One voice was, “Go for Dehradun, I have never been there, and I want to celebrate this New Year eve there”. Another voice was, “Go alone, we are not coming. Bloody, is Dehradun a place to visit on New Year eve? I am suggesting, Jaipur”. “Oye, Oye, Jaipur… Keep your mouth shut like refrigerator door. Don’t suggest places those are boring like your dressing sense”, this was the third voice. Then there was a fourth voice, and then fifth, and then whole conversation turned to %$%@^*%$^%%^&%&%$&*&@@%&. Names of these voices were, Santy, Rathore saab, Amit, Neeraj, Ashish, and I (Rizwan).

Suddenly someone said, “what about a National park?” And noise turned to silence and people started staring each other. Santy said, “not a bad idea…” Rathore Saab was nodding his head as usual. Amit was grinning, Neeraj started scratching his head, Ashish was taking his last sip of tea with smile. Now, this was my turn, I asked, “There are all around 96 national parks. Where should we go?” People started giving suggestions, and I was not sure how we had reached to conclusion, Jim Corbett. All of us yelled, “Jim Corbett…Done”. People started shouting again, “Yo Yo, time demands tea, we want tea…” Santy started preparing tea and others started making unrealistic plans those were not at all humanly possible. Neeraj said, “ I will catch the tiger and put my hands around his neck”. Amit said, “ I will capture this moment”. Ashish said, “Don’t forget switching the camera on else you would lose the lasting moments of Neeraj, as this was going to be his last pic.” I was sitting with Rathore saab and discussing the plans to make the trip successful. Santy was preparing tea and resonating a ghazal, his mild voice was coming out from the kitchen….

Holding cup in hand, we were making plans what to do and what not. Santy and I were deciding responsibilities for everyone. Santy was supposed to contact a travel agent to get the utmost cost effective deal, I was supposed to arrange a vehicle at best rates, Rathore saab was assigned to arrange eatables & other items, Amit was assigned to arrange the latest songs and burnt CDs, Ashish was supposed to work as a reminder, and Neeraj was tasked to keep his mouth shut that was not at all possible. Actually speaking, Neeraj and his talks were the heartbeats of the trip. Departure date was decided; it was 29th Dec 2007.

Day 1

My cell phone was ringing more number of times than of a share broker. It was 8:15 pm, and my cell phone started screaming again; Santy calling was appearing on the screen. “Riz, how much time?”, Santy asked. I said, “In next 30 mins I will be poking your butt”, and closed the conversation. I headed to Santy’s room with AC Tavera. I reached at Santy’s room at 8:45; Amit was squealing at his highest vocal pitch, and his voice was coming out of the room. I entered in the room and people started squealing again. Everyone was shrilling with excitement except Rathore saab. He was just smiling as usual.

Our unforgettable journey was started at 10:20 pm. After 2 hours drive, we were out of Delhi and started counting the kilometers. People started throwing questions towards driver. “Driver saab, what’s your name.” Santy asked. “People addressed me, Sharma ji”, driver said. “How much time would we take to reach?”, Amit asked. Sharma ji adjusted the mirror and said, “Will be reaching around 6-7 am”. Then people started saying, “kisi badhiya dhabe par rokna, Sharma ji.” Music was getting played on high volume, and everyone was trying to be the part of chorus. Speedometer needle was kissing 92 Kms/Hr mark.

Day 2

It was 1:30 am and Sharma ji turned the Tavera left towards a very lively dhaba. Lights were glittering, music was on, and people strength was self-explaining that Sharma ji took us to the right place. Food was awesome, and dinner was closed with mind-blowing tea. We all were shivering at 8 degree Temperature, but we all were unstoppable. Tavera again started running at 90+ Kms/Hr.

At 6:00 in the morning we reached Ram nagar, and our resort was just 1 and half hours away from there. People started feeling drowsy except Santy and I. We had couple of cups of tea there. But, when we reached at the resort people got enthusiastic and started poking each other. We got ready and had breakfast and lunch and started roaming around, participated in adventurous water sports. We visited museums and other places, and came back to resort. And then we have had lots of fun in resort. Had dinner and started bugging up each other. We did enjoy whole night around the campfire.

Day 3

We started our first visit of a part of national park. It was 7:00 in the morning. And Tavera was crawling on worst roads. Roads were made of ups, downs, jerks, mud, water, and stones… At 7:30 we were near to a river, and it was really difficult to explain the feelings. We were in between of Nature. We saw lots of never seen birds, animals, and trees. But, tiger was still missing. We roamed around and came back to booking office to check if we can get entry in main Corbett Park at 12:30 pm. But we didn’t get success, and find entry passes of another park where possibility of finding tigers was second best.

We started at 2:00 pm in an open gypsy, as personal vehicles were not allowed within the park. I was using a rented binocular to find the tigers. Suddenly driver said, “watch this, these are the foot prints of a male tiger.” Click sound of camera started audible. This was Santy; he clicked 4-5 times. Good start! As deeper we go in jungle, we found baboon, vultures, monkeys, deers, cheetal, and other animals those were pretty common for a jungle. We were moving very slowly as the noise could distract the tigers. Suddenly, driver said, “Look here”. We all thought there was a tiger but he was showing us the potty of tiger. Neeraj said, “sher itna bada aur potty itni kam”. We were roaming around the jungle but tiger was still missing.

We all were disappointed, and returning back from jungle, suddenly driver stopped the gypsy, and asked to listen the grunting sound. He said, “Tiger is near to us.” And at a sudden, a male tiger jumped in front of our gypsy, looked right and jumped in the deep forest. That moment was amazing, and still in our eyes somewhere. No one was able to click the tiger, as there was no time to think. Everybody was frozen with open mouth for a moment. We had seen the most rare and big cat species. We came back to resort and everybody started describing tiger. Everyone was trying to persuade others that he was the first who saw the tiger. Neeraj was still in thinking mode why the tiger’s potty was quite less. It was 11:30 pm, DJ was started in resort, and campfire was everywhere to keep the people warm and make the environment live. Every second was taking us closer to New Year.

Day 4

As both the clock hands overlapped, people burst out, music was getting played at the highest node, and we all were dancing and hugging each other. For next couple of hours our bodies had become adhered for 1 degree Temperature without jackets and pullovers. Gala came to an end in the morning at 3:00. We went to sleep, and woke up at 7:00 am. Now, the time had come to start the journey in reverse and pay back.

We started the journey towards Delhi and did everything that could make us happy for lifetime. We reached Delhi in the evening, and dropped everyone at his place. Since, I had booked the Tavera so my room was the last destination. After dropping Neeraj and Ashish, Sharma ji had pressed the accelerator and headed towards east Delhi. I was sitting alone at the back seat, and every single moment that was being spent with the friends was running in my eyes as phantasmagoria...