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Written by Subho
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Tuesday, 14 April 2009 |
Preparation to
Heaven - That
night I could not sleep well. We have prepared for this day for long.
For the last 3 months we were discussing regularly and preparing for
this very day. At last the day has come. Yesterday, bibi (aunt) and
pishemoshai (uncle) came to us and suggested what all foods we need
to carry for the dinner at train. Didi (cousin sister) and jamaibabu
(her husband) also came to our home with their suggestions and with a
request of some information from there. Not only them, some more
people came or contacted us with their suggestions regarding what all
we had to take to those places and what not, what all we had to take
a look at and what all we need not. Also we got some expert comments
on what should have been the climate there etc etc etc...
In
the morning we found ourselves in such a position that almost
everything packed and we only needed to start the journey. The
morning, I got up early, and did all my daily work as soon as
possible. My sister woke up late, but as soon as she got up, she
started all the womanly things to be ready. Father had some work at
home, and he was not joining us in the tour. But I found him also in
a hurry. He went to the market as mother needed to end her kitchen
works as soon as possible. Also, she had to prepare our dinner at
train, and those should not be hot during packing. I packed the
remaining things. I was also carrying my laptop, so that I could
transfer pictures and movies from the camera into it to maximize
usage of the camera.
It
was a big tour for me. We planned this tour in December, 2008. One
fine morning, I approached to my boss with a request of a
12-days-leave on march, 2009. It was really nice to hear the positive
reply from boss that time. Else, this trip might not took place.
After the confirmation, we started planning the whole tour. First we
chalked out the total trip. We met on saturdays and sundays and
planned the trip. This planning took lots of discussion and lots of
calculations. We first thought of the route
Howrah-Shimla-Manali-Kinnar-Sarahan-Manikaran-Shimla-Howrah. It was
discarded as Kinnar-Sarahan route supposed to be closed till Start of
April. Then we thought of traveling Chandigarh instead of
Kinnar-Sarahan. But somehow it was also rejected. Then we planned for
the route: Howrah-Shimla-Manali-Delhi-Agra-Howrah. As the route was
scheduled, we started for bookings.
As
soon as the booking started for 14th March, we booked our
ticket. It was 15th December, 90 days before the travel
date, we booked 7 AC II-tier ticket of Howrah-Kalka mail. The ticket
costs Rs.1788/= per head. For female senior citizen, it is Rs.967/=.
Next to book was Kalka-Delhi mail tickets. It is Rs.570/= per head.
For female senior citizen, it is Rs.323/=. Then It was time to book
Bhopal Satabdi Express for travel from Delhi to Agra and return.
Delhi to Agra, it costs, Rs.380/= per head (Rs.205/= for female
senior citizen) and return costs Rs.410/= per head (Rs.220/= for
female senior citizen).
According to our plan, the final train ticket
booking was from Delhi to Howrah Rajdhani Express. It costs Rs.1585/=
per head in AC III-tier.
Only left were the ticket of the toy train
“Shibalik” from Shimla to Kalka. Booking of this train starts 1
month before travel. We booked the ticket of this on February.
They
cost Rs.203/= per head (Rs.137 for senior citizen). We also booked
the hotels and guest houses of Shimla, Manali and Delhi in January.
We contacted Allahabad bank guest house for Shimla and Manali and
Pishemoshai was involved to a co-operative, which provided us the
Delhi guest house. Room charge for the Shimla and Manali guest houses
were Rs.350/= per day and for Delhi, Rs.175/= per day.
All
the required documents in proper places, and with all our luggages,
we started to Howrah station at 3:30pm. Our train to Kalka scheduled
to leave Howrah at 5:40pm. We were well before the scheduled time and
were waiting to leave Kolkata for 15 long days. The team was: me, my
sister, mother, my aunt (pisi), uncle (pishemoshai), mother-in-law of
my cousin (daughter of pisi) and her sister-in-law.
2nd part, to be followed...
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Last Updated ( Sunday, 02 January 2011 )
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