Chandigarh and a Sleepless Night

The new season of Barclays Premiere League was to start this weekend. Having shifted to my new home a week before meant we had to get a cable/DTH connection to watch TV. I was on leave on Friday; so I used it to get Tata Sky connection. I had initially gone for a combo offer from Airtel but their broadband line hasn't reached my area (which of course is pretty sad as it is available in the nearby areas; and by the way my experience with airtel hasn't been good earlier). The Tata Sky people came in the afternoon and did the installation and finally I was all set for the BPL season to start on Saturday. My friends from my previous company called and said there was a get together for lunch. I agreed as I would have been back in time to see the matches. The lunch was fun and it reminded of the good old days.

Just when I was heading back Manas called and said Deepak was asking about going out of town for a day. I replied "I am busy till 11:30 PM after which I can go". Manas said it was okay and we started working out options about places we could go. Finally we settled for Chandigarh (I had stressed on Kasauli and believed we were heading towards it untill we reached Chandigarh the next morning :)). They picked me at around 11:45 PM and we headed towards Chandigarh. We started of enquiring about each other's life which moved from person to person and soon revolved around girls. Deepak had his usual stories and Manas had his theories and I had my own logic which lead to a nice conversation (or should I say passing the parcel). We stopped midway for a cup of tea when I was almost asleep and continued the journey. Deepak was in his singing mood and kept on singing in what I called his accented voice. We didn't mind as Manas is a silent singer and the lesser I say about me the better :) (to be frank I couldn't hear Deepak's voice much ;)). We reached Chandigarh in the wee hours of the morning with everything closed and we dying to catch some sleep. Finally after roaming all over Chandigarh, Panchkula, ManiMajra etc we decided to park the car in parking and sleep for sometime. I couldn't sleep as the mosquitoes didn't let me sleep; Manas couldn't sleep either as the flies didn't let him sleep; but Deepak did manage to sleep despite the mosquitoes and flies. He would have been tired after his dance classes.

The next morning after Deepak got up we deicided to go to Sukhna Lake. It was around 5 and there were lots of people. People of all ages were there for morning walk; some for their daily exercises and some just to get some fresh morning air. Manas - all set for morning walk - started walking followed by Deepak and me (reluctantly). We would have covered about a km before I stopped while the others continued. I sat there for a while enjoying the view and watching the people doing what seemed their routine act. I then started walking again and when I covered another half a km I stopped there. Manas and Deepak returned after a while and we started walking back. We reached the starting point and since we had nothing to do we just sat there doing nothing. Deepak and Manas tried to sleep but couldn't. We started from there at around 9 looking for something to eat. It seemed the entire Chandigarh was closed as we didn't find a single shop open for almost an hour and whoever we asked said shops will open after 11:30. Deepak was wanting to have beer since the last night but couldn't get any as it was dry day. As we were looking for a place to eat we saw a couple of wine and beer shops open. So we took a turn to get to the shops. Just before them we found a place to eat which was open. We went there and ate parathas. By the time we finished the breakfast Deepak had dropped the idea of beers. But now he wanted to go to amusement park. He got the directions and we headed towards it but didn't find it and almost got out of the city. So we headed back to Sukhna lake as it was the only open place we knew :). When we went there this time it was buzzing with people. The lake was full with boats, the shops there had opened, and even the rides for the kids had opened. There was a electronic bull ride which Deepak wanted to take while I and Manas resisted. So we went ahead and sat facing the lake. Deepak started talking about the songs he had written specifically mentioning the song he had given to his third girlfriend. Manas urged him to sing the song and he obliged after a little deliberation. I have to admit Deepak has got talent when it comes to writing songs. Soon he moved on to other songs. I told him about the accent he used while singing to which he said its natural and we had a minor debate which ended in we agreeing to disagree. Then as we deicided to head back Deepak deicded to take the bull ride. He ended up being the only grown up (we might prefer not to call him a grown up though) to take that ride. He made a mockery of himself there. We left Sukhna Lake and as we headed back we stopped at Rock Garden. Manas's comment to me "If it is the first time you have come to Chandigarh you must visit Rock Garden". So we visited it. I found it a wonderful place and it was all there due to an innovative idea of its founder Nek Chand. We went through the designated pathway covering the entire Rock Garden and it looked great.

Finally it was time to head back to Delhi. We had decided to stop at Haveli on the way for lunch. We reached Haveli around 4 PM. We didn't find it a good place to eat but still ate something and drove back. I don't remember much further as I was either sleeping or falling asleep or waking up to fall asleep again. Deepak was probabaly sleeping too. Manas though didn't sleep and drove non-stop till we reached Delhi. They dropped me at my home and then got caught in traffic on their way back before reaching home late at night. I didn't have dinner at home and slept soon only to wake up next morning with a little headache. We all were back to our daily routines after a sleepless night and a trip to Chandigarh.