Wandering Wonders 4: Goodbye Woes

The body cold and mind free… just the satisfaction of having ticked off another adventure from the to-do list was such a beautiful feeling! There was a sudden calm post the zeal, the experience was reliving on the minds as we surfaced back on the river bank. The three hour activity of rigorous rafting had given such a pleasant feeling all over!

We changed into dry clothes and laughed with each other on the time spent just a few minutes back. I called at home to let them know of my adrenaline rush and that home was now closer. Next we were to figure how to reach Delhi from Rishikesh. The distance wasn’t too long but the modes of transport were less. The buses were running full, leaving private cars as the only option viable... again not to forget the minimum budget. We thought calling up 2-3 private car services and negotiating the deal would not take much time, but soon we were wrong. All of time demanded too much money and we had very less time on our hands. The temperature was dipping and we thought the cold was over! We sat outside a local shop for 15 minutes which extended to 3-4 hours! Clearly there was no vehicle in sight. By the amount of calls we had made to various travel agents, we can easily shift there to start our own business. 6 am flight to catch, 4 am checking in needed at the airport, its 10.30 pm and still no clue how to reach Delhi.

Finally we had one car arriving to embark on our last road trip! All we could see was sleep after the tiring day and cold freezing our senses. Just as we relaxed to have finally gotten our way out, half an hour into the ride, we couldn’t see a damn thing. Looked more on our highway to hell. The driver refusing to slow down in the dense foggy roads, one look on the way ahead and with nothing visible ahead or alongside, only clouds.. stairway to heaven/ hell. Despite warning the driver to take it slow, he chose to become deaf. The only hope then was to catch each other’s hand in hand and try to sleep, without a thought of who we might bang into!

The ride finally came to an end and we reached the Delhi airport at freezing 4.30 am. With again left with nothing to do. We sat outside the airport because not all of us were supposed to return by plane. We sat to give each other company at the empty waiting area, going back in the days that had just gone by. The clock ticked and so did my mind, to cancel those tickets, stay back a day more. No giving damn about returning to work tomorrow, just resting in some hotel in Delhi, looking around, accepting the hangover of the end of an awesome journey.. home calling!

It was time to say goodbye to the friends waiting back. Heart twitched as they gave us the goodbye hug. They’d half convinced me to drown down the money spent on the flight tickets and wait back. They were going to return in just about 2 days to Mumbai but I didn’t feel like leaving them back there. No, we were supposed to be together. In these matters of few days we had stuck through and just leaving ahead didn’t seem right. It did not. Praying for dense fog, the delayed flight, the lost luggage or the plane just refusing to take off, we made our way through the check-in counters. The plane took off….

While I opened my eyes after the small nap, everything seemed blurry. Home was closer but happiness still lied behind. I got up as I sniffed and accepted the reality of getting back to routine. The trip had ended and there was too much dust in Mumbai that went in my eyes. Rubbing my eyes, I got off.

To one helluva of a journey.. 

To No Letting Go