"Hello Hello" - Jim Corbett Memories

It was a trip we all, perhaps, were looking forward for many weeks since we joined Girnar Family.  Finally after much hoo-hoopla (Ladakh, Singapore, Thailand, Goa, Shimla etc.) we all zeroed on Corbett National Park. (Let’s not forget the changing dates and struggle for tempo traveler). Aahana Resort (Thanks to Umesh for finding such a wonderful property) was given the privilege to serve our team of 11 saboteurs. Finally, the journey started at 6.30am in the Luxury mini bus and the first song we played from my pen drive was “Hello – Hello”, which eventually became the anthem of our trip ;-). The breakfast happened at 10.30am at Shiva Dhaba, Thanks to SB for keeping us away from food and tea till that time to enjoy the wonderful tea (one of the best, I had in my life on highway). We missed Muradabadi daal on the way to Jim Corbett (also on way back to NCR) and missed Sunny’s Mama Ji’s Bakery. J

And Finally the mini bus took the turn from the highway to jungle in search of Aahana. The landscape changed suddenly. As soon as we took the left turn, the dense forest welcomed us. The bumpy road, tall trees, dried river beds, railway crossing and a few scattered houses was what we saw while driving through the jungle to Aaahan Resort. It was a beginning of the journey to the unknown. And after check-in in the property, we found almost zero signals for mobile phones and presence of Wi-Fi in most parts of the resort was just like Delhi’s chief minister promise for having Wi-Fi in every corner of Delhi. It was like we will have gadget free vacation. (We are so much accustomed with accessibility and connectivity that we can’t even think of our life without gadgets. In the whole process, we are connected virtually with everyone but we forget to live our life in true sense. Thankfully, for most of the time, we were in no-network zone.) After a long drive from Delhi, all we wanted was a delicious meal for lunch. What better way to start your vacation when you are presented an awesome buffet with tonnes of variety in the food items. And then it was time for games – board games and card games, a wonderful way to connect a group of people. Umesh carried one suitcase full of board games for the trip and out of 11 people 6 were playing board games for the first time in their lifes. The game session started at 4pm. While we were playing games, Sunny and Vishesh were busy in their office work and making some calls here and there. With almost zero signals for mobile network, Sunny and Vishesh walked almost 500-600 meters to find a full signal to do a conference call for their office work. And suddenly we realized it was 9pm. Sunny and Visheh entered room fully drenched due to heave rains. With this there was a forced break in the game session and people started felling hungry. With heavy rains outside our villa, no one was willing to go to restaurant for a dinner J and everyone was finding a way to get dinner served in the room. Thanks to Aahana and Rain Gods, we managed to reach restaurant for a near to perfect dinner in the property managed and served by a few wonderful people. If lunch was delicious, dinner was awesome. When we returned to our villa, another session for drinks and games was waiting for us. The drink and game session ended almost at 5am in the morning with half of the brigade and other half (including Surendra, Arun, Sunny, Sakshi, Nimish, Anshul) had already surrendered to their sleep (Or deep sleep, as Anshul says)  by 1am.

The next day started at 8.30am with troops meeting at breakfast table. After a heavy breakfast with loads of laughter rides, all marched towards indoor games in the resort. Folks enjoyed chess, snooker, badminton, swimming and table tennis for almost 2 hours. Then there was another round of games, and we enjoyed Ticket to Ride in the same fashion as we enjoyed Saboteur the previous night. In no-time, we were ready for something, people specially come for to Jim Corbett - "The Jungle Safari." On our journey to find/see the national animal - tiger, we found ourselves taking photographs of deer, birds, trees, snakes and the nature. It was a fun ride for almost 30-35 minutes. Then there was a photography session at the point, where everyone assembled before jeeps took the U-turn. We had more than 30 snaps in 15 minutes with 50% snaps in cowboy hat. Some other groups seeing Vishes in CowBoy Getup with Cigar in his hand considered him a Bollywood Director who was filming in dense forests for an upcoming movie. And some groups thought Vipul, Sunny, Nimish and Anshul as main leads in the movie shooting for next release of Golmal Series. The return ride to Resort was an adventurous one - No one would have imagined in the wildest dreams. Who can forget the 'evening tea' meeting with Gajraaj who was on a 150 meter sprint towards our safari jeeps. Gajraaj was looking very angry after his girlfriend was lost in forest and our jeep driver was like - "Sir aap tension na lo, mein haathi ke pass se silent mode me jeep nikal dunga". Thankfully, he stopped the jepe like 50 meters from the Gajraaj and took the jeep back 100 meters when everyone asked him to do so. Umesh, Nimish and Sunny were ready to jump from Jeep, had gajraaj not stopped 20 meters away from the jeep. Can say only one word for the entire episode – Thrilling. On return, we planned for long swimming pool session before the board games session. High Tea with Pakoras made the evening beautiful with almost everyone in the resort was near the pool area. The game session started around 10pm after the much required dinner. While some were playing games, some of us decided to roam inside the property and have one session of photography in the wonderful property. The game session lasted the entire night. This time, I decided to hit the bed by 1am as it was a tiring day.

Then the final day saw us playing board games, spending time in swimming pool, playing cricket matches, with Sunny winning both (individual and team match). In between Surendera enjoyed the Spa silently. Cricket games were fun so were badminton rounds. Vishesh and Anshul displayed their skills with Umesh matched them point to point. The evening started with Vipul's flute session which lasted for 30 minutes and everyone was impressed with the handsome looking guy's skills. All 14 members then headed for one final session of board games which got finished at 4am with Vipul, Sakshi, Tanmeen, Vishesh deciding not to disturb their eyes and ditching the famous “deep sleep” as were supposed to start our journey back to office at 8am. By 8.30 we all were in our mini bus. And just when we decided to have group snap, Nimish disappeared and got missing in the final snap. J The journey back to office started with the same song “Hellooo Helloooo”. We enjoyed a laugh riot on the journey to Jim Corbett and Return journey to office with Baua jokes saved in Umesh’s mobile and other on the spot jokes.

“If I have to sum it up, I would say that it was an enriching experience for me. From nature walk in the property, outdoor activities (cricket, badminton), indoor activities (table tennis, snooker), countless board games, exploring beautiful landscapes of Corbett National Park, and life time experience with “Gajraaj” was nothing but a journey like never before.”