At midnight, Sushila and Prateek called to wish me. I woke up at 7am after my first night in Jeolikote. It was Sep 25, 2008. I was brushing my teeth facing the mirror above the wash basin in his verandah. I felt the view in the mirror was drastically different than any other I had seen. Here the background behind me was a range of mountains with a gorgeous valley in between. Not a usual tiled flat wall. Hmmm, I knew this odd feeling was due to a lot of depth and 3D effect in the mirror. As my mind opened further I found the view more breathtaking.

At 8.30, Krishnanand went down to unlock his scooter from the electric pole. He uses a very heavy iron chain to lock his two-wheeler. After a few kicks we were on our way uphill towards Nainital. I was in a T-shirt and in shadow areas the air was a bit nippy. I took out my camera and shot a video of the fleeting view. I found that being on a scooter there were no restrictions like windows or wind screens. I could move my hand freely.

About a kilo-meter before the observatory the scooter stalled. So I got off for it to be restarted. It started but I decided to walk up. I told Krishnanand to carry on.

Everything that I saw seemed like worth taking home. So I clicked everything on my way up; flowers, valleys, multi layered distant mountains, including myself with auto click. I feel so ‘on my own’ when I am all alone; ha ha ha, obviously! The walk up to the observatory was actually quite tiring. I was sweating and panting… haven’t trekked for long.

Finally I reached up and my new scientist friends greeted me. Krishnanand was in his room. I asked him if I could visit Almora or Ranikhet (both 59km) in about 10 hours. It would have been nice. I did that once when I had visited Sariska national park, from Jaipur. On my way back to Jaipur from Sariska, the buses were damn packed. So I took a bus going in the opposite direction to Alwar. There I went around the city in a cycle rickshaw trip and later got an empty bus to Jaipur… but here everyone discouraged me from taking any trip. They said it had been raining and buses were very slow on the hilly roads. My train for Delhi was at 8.30pm same day. So without resistance I gave up the idea and decided to make the best of Nainital itself.

Aries has a staff bus that keeps going up and down to Nainital. It is used by working women and students. I took that bus at 10am and reached the lake city in 25mins. I was told to definitely get the return bus at 4pm. There was enough time for loafing around. I went to the Talli Tal rowing boat office and booked a boat to go to Malli Tal. Ticket cost, Rs125. This was my third trip but I never had an opportunity to be on a boat in this lake.

Someone called out to my boat man asking him ‘how are things?’ to which he said ‘I have got a trip after 4 days.’  A little surprised I struck a conversation with the pleasant looking boat man.

‘What work, do you?’

‘Just row my boat, nothing else.’

‘But you said you have got a tourist after 4 days, so how does it work for you?’

‘I know, but there are no jobs here. I can only do this.’

‘But look at this town, there are so many hotels, restaurants, offices, you can’t find work any where?’

‘No one gives you a job. Everywhere only the family members do all the jobs, like cleaning, serving, cooking etc. They too can’t afford to hire outside help. ‘Only in ‘season time’ there are some jobs.’

‘Oh, but if you don’t make enough money, how do you feed your family? You have to find ways to do it.’

‘I know this place well sir. I know every shop here. None needs outside help.’

I had been asking him to click some of my pictures too in between our conversation. In about 25mins I was at Malli Tal. It was past 11am. I was headed towards the rope way, when I heard someone call me. A tourist cab driver was shoving a photo album towards me with pictures of various important points. He kept walking along and flipping the pages. He had my attention. ‘I will show you seven points in Rs 400’. I stopped, ‘how many people are in the taxi?’ ‘No one, just you.’ ‘OK, get the taxi,’ I said without a hitch. He made a call from his cell and a Maruti Omni appeared from a lane and I was on my way. In 5 min the young driver parked the car and said, ‘this is Cave Garden.’ I got off bought the entry ticket and went in. The caves are quite interesting, real natural and wild. They claim that wild animals like tigers actually used lived here. To make it more authentic he added, ‘before the garden opens to public, guards check the caves thoroughly just in case…’

Next stop was ‘Bara Patthar’ or ‘12 rocks’. Actually Indians called the rock as ‘Bada’ meaning big; but British mispronounced it as ‘Bara’. So the name stuck. Young ones come here for rock climbing.

3^rd stop was on a peak to view ‘Khurpa Tal’. But it was very foggy. An army of clouds were on the move. The lake is in the shape of a cow’s hoof (Khur). After about 10min I got a fleeting glance of it. At 12.30pm I was at 4^th point, ‘Sadia (rotting) Tal’. Lot of rotting plants were floating on it. In the restaurant near the cascade of water, I had some snacks and tea. Next was lover’s point. It is a rock where couples get their snaps done as the background is very cool. But what is not cool here. My driver cum guide showed me a mountain called as ‘China Peak’. He said before 1982 you could see Great Wall of China from top of that peak. In 1982, however there was a huge land slide that made the peak shorter, hiding the view. All the rocks that came crashing down made a partition in the main lake. The new smaller part did not have any source of water, thus remained dry. It is called as ‘Sookha (dry) Tal’. However Sookha, it did have some water in it.

My last point was called Himalaya Darshan. From here snow capped Himalayan peaks can be seen. But that being a cloudy day the view was blocked.

From here I was dropped near the top point of the rope way. Driver told me, it is a 10min walk. A short walk was going to do me good after 2 hours in a car. I set off on the path. And soon I was facing a bunch of my most scary animals, monkeys! A huge healthy one was looking and walking confidently towards me. I stopped in my tracks and hid in the village. An old lady told me that pick up a stick and walk, they wouldn’t say anything. No way, any stick, I thought. Bad idea. There were too many monkeys walking the only narrow path. Only when I noticed the flow had stopped and the fattest fellow had vanished, I casually stepped on the path. Few babies crossed my way…

I wonder if this feeling of having heart in mouth does any good to you. I am sure my pulse rate must have been very high without any cardio work out. Finally after covering 200 meters in 15mins, I reached rope way. It started raining; but it was nice feeling to float over the trees and look at the lake right down.

I had lunch in an ordinary place called New Raj on the Mall Road. It was 2.15, when I started walking from Malli Tal to reach Talli Tal. Mall road is very pretty, clean and is fairly lengthy. It was a nice one hour stroll.

I had to spend another half an hour before the bus came. I walked up the hilly market area. The bus was there at sharp 4 and I reached back soon.

We both left at 5pm from there, since I was to take a bus to Kathgodam from Jeolikote by 7pm definitely. Pushpa bhabhi had packed dry dinner for me. I got my bag down to the street. It was dark by now. Bus appeared suddenly, I jumped in saying a hurried ‘bye’ to Krishnanand. In 40min I was on the platform. I had my dinner there itself. Soon the train arrived; I found my berth, made my bed and felt relaxed.

It may not look like it at all; but actually I was on a business trip to Nainital.