Trip to Manali IV: Most amazing people I met in the trip

I would never have thought of posting this in my blog. But I feel somehow this worth it. I was so excited to travel to Netherlands though I was travelling alone all the way and that was my first (till now only) international trip. When compared to that I was literally scared about my trip to Manali, of course because this time I was not going alone. I have a girl with me and to a place where I have just heard about it in geography. Tickets are booked, hotels are reserved, I don’t have a chance than to go ahead with the plan. But it was amazing; I never faced a hurdle in my way other than the auto driver guy whom I mentioned in the previous post. I was lucky enough to meet few wonderful people and they made my trip ever cherishing memory.
I was in the airport and in the ticket it was mentioned that the user fee is collected already in the ticket, but while checking in, the executive (I don’t know a better word) told me to pay the user fee and she also mentioned that the user fee collected was for the Delhi airport. I went to pay the user fee and was standing a small queue waiting for my turn. Soon another assistant from my airlines company called me to her window to pay it. I moved up there and handed over the money to her. The guy who was in front of me in the queue got irritated and he started arguing with me that I should have let him go first. I returned him saying I can’t help him much if he is sleeping in the queue. I felt the guy little interesting.
Later in the Delhi airport, our driver Chottelal was waiting for us. He was carrying a board with my name printed in it. That guy was real professional. He helped us to carry our luggage to his car and explained the bit and pieces of Delhi’s famous places. He was very caring all the way and he took us the most interesting places in Delhi and most importantly to the most interesting food court of Delhi.

After I boarded my train to Chandigargh, I found it difficult for me to put my luggage on the top. Middle aged Sardarji help me in doing it. He was kind enough to tell us when we reached Chandigargh. Thank you sir, though I don’t know your name.

Next I found the most interesting guy I ever met, His name is Ravi. He was our cab driver for next five days. Initially he was very normal or rather I didn’t bother to interact with him much. We had short clash about the rentals to be paid for him but later it was solved. I saw a girl came to the car and handed over a mobile phone to him while I was settling the rent issues with the travel agent. Then I came to know that she is his girl friend and she belongs to the Sikh community. Later we became friends; he told us that he will take us to Shimla which is around 150 Kms from there. But Ammu was so tired that she didn’t want to go there. He was talking nonstop about his girl friend Preethi and everything he starts normally ends with Preethi’s helping hand. He is a dancer and he performed in lot of stages there in Chandigarh. He got me a gift for my birthday and also called me to wish me on the same day. Thank you Ravi, You made our trip great.



Next person was Raju, our skiing trainer. He is a very energetic and lively guy. He was very interested to train me in skiing. Though I fall down a lot during the training sessions I learned a bit of skiing. He was giving us ideas to play in the snow. Raju was so interested in making snow man and was helping us through out in realizing it. He is a good photographer too. He took lot of photographs of ours which worth a lot.




While returning from Chandigarh to Delhi, we met a Mom and her Son from Netherlands. When we boarded the train we found the entire luggage space was occupied by them and we didn’t have place to put our luggage. Finally I found some place where I can out my luggage and Lennart (Son’s Name) helped me in doing it. I was sitting opposite to them and somewhere in my mind I felt that they both where from Holland. Will Beerding(Mom) was a tour operator who is operating in India, China, Nepal , Bhutan and Tibet. While talking to them they told me about Holland and I was very interested as I have visited there. We had a lot of discussion about India, Holland and I also described them about Kerala where they never got a chance to be there. I promised them to send the pictures of Kerala, but unfortunately I couldn’t do it till now. Will is very interested in Indian Tradition, she like Ammu wearing the traditional dress (Though not really traditional for me, she was wearing a salvar) and she was appreciating that. She knows lot more than I know about India and she had visited most places in North India.

Lennart is really an interesting guy. He was working for the army and he has visited most places across the globe. He was explaining us the GreenLand(IceLand, if both are same ) expedition. He stays in Amsterdams and is working a dealer of several automobiles. Ammu was so happy to hear that he deals with MAN trucks also because her father visited Germany to have discussions with MAN for his Ashok Leyland operations. You both were amazing and you made me realize a lot about India which I always tried to ignore. I thought modernization is important but you told how traditional ways are appreciated.

And Last,Preethi Babbar. She is really sweet and caring. She gifted Ammu with a pair of Punjabi shoes. You were really nice Preethi.

That’s the end of my Manali trip stories. Now to the new adventures in my way of life and I assure you to keep you posted.