It’s not about the place; it’s about the people you meet
I went camping few days back with my friend Tanisha. It were the two of us who started the journey together. While we were on our way sitting in the cab, I dwelled into the beauty of villages I met on the way. The farmers threshing the wheat, cows crossing the roads, colourful butterflies sitting on the flowers. It’s just me, my core character of getting into the details.
We lost our way in between and finally arrived at our destination; Pawna Lake Camping. Kept our bags in the tent and went to the lake area. The water was calm and soothing. The waves, the concentric circles made me realise that I do not need to worry if I’m being perplexed with some situations because even the water becomes still and clear only after the appearance of concentric circles.
While having conversation with Tanisha (my best friend) sitting near the lake, I could feel how far we have come. It has always been that little nudge that we needed.We watched the joker show together. Danced like we never danced before. And then started the most adventurous part of that camping.
A guy approached us whom we call Mishraji now (Sourabh Mishra) and asked if his friends could join us for playing cards. And eventually, we became a group of five people. Siddharth Singh Rawat (‘Rawat’ of the group), Siddharth and I connected so well because of the common place from my childhood memories while my father was in Army and Siddharth’s birth place. I spent my childhood at a place in Punjab; Firozpur while my father served in Army. We could relate a lot because of this place. Sourabh Mishra (Rajasthani guy) had a core Rajasthani in him which I loved the most about him. Sourabh knew his Rajasthani roots so well and introduced us to his culture. Made me think I really need to visit Rajasthan now that I have the perfect guide with me. Pavan Kumar (a guy from Jharkhand); the most shy yet sweetest person I met that day. Pavan is highly skilled to throw sarcasm towards others (*face palm*). Being a photographer, he introduced me to some of the features in Go-pro and gave me some great insights.
The most interesting part was that all of them were in Navy. It was amazing to meet people from different working profession, especially who were serving for nation. The experiences they shared were worth listening, worth laughing. We all danced, laughed, shared stories, shared experiences and made a lot of memories. Who knew one day at Pawna will be so worthwhile. After all the fun that we had, we went to sleep in our respective tents at around 3 AM that night.
Woke up early in the morning without knowing how we are going to go back to Pune. I took my phone in hand and could see that the screen wasn’t working. Sourabh asked me if the brightness of my phone was low. I rebooted my phone and there was no luck. We had our breakfast and kept walking on the roads with the help of google maps. The silence on the roads, the vintage feeling and songs while walking on the road made it the best walk.
Somehow we got the taxi from Pawna to Kamshet. We reached Kamshet and decided to take a train to Pune. While we were on our way to Kamshet railway station, we came across a mobile repair shop. Sourabh asked me for my phone so that he could show it to the shop person to check why it wasn’t working. We entered the shop and could see that it was actually because of the low brightness. I could see how embarrassing Sourabh’s face looked. He turned back and we came out of the shop laughing so hard.
Later, we reached Kamshet railway station where we got to know that we were late by 10 mins for the train and the next train is after 5 hrs. We sat on the stairs calming each other. Tanisha was on the call walking around and we four were sitting on the stairs. A train came on the platform which was going to Lonavala. I asked Siddharth, Sourabh and Pavan to run with me till the train so that Tanisha assumes that we are entering in a train to Pune. This incident was just to have some funny moments with Tanisha. Somehow, everyone entered the train unintentionally even when we were not supposed to take that train. Getting into a train to Lonavala was not the part of plan but the action all of us took because of all the random assumptions we made into our respective minds. We didn’t had train tickets with us. While we were reaching lonavala, from the train we saw that police were standing due to which we had to jump from the other door of the train. Ofcourse, we did not want to pay 500 rs.
We reached Lonavala where Tanisha asked me to get a cab to Pune and I denied. I wanted to travel via bus and I pushed her to come with me via bus. We went to Lonavala bus stop and took a bus to Pune. We entered in Pune and had the Aloo Parathas and Lassi.
I ended my trip with the best experiences, great laughs, best adventures and most importantly with the people I met. While I went to sleep at night, I felt the sense of satisfaction, the sense of connections. Some connections are worth making and that is what I gained within less that 24 hrs.
No doubt I had to tell who these people were; attaching a picture below 😉
