Chopper Ride

A principal attraction to the Himachal Tour next month is the helicopter ride from Katra to the Vaishno Devi shrine. It is supposed to cut a steep seven-hour climb (of 13-odd kms) to just eight minutes. More than that, there is a novelty attached to this trip. Barring one or two members, nobody in the group has ever traveled in a chopper.
The plans have now run into rough weather. Bookings are required to be made online through the official site of the Shrine Board, which operates the Pawan Hans chopper service. The whole of this morning the site was inoperative. Inquiries with private operators revealed limited availability of seats – and at fares ranging from Rs2,500 to Rs5,100 per head.
In comparison, Pawan Hans charges a subsidized Rs1,400 (subject to five bookings per registration) but has no control over the services. “We simply supply the helicopters,” said Kishore Advani, a senior Pawan Hans official when contacted. “We have even stopped taking bookings in Mumbai since two years back. Everything is under the control of the Shrine Board.”
Now this puts us in a fix. Advani has offered to use his offices to “organize three or four tickets at the most”, but that is hardly enough. Jagmohan Papneja has also offered to use his contacts with a tour operator. And then, there is always the possibility of a miracle happening with the Shrine Board website. But whether all the 15 bookings can be made en bloc remains to be seen.
Meanwhile, the Pehchaan Kaun guessing game (yesterday’s post) is gathering momentum (lead pic) with members letting their imagination run wild. So far seven have submitted their replies, but these are deliberately being withheld lest others get influenced. Suffice to say only two of the seven have been able to correctly identify the person in the photograph.
Today also happened to be the last day of Mr Johar (left pic) with us -- before he takes the Frontier Mail back home in Meerut this evening. We wish him well and look forward to seeing him again in the Garden, soon.