Final Frontier

Preliminary discussions begin on Darjeeling

People, they say, turn doubly wise (if not shy) when bitten once.
With Shekhawat, it has been three times already. The first time was in 2012 when he returned hurt from a trip to Goa. The second time was last year when he did north India and once again, burnt his fingers. He did not learn his lesson even then. So this year he ventured down south, covered coastal Kerala and got nearly mauled! He promised himself and all those who cared to listen (see post of February 20), never again to take the Club on any excursion. “Forget about any picnic in future,” were his exact words.
But that was then – almost fortnight back and according to Shekhawat, it was “said in a fit of anger”. He has obviously cooled down since and today, he tossed the proposal of heading eastwards. (“We have traveled to the west, then up north, to the south also… only eastern India remains.”) Clearly, this is his final frontier! And what’s more, he has already set his sights on Darjeeling because he wants a ride on the famous toy train there. He is also toying with the idea of extending the trip to neighboring Sikkim (or Bhutan, even Nepal), but subject to what other members in the group agree upon and approve.

Affectionate send-off to Nahid

He elaborated: “It will take about two months to research on all possibilities for the trip, another two months to consult and mobilize members and a further two months for fixing the bookings and reservations. By October-November, we should be all set to travel. It will be the festival season then. The weather will be fine. And if we are lucky, we should also get to enjoy the snowfall in those parts…”
The proposal met with mixed response; but nobody was completely averse to it. Some suggested that we should also work on local one-day outings while Monthi Serrao and Harbans Kaur insisted that henceforth, non-members should be levied a token ‘guest charge’ – essentially to shore up the Club’s coffers. “We missed a golden opportunity to raise 25 to 30 thousand rupees from the Kerala trip,” Monthi reminded Shekhawat.
Meanwhile, Nahid Khan and Jagmohan Papneja were given a warm send-off – the former going to Lucknow to see her ailing brother and the latter to attend a wedding in Delhi. Both would be back in a week.