Chaos and me go hand in hand.
We planned a
vacation. Had out tickets in place, months in advance.. Tickets to
Jabalpur. Vacation in Jabalpur Indore Bandhavgarh Pachmarhi. But then
things are never this simple for us ... 3 weeks before our date of
departure all our flts get cancelled. Kingfisher reschedules all our
flights and we move from direct flights to flights routed via Delhi.
Our itenarary changes too. It's just Jabalpur, Pachmarhi and Kanha, with
a day's halt at Delhi on the return journey.
At 11.20 pm on the
22nd I get an sms mentioning a delay of an hr for our flight to Delhi.
I was relieved .....could sleep some more.. but then the thought
strikes that we might just miss our connecting flt. More phone calls to
KF and they accomodate us on a spice jet flt to delhi. Problem now
being that the flight is at 5.30 am.....A preponement of an
hour.........
23rd december 2011
The flight takes off a little after 6.00 am.
I
had always dreamt of watching the sun rise on a New Year's day. That
still remains a dream, but today I saw the first light of dawn break as
we were flying. The dark of the night giving way to an inky blue
mixed with a bright orange. A streak of black clouds . The orange
taking on several shades , a flaming red now, a shocking pink a little
later! The daughter even managed to click a picture of the crescent
moon in the sky.
]
other aircraft in the sky along with ours.
Our
flight lands in Delhi, an hour past the scheduled time and at the old
terminal. We have just a few minutes to reach the new terminal , a
couple of kilometres away. The temperature in Delhi as we come out
of the craft is 5 degrees. The chill catches us unawares. The cold
breeze hits the tip of the nose first . brrrrrr! And I just have
to check out if i can blow a few 'smoke rings' ...... some thirills.
We do manage to reach the other terminal with the boarding
having commenced and the counter being closed. he husband's frequent flyer
status comes to our rescue and we are asked to hurry to the gate, miles
away. Amidst repeated announcements over the public address system for
Mr K and family , huffing n panting and sweating profusely , we
clamber on to the bus and look out for our aircraft. And the first
sight of it wasn't one of relief.. it was more of a shock...."this is a
toy plane!!." With a 3 step staircase, I am reminded of our
bollywood villain Ajit, fleeing the country with his sona and Mona !
An
uneventful 2 hrs later we land in Jabalpur. The area around the
airport is mainly a military cantonment area... very clean, well laid
out and well maintained. The main city is typically chaotic.
In
the afternoon we went to see the Dhuandhaar Falls. One can cross the
river on a cable car and have a good view of the waterfall. At one end
it is horse shoe shaped, it is not a 'tall' waterfall. But the sheer
volume and the force of the waterfall causes the droplets to rise in a
mist, giving a smokescreen like appearance, hence the name. The sound
of the water gushing down, justifies the marathi equivalent of the word ,
waterfall - 'dhabdhabaa'. Stood there for a long time, taking in the
beauty of it all.
Posting a video of the waterfall, taken from the cable car
Bhedaghat is close by. We took a boat ride on the calm river with
rocky walls rising up on either side. The marble rocks! The beauty
of those glimmering and shimmering marble rocks is best seen on a Full
Moon night. The boatmen act as the guide here and in verse form, point
out and explain the various formations of the rocks. So you have a
gajraj, a nandi, a maruti car, a bhalu, a swamiji and his chela...
Gimmicky. But there is some magic happening here.
As we start
our boat ride, the rocks - the marble rocks, are bluish in color, then
a greyish green. As we row further in, the marble is a soft peachy
pink in colour. A little ahead u see a sunny yellow shade. They call it
Mackena's gold. Some movie with Shotgun Sinha had been shot around that
location. A little ahead , he points out to where Raj Kapur had shot
some scenes frm Jis Desh Mein Ganga Behti Hai. The rounded rocks as
they protrude on to the river seem to have an extra dimension. The
water at some points is 650 ft deep.. but the waters are calm. The
boatmen's voice echoes . I am waiting with bated breath for the tall
walls of white marble to appear. Had seen it in the movie Asoka. And
when we approach that point, I was awestruck. Have shot a video of
our boatride. but it just hasn't done any justice to the beauty of
that place. The camera just couldnt capture that elusive extra
element. Simply has to be experienced.
As the oars cuts through the water, there is a deep silence. The
experience is surreal. Feel is as if I am watching a 3 d movie.
Rather I am in the midst of it.
We still hadn't had our fill of
the Dhuandhaar falls. We went back to them. It was already dark. The
area had been lit up by floodlights. We stayed there for a long
time, taking in the milky white waterfall and listening to the
thunderous roar of the water. After a while, the cable cars shut down
for the day. The people and the tourists walked away . The lights in
the booths on both the sides of the river went off. Lights near the
waterfall too were switched off. I almost expected a silence... a
silence with the waterfall stopping mid air, in a freeze mode.
switched off, for the night.
But audience ho, na ho, it continued thundering down the river.......in all its glory!
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