“Flatter me, and I may not believe you.
Criticize me, and I may not like you. Ignore me, and I may not forgive you.
Encourage me, and I may not forget you.” ~~ William Arthur
I know you will be wondering why a pic of Taj on a post named “Jaipur Trip on the Rocks” started with a quote on encouragement. Weird!!! That what this trip was.
So let me explain Y of the quote first. Last post I wrote was around 6months back. Always wanted to write more, but lazy Saurabh stopped me everytime. Arunima encouraged me to write more often after reading “Journey” and I am here again writing a new post. I now know the power of encouragement, it overpowered lazy Saurabh. Thanks Arunima!!
I recently went thru Project management training so will try to divide this project (trip) into five phases Initiation, Planning, Executing, Monitor and Control, Closing to help me prepare for my exam and test how important are these five steps and unfold the mystery of other Ys.
Initiation
Well, the need of Planning a weekend trip started around 5 months back. I had practically discussed every nearby hill station and tourist destination with Pravin and Vikram with a promise to “DO IT” “THIS Saturday” 🙂
Planning
We (Arunima, Pravin, Vikram and me) started planning a weekend trip on Monday, September 7, 2010 and worked with our dear friend Google to decided on Gurmukteshwar which is around 100 kms from Delhi. Phrases like “Mini Banaras”, “The particular stretch is very famous for Dolphins.” etc on various sites where reasons enough plan this 100 kms drive.
Email chain of 64 with Subject “Sariska and Gurmukhteshwar” decided by Friday that we should visit Jaipur instead, based on feedback from fellow colleagues. Vikram was so excited to visit Jaipur that he was quick to change the subject of mail chain to “Jaipur Trip on the Rocks” (That answer’s another Y).
We PLANNED to start from Pravin’s place @ 3AM on Sunday morning for Jaipur. After meeting my team @ flying club and enjoying my ride in last metro to Gurgaon (kudos Mr Shreedharan) I met Pravin and Arunima at Sarandeep’s place @ 12:30 AM. Vikram’s phone call to Pravin with a question “Mujhe neend nahin aa rahi, kya karun?” is evident that none of us slept on saturday night.
Saran advised, we should visit Fatehpur Sikri instead of Jaipur @ 1:30 and we instantly agreed to change our destination. Considering number of emails we shared (64- which is the longest email chain for Vikram ever) over 5days to decide on Jaipur, this was a quick. We decided not to let Vikram know about the new destination till the end.
Execution
We started @ 3AM from Pravin’ s place as planned. Nokia GPS was switched on to guide us thru. First stop was for fuel where we clicked our first pic of the trip,

First pic of the Trip
and than our office complex, for a cup of coffee and ATM. Lovely weather and lovely songs ensured none of us was sleepy. We all were amazed by GPS mapping by Nokia. It would indicate even the small clinics, temples and petrol pumps on screen.
On our way to Fathpur Sikri, we saw milestone which read “Vrindavan – 6 kms” and decide to visit the holy place. We only went to ISKON temple to find out it was closed that time. Pravin and Vikram clicked some pics and we were back on our way to the destination decided; only to find out we can take a detour and visit Bharatpur Bird Santuary as well.
We all were feeling hungry by now and DECIDED to have some puri aloo. Only problem, we wanted to get the feeling of roadside dhaba with a better ambiance and no danger of dengue :-). So you guessed it right, we didn’t find a nice place till we reached Bharatpur.
Bharatpur Bird Sanctuary is a World Heritage Site and a home to 230 species of birds. We agreed to have breakfast at a RTDC hotel which looked like a heritage site in itself.
Pravin and Vikram indulged in their photographic expedition @ FPS, I and Arunima discussed sorry state of affairs at these heritage sites. Vikram was now our official guide and we all were tourist from Germany (that’s what we told local guides to keep them off). Nobody believed us but who expected them to. It was time to take another detour. Taj Mahal was only 50 kms from here. (answers another Y).
A lot has been written about Taj, its a wonderful creation and I am not gonna write anything about this mesmerizing experience. But the experience of getting inside Taj was not nice for sure. Misguiding Guides made me think about changing name of my domain “proudindians”. I will still try to do my bit for the country. Just remember, if you find long queues @ Taj, try South Gate. Its easy to get in from there as very few people know about it.
We enjoyed a good meal @ Ashok, Agra. Fish, Cold Coffee with Ice Cream, Hyderabadi Biryani and Sizzlers before heading back to Gurgaon.
Pravin and Vikram were snoring to glory while I and Arunima planned another DETOUR of 8kms to Mathur to taste famous pede.
Monitoring and Controlling
This phase of project management was not used as evident from our detours and I believe that’s the major reason for success of this trip. So, whoever said, everything we do in life is a project and we need to plan monitor and control it, is wrong. You can also enjoy lot of things unplanned. Enjoy life as it comes.
Closing
It was time to go back home. We were tired and sleepy. Vikram was now being addressed as VIKRANT and Pravin as PARVEEN 🙂 . Kudos to Mr. Kora who drove thru massive traffic jam @ faridabad. We reached Gurgaon exactly @ 3AM monday morning. This was a 24 hour trip captured in our Facebook albums named “24hr bonanza”, “24hr hangover”, “24hr Road Trip Vrindavan, mathura, Bharatpur, Fatehpur Sikri, Agra”.
Looking forward for more road trips with this lovely group of people. Palampur and Desert Camping next on Agenda with possibly loads of Detours.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=77144&id=1034712577&l=f0c664bb35
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