Wham wham wham!

Right! That's how things happened to me (notice how i say "happen to me"? well, that's how it is with me, for the better part) after Diwali. Spent some days lazing around at office, and then one fine day Sankar sir (my mentor) calls me to his cabin and pops the question - "Do you have any problem if we send you north?" I thought over for a few seconds. I was born in Kerala, raised in Kerala, schooled in Kerlala and I adore the place. Its an amzing place to live in. But being just out of college, and after idling away a few months in Bangalore, a part of me was yearning for a taste of adventure. So when Sankar sir asked about it, I considered the options in front - Manesar ( near Gurgaon, not bad), Haridwar (no booze or meat - oh no!  ) and Baddi (Himachal, just 100 km from Shimla - now that's what I'm talking about!). So I told sir Baddi is okay for me and within a week I was whisked away to site!

     On Nov 13 we landed at Gurgaon, and stayed there for three days, for a short visit to the Manesar facility. But we spent the time much more productively - roamed around the Gurgaon malls, Rashtrapathi Bhavan, Dilli metro, mutton kheema from Nawab's etc. And on Nov 15th, we journeyed to Baddi.

    Since Baddi is in Himachal and all, you might have pictured it as a cute little town nestled in a valley or something. Well,atleast I pictured it that way. But boy- wasn't I in for a surprise :D To give you a brief idea about the place, Baddi, for all practical purposes could be a part of Haryana/Punjab/HP. Thats how much of a borderland it is. Its is not on the hills, but is bordered by the Shivaliks. To reach there, you either catch a train/flight from Delhi to Chandigarh. From there its a 47 km drive to Baddi. It was a small village till about three years  back. Then the government declared it an excise exempt zone enticing a lot of industries to move here. Now it is an unplanned industrial town with about 200 industries, a decent market , a few hotels and lot of roaming bovine. But as you traverse this place you do catch glimpses of its former beauty - field of wheat and mustard, farmers contently sleeping on their cots and that too in the middle of their fields at 10 AM! 

     Anyways we stayed at a hotel for about 10 days and after that moved to the guest house. Its been 2 and a half months now. In between I visited Kufri during snow, celebrated Christmas at Shimla and welcomed the new year at Chandigarh. Maybe those stories will come in subsequent posts.