Rajmachi Trek – The Night Expedition

By Harsh in Life Stories, Travel 12 Comments

Where do you expect a guy to be on a Saturday night? Breaking the hell loose, partying in some club, owned by the ecstasy of weekend, right? Well it was a little different for me this time around. Saturday, 11 in the night. I was standing on the edge of a really steep hill side. Rain was in it’s full form, as if in a hurry to announce the arrival of Monsoons. The wind was picking up, making every step a task in itself. The jungle around us presenting different surprises in the form of crabs, snakes, toads, lizards and fireflies. And to top that, it was pitch dark. Zero visibility, with torches being our only ally.

This was the moment that defined this weekend of mine and marked one of the best treks I have been part of. Let me take you to a quick tour of how the Rajmachi Trek was amazing in its unique own ways and made it for us a weekend to remember.

The Scenery

A view of Rajmachi from a cave near Srivardhan fort

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Gully Cricket – Not Available on App Store

By Harsh in Life Stories, Rambling 6 Comments

Back in the 90s, in the era of Pokemon and WWF, when there was no mobile to distract you, we used to have this game of ours. Our own version of Cricket. 5-7 in the evening (except Monday and Tuesday – It was dedicated to RAW and Smackdown) was all about Cricket. And were the rules different from the international rules. Well not exactly. But there were a few unspoken rules around the game which every child knew by heart. Here I am listing a few rules of our Gully Cricket.

The Tools

There are few things those are necessary for a game of cricket. Two of them is a bat and a ball. Stumps, as we have always maintained, is a total waste of money and space. But alternative? How do you decide if someone is out or not? Luckily in the place where we lived in Lucknow, there was always an under construction building and you just got to smuggle in a few bricks for constructing your own stumps. And there was always that one architect in the group who was summoned in every time someone was bowled.

The Homo Sapiens

Leadership is something many people are just born with, rather than learning over time. We always needed that one leader to take the initiative and call everyone for a game (which was not an easy task I must tell, amidst all the scare of disturbing someone’s Mom’s sleep). And once again, there was always that one guy of whose Dad everyone was scared of. But he had to be called – He was the owner of the bat, and everyone would be like – “Tu Jaa”, “Nahi Tu Jaa Main Kal Gaya Tha”. And even if he wouldn’t come, we would be so daring to ask “Achcha Bhai Bat To De De”. He never gave it though, it was the second most important thing to one after life.

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