The Kumaon Diaries - Day 2

 January 28, 2021

Phase I - Delhi - Haldwani

Day 2 started early for me at 430 am and I freshened up, decided against a bath when I touched the cold cold water and was ready and waiting well before the scheduled departure time of 6 am. Vardha got dressed and we were chatting away and drinking some coffee and tea and generally waiting for Ranjan to give the green signal. We finally left at about 645 - 7 and it looked like everything was right with the world. Divan eased the Creta comfortably through the roads of Delhi and pretty soon we realised that things were going to slow down a bit. We hit a thick curtain of fog, visibility reduced to about two meters at times and we made slow and rather dangerous looking progress. Divan was supremely confident though and speeded up even in that fog when he had a chance.

Visibility down to 2 metres

We passed by the tents where the farmers had pitched themselves sin their ongoing protest. We crossed a couple of suicidal bikers, passed a Jeep that tipped over the steep side of the road and hung precariously but were most amused by this lady and her dog in a Ford Figo who drove with gay abandon through the fog. Such abandon that she actually was taking selfies in a road condition where one needs four hands on the wheel. She kept passing us intermittently and I could only admire her spirit and guts.

Kullad chai in the fog - no sun in sight

We made slow progress as we hit the highway and well, these are times when all eyes are on the road. We passed a few toll booths (Fees Gate they are called) and thanks to our FastTag we sped past. Sometime around 9ish I guess we stopped for breakfast at a place called Moga, nice place, with a lot of Sikhs around.

Kullad chai

 We hopped out in the cold, ordered some chai in a kullad, ordered some poor bhaji etc and were soon done with. Vardha was having a smoke outside and we ventured to have a paan (lousy stuff) and after some banter, finally headed off in the gradually clearing mist.

Not the best paan I have had

 Almost like a miracle though it lifted at about 10ish and Divan was more than happy to crank up the speedometer. What was originally planned as 12 at Haldwani might get delayed we thought but Divan was confident we could make it by lunch. We picked up some guavas at a railway crossing and nibbled at them.

Selfie time - Moga!

Options for us were - stay at Haldwani for the night, stay at Nainital for the night and then came a third option - stay at Sitarganj where PES has a factory and a guest house. Ranjan took us to a fine joint called Gulatis and Chawla's which serves some fabulous kebabs and rolls and stuff and we stuffed ourselves with the same. The chicken roll I ate was more than filling, and I nibbled at Vardha's chicken 65 or something. I must mention that Vardha was on a steady diet of rum and water since morning so he was in a happy space.

And just like that - sun!

Ranjan and I went to meet his agent - a most interesting person who is a BJP leader, an educationist, a real estate man, a businessman - all in one. It was fascinating to hear him, to see him operate and I wondered at the number of things people do.

Vardha and Ranjan - Vardha on the job!

 

Lunch at Haldwani - Gulati's Chic Inn

A Gulati special chicken roll

Phase 2 - Haldwani - Sitarganj

Anyway, they concluded the business and decided that Ranjan needs to sign papers the next day so we decided to leave. Ranjan said we could now head towards Sitarganj where Mr Naidu would be waiting to host us for the night.

Enroute to Sitarganj

 His engineer Jitendra came in a Bolero with the faithful Mohan, both of whom I had met earlier in Dehradun, a decade ago.

Green fields

 Sitarganj was 40 km away and the road was mostly good with nice scenes. Ranjan got into the Bolero while we went in the Creta. Vardha slept away while I clicked pictures of the mountains and the lush fields with lovely houses bang in the middle of the fields.

Mountains in the distance

Halfway to Sitrganj we turned off the road and went towards a wildlife sanctuary, Nandhaur, if I remember. After some negotiations with the forest department people we were let in an we dove 5 km on a small single road until we hit a quiet river.

Nandhaur Wildlife Sanctuary

 Since a check dam was being built we went a bit upstream and enjoyed the wonderful sigh of the river flowing through the hills.

Posing in the river valley (Gola river perhaps)

 We spent quite some time there, observed the way dams were built and returned to the main gate. Here we also saw a small place which used the hydropower to grind grain. Apparently, Jitendra and company come here quite often and picnic.

Vardha, Ranjan and Jitendra 

Mohan and Jitendra

Vardha and I

A cute family at the hydro powered chakki

We hit the road again and soon ran into heavy traffic with hundreds of trucks lined up - apparently there is mining activity here and this was expected. We got through faster than we thought and hit the PE factory in Sitarganj by twilight. It was pretty cold again - this place was some 40 km from the Nepal border apparently. 

Ranjan, me and Mr Naidu after a walk around the factory premises

The factory was impressive, built over some 5 acres, and we soon came to know that Ranjan was involved in its construction from the ground up. Apparently, the water table is so high that they would hit water at a depth of one meter. Sitarganj is also very humid due to this.

We met Mr Naidu and he showed us around the factory. People were working even at that late hour. We saw plate bending machines, drilling machines, lathes, CNC machines and then made our way back to the main building. Vardha and I were allotted a room and we settled in before a rink or two followed by some fne dinner. By now the cold was pretty harsh and I could hardly speak when we stepped out to walk - but walk we did. It was a full moon night so all the more dramatic. Then we turned in and thanks to the heater and other accessories, slept well after a rather long day. 

Tomorrow, Vardha and I would be heading to Nainital at 8ish while Ranjan went to attend his work. We would meet someplace up in the hills they said. If the foothills were so cold at 2 degrees, we wondered how ti would be up in the mountains. I also worried about my motion sickness and popped a couple of home pills - sometimes I feel it's psychosomatic. Anyway, day 2 was done and it was good fun.