Jim Corbett National Park – A weekend break with friends

The Weekend Break Planning

The planning to go to Jim Corbett national park all started over drinks. The four best friends (including the author) met on a Saturday evening in the last week of March along with their beautiful better half. Scotch was the poison of the evening while the ladies preferred their wine. Let me just give you a brief background of the four friends. All four of us are B-school friends and somehow have stuck together with thick and thin since then. As we graduated from Royal Challenge and Blenders Pride to Scotch, the same way our life has graduated from being single to married to now grown-up kids.

The ladies were dressed up in their best attire while the men were in their most casual outfit of jeans and T-shirts. As it happens, most of the time during such “Dil Chahta Hai” moments, all these get-together end up in planning“Make-my-trip breakaways”. I will not call it a vacation as it is difficult in today’s demanding times to get a long break for 4 families at the same time. So, weekend breaks are better. And what better weekend break than the Good Friday weekend in April.

Finally going to Jim Corbett national park planned

My experience in the past is that most of the time such plans made over drinks fizzle out the next morning. It’s like alcohol which reaches toxic levels by midnight but drains out of the system the next morning. But this time the hangover stayed! The hangover was not of Glenfiddich but of 4 families with kids driving together on a 3-day weekend break. The destination was decided! It will be a national park known for Tigers, named after the legendary tiger hunter turned naturalist Jim Corbett who happened to be a Britisher (same place where Scotch has an origin).

Discussions happened;Whats App messages were exchanged but the biggest roadblock was not the finances but where to stay? After all, people who drink Scotch and Wine need a minimum standard hotel. There was a time when it seemed the plan will die a natural death in the absence of a consensus. But this time the group had the blessings of Late Shri Jim Corbett Ji and so nobody could have stopped them from going to the national park. Bookings were made and everybody started looking for the Friday which actually would be Good for all.

The Day Arrives for travelling to Jim Corbett national park

The D-day arrived and the meeting point was a place at the periphery of the Capital of India, Delhi. Known after our late PM, this place Indirapuram looks like having the highest population density in the World. The 4 families arrived at the meeting point in their cars. The spirits were high! Everybody ready to break from the maddening crowd. It will be unfair to me if I don’t give a brief description of the cars in which we were driving. Well, the most sophisticated one with a German pedigree had a triangular logo at the front. The rest 2 were history sheeter (the metallic sheets had a lot of dents). One, a 10-year old with a Japanese pedigree and One, a 6-year old with a Mumbai origin.

The Journey

The journey started and within 5 minutes all the occupants of the 3 cars realized that it is not going to be easy. The first realization came from the fact that it was Good Friday weekend for entire Delhi and not for just these four families. The second realization came after seeing the “race against time” construction going on Delhi – Hapur highway. The last realization after getting stuck in the traffic was that the Late Shri Jim Corbett Ji had invited the entire Delhi to his National Park.

People who have studied fluid dynamics will understand the motion of traffic in jams. Traffic in heavy jams moves like water. When water is overflowing from a source, it finds its way through the lowest point. The moment you block its way, it starts flowing from another lowest point. Similarly, in a traffic jam as soon as rush starts building at a particular point, the traffic starts flowing form another point. This point normally happens to be the opposite side (meaning the inbound traffic). This leads to even more congestion until the entire traffic comes to a standstill. Finally, few good human souls act as the traffic cops and try to clear the mess though with limited success.

The Breakfast

After braving out from such a traffic mess, the 3 cars started racing again but needed a refill. Well, I didn’t mean gasoline! I meant breakfast. Now, this National Highway 24 has lots of eating dhabas (Highway restaurants). Each claiming to be the best! An advertising claim made even by multinationals.The most famous is called The Shiva Tourist Dhaba. There are two versions – One owned by Mama Yadav and the other one by Pandit Avneesh Sharma. I believe they were the authentic ones as there were few others by the same name run by copycats. We parked the cars and entered one. We literally fainted seeing so much crowd. It seems the entire Delhi weekend crowd who left home at 6 in the morning were hungry by now.

We decided to visit the one on the opposite side and luckily could manage to get the seats. Now one USP of all these highway dhabas in North India right from Murthal to Meerut ones and the ones on this highway – they sell the best-stuffed paranthas. Paranthas can be of Aloo, Aloo-Pyaaz, Gobhi, Paneer served with a dollop of white butter and served with a mango-garlic pickle. The white butter on a freshly baked parantha melts like an iceberg reminding you of Global warming We also had our share with a glass of Lassi. Though must admit that Lassi was average. The ladies for once kept their diet plans on the back shelf. The kids (my son is in final year engineering and rest of kids were also in the same age group)though they were still yearning for pasta but had to compromise.

After refueling mid-way, the journey started again. I will take a break here and will come back with what happened in Corbett. Till then goodbye!

Read more of such similar posts on my blog. Click on the link below:

A Weekend Break: Chilling out with family on a holiday