Ecstasic Udaipur

"Kathikda Calling” showed ,when I pulled the mobile lazily from my pocket and I thought here starts again, The Hindi speaking training for him. Anyways I picked the phone, unlike him, and the first thing I hear is Karhtik da shouting, “Thambi, do you want to go to Udaipur?”.I thought why would I want to go to Udaipur at all of all the places that i can go, what sort of question is this and asked in one breath “What? How? When? Why?”.
Then he started explaining that Debu da’s team Oracle Direct was going to Udaipur that year for there yearly team outing.
If you don’t know about this or shocked to hear that how any team in any company can go so much far to Udaipur for a team outing, let me explain it before continuing further. I don't know for your company, but my company never went out of Bangalore for an outing. Debu da used to work in oracle(I am not saying that he used to work there. He never worked.Simply speaking he was an employee there. I will write a separate blog about the non working of oracle employees but that will be coming later) in a team called Oracle Direct. It was said by other Oracle employees in my our house that there team was the largest revenue generator in Oracle and to appreciate this fact every year they used to go to a good, exotic and finest location for there team outing. For example to places like Maldives, Thailand, Malaysia etc. This time they were going to Udaipur generally called as the city of lakes or the venice of east(Don't ask me why, I did not give this name). The best part was all the team members can take one other person with him. So a married person can take his family and others can take there friends/girl friends etc. So lets get back to the story again.
So the problem was that Debu da was in US at that time and so was not able to co-ordinate who will go with him. He first asked Karthik da, but he said no as he had some release at that time (People in our home say that Karthik da works only for one month in whole 12 months of an year and yes you got it right, it was his working month at the time of the trip). Manish bhaiya was not in India at that time so I became the most eligible. So Karthik da called me to find out whether I am interested to go to this trip to Udaipur. I had my doubts so i thought better to clear all of them first. Obviously the first question I asked was how much I will be spending for this trip. My second question was how are they planning to go there. Karthik da told me that we will fly from Bangalore to Mumbai and then to Udaipur and return the same way. I thought we even have an airport in Udaipur, cool. And then came the next bombshell when karthik da told me that we were going to stay in Taj lake Palace in Udaipur. In all my life I have never been inside any hotel with name starting with Taj and I always had the impression that any hotel name which starts with Taj must be good. I thought that this may be the time in which not only will I enter the hotel but stay there also. The trip was for 4 days and 3 nights. Since getting 4 days leave was never a problem in Tavant(It was problem only when you ask for 2 weeks leave and you will get a reply as if company will close if you are not there for 2 weeks) so I replied, yes I am coming.

Karthik da told me the dates of the trip and I sent a mail to my Team Lead asking for 4 days leave and just before sending I thought something and added all the details of the trip such as how are we going and where we are staying. My team Lead came to me the moment he read the mail and said to me that I know why you have given all the trip details in the mail even when its not required and I know that you will go even if I won’t approve so better I approve it. He started moving to his seat, when suddenly he turned back and said laughing, “Next week we are going to Bowling for our team outing”.
So everything was done and I started waiting eagerly for the trip. I don’t know why I was more excited, by the thought of making all the journey by plane which makes you feel priviliged and important. Because for me it was just like a personal trip for which somebody else was paying. What can be more satisfying than somebody else paying for all of your fun. Or by the thought of staying at Taj Lake palace.I never in my life imagined that someday I will be staying in a Taj hotel and now not only I was going to stay in it but somebdoy else will be paying for my stay. I was wondering how the experience would be. I was sure that it was only one of these but not both. In the mean time Debu da came back to India and showed me the itinerary. I don’t remember exactly how it was but it looked nice and well planned. And came with it were two tags which needed to be tied to mine and debu da’s luggage which had the name Debarun written on it so people know that I am coming with him. And I thought it’s a really good planning. In the meantime I spread the news that I am flying to Udaipur for a trip and staying there in Taj Lake Palace. It was very satisfying to see people so much jealous and that time all my conversation started and ended with Udaipur trip. Everybody asked me the same thing, “Can I also come?, Please tell your bhaiya to take me also”.
Finally the trip day came but the nature has some other plans for us. It was raining heavily in Mumbai at that time and no flghts were landing or taking off from there. Obviously the flight from Bangalore to Mumbai was also cancellled that day and the organisers were making some alternate plans with one option of even cancelling the trip. I was praying that let anything happen the trip shouldn’t get cancelled. Finally god heard my cries and it was decided to delay the trip by one day and go via Delhi. I sent the same by mail to my team lead saying that I will take the leave from tomoroow again giving all the details. He read it came to me and said sahi hi fi hain yaar oracle waale… So next day they send us a car to drop us to Airport and I was all ready to jump in it. We reached Airport and gathered with rest of them and our boarding pass was given. There I met some of Debu da’s friends. The journey to Udaipur was uneventful and we reached there on time. We were told to pick our luggages and keep in a separate area and it would be taken care of. We went outside and there were two buses waiting for us.
We climbed the bus and started towards the Taj lake palace. After travelling for around half an hour we crossed a gate which was marked as the entry to the Taj Lake Palace. We travelled for another 1 km when the bus started going down the road and I still didn’t see where the hotel was.We climbed down when the bus stopped and saw that there was a shed like thing with a marking as entry to Taj Lake Palace and some good looking nice girls dressed in traditional attire waiting at the entrance. I went further slowly thinking that are this girls waiting for me? I went a step further and they looked at me and smiled and I thought that yes they are waiting for me. In real sense they were not waiting for me but for the guest in there hotel, but that didn’t matter to me anyways. I went near them smiling and they put a mala and then a tika. Other girl was dropping flower petals on us. I thought wow, I have never been welcomed like this before. When I went ahead I saw a big room with lots of sofa and chairs to seat and then I saw aheead and it came to me why it is called the Taj lake place. The hotel is right in the middle of the lake brimming with water and we needed to go there by boat. I got inside the boat which was waiting for us and started towards the palace. It was looking beautiful from the boat like the hotel is floating in the water. Actually the palace was made on the island but its made as such that you can’t see a single part of the island. The Maharja used the palace as there monsoon stay, Later the Mahraja of Udaipur leased this palace to Taj groups and they converted this to a hotel. The boat reached the palace and there standing on the last step was another person in full rajasthani warrior attire waiting for us with a big umbrella. He wished us and guided us inside to the reception where we got our room keys and went to the room. Mine and Debu da’s luggage was already there as we were sharing the room. The room was beautiful, it was not much bigger in size but the decoration was amazing with vintage arts and paitings and sculptures. It had a big glass window facing the lake and a sofa so that you can just sit there and look at the lake. I started changing my dress and thought to put the curtains on but later thought that its not a road that somebody can come, anyways who can come to the lake near my window. Just when I was thinking this some firangi’s passed by my window in a boat and started waving at me laughing. I started the TV and went to the bathroom. Frankly speaking I have never seen bathroom like that in my whole life. Again not by the size but the way it was made. You could feel that it was made for a king to use. I started reseraching it and saw all the things you can ever need in a bathroom. Good I didn’t carried any, I always thought of loaning it from Debu da if required. I saw a switch and switched it on and some sound started coming. It came to me after some time that it was the speaker of the TV that they connected in the bathroom so that you can listen to your favourite channel while answering nature’s call.

The day was already half passed so there was no plans and we were on our own. I thought that while coming I was too amazed and preoccupied to check any details so I decided to go outside for a walk and look around the hotel. They had a big courtyard just outside the reception gate and there were chairs to seat and railings to stand where you can just relax, look at all the boats in the lake, the houses surrouding it. They even had a platform in the lake some 500 metres from the lake, later I found that that place has a table for two where you can take your wife for a romantic lunch/dinner. Imagine dinner right in the middle of the lake with only your partenr around(Before some fools start shouting, the waiter will serve you and go back). I took the boat and came to that shed where still more guests were coming. The scenary/view outside was beautiful. You need to climb a road which was on the hill side and it made an amazing view of the palace in the night. I walked slowly and saw there was another palace, a Diamond museum and some antique shops. I walked till the outer gate and came back, had dinner and slept. It was morning when I opened my eyes and then slept again thinking it was too early and then I thought I heard bansuri playing. I woke up and thought it was a dream as the TV was switched of but the Bansuri was still playing. Wondering I went outside and looked around. There were 2-3 peacocks roaming around, the fountains in the pond were on and then I saw one person playing bansuri in the roof. Then another person came an started playing santoor. I thought if all my mornings can be like this.I got ready and went for the breakfast and more surprises were waiting. There were no tables as such where you can go and take your food. Many chefs were standing there with there own table and cooking whatever you told them. Such as in one table the chef was making all the south indian dishes, you tell him what you want and he will cook it for you there only. I went to the table where the chef was making all egg dishes, he asked me what you want sir, I told him I am still thinking. Then I asked him can you make single fry and double fry as I have not eaten this after my college days. He smiled and said yes. That day I think I ate so much in breakfast which normally I would have eaten in a week.

Next night there was a oracle party and the dress code was traditional. I wore a Kurta which I bought just a day before when we went for shopping in Rajasthani dress emporium. They were supposed to give the prize for the star of the year. That was really what you called a party. Waiters carried around many different types of starters. The bar was open having all the drinks you can imagine but I cocentrated on starters. I asked Debu da whether he is getting any award today. He said “pagal hai kya jo mujhe award milega, mujhe to nikalne waale hain”. I asked the same question to Gandhi bhaiya and he replied the same. Next moment they announced the award, first Debarun Dasgupta and second Vijay Gandhi, sadly they didn’t get it and were runner’s up. Next we went for sinner where they had setup music with a DJ. Everybody was dancing but I was concentrating only on food. Debu da went to the dance floor then and believe me he is a bad dancer. The buffet was set and I tasted all the food that was available one by one and went straight to bed after that as I was not able to satnd or sit after having some much food. Next day we went to all the palaces,temples and the streets famous for there art shops. Many of them bought some paintings but I simply looked on thinking why the hell this costs so much. Third day we planned a trip to Mount Abu, A beautiful hill station around 4 hours drive from Udaipur. The last 1 hour of the journey involved going thorugh narrow and hilly valley roads. It was exciting for others but not for me as I regularly made the trip from Guwahati to Silchar and vice versa which was far more dangerous than this roads. One thing I was seeing for the first time was the behaviour of the fog. It was 11.30 A.M and was full of fog. One moment the fog went away and and another moment it came back. We were walking to a lake for boating when suddenly people stopped and said that this is the lake and was not able to see a single drop of water. When I looked closely, saw that the whole lake was covered in fog, the visibilty was atmost 20 metres.

Finally the day came to come back to bangalore. I was slightly sad to come back from this beautiful trip. Anyways I packed my bag and left some good comments on the comment sheet they put in our rooms. We reahced Delhi airport and they said that there is no need to go to the airport again. We came out of one plane and entered the another which was standing nearby. We reached bangalore and said bye to all of Debu da’s friends.One important thing if you ask me how much money I spent in this whole trip. I spent RS. 15.00 that too only for making calls.