faux passes

Carefree outings, free of hurries & worries ,in the lap of nature or being lost among the forts & fortresses, spending exclusive time with family—admist all these, there can be disappointments—In the past 19 years of my life, I have travelled to several places-from north to south- from west to east—each trip had its own share of joy and disenchantments!
Here’s some:
1.> so near yet so far---that was the exact situation when we went to agra after a fortnight long trip in Rajasthan. We had set aside only one day for Agra and that was a fateful Monday! (Monday blues following during outings too) To make things clear, Monday is(or was) the day when the Taj mahal is closed for public viewing. Goshh! It was really hard to swallow the fact , that we are in Agra and still will not be able to visit the Taj!! We encounterd a group of foreigners (who told us that it was their 8th consecutive visit to the Taj Mahal, how I envied them!!) .They took a path from the back side of the monument and soon we were on the banks of the Yamuna with the Taj in a transverse way. our only consolation was that particular bank was the place where Aishwarya Rai had danced in the film Jeans !

2> if the ‘visiting-agra-yet-not-being-able-to-visit-taj was not an enough blunder for this trip, here ‘s more…my mom had packed 6 of my new dresses in a bag and I was using it as a pillow . its thickness was enough for it to slip out of the window, and that’s exactly what happened! Its been almost 9 years and I still cannot forget the pain of losing 6 dresses!

3> it was around 6 pm and no sign of buses in the bus stop. After sometime, a policeman came and informed us ,that a riot has occurred on the highway so curfew has been imposed for 48 hours. shit! So our trip to Rameshwaram was not going to happen .how many times have I not fantasized about the ‘vanar senas’ constructing the bridge and how in my silly mind I had imagined that I would be able to see Srilanka from Rameshwaram ! so it was a great disappointment!

4> from 1:30 pm in the afternoon to 6:15 pm in the evening—well, this was the time we were stuck in the queue to visit Tirupati—quite a stress ,considering I was only 10 and my bro 6!
5> it was the majestic Ajanta & Ellora caves and there we made a blunder ! I was too young to understand why photography is prohibited and clicked! The result?? Our whole camera reel was taken away ! which has snaps of other places we visited!
6> back from our trip to goa, we decided to do some sight seeing in Bombay since our train was at 8:15 pm and we had plenty time. But rain god had other plans, it rained rainded, making us stranded in the station for the whole day. To top it, our train was running 8 hours late!

7>the weather gods did not show any mercy either during our 5 day stay in Darjiling. water showed all its forms-- be it as clouds floating by our hotel window, as rain spoiling our sunrise view, or as heavy fog blocking the view of kanchenjungha peak !!