After pushing me for over four years, this year at
last she won. Neiha was asking me to visit Surajkund fest since quite long,
even I wanted to but because of one or other reasons we missed it every season.
But this time she pushed me so hard that we landed straight into the mela and
that too planned just a day before.
Around noon we (Me, Neiha, Vicky, Jyoti) were on our
way to Surajkund. Gurgaon-Faridabad road was under construction so we got some
bumpy ride till we moved to surajkund road; from there the road was a good
curvy retreat and what made it more beautiful was the cloudy weather.
But that beautiful feeling of being a lonely animal in
lush green fields soon disappears as we reached close surajkund. It seemed like
people from all the nearby cities and villages thronged to the place. Long
traffic queues and then fully occupied miles of parking space gave an
impression like we are going to witness India Pakistan world cup final. Finally
after crossing two parking areas we got space to park our car. I was excited to
visit a mela after so long (I remember I went to one when I was in 5th
or 6th standard). But with every step closer to the fest my
excitement was fading down because of the excessive crowd.
Finally after struggling with the long ticketing
queues we moved in (sorry crawled in – We didn’t have that much space to move).
As always we were hungry before reaching our destination and with no doubts in
our mind, Neiha & Vicky were the big bhukhas among us. So we moved directly
towards the food court. The best thing about the fest was its location, it’s
like deep inside the jungle, greenery all around; but that feeling of isolation
in a jungle was badly crushed down by the massive crowd. Anyways, let aside the
struggle to get the food, the quality & variety of food was very good and
one can have every dish in the Indian food menu from idli sambhars to the
pizzas pastas.
I was exhausted even before starting our pedestal
walk, thanks to Jyoti for giving me company in the same feeling. As always Neiha
was super excited to visit every nook and corner of the place and she was the
one who kept us going. There was lot of stuff to shop for from woodcrafts,
artifacts, bone-china material, clothes, antique statues, lamp shades. There
were many dance performances at different locations but we could not see any,
infact it was almost impossible to have a glimpse of those as every venue was
over occupied. The most attractive stall for me was that of Tihar Jail Inmates
shop, they are selling every stuff from candles to soaps, from greeting cards
to diaries, from potato chips to biscuits and all the stuff was handmade by the
jail occupants.
After listening to our repetitive cries at last Neiha
agreed to leave the place half searched and move out; because it was getting
wearisome, bumping to people again and again.
We were on the way back home, so were the birds. And
they gave us the best view of their flight I had ever seen in my life. A group
of white storks flying too low along the straight road, it seems they will hit
my cars wind shield but at the last moment the birds pulled up. Our jaws
dropped on this mesmerizing experience, we stopped the car to say thanks &
goodbye to the birdies. “See you again on next year’s fest, but definitely not
on a weekend”
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