Encounter

2. Pre-Plan

I heard Roshan and Kshitij planning the recreational trip by the office. It's been long since I have been on any trips. I was with Vandy, we heard them and turned around. Vandy said, "Let's go to Nagarkot. We will do some barbecue there."

Roshan replied, " No, we should go a bit far. We have been planning only but have never gone for a long trip. Let's go far this time. And also it's all expenses paid."

Kshitij suggested, "What about going to Kulekhani?"

Vandy replied, "We have been there when we were in college. Don't you remember?" Vandy and Kshitij were from the same college and in the same batch. We became close very quickly. We were in Trainee in this same office, later got the job here. Roshan and I were from a different college.

I suggested "Pokhara" in a soft voice. They all looked towards me and said, "Why do you want to go to Pokhara?" "It's very common." "Everyone goes there, there's nothing special."

I said, "HAHA, I was just distracting you. Leave it. Anyway, I have already been once there."

Vandy said in shock, "Once." "Yes or twice." "Don't say thrice now" he laughed. "No no, I have only been twice there."

Kshitij suggested, "Let's make thrice for Hrishab" Vandy didn't agree and Roshan was also in his side. They could not conclude that day.

The next day, Vandy came up with idea to go for a trip to Sauraha, Chitwan. Everyone seemed to agree, so I agreed with them. Our plan was to reach Chitwan around the time of the New year 2022. We planned to start our journey on 30th Dec. on Thursday morning. Although it was the office's recreational trip. We decided to take Vandy's Car with us.

Every one of us were excited, we reached the office at 8 in the morning. Deep down I really wanted to go Pokhara. But seeing everyone excited I didn't say a word. Apart from 4 of us, there was Smriti too. We all joined the company together, although she wasn't from the trainee. We all got in the car, Smriti sat on the front seat and we three squeezed ourselves to fit in the seat. Roshan was a bit upset about not getting the front seat. After an hour or so we stopped for tea. While having our tea break, we heard some people talking about the strike going on the Muglin- Naraynghat road. Vandy was too confident he would take us to the destination. I didn't use to drink tea so I got out of there to breathe in some fresh air. I didn't notice Smriti was following me, she came near and stood beside me. After some time I heard her slurping her tea. 

"Sorry, I didn't notice you." 

"It's fine I didn't want to disturb you." 

"What are you doing here?" 

"I just came to check on you. Why are you here alone?" 

"Fresh Air!" 

"I hope I am not distracting you to fill your void with this air." She smiled. 

"Not at all. Happy to have your company." 

Roshan screamed from the back, "Hrishi, Come here once" 

I asked, "What happened?" 

And came back along with Smriti. 

"People are saying we can't get past Muglin" 

Vandy interrupted, "Don't worry it's just for a day and we will stay at the hotel for a day in Muglin and drive early in the morning, we will reach within an hour and the day is ours." 

Kshitij said, "We need to have a backup plan at least" 

Vandy asked, "what backup?" 

"What if we get stuck in Muglin and we have to plan another trip, where would it be?" 

Smriti, unaware of how we concluded Chitwan, suggested, "Pokhara is a great place and usually best at new year and I can book the room for us in a short time." 

Vandy glanced her with disagreement and said, "Just don't worry, we don't need any plan B. We will be chilling in Chitwan tomorrow." 

Every one of us were a little skeptical but went on to agree with him. We wrap up there and sat on the Car. We reached Muglin at around 12 PM. He parked near a hotel. Everyone got out and asked the locals about the situation. They said it was strike because of the Muglin- Naraynghat road construction corruption. Locals were angry, how the road started to break down and holes started to form. Due to those holes, an accident, a day ago killed 2 people. So the locals have put logs and stones in the middle of the road. They won't stop the strike until government signs treaty to fill the holes with a transparent and quality supervision. We sat down and ordered lunch. 

"Now what?" Kshitij said. 

Roshan: "Let's go to Pokhara" 

Vandy: "Let's not rush. We can spend a night here and still reach Chitwan by tomorrow" 

Smriti: "Why can't we just go Pokhara today we could enjoy it for two days." 

Vandy: "No no no, we will get to Chitwan" 

Everyone in unison, "Pokhara, is the best place to be in New year's Eve. Let's go there." 

Vandy didn't agree. He said," we all have been to Pokhara already. Let's go to some new place."

 "The road is blocked. Why don't you just agree to go to Pokhara. There's no way we could make through this strike, see the long trail of vehicles. So stop becoming childish and let's go to Pokhara" 

Smriti shouted in his face. He didn't speak to anyone and just nodded in agreement. We had our lunch and as a twist of the plan, we were going to Pokhara. After we had our meal every one melted in their seat and sat for a nap. I went back to the hotel to see the aggressive beauty of the Trishuli river. 

Smriti came near me and said, "You just had your meal and here you are again, probably having some fresh air. Aren't you full?" 

I laughed. 

"I just love looking into the river. It's amazing how so the river has traveled from so far, striking to different objects, all uncertain and of different size, and the predictability of its flow is always random yet it creates such mesmerizing sound and flow which in fact has some pattern in itself."

 "Ahem ahem. Too much philosophical." 

"I want to tell you a secret." 

"What?" She replied in shock. 

"I really wanted to go Pokhara and I wasn't really excited for Chitwan." 

"Okay. Then you owe me now." 

"I will pay you back." I winked at her. 

"By the way, What's in Pokhara?" 

"I don't know what's luring me in there. Maybe just a random hit on a rock, and in the end, we will find some pattern." 

I laughed. While we were observing the river, we chatted for a while. Then Kshitij called us. It was time to go. We were heading towards Pokhara and I was very happy from inside. Vandy was a bit disappointed but I knew he would be all set once we had a couple of beers. I was excited to be in Pokhara for the third time. Life is like a flowing river, random hits and misses but in the end, we start enjoying the random cause and effect but we can't ignore that there's a pattern in itself.