27th June 2008   ~ Delhi - Chandigarh

The next morning, I woke up to the chaiwaala’s shouts for tea/coffee a common sight &sound of our railway stations. We ate bread cutlets for breakfast and made it to Delhi station on time. Now this was going to be the difficult part getting a ride to Pradeep’s place without being fleeced by the auto drivers, looking at the luggage that we were carrying the auto drivers thought they could charge us 400 bucks while all it took was Rs. 90 on a pre-paid auto!.  We reached our friend’s place, freshened up and were treated to a scrumptious breakfast prepared by her mom. We then decided to go to Delhi Haat as I thought Sejal would like it, did some shopping; ate the famous chole bhatura & kulfi. We decided to head back home to pick up our luggage to catch the train to Chandigarh. Nitin hadn't got there yet we decided to board since the train was already there and stow away our luggage while waiting for him. We noticed a similar scene here as well... everyone staring at the amount of luggage we were handling. With exactly two minutes before the train was to start, we spotted Nitin with his backpack, camera bag and three sleeping bags, which he managed to dump the wrong seat much to the amusement of an aunty. :D Finally we stashed away our stuff and started talking as this was the first time I was meeting Nitin. It was a pleasant journey of four hours and didn't even realize when we reached Chandigarh. And was received by Pradeep at the station... After the usual round of pleasantries, we piled up in his car with the entire luggage and headed to his house. Looking at the amount of luggage he said he had been wise to get his Bolero fitted an overhead carrier :) This was first time Sejal and I met Pradeep. Nitin and Pradeep had already met once in Delhi so were well acquainted with each other. We met Pradeep's family and then started talking about trip and started handing out responsibilities for the various preparations to be done for the trip. In between all this chaos enters Rahul – the last minute trump card entry and "Dude"-cum-"sarvajanik model" of the group. We all sat around chatting while Pradeep was all over the house gathering the stuff he needed to take with him. We had dinner and went down to the society neighborhood for a walk still continuing our endless conversations and Pradeep was worried that if we didn't sleep, we wouldn't be up and ready on time the next day. Finally we caught some sleep around 1,30-2 am.