Pahadland trip Part 2

From Jaageshwar, we went on to Binsar and from there, onto Almora and Ranikhet. Where thankfully the temperatures were normal. As in hot. As in wear thin cottons and mop your sweating forehead. Where the Himalayan view was advertised as being visible from every room in the hotel we stayed in. The brat kept staring at the distant horizon in anticipation. "Dere, dere, the Himalayas are coming. I can see dem.Lets go and meet them."

Alas for cloud cover and haze we never really got a good view of the Himalayas except for a brief grey outline as the sun broke every morning. We returned disappointed.

The next day we went to Nainital, and to the boating. The brat climbed in gingerly. And sat through the ride bravely. He got out shaky kneed and a little green around the gills. "Wats d point of sitting in d boat, we came back here oney."

Our next and final lap in the Pahad land trek was to Corbett National Park. The brat got up bright and sparkly to see the tiger. Or rather Mowgli. The entire trip had the brat building castles in his head about meeting up with Mowgli and having long intense conversations with him about his life in the jungle and about how the brat was just so keen to trade places with him, and maybe Mowgli would even introduce him to all his frens. And nobody would bite the brat because Mowgli would tell them to behave themselves.
The long drive, and the longer wait at Ramnagar exhausted him. Plus the heat was so terrible, we were all sweated out and exhausted by the time we actually reached Corbett and the long drive into Dhekala saw us all nodding off in the car.  Suddenly an errant stone hit the underside of the car and woke the brat up. "Mamma, mamma, stop the car, Mowgli's calling me, he's throwing stones!" he squawked. Now, stopping a car in the middle of a forest sanctuary populated by 164 tigers according to the last tiger census conducted within the reserve, was not exactly a good idea. "Stop d car, stop d car," he squawked, getting puffed and red with anger as we showed no signs of slowing down. And sat turned back in the seat hoping to catch a glimpse of Mowgli in the thick jungle. When we reached, he got off, sullenfaced. "Yer a mean mommie. I hope a tiger eats you."

Finally we reached Delhi, and got to meet the brat and the bean. Both the brats took to each other like long lost brothers, we half expected the dramatic duo to show us some common tattoo to prove fraternity in  classic Hindi movie tradition. On the way to the airport, the brat sulked throughout. "I donwantu go home. I wantustay here oney. At the brat's house. Or..." a light bulb moment, "Letsh take the brat to Mumbai wid us. His mamma wont feel sad, she has bean. The brat can stay wid us  and go to my skul. He can eat apne aap, but Mamma, will you wash his bum?"