Lunch With Friends #NAINAxRanikhet Day 07, 2017 #EyesForDestinations

1st September, 2017

It is September already. Where did 2017 go? And a whole week in Ranikhet already too. Time flies. I don’t think I want to go back to Gurgaon. Weather has gotten cloudier and colder. The torrential rain warnings are everywhere. It isn’t pouring yet but we do have a lunch date with one of Dad’s friends. They have invited us over to their home in a part of Ranikhet that I’ve never been to. It will involve driving up and down some narrow roads, so clearly, the wheel is going to be in Dad’s hands. I’m quite scared of navigating steep and narrow streets in the hills. And if there’s a rain warning, I’m useless behind the wheel.

Luckily it poured while we were indoors having lunch with the Suris. Zero visibility outdoors, beer indoors! By the time we had wrapped up lunch, the sky had cleared up. The streets were mostly brick-top, so driving on them wasn’t as tricky as I’d imagined. Still, Dad did the driving as I tried to be of some use helping him navigate the reversing and U-turns.

It is nice to imagine owning a home on one of the hillsides in Ranikhet. But imagining the maintenance and monkey situation give me nightmares. There was a time about a decade ago when we as a family were considering where to settle. Ranikhet was at the top of the list. But practicalities like access to medical facilities and internet connections quickly dropped Ranikhet way below Delhi / Gurgaon. In retrospect, we all have no regrets. Sure it would have been nice to live in Ranikhet but only in our imaginations. We’re city-dwellers. Period. Until it’s time to drive to the hills and take a short break!

Some photographs of Ranikhet settled on the hillside in the photos below as well.