My tall friend

My tall friend has recently joined the company. Lean and tall , specs on a fair face with a look of mystery.
It was the fourth weekend of November, when the winter (well if you could call it so) was just beginning to set in on the great northern plains.
At half past 10 in the night, I was waiting outside the gate of my colony along with a few others for a "volvo" bus. The bus would take us on our annual weekend camp , to Sat Tal : the hamlet of seven lakes in the hills of Kumaon.
There was little activity around us, save for a marriage party that was going on in the community center adjoining the gate. The guard was wide awake, beside the ATM and eying the unwelcome bystanders with some curiosity.
Suddenly the trip manager called me on my cell, asking our bunch to get ready as the bus was about to reach that stop. A beam of light shone upon us the next minute and quickly we boarded the bus , with loud cheers from the inmates.

The journey had finally begun. We had been planning for it , for months together, trying to get support from the whole group and to get as many persons to join as we could.
Finally we were some thirty odd persons, including a few couples that were speeding across the national highway in the dead of the night as an hour when few persons would venture out in the dangerous UP roads.
The first few minutes were spent in adjusting our sitting positions and reshuffles. The next hour was lost in some enthusiastic vocal exhibition from the "singers" including me. Soon, we had consumed snacks, filled ourselves with the drinks (beer for the broad minded and coke for the narrow minded ones like me) and had fallen asleep.

After an hour or so, our smooth sail was interrupted by a storm of heavy traffic. As the bus stopped moving, most of the passengers got awakened (I have observed this dynamics keenly, more on this later). Some of them dismounted to get the temporary relief that is not possible to get on a bus, and then found that we were trapped in the midst of an unending army of trucks leading to an unresolvable jam.
It seemed, we would be unable to move even a meter, when two of our colleagues, perhaps high on beer (maybe something more) took the initiative. They walked on the road and helped the sleeping truck drivers clear the mess, so that our bus could move forward albeit slowly.

The jam lasted for nearly 3 hours, until we reached Gajraula, the favorite stop for tea and food for travellers on way to Nainital.

After snacks and tea, we started continued on our way. Kathgodam, the small town close to the hills , welcomed us with a breathe of fresh mountain air.
We left the bus at the station and took qualis cabs to our resort, Country Inn in Bhimtal.
There were six cabs, we drove like a caravan past the winding mountain roads till the plains were a thing of the past and steep mountains along with deep gorges became the only reality in life.

We reached Country Inn at about 9 , only to find (and much to my disappointment) that not all the rooms we had booked were available as yet. After waiting for nearly an hour or so, we got all the rooms for the team.

It was around 2 in the afternoon. After a hearty lunch, we drove to Sattal. This was the place where we were to have some "team building" activities.
Here I had my first genuine encounter with my tall friend.
The camp where we were asked to go is situated across the lake. All round the lake, save on one side, we could see only forests. The forests are known to be infested with , yes, you got it right : wild animals. We were paddling our boats , due to my good fortune (or may be, due to the lack of it), my tall friend was among the four men in my boat.
When we were in the midst of the lake, which is known to be deep enough to swallow a six story building, my tall friend wanted to take "snaps". Unaware of the dangers he posed, we stood up all on a sudden, his tall frame along with a shift in the center of gravity shook the boat madly. It seemed to me that in a few seconds we could fall into the water.I cried "Arre yeh kya kar rahe ho yaar...please sit down.." . He smiled mischieviously, and said , why do you panic my friend. Nothing will happen.
He did sit down though, as I had a minor exchange of words with him. I told him, this lake doesn't care for what we think, we must respect its rules.Nobody else would be to blame should our boat overturn at this time. We didn't even have life jackets, neither was any of us a good swimmer.

However, we managed to paddle to the opposite bank, where we alighted. From here we took a walk through hilly, jungle track to the camp.