This is a bit old, I had just started growing beard and moustache and to fulfill my needs I thought let's do a job and earn a lot of money. I joined the job and when I used to sit on the laptop till 11-12 in the night everyday, then I thought what am I doing?. I went home upset and spent the whole night thinking that I don't want such a life... I have to do something.
The next day I talk to my office team that we, a team of 6 people, start working on a project at 9 in the morning and sometimes keep working till 12 in the night and sometimes till 2 in the night. Working for 15-16 hours is neither good for our health nor for our mental state. I am tired of following the same routine for many months and now I need a break for which I want to go somewhere. The other 5 members understood my point after which everyone had the same opinion that we will also come, tell me where to go?
At that time, I had very little knowledge of places, and like most Hindu families, my family too had taken me to Vaishno Devi temple, so I told all my colleagues that “we all will go to Vaishno Devi temple for a visit”. Everyone had visited this temple at least once in their life, so everyone could connect with my point and everyone agreed to go. The next question was how will I get leave from the boss? I told my team that I don’t care about my job and if the boss does not approve the leave, then I will resign.
I said my point in a loud voice, after hearing which all five colleagues also got excited. We all were standing in our boss’s cabin and anger could be seen on everyone’s face. The boss, considering the matter of leaving the job, gave all of us a full 5 days leave together. It had been many months since we started working and I swear this was the best day. We decided that on Friday we will pack our bags and bring them to the office and after the office gets over, we will leave from here by boarding a bus.
I will write a blog on Vaishno Devi temple some other day. I want to show you the journey beyond Vaishno Devi temple where we all really had a lot of fun forgetting the office. So after Vaishno Devi temple we decided to go to Patnitop where there will be snow and we will enjoy in the snow. By the way, let me tell you that the distance from Delhi to Jammu is 600 km, which the bus took 12 hours to cover, to reach Katra from Jammu bus stand, a distance of 50 km is covered in 3 hours, on the return journey it takes us 3 hours to reach Patnitop from Katra in which we cover a distance of 85 km.
After reaching Patnitop, we rent a hotel and all 6 people go to sleep after having dinner. It is the month of January and the locals here are saying that this time very little snow has fallen. On this, we say that this much is enough for us. In the morning, after getting ready, we go to Patnitop where everyone gets disappointed after finding really less snow. Seeing our sadness, the taxi driver gives us the idea of going to Natha Top. We all get ready because we will find snow to play there. It did not take much time to cover this 10 km long distance.
The height of Natha Top is 2711 meters and from here the snowy peaks of Kashmir are visible. We go crazy seeing snow here. Some are lying in the snow, some are throwing snowballs at each other, some are trying to draw a line not to go in the snow and some are eating snow. I am happy to see everyone and think that we made a good decision to come here. Firstly, we got away from the noise and crowd of the city, secondly from the stressful environment of the office and thirdly now we all are thinking good for ourselves and our mental state.
After playing in the snow for about 3 hours and clicking a lot of photos, we sit back in the car. The body has become cold in the snow so everyone eats hot noodles. After eating noodles, I tell everyone that now when we all go back to the office, we do not have to work like slaves. As per the terms written on our contract, we will work in the office only from 9 to 5, and whenever we are kept in the office after 5 pm, we will demand extra money. As per the contract, we will not work on Saturdays and Sundays. And one last thing, every two months we will go for a trip somewhere in the mountains. Everyone nods in complete agreement.
I changed this job after working in this office for almost a year. It is a different matter that my colleagues could not fulfill their commitments and I had to leave the job because I could not work for 16 hours, that too when I was not being paid even for 8 hours extra. I also asked my friends to leave the job but no one listened to me. Anyway, this is their decision which I respect. I changed my job and searched for a good job for myself where the employee is not considered a slave.
Even today, when I remember this trip of mine to Patnitop, I remember all my friends and the mountains. The good thing is that we are all still connected through WhatsApp group. I hope you liked this journey. See you in the next post where I will again tell you about some other Himalayan place. Till then take care of yourself and keep smiling.
Disclaimer: This post is originally written in Hindi and I have used Google Translator to tranlate the Hindi text in English. All the photos have been clicked by me from Sony Point and Shoot camera and edited in Lightroom/photoshop.
[//]:# (!pinmapple 33.08439 lat 75.33746 long We Quit (Kinda): A Story of Overwork, Mountains, and Redefining Work-Life Balance (Patani Top, India) d3scr)
