Tuesday, August 7, 2007

Gwalior Travels Pvt Ltd.


I was one of those who strongly believed that friends are what you make till you turn 20 and post that you have close acquaintances. Well, now I think that once you have kids then you are forced to make new friends for your kids sake.

We have been very lucky to have formed a small group of parents who have had their kids going to the same playschool. They were a group of four kids who were in the same class in the play school and because they were friends, the parents also became friends. This is the LT (learning tree ) group.

Even though two new additions have happened in the form of a brother and sister joining the group and the original four going to four diffrent schools the group has stuck together.

One of the high points of the group is the monthly dinner and the half yearly short vacation that we all take. This month we all went to Gwalior. Before anyone says Why Gwalior I will say why not. It has a good palace hotel which has a spa and a pool and there is absolutely nothing to do in that place. All in all an ideal weekend destination to relieve stress.

We stayed at the Usha Kiran palace which is a Scindia property leased out to the Taj group. The rooms were luxurious and the place was just right for our group.
The kids were busy in the pool and the adults took turns to give themselves up to the ministrations of the Spa team to get the aches and pains sorted out. In some cases it was also to feel gentle hands ( other than wives ) on our tired limbs. My big moment was when I was able to get Savir in the pool and let him paddle around for an hour.

Gwalior fort is an imposing structure and the sound and light show was very interesting aided of course by Amitabhs voice. My history ( never very strong ) got a much deserved boost and I think the kids also learnt a little bit about the heritage of the place.

We also went to a Gurdwara, I am always amazed at how the Sikhs are able to keep their religious places spick and span whereas we end up making it dirty. Is it a combination of flowers leaves and water that makes an avg Hindu temple unclean? Question that I need to ask my RSS friends.

In a group like a team, it is important to understand what everyones strength and weakness is and adjust accordingly. I think we have been lucky to have found that balance but I think it is also important that we constantly work on finetuning so that no one couple feels that they are being used.

Look forward to this group remaining the way it is and many more vacations Pvt ltd.

3 comments:

rachna said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
rachna said...

The entry reminded me of the trip to Rishikesh we took....and the pics. that spooked us...and Suryansh :)

Praveen Lohani said...

This reminds me of the trip I had, courtesy my father's LTC way back in 1982! Thankfully one of the guys, Sheelu, is still a dear friend.
Hope your kids make lifelong friends, because that will be the biggest gain for them :-)