WOOHOO! Today is Gondola day!
I was going to go on one of the highest gondolas in the world! The Gulmarg Gondola is the second longest and second highest cable car in the world!
​This awesome cable car setup was started in 1998, and then a higher and longer stage was added in 2005.


The first stage transfers from the Gulmarg resort at 2,650 m to Kongdoori Station, and the second stage of the ropeway  takes skiers to a height of 3,980 m to a shoulder of nearby Afarwat Peak. Wow - a rise of more than a kilometre in just a few minutes.
I went over to the Gulmarg Ski Resort and bought myself a ticket for the Gondola ride - it was early in the morning, so the tourist crush was not in full swing yet - but the place was already buzzing with activity. It was a well-organised activity and I soon found myself in line to get on to a car.
It can be a bit alarming because the cars never come to a complete halt - but they travel slowly so people can get into it without trouble - but it can look daunting for the old, the infirm - and the fat!
The trip from the base station to the first stop was very nice - it takes you over a tree covered mountainside up to a meadow, where they have a made a few tourist facilities. The ride used to end here at one time, so there are some gardens and a gazebo and a few hopeful ponywalas hanging around. But the real fun is when you take the next gondola and this takes you some serious height - almost 4000 meters above m.s.l.
You are above the tree line now and the mighty mountains stand bare and exposed all around you and you can see their majesty! What a sight! There are no trees - just a few hardy bushes defying the sub-arctic level conditions! The mountains were covered with glorious red swathes of rhododendrons… well, they might not have been rodo…ruddy…rodeo…dammit!….rhododendrons…but they were red, and that’s the main thing!
Who makes up these stupid names anyway? Rhododendron! What a ridiculous name for a beautiful flower. Other flowers get names like rose or daisy or something utterly charming like ‘forget-me-not’. What does this poor fellow get? Rhododendron.

My love is like a red red rose… that’s literature!
My love is like a red red rhododendron… that’s stupidity!
I sat around the Gondola station admiring the awesome views - there were winding jeep tracks all around the mountainside, where the intrepid and fearless army people used to take their jeeps and trucks to the far flung mountain camps to patrol the ranges and keep the scumbag terrorists out. A few of these army camps were even visible from the station.
I finally hopped on the Gondola and returned back to Gulmarg.
What to do now? I caught sight of the Northwind cafe, my cheesy chicken wrap supplier of yesterday. YES!
Before you could say ‘Jack Robinson’, I was sitting in the cafe and ordering the cheesiest chickeniest spiciest pizza that they had! Aaaah! What bliss.
I looked up to the sky to thank the lord - and was startled at seeing an overcast and angry sky! WTF! It had been a beautiful blue sky all day long. Was it going to rain.


The locals shook their heads at me and gave me the old saw ‘Mumbai ke fashion ka, aur parbat ke mausam ka - koi bharosa nahin.’ (Nothing is predictable about Mumbai fashions and mountain weather). Hearing this ancient saw was really nostalgic - I had been hearing this exact statement since the first time I went to the mountains, and the nostalgia cheered me up for a bit.


In fact, I decided to celebrate my cheered-up mood by going for a ride to appreciate the beauty of Gulmarg - and of course, it rained and soaked me!
I hightailed it back to my cottage, and ruefully hung up my soaked clothes to dry by the room heater.
TOO BAD YOU COULDN’T FIND THE COBBLER, EH? HAHAHAHAHA


Right, I couldn’t stand this anymore! I had to take direct action! I gathered all the resources I had left - some puncture adhesive, some rubber bands, some cable ties and some electrical tape - and I used all of it on the boot!


‘How’s that, you flappy fellow? Eh? Eh?’
MMMPPHH! MMMMPFFFF!


Ha! I snapped my fingers at the boot, and went to sleep with a feeling of smug satisfaction!