Photo Gallery - Biking in Kansal

Friday Morning: 21st Aug'09

With plenty of first timers, allow me to introduce them to you.
CAT Riyaal had brought along his neighbour Minnie,
CAT Uday had his lovely wife Crystal with him,
then we also had Ajit, Lynn, Harman and Kimberly;
not to forget our regulars CAT Sandeep and CAT Harpreet.

Our multi-lingual and multi-cultural pack of 11 CATS
left Karuna Sadan at 6.10am, where CAT Pramod
personally handed over the bikes on rent to us.

The staff of Mr Ishwar Singh was as effective and vigilant, as ever!

Between the 10 of us, we could speak 9 languages and
had collectively visited nearly 30 countries!

Rearing to hit the trail within the Kansal Forest....

Lynn, I and Kimberly radiating in the splendid natural habitat of Kansal :)

....washing powder NIRMA ;-)

CAT Gurinder's son Harman, who was over from UK
for 10 days was simply over-awed by the beautiful environment
he was surrounded with...

He kept on saying, 'This is not India!!!'

The newly constructed Watch Tower in the side lawns of the
Log Hut at Kansal offering panoramic views all around

The walls of the Watch Towers give valuable pictorial information
about the flora, fauna to be found in the local jungle...

along with geographical details about the forest as well..
commendable attention to detail from Mr Ishwar Singh again...

Most of us were reminded of the Swiss chalets we had
been visiting, whilst walking back towards our bikes...

It was a BEAUTIFUL morning spent biking in Kansal CATS.


Saturday Morning: 22nd Aug'09

7 of us got onto our bikes from Karuna Sadan again at 6am
for yet another visit to Kansal... the main difference from yesterday
was that we had 3 kids with us to take care of today :)

CAT Amanat and CAT Ansh waiting for me to complete the formalities of the gate entry...

Just then the gate keeper arrived with a 4days old kitten,
which was being hunted by 3 dogs close to the forest gate...
as you can see, the kitten appears to be as big as CAT Amanat's hand!

With no sign of its' mother CAT around,
our own little kittens tried their best to provide comfort
to the meowing kitten; but to no effect...

The gate-keeper eventually decided to take the kitten
under his shelter till it grew up to fend for itself...

With the little kitten taken care of, our own
pack of CATS left behind our gang set to take off :)

Hardly had we got onto our bikes when kids came across
the first dam full of tadpoles and some mating butterlies...
Though CAT Ajit and CAT Rachna managed to stop them from
paddling deep into the water, it was an enjoyable lesson in biology for them ;-)

This pond held attention further as it had various stages
of being; from tadpoles to frogs in it...
Both CAT Ansh and CAT Aman were so curious that
they almost fell into the pond...

We had to raise our voice to get the boys back on the bikes!

CAT Uday had to rush back to get ready for work,
but we decided to explore the area around Kansal Log Hut
a little more with the kids...

Can you imagine that whilst the city baked in heat,
we had this lovely foggy morning greeting us by the lake at Kansal...

CAT Ajit was surprised to see that we had come
fully prepared with cookies, fruit, lassi, juices, rusks
and sandwiches for the biking morning!

Our services were improving by the day :)

and this was the state of Sun at 8.15am that morning ;-)

Though CAT Ajit had come only for the second time with us,
but he had already become an indispensible part of CATS...
He took our kittens to the field after breakfast when our
highly observant CAT Ansh said while running,
'meri tummy mein khaana uchhal raha hai!!!'

if you thought the fun was over with the biking, THINK AGAIN...

As we all waited for CAT Rachna to get back on track
since she had missed a turning, this lovely little pool with a fish and
single blooming lotus caught the attention of our kids AGAIN!!

Despite being given many warning by CAT Ajit and I,
they tried to hunt for the little fish kept in water to clean it off mosquitoes,
they tried to beat the little frogs in water with a stick...
till they lept a little more towards the pool...

and SPLASH.....

A very sheepish CAT Ansh was found amoung the fish and lotus in the pool !!!

CAT Ajit quickly pulled him out of the shallow pool,
amidst roaring laughter and bewildered looks ;-)

To this day, neither do we know nor we are sure
CAT Ansh has figured out, just how on earth did
he manage to land himself in the pond.

A BIG LESSON of this beautiful and memorable biking morning is:
Always LISTEN to your elders!!

- CAT Supreet

Photo Gallery - CATS 2nd Birthday

Agreed it was an impromptu birthday party,
agreed that only 17 had registered,
agreed that it was a weekday,
but the ones who came meowed their way through the evening.

First timer CAT Riyaal did not know what to do with this bunch of odd shaped CATS ;-)

We started a little late due to a massive traffic jam at the adjacent roundabout, but CATS were ready for the kill in no time... just look at this line up of beauties CATS :)

The first lot was chirping away so much, that this lot could hardly get a word in ;-)
Another newcomer of the evening, CAT Naveen gingerly walked upto our table and asked for Supreet. His face dropped when I got up to shake his hand.

He had all along assumed that Supreet was a man!

CAT Tony may seem quite here but was his usual witty self but as you can see,

CATS had not quite sunk into Riyaal as yet!

Given so many new faces around, a round of introductions was held,
whereby older CATS merrily told stories about each other..
I am sure CAT Rachna still does not know what to do with CAT DeepInder ;-)

Whilst the older lot were enjoying a group CATTY session,
our kittens were having a wonderful time by themselves on the sides..
CAT Amanat and CAT Garima bossed CAT Aman
and CAT Ansh around ;-)

Even sumptuous food could not quiten this lot... what to do eh!

Delicious and sumptuous food was served efficiently and lovingly
by the staff of Sundaram's. We had a vada, dahi bhalla, upma,
arguing with idli, uttapam, dosa, sambhar and rasam along with
3 chutneys competing for space inside our bellies!

Infact, Mr Sundaram himself ensured that CATS had a wonderful evening.

the 'boys' and the 'girls' made up to have dinner together ;-)

it really is amazing to see various age groups interacting in CATS

CAT Chat took charge of the smallest table to keep an eye on
CAT Sandeep and our dainty little CAT Surbhi ;-)

As a thank-you gesture for the heart warming service at extremely
affordable cost, CAT Charanjeet gave the 'CJ touch' to the evening by
preparing a memento for Mr Sundaram, which read 'Ati Sundaram'.

The memento was presented by our 4 little kittens to Mr Sundaram.

The food was so good that we infact forgot our cake altogether!

...and we had an unforgettable cake to remember this evening by.
I had ordered white cake with soft pink lace and dark green paw imprint.
The baker misheard me and we ended up with a white cake sporting
dark pink lace and a light paw imprint!!

Our GrandOld CAT Chat cut the cake with CAT Aman and CAT Ansh.

CAT AP immaculately cut 29 slices of our cake to ensure equality amungst the CATS :)

Aaw... memorable moments eh...
Though 17 had signed up, 29 showed up ending up fighting for space in the camera frame ;-)

We also had another reason to cheer.

CAT Sandeep got engaged to CAT Surbhi 2 days ago,
giving us a true-blue blooded FIRST CATS COUPLE.

Honestly, we had been waiting impatiently for this to happen.
Infact, CAT Tony was the first to exclaim,
'Shaq sa to mujhe inn per Tanda trip se hee tha!!!'

Do join us in wishing both of them a beautiful and fulfilling life together.

- CAT Supreet

Photo Gallery: Chail Day Trip

Don't miss the 'CATS ON THE MOVE' car labels especially made by
CAT Aman and CAT Amanat the night before...

17 CATS left the tricity by 8am to head towards the hills before the kids
went back to school... This trip was organised, 'on request' by CAT Jyoti :)

But not before we had had some food in our bellies

Paranthas galore with an odd sandwich thrown in.. healthy CATS!!

What is travelling without some good music?
Fixing the CD stuck in CAT Rachna's music system was the priority after breakfast

Read on if you want to know the reason behind the giggles of these two lovely CATS...

We were really looking forward to having a little tea break whilst sitting in the river flowing underneath the Sadhu Pul, made by the British in 1904... There was hardly any water in the river and that too was filthy... After the laughter died, a sane decision was made to skip Sadhu Pul break altogether and move to Chail instead...

CAT AR maintained his record by reaching Chail first!
This father and daughter duo posing whilst waiting
for the rest to arrive at the highest cricket ground of the world...

The cricket ground has been taken over by the Army School at Chail and the gates were locked!

This is what greeted us at the celebrated and much talked about
highest cricket ground built by the Maharaja Patiala..
A desolate looking lone tree stood cemented to the ground with a board which read,
'HISTORIC TREE - do not climb'.

There was no one who could give us the any information behind the grounds
or even this tree unfortunately.

All we could see by peering through the fence was running track, basketball court
instead of the lush greens and well kept pitch.

Aaah... a nice meowy shot in front of the locked gates to the stadium :)

Another one for the records... underneath the official board!

and then it was a short hike to reach Sidh Baba Mandir;

CATS were gleefully greeted by our 'bhai bandhu' ;-)

CATS dutifully taking their shoes off to enter the temple premises

the place where the Palace was originally was to be built
when Baba appeared in his dream and asked him
to shift the Palace to another location...

Welcome to the temple!

The well kept outer hall was lined with deities...

The inner sanctum had the idol of Sidh Baba...
with the photograph of Maharaja Patiala hanging outside on the pillar

a make-shift Shiv Temple outside underneath the tree...

Lovely walk through the tree lined path...

There's always something which manages to distract our CATS from the path ahead!

Everyone got around CAT Kulwant after the visit to the temple,
who was recovering from a bad bout of travel sickness
even with CAT Paramjeet driving the car at 40kms an hour!

CAT Om took really good care of CAT Kulwant who eventually needed a jab to stop the nausea...

No matter how difficult the times, smiles can never be far from us :)

which soon turns into peeling laughters ;-)

CAT Aditi had lovingly made delicious chocolates at home, as CAT AP had declared on the biking trip to Jayanti Devi a few months ago... With every piece of chocolate equally divided amungst 17 of us, it was time to reach the Palace for lunch.

CATS in various modes of rest, whilst waiting for lunch to arrive...

and then we pounced upon the food ;-)

The PURRfect Pose of The Chail CATS

I am saying nothing!

With food inside, CATS were really charged up for some super fun...
Since CAT AR, CAT Arti, CAT Anu and CAT Chat were leaving soon,
we decided that they should have the first attempt at 'Helium Sticks'

If only they knew what was in store... watch the video if you dont believe me ;-)

The first lot abandoned half way through,
this is the second lot with not much better luck ;-)

Their task was to bring the stick down without any finger loosing touch with the stick.. but the harder they tried, the higher the stick rose instead of coming down ;-)

Eventually CAT Om worked out a process in this team game
whereby instead of 6, only 2 should hold the stick at a time...

it was actually not very difficult to do... a very frustrated CAT Ansh had worked out his own method and was openly demonstrating to CAT Kulwant but no one was listening to him ;-)

In order to have some success in the game, CAT Jyoti said to CAT Om,
'Face Me', to which he immediately responded, 'But how can I ever do that!!'

it was getting sillier by the minute ;-)

But with determination and grit, practically everyone managed
to bring the stick down, if not in a team then atleast in pairs...

and then came the turn of toungue twisters.. the least said, the better!

Bagga Daddu Wadda Daddu Watt Tappe Daddua.... now say it 10 times... if you do not succeed, then watch CAT Gurneet in our videos for a free lesson ;-)

a very old historic Cedar Tree in the lawns of the Chail Palace...

By the way... this is Chail Palace!!!
we had a little tour of the palace before heading back to Chandigarh, reluctantly so :)

CATS going beserk in the first rain of this summer's monsoons..
we were merrily dancing on the highway itself in Sanwara

Please meet our glamorous waitress Rachna :)

Jokes aside, had it not been for our efficient CAT Rachna,
it would have taken us much longer to get recharged...
After a lovely and much needed coffee break at CCD in Sanwara,
we climbed into our cars for the final stretch of the journey home

The most unexpected and sad part of the day was this forest fire around Parwanoo...
We still dont know the origin and the reason behind this fire... but the view was imprinted in the minds of each one of us.

It's our environment CATS, our Mother Earth.
Let us all protect it.

- CAT Supreet