If biking is as exciting to you as it is to me (even if only on the backseat), I totally recommend taking the mountain route. The deserted roads, with a spectacular drop on one side and carved stone faces on the other,  the curves of the path as you follow the mountain’s contours, all heighten the bike experience. Of course, it helps to know that you’re at the seat of the himalayas and feeling incredibly lucky to be there too.

We biked up and down and down and up and all the way through dirt roads and villages just enjoying the freedom of a day to ourselves. We tried to chat up the young and the old on the way, the children filling water from the pumps and the women carrying firewood back home and we even found ourselves a barber shop, concealing a gambling den for old men. We caught some clips on tape and photos so make sure to take a look at what we’ve posted.

The road eventually led us down to the Ranikhet Club, or rather, Husain’s trusty guidebook did. The Club is supposed to have the best lunch in town and we decided we had to sample the army’s version of fine cuisine. It turned out though that the regimentation extends to even their recreation area: a strict semi-formal dress code was required of full length pants and closed shoes for guys, but for the women, it was more open to discussion. Susa’s shorts did not fly by until we begged and pleaded that we were there only for one night. They eventually decided to let us enter at an extra charge while segregating us from the rest of the guests. The authorities didn’t want us to be an eyesore to the officers’ families, decent people who were enjoying their Saturday afternoon lunch.

Feasting on the usual north-indian dal makhani-naan varieties at a table overlooking wide open fields, while enjoying the hot afternoon sun was a lazy way to enjoy the day. Each of us absorbed in our own activity, one rivetted to the birds, two to good spirits and the fourth to laughing at us. In fact we enjoyed ourselves so much two things happened : 1) Husain announced that he wanted to join the army, 2) we accidentally promised our family to come back with them for dinner at the Club.

We don’t know when Husain will join the army, but we certainly did come back for dinner only to order the same few dishes with some variety. Inder-ji, himself from the army, made it easy for us to enter this time. However, his influence didn’t stretch so far as to make the food come any faster.

We  heard stories of Inder-ji’s army adventures and the difficulty of being isolated in areas with few people,  yet the cheerfulness and grace with which they all rise above it. After our conversations, we decided to play billiards while we waited for our dinner to come. And since nobody quite understood the game, rules were made up and broken as we went along depending on the charity of  each team.

Dinner provided huge inner sighs of relief from all of us - I don’t think we could’ve dragged ourselves on to play more after the never-ending three hour wait for the food.  But the night all-in all- was a unique experience; after all, it’s not everyday that we get to entertain ourselves in true army style. For me, though, biking through the mountain roads won my vote hands down as the highlight of my day.