THE HILLS CAME ALIVE...(PART-2)
13,051 feet above sea-level! That was our destination... The journey to Rohtang Pass, which connects the Kulu Valley with the Lahul and Spiti valleys of Himachal Pradesh, was a trip to remember... After we checked out the local sites in Old and New Manali, there was a sudden need for adventure... Lack of time and poor physical condition meant that a trek was out of the question... Then my Dad suggested (over an STD call to Kolkata) that we should book seats on a guided tour... After extensive deliberation we decided to follow parental guidance... The few times that we actually have...But as I have reluctantly come to accept that parents are always right...because this trip was going to be something out of this world...
First, I absolutely must speak about our co-seekers of adventure... They were this motley bunch of Tamils all the way from down-under (and I don't mean Aussieland)... These 20 odd people who were presumably from a small village or town in Tamil Nadu, insisted on increasing decibel levels in the bus, changing their lungis in public and most importantly littering the hills with un-recyclable plastic packets... We also had a young couple, on a honeymoon sort of vacation and an elderly Bengali couple who visit Manali every year and sat on opposite windows in order to enjoy the scenery...
We made a rather lengthy stop at a shop that rents out fur coats and boots with the Tamilian party choosing the most outlandish animal-print coats and boots, while we, after much debate about the need for fur coats, settled for the sober brown and grey ones... Even in Rohtang which literally means, 'pile of corpses' I refused to be caught dead making a fashion faux pas...
After passing the picturesque Solang Valley and a quick stopover at the small but beautiful Rahalla Falls, we made our way to the last stop before Rohtang, where we had some Maggi which was half-cooked... I also learnt that that was because it is difficult to boil water at those high levels...
The climb to Rohtang was chilling! I'm serious... Thank God for the fur coats... even though my 'Doubting Thomas' self kept telling me that the driver and guide were getting commission and were fooling us by saying that it was going be really cold... Coming from Kolkata, where you have temperate climate almost the whole year, there's just that much of cold that you can imagine... But en route Rohtang it was bitterly cold... High altitudes, the onset of Autumn and to top it off it had been raining the whole day... So the otherwise cool breeze seemed freezing and what could have been a comfy picnic turned out to be a hazardous, extreme expedition...
Initially the drive around the hills was exhilarating... A zillion turns later, it got unnerving... As we continued to climb upwards as if seeking some kind of spiritual transcendence, my stomach churned and heart leaped up to my mouth incessantly... I'm not scared of heights but narrow and sometimes bad roads with buses and trucks coming from the opposite direction, where you have chances of falling into the recesses of the valley at any unfortunate moment, brought to my mind all the horrific tales of buses carrying pilgrims rolling off hills... What I had read earlier with detachment and indifference seemed so personal now... I strained to remember the actual fact... Was it a drunk driver or brake failure that had caused the mishap? For the life of me I couldn't remember... And the fact that I saw a Maruti 800 and a truck that had fallen into the mountains, totally smashed, did nothing to assauge my fear...
But snow eluded me! No where did I see snow... I really wanted to as I had never seen it before... My biggest regret on the trip... Alas!
Nevertheless, some poor consolation, were the bits of dirty snow patches that had been there for ages...Gulping, gasping, closing my eyes and cursing the driver we reached Rohtang...
After reaching Ground Zero, we were asked to walk the rest of the way... Walking to the actual pass was not that tough... Fighting the light drizzle we huddled to the actual pass... The view was breath-taking, even without the snow... But the walk back took my breath away...And I mean literally...I could hardly breathe...As we walked against the wind, it blew with a new-found vigour... I was sure that I was frost-bitten... Fingers stiff, nose running, I resembled Rudolph... Panting and walking for dear lives we reached the bus, only to have the ridiculous Tamils jeering us to our faces...(Disclaimer- I'm half-Tamil, so I have nothing personal against the community) The smart-asses didn't even venture out, as if that was a very intelligent thing to do... You come to Rohtang and go back to your friends and boast that you saw it through a bus window! I may have almost collapsed but at least I had first hand information...
Anyway the drive back got worse instead of the other way around... Thick mist and clouds had descended on the hills... Reading, listening to music and praying most of the time, we made our journey down... Even the Himalayan mineral water bottles fallen on the Western Himalayas (what an irony!) couldn't be discerned... But just when we had resigned to the fear of the unknown and the maneuvering skills of the driver, we stumbled upon the most perfect rainbow! It was the best sight ever and I hurriedly caught it on my phone camera... A distinct giver of hope... I knew I would survive the difficult journey, not only from Rohtang, but also the journey called 'life'...
The rainbow was one of those once-in-a-lifetime sights that make every tribulation, fear and risk worth it... Today as I sit in my boring office, surrounded by the day's mundane work, it is that picture on my mobile that lifts me up when I'm feeling low... It gives me strength to face today and all the 'tomorrows' of life...
First, I absolutely must speak about our co-seekers of adventure... They were this motley bunch of Tamils all the way from down-under (and I don't mean Aussieland)... These 20 odd people who were presumably from a small village or town in Tamil Nadu, insisted on increasing decibel levels in the bus, changing their lungis in public and most importantly littering the hills with un-recyclable plastic packets... We also had a young couple, on a honeymoon sort of vacation and an elderly Bengali couple who visit Manali every year and sat on opposite windows in order to enjoy the scenery...
We made a rather lengthy stop at a shop that rents out fur coats and boots with the Tamilian party choosing the most outlandish animal-print coats and boots, while we, after much debate about the need for fur coats, settled for the sober brown and grey ones... Even in Rohtang which literally means, 'pile of corpses' I refused to be caught dead making a fashion faux pas...
After passing the picturesque Solang Valley and a quick stopover at the small but beautiful Rahalla Falls, we made our way to the last stop before Rohtang, where we had some Maggi which was half-cooked... I also learnt that that was because it is difficult to boil water at those high levels...
The climb to Rohtang was chilling! I'm serious... Thank God for the fur coats... even though my 'Doubting Thomas' self kept telling me that the driver and guide were getting commission and were fooling us by saying that it was going be really cold... Coming from Kolkata, where you have temperate climate almost the whole year, there's just that much of cold that you can imagine... But en route Rohtang it was bitterly cold... High altitudes, the onset of Autumn and to top it off it had been raining the whole day... So the otherwise cool breeze seemed freezing and what could have been a comfy picnic turned out to be a hazardous, extreme expedition...
Initially the drive around the hills was exhilarating... A zillion turns later, it got unnerving... As we continued to climb upwards as if seeking some kind of spiritual transcendence, my stomach churned and heart leaped up to my mouth incessantly... I'm not scared of heights but narrow and sometimes bad roads with buses and trucks coming from the opposite direction, where you have chances of falling into the recesses of the valley at any unfortunate moment, brought to my mind all the horrific tales of buses carrying pilgrims rolling off hills... What I had read earlier with detachment and indifference seemed so personal now... I strained to remember the actual fact... Was it a drunk driver or brake failure that had caused the mishap? For the life of me I couldn't remember... And the fact that I saw a Maruti 800 and a truck that had fallen into the mountains, totally smashed, did nothing to assauge my fear...
But snow eluded me! No where did I see snow... I really wanted to as I had never seen it before... My biggest regret on the trip... Alas!
Nevertheless, some poor consolation, were the bits of dirty snow patches that had been there for ages...Gulping, gasping, closing my eyes and cursing the driver we reached Rohtang...
After reaching Ground Zero, we were asked to walk the rest of the way... Walking to the actual pass was not that tough... Fighting the light drizzle we huddled to the actual pass... The view was breath-taking, even without the snow... But the walk back took my breath away...And I mean literally...I could hardly breathe...As we walked against the wind, it blew with a new-found vigour... I was sure that I was frost-bitten... Fingers stiff, nose running, I resembled Rudolph... Panting and walking for dear lives we reached the bus, only to have the ridiculous Tamils jeering us to our faces...(Disclaimer- I'm half-Tamil, so I have nothing personal against the community) The smart-asses didn't even venture out, as if that was a very intelligent thing to do... You come to Rohtang and go back to your friends and boast that you saw it through a bus window! I may have almost collapsed but at least I had first hand information...
Anyway the drive back got worse instead of the other way around... Thick mist and clouds had descended on the hills... Reading, listening to music and praying most of the time, we made our journey down... Even the Himalayan mineral water bottles fallen on the Western Himalayas (what an irony!) couldn't be discerned... But just when we had resigned to the fear of the unknown and the maneuvering skills of the driver, we stumbled upon the most perfect rainbow! It was the best sight ever and I hurriedly caught it on my phone camera... A distinct giver of hope... I knew I would survive the difficult journey, not only from Rohtang, but also the journey called 'life'...
The rainbow was one of those once-in-a-lifetime sights that make every tribulation, fear and risk worth it... Today as I sit in my boring office, surrounded by the day's mundane work, it is that picture on my mobile that lifts me up when I'm feeling low... It gives me strength to face today and all the 'tomorrows' of life...
posted by Shutapa Paul | 11:05 PM
2 Comments:
Rainbows always make you ready for tomorrow. I had seen one in Mumbai once, after a long, dull-as-heaven day. And it still makes me happy whenever I think of it.
PS: I'm still not convinced that parents are always right.
Parents are right...We just don't get it...At least in my case they have been...I wish they were not but they have been...
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