Winter Break, Part- 2: Shimla-Kufri Yatra; Friends, Snowfall and a wish-fulfilling trip.

Winter Break, Part- 2: Shimla-Kufri Yatra; Friends, Snowfall and a wish-fulfilling trip.

(5^th Feb. to 7^th Feb. 14)

The second part of my winter break was equally awesome. I spent 3-4 days in Chandigarh, meeting my friends and cousins; Eating, outing and mutual sharing of our love, care & every other stuff.   Then on 4^th evening I along with my friend, Monty, who was travelling from Delhi to see her mother in Shimla, travelled to Shimla together. There were still more friends to see in Chandigarh, as it’s this city where I had spent more than half part of my life’s journey, and made maximum number of friends. I thought of meeting them once I get back from Shimla. During one of the dinner night out with my friend Anju and cousin, Rohit, I had a large bowl of ice-cream in that chilly winter, which caught up my throat, which resulted into aches and coughs. But without caring for that and without taking any medicines (I avoid them like anything), I went to Shimla.

And in shimla, after spending some times with Monty and visiting her mother at IGMC, I left to visit my friend, Annie at Summerhill. And on the way, I paid a visit to my previous Office, where everybody welcomed me warmly and told me how much they missed me.  It’s kind of good feeling when someone values your importance for all good. Isn’t it? J

I reached summerhill at around 4:30 pm in the evening, as by that time Annie also got free from her Lab. We had chai & Samosa at our favourite roadside dhaba, and as it was too early to go to room, we went walking and later ended up trespassing the backside entrance of the Advance Study. That’s the nearest and deaest outing gateaway for all the students of HP University. And it’s peaceful environment, blended with cool, chiily breezes is soul deep touching. Whenever I visit Annie, we try our best to pay our visit there together, and re-live our old memories, at the same time creating new ones. Annie said,” There is a jail over here, where Gandhi ji was imprisoned once. I  went there as a child, but I don’t remember now where exactly it is. I really want to show it to you.” But as we kept walking deep into the interior parts of advance study, which was nothing but all jungle, with no traces of any human at that point of time, we didn’t find the jail. So, after reaching the end point of our walk, we gave up the thought of the jail, and instead started relishing the peace and serenity of the beautiful surrounding. Soon our eyes fell on the other side of the barrier, where from amongst the many trees, we saw the flower, named ‘Rhododendron’ on one of the trees. Annie exclaimed suddendly,” Nawi, you are so lucky to see this flower in this season. Wish for something and it will come true!”

I said,”My wish this time is to witnes snow yaar!  Its been ages since I last saw snow, and this time I really wish to see snow fall.” Hmm

When we turned our back, readying for the return, my eyes fell on down on little old steps, which led to a small iron gate. Annie said,” this is it, the same jail where Gandhi ji and some of his followers were imprisoned for some times.” We went down to check, and good God! it was more like a cave, which would have been dug out of the mountain, and with nothing except two small iron gates on either end and few small opening at the top for passing the air. We opened the door, but it was all dark, with nothing visible. I walked 4 steps, and a warm air, sounding a ‘whoof’ passed my left ear. I walked out of it soon, and Annie who was with the mobile camer, said,”Its scary, let’s get out of here.” So keeping our normal pace, we took a shortcut for the exit out of that area, for which we had to crawl beneath the iron wires. Lol it was funny , but we loved it. Hmm.

The next day, i.e.  6^th of Feb. the weather seemed cloudy, but there was no trace of snow. So, Annie called up Deepesh, her cousin cum my friend to drive us to Kufri. He agreed quickly, saying he will get along his grandpa too. What could be better than this? An elder person with us means more blessings and love. We left at around 11:30 am. While driving through the beautiful curvy roads, leading to more heights, we could see little snowflakes’ falling. I felt my wish was really going to come true. Annie and Deepesh said the same.

We didn’t take the car much higher, because if it snowed real heavy; it would have made the drive quite tough. So parking the car below, we started walking towards Himalayan Nature Park, which was around one kms walk from there. And hats off to ‘Tete’ i.e. grandpa; he is around 90 yrs of age, but he denied any support which we all offered turn by turn, and instead he chose to walk behind us as our guard. He was such an inspiration to us.

A lovely walk through snow covered and lovely roads, the sound of crispy snow under the feet with the lovely people! What could I ask for more, as every wish of mine seemed getting fulfilled in front of my own eyes? I was speechless, as throughout the walk, throughout the smiles, throughout the poses for pictures, my lips were whispering a ‘Thank you God’ for everything, coming deep from my heart’s core.

And He was gracious enough to make it snow soon. And there I was, witnessing the magic happen in front of my eyes; witnessing snowfall after complete 15 yrs as last time I saw snowfall, was in the winter of 1999 when I was in my village. Hmm, so you can guess how happy and joyful would have been! J

And to add more to the joy, in the Himalayan Nature Park, though most of the animals were hidden in their shelters due to cold, we were lucky to have glimpses of 3 Leopards, Tibetan wolf, Goral and 2 black beers. Tete, a Wildlife lover rejoiced at the sight of each animal, especially the Leopards. J

We walked a good length and relished every single flake of snow, falling on our hair, on our faces and jackets, and when the snowfall became quite heavy, we thought it quite sensible to return, as more snowfall in Himalayan roads meant more damage to the roads, and also we couldn’t afford to be stranded there, due to our own respective obligations.

We drove back and descended downhill to Shimla, where it was drizzling by then. At around 4:15, we went to Diamonds and did some justice to our hungry bellies. And wonder what, by 5:30 pm when we were on our way back to summer hill, it turned all sunny! The beautiful sun at its horizon, at its setting point, scattering beautiful rays of orange, yellow and crimson red, penetrating deep down to our soul, filled our hearts with joy and blessings. Deepesh said,” its Magical today! It seems as if we have a remote control in our hand, and the weather is changing every now and then, as if we are pressing its button with our thumb as per our wish.” Annie and I agreed and echoed our ‘Wow’, while Tete was enjoying himself silently in the peace of his spirit.

So, fully satisfied and with a joyous spirit, here I say,”

 “The trip was a real wish-fulfilling and magically A-Awesome; full of blessings and good wishes. All smilesss J,” Nawi