Autumn Fourteen; I had good things in store for me!

Autumn Fourteen; I had good things in store for me! 

(A refreshing trip to home with instant tours to few beautiful places)

Travel, travel and travel! My autumn has always been sweet to me, by giving me chances to do the things I love. For I love traveling the most, it made me travel and travel, while taking its own chance to unravel its own beauty very smartly. Hmm

I will try to keep this note as short as possible, for time now is becoming a concern. (Sigh)

Well, I took leave of complete 2 weeks from work on the eve of Dusshehra, and flew to Chandigarh (my base camp- lol) on 27^th September.  Two of my elder sisters, Sonam and Zangmo were already there. Aji Sonam works as a lecturer in Kasauli, a small hill town in Himachal, and she came to Chandigarh so that we could travel back home to Kinnaur together. And Aji Zangmo was there for some routine check up as she hadn’t been keeping well for quite a long time.  As per plan, Aji Sonam and I were to travel to Kinnaur by Bus at night on 28^th of October. And we both were ready by 4:00 pm on 28^th, when suddenly I thought of calling Dad. And good that I called, as he was on his way to Chandigarh from Kinnaur, for some work which would take him a good 3 days. What then? My mind started cooking its own thing, which later on came as a sudden change of plan i.e. wait for Dad to finish his work and we shall travel together to home by his car. Well, it was agreed and I offered both my sisters a tempting quick little trip to Kullu Valley. And soon all three of us were ready. We caught 8:30 pm Bus to Kullu and reached Kullu at 7:00 am in the morning. One thing which we all would never forget in our lifetimes,  was the way Aji Zangmo stopped the bus at 4:00 am, making every single person on the bus wake up and look around in wonder, which she repeated on our return journey too, with the same reaction from the other passengers. LOL! We kept teasing her throughout, even after the trip ended. LOL

Part-1: Brief Kullu Diary:

After getting fresh and having our breakfast at Aji Sonam’s friend’s place at Bhuntar, we left for Bijli Mahadev, our long aspired destination. You can take shared taxis as well as buses to Bijli Mahadev, quite frequent from Kullu Bus stand. We boarded a bus, which took around 2 hours to reach Chansari, from where we have to trek upto 3 kms to reach the main shrine, located at the hilltop at an altitude of 2460 m.

"That Memorable Trek"

The trek was quite moderate, as well defined tracks had been laid. Moreover as Sister Zangmo is quite slow in walking, we would rest at every short interval, finally reaching the top at around 1 o’clock. But once we reached the top, she was the one to walk faster as she was thrilled by the beauty of the lush green forest surrounding the meadows, which obviously attracted her pace. We sighed in joy, all at once! J

"We came face to face with the beauty" 

The story behind this beautiful shrine which intrigued us is the belief that the priest of the temple, has to restore the Shiva linga placed inside the temple using butter and sattoo after every lightning as it shatters to pieces with flash of lightning. And true it seemed when we had a closer look on the linga after paying our obeisance. There was something divine in the surrounding of the small temple, which felt quite peaceful and magical, irrespective of the noises of children playing around, along which the loud taps of footsteps on the wooden floor. The cold wind blew from the other side of the temple, carrying cold breezes of the river valley below to the top of the mountain. Forcefully magical!

"Divinity leaves its proof too"

We took full round of the temple and then found a cozy surface, facing Kullu valley, to sit and rest. We stayed there for a good 2 hours; eating, playing with the dogs around and relishing the beautiful view of Kullu and Parvati Valley.

"From Parvati Valley blew the magical wind"

"In the lap of nature, you feel the peace and the joy"

We started descending at 3:00 pm and reached down at 4:00. As the trek was satisfactorily tiring to sister Zangmo, we went back to Aji Sonam’s friend’s place and stayed there for the night.

The next morning (30^th Oct), we first went to Dechen Chhokey Monastery at Sharabai at just few minutes’ walk from the place we were staying in. well, let me tell you, I had no clue of this monastery till Shantanoo, one of my friends, texted while we were traveling to kullu, saying, “If you are going to Kullu, go to this Monastery at Bhuntar.” His aunt lives near the monastery itself. So on his recommendation; we went walking towards the monastery, which was quite big and beautiful. As we tried to ascend through a short cut, through some bushes, we lost our way and reached someone’s house instead, who later guided us the way for the Monastery. Lol. But that’s alright, for we reached the Monastery finally. One of Shantanoo’s cousins, Lucky showed us around, and later, he took us to Aunty’s house, who gave us a warm welcome.

"The DC Monastary; Peacefully located and beautifully made"

"Lucky showing us around" :-)

We sat there for quite long sipping tea and chatting, and then left for destination next. The next destination we set for the day was Naggar. It’s here that the famous art gallery of Sir Nicholas Roerich is situated. Nicholas Roerich was the great artist, who travelled all the way from Russia to India, later settling down at Naggar and creating magic through his paintings, which mostly had been inspired from the Himalayas. We took a shared taxi from Patlikuhl to Naggar which was around 12 kms drive. The taxi stopped at the centre of the town, from where the gallery was another 2 kms. There were taxis available for that stretch also, but we preferred to walk. As I am addictive to walking, my sisters had to give in too. So in less than an hour, walking through the Naggar town, taking every possible short cut by asking to the locals, we reached the gallery.

"Naggar ki galion me, chalo chalein"

It was Sir Roerich’s big white wooden house which had been turned to a museum now. No photography was allowed inside the room where original paintings of the great artist were displayed. Every piece of his work; from the mountain tops, from snowy tops to bare tops, sun-reflected tops, sun shadowed tops to the valleys to gaddi girl, all had something deep within them. Every piece seemed to be coming out of the paint, just alive and fresh in front of our very eyes. My great admiration goes to this man for feeling deeply the love of nature and expressing them through his paintings. We visited his son Svetsolav Roerich’s memorial, who equally was a great artist. His deep piercing eyes seemed quite intriguing and he seemed to have required no words to utter, for his eyes themselves were story teller.

"The great house/gallery of the great Sir Roerich" 

Then we took a round of Roerich house, which was kept intact and clean, located at the best location, surrounded by lush green trees and from the terrace of which we could have a good view of Naggar town.

And then we went to Urusvati Himalayan Folk & Art Museum, which was a 100 m trek up from the art gallery. 'Uruswati' is a Sanskrit word, which means 'Light of the Morning Star'. It houses some of the interesting paintings of Sir Roerich and his Russian followers, as well as the traditional costumes of Himalayan belt. Though I have very less understanding of art, but they all were worth admiration.  It took us around 2 hours to explore the galleries.

"Himalayan art Museum"

As both my sisters insisted on taking bath in hot sulpher water, we decided to stay for the night at Kalath, where is located one of the natural hot water spring, where people in large numbers come to take bath with the hope of getting rid of their bodily diseases. We booked a room in a hotel, which has its own private connection of hot spring water. My sisters went twice for the dip, but I preferred to take bath in normal bathroom water. My laziness! Lol

"The enchanting river Beas"

With hoards of memories we left for our return journey to Chandigarh on 1^st October.

Part-2: Road Trip to Home (Kinnaur)

As dad had one more days work at Chandigarh, we took rest on 2^nd, while in the evening went for Bang Bang, the Hrithik Roshan Movie. And next day i.e. 3^rd Oct early morning, we left for Kinnaur. The drive with Dad is always fun, and though I hardly get the chance to travel with him for our schedules clashing every time, I enjoy to the fullest whenever I get the chance.

Driving leisurely through Himalayan expressway and National Highway-05, we reached Rampur at 2:00 pm. But as Dad had some work at Rampur, we stayed there for the night, and travelled next day to home, which was still about 200 kms away. As the roads there are not smooth, being a hilly mountainous road, bumps, curves, turns, upward, downward, the drive gets quite slow and adventurous. People travel from home to other places, but I travel from other places to home. Earlier studies and now job, have kept me far from home. And I hardly get to travel frequently, but once a year, that too for a short duration of one or two days. So every time I travel, it’s like traveling to a new place, as mountain roads keep changing, affecting the landscapes around. Every time I travel home, there would be some different road diverting here and there as the old roads would have been damaged beyond repair. The work on the Kinnaur roads is a forever thing. People’s construction v/s nature’s deconstruction game go side by side, making the travelers wonder and sigh during long intervals of wait over some blocked road and traffic jam. But the people living there had formed a habit of such troublesome journey keeping their faith and hope in midst of despair. Hmm

"The Road leading to my home; A memorable drive with Pa and Di"

"Intrigued me; Its like a devil at the verge of gulping some helpless creature, when suddenly a light shone on the other side of the mountain, making the devil go awestruck, who then forgot to close his mouth." :P

Thus travelling through those majestic roads, we reached home at around 7:00 pm.  And guess what! Everyone was happy to see me healthy this time. Yes I have put on 5 kgs of good and healthy weight. (Wink) Mom was happiest to see me this way, as she had always been complaining of my lean body with protruding bones over my shoulder. Lol

My life is never planned. Surprises knock at my heart’s door every now and then with tempting and irresistible offers. Something like this happened the next morning. I went to the Altar of the house to pay my obeisance, when suddenly one of my brother, Tsewang, who’s settled in Tabo, at Lahaul Spiti and who came to attend a marriage ceremony at Chango the previous night, came, and directly said,”Get ready, I am taking you to Tabo!”  What else would I want; I, who always look for excuses to go and travel, got ready quickly with my sister. And then, traveling through the barren mountainous roads with blue sky with tinges of white cumulus above and serpent like Spiti River flowing beautifully along, we headed for Tabo.

"Journey amidst the Autumn Magic!"

I am not going to stretch it long, but the trip has been amazing, as this time I covered some caves on the mountains along with the famous and magnificent Tabo Monastry, which is well known to every traveler, Indian or foreigner.

"Perfect_Caves_Natural"

"Tabo Monastery"

"No caption required, when the picture speaks for itself"

We returned to Chango the same evening and had momo party at sister Tsering’s house, refreshing thousands of old memories and reached home quite late when everybody was asleep. So late for a village night, huh. J

Next two-three days I stayed at home, did a lot of peeling of fresh almonds, the season being on full swing and during free time played with my nephew, who considers me a friend, given to my short height and childlike nature. He was damn shocked when his mother (my sis-in-law) said, “You know, bua (aunt) is an officer!” He was like,”Hain, sachi me, you are lying!” Lol I treasured each little thing and moment till I was there and had a memorable stay at home, though shorter. J

 

"My best friends at home; Maa and Anam (nephew)"

Part-3 : Return journey to Chandigarh via Shimla

I spent a good autumn break of 3-4 days with my family at my village, and then started the return journey to Chandigarh on 8^th October. Kesang, my brother came to drive me and Aji Sonam to Chandigarh as a good brother. As we were stuck in traffic at one of the diversion at cholling for more than 4 hours, we halted at Rampur, and traveled next morning. I had made prior appointments with my friend Annie and friend cum brother Ishan at Shimla, so I got down at Shimla. We all were so happy to see each other after such a long time. We talked, shared, walked, teased each other and relived the good olden days at Mall road.

"Re-lived the Fursat ke din for one day"

On 10^th Oct. I reached back to Chandigarh, and spent 2 days with my sisters, brother, nephews and friends. The time felt like slipping away and I tried to make most of it, and yes I did. I squeezed those few days on my own way and lived each and every moment with my loved ones.

"The last day and night of the freedom" :-)

And soon, it was 12^th, the day my return flight to my work place, Mumbai had been booked. But no worries, as I was more than satisfied with my autumn break. Now back to Mumbai, the autumn heat over here which is full of sweaty moments, is incomparable to the autumn I had at Himachal and Chandigarh, which was heavenly. But I have no complaints, for I have lived my part of good life in a good way. Thank you Autumn_14 for being so good to me. J