Tirthan, Trout and Trekking - Part 1

My friends say I'm well traveled. I wonder why they would say that, because I'm usually the laughter stock and never-to-be-taken-seriously among my friends. But then they elaborate - "You are well traveled", they say, "but on Google Earth and Wikipedia", which follows the laughter and mocking (PS - they love me, I know). There, they did it again!

Actually, they are not completely wrong. Honestly speaking, I have visited way more places virtually than I have been to really. There was a time when I worked for an IT giant in Noida and, even though was being billed for a project, did not have any work to do.This continued for a while and instead of utilizing my free time in enriching myself with new tools and technologies that would help me grow in my career, I Googled and Wiki-ed. I searched mostly about places, India and outside, from a traveler's perspective. In India, my focus area, for a good span of time, remained Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand. 

It was about the year 2009, I was watching a TV show called 'Highway On My Plate' on NDTV Good Times. In that episode, the hosts Rocky Singh and Mayur Sharma visited a beautiful, quiet hamlet Gushaini (गुशैणी ) in district Kullu. This village, among a lot others, is located in a river valley called Tirthan, based on the river's name. This is the only river valley in Kullu, I was told, that has not yet got a hydroelectric power project on it's river (much thanks to the local people protesting against this idea), so it still maintains the natural flow and beauty of the river. The local ecosystem is as it always has been for centuries. This river is home for Trout fish,very popular in the area and among all non-vegetarians who plan a trip here. I started reading more and more about the place, the other points of interest around the area, looking at the pictures as posted on web by the people who have visited there. The more I learned about the place, the stronger my desire to visit there got. But this desire was not going to get fulfilled for another 6 years.

The year 2015, I have grown much older (mature...much mature, did I say older?) and have visited McLeodganj 4 times till now, trekked twice till Triund and once camped there overnight. I just did not want to go there again this time. I, now, had made up my mind to do Tirthan Valley, Gushaini, Jalori Pass and Serolsar Lake over the last weekend of April. A friend of mine, an ex-colleague and 'ex-bus mate' - Yogesh was also joining. A Pahadi himself, he still claimed that this was going to be his first experience in trekking.

So, finally I got the tickets booked from HRTC website. Our bus Himsuta, a volvo which plies between Delhi ISBT and Manali, was scheduled for departure on Friday, 24th April at 9:03 PM. I planned to reach ISBT at 7:00 PM so we could eat at McDonalds well before we start. I did not want to eat at the restaurant the bus stops at, somewhere near Karnal, mostly because we got our seats at the back of the bus and I was apprehensive of getting motion-sick during the travel. Anyways, we were at the platform by 8:30 PM and had to wait for half-an-hour for our bus to come. I have always admired HRTC for its service and time-keeping. This was my 9th time and it did not disappoint me. The bus was on time, we did not have to put our luggage inside the cabin in bus's gut. I insisted on traveling light and carrying only one backpack containing only 3 T-shirts, a jacket, an extra pair of jeans and a pair of shoes (plus other regular small items like toiletries). The seats were comfortable, with a support for legs as well, but did not have blankets. The A/C did not really maintain a comfortable temperature throughout, so catching a decent sleep was out of question. We talked for quite some time, and when the bus halted at a roadside dhaba complex, we bought some chips and cakes, just in case we felt hungry in the middle of the night.

Somewhere near Jarol, before Mandi

I was still trying to figure out an ideal and comfortable position I thought I could relax in, Kiratpur happened. I could not properly see because it was all dark except for our bus's headlights, but it felt like they were in a process of making the road motorable by mending all the ditches, which was all it had. It almost recreated an apocalyptic chaos in the bus, or maybe just for the back-seaters. And it was not for a small stretch of the highway. I was anyway not able to sleep, and now this roller-coaster. So after sometime, my body yielded to the need for sleep and we woke up when the bus halted at a hotel somewhere near Jarol, after Harabagh and about 35 kms before Mandi. The journey from here was quite likable, with lush green mountains presenting their morning haze to you at every turn, the cool breeze that blows out even the last spec of urban smoke off you to leave you very fresh, and little scenes of daily lives of local mountain people.




The first day in Himachal - in the next part here...

Aajkal

This poem...I can't remember exactly when I wrote it, but it was when I was about to leave Bangalore and come to Delhi for good!

हर रात की तन्हाई से
होती हैं बातें आजकल !
बातें बहुत सारी हैं, पर
छोटी हैं रातें आजकल !

मयख़ाने की जानिब कभी
होता नहीं जाना मगर ,
तिश्नगी अश्क़ों से दिल की
हैं बुझाते आजकल !

क्या कोई तक़लीफ़ पहुँचायेगा
अब दूजा हमें ,
राह चलते ख़ुद ही ठोकर
हम हैं खाते आजकल !

क्या बताने से किसी को
दर्द कम होगा कहीं ?
ये ग़म ए दिल ख़ुद ही को
हम हैं सुनाते आजकल !

Cut loose...it's a cobweb

I know, I know it's a cobweb...so complicated and beyond comprehension that I cannot see where it started from and where it is going to end. I don't have even the faintest idea of how it is being spun.

But I know one thing for sure. I know where the spinnerets are - they are within, I possess them. I possess them all over my being. They are always secreting, establishing a connection with whatever and whoever I come in close proximity to. There is nothing stopping them, however hard I try.

And what's the result? I have got sewn in this fabric of the unknown much like a spider gets stranded in its own web (except that it never does). I never intended to get myself stuck here. In fact, I never thought that this "thing" would ever get such complicated and problematic that I would feel armless and legless.

But it did.

Now, the situation is so delicate that even the slightest turbulence in the surrounding air, that too at the farthest end of this web, makes the universe shaking for me. Shaking as if trying to shed me off, but holding on me so tightly that it would never let me go. I am helpless! All I can do is...keep hoping that I would cut loose one day.

A recluse in Jaisalmer - Day 2 (Kuldhara, Khaba and Sam Sand Dunes)

I left Badal house after a heavy breakfast of paratha, pickle and curd and headed towards the bus stop to catch the 11 o'clock local bus to Jaisalmer. On the way to the bus stop, I caught a glimpse of village life in Khuri. It was a Sunday, but a few children were playing in the school ground, which also had to serve as their playground on the weekends. They waved at me as I passed by them. There are two schools in Khaba, a primary school and a senior secondary school. Kesar Singh told me, on our way back to Badal House from the desert, that the senior secondary school had been built by Jaswant Singh, a BJP leader and former Finance Minister, former Defense Minister and former Minister of External Affairs. He is a native of Khuri village, I was told. He also told me about the scarcity of teachers in these schools, only two teachers in primary school. I was wondering whether the politician deserved a word of praise for his initiatives or to be condemned for his negligence on this.

I boarded the Jaisalmer-bound bus from Khuri at the scheduled time. It took us about 1 hour and a half, and this time I could enjoy the beauty of the landscape which was entirely dotted by windmills. These windmills are one of the latest developments in the area that provided electricity to the villages. Now, after I reached Jaisalmer's Gadisar Chowk, I had to walk to Hotel Jaisal Palace near the Fort. Its a decent, fairly priced hotel very near to the Fort entrance, with clean rooms and bathrooms, very good staff and roof-top restaurant with a view of the Fort. I got a room for Rs600/- only, had a bath and left for a stroll. I was also looking for a taxi that could take me to a tour of Kuldhara, Khaba and Sam. I had a healthy breakfast of fruit salad and banana milk-shake at The Trio (I was told this was the best restaurant in the city) and coming back to the hotel, I booked a taxi (Tata Indica) for Rs1200/- (while a couple of others were asking for anything between Rs1600-Rs1800). Malik, the 22-year old taxi driver, picked me up from Hanuman Circle at 2:00pm and we headed for Kuldhara.

Kuldhara, now a famous tourist spot and a shooting site for a couple of Indian movies, is actually one of those villages that have been deserted for more than 150 years now. These villages belonged to Paliwal Brahmins. I had already come through a couple of stories about these villages on Internet. One anecdote goes like this: the inhabitants of these villages were treated with cruelty and were heavily taxed by the ruler of the area. Moreover, the village chief's daughter who was believed to be very beautiful caught the eye of the ruler. To escape the dishonour, the Paliwals vacated the villages overnight and migrated to some place which is not known yet. Since then, these villages are cursed and deserted. The landscape now serves a beautiful place for photography.

Kudhara ruins

Kudhara ruins

Kuldhara is a place where one would want to be alone, to feel the inherent melancholy of the place, to hear the silent cries of the ruins. It was my bad luck that just before we arrived, a school bus full of kids had reached there for a Sunday picnic...wow!! But I got a couple of pics of the kids as a workaround, nonetheless :)

I also got to know about a couple of Bollywood movies that were shot here - Kachhe Dhaage was one of them. Saif's upcoming movie 'Agent Vinod' has also been shot here recently, as I read on the Internet. Having nothing much to do, nothing much different to click in Kuldhara, we left for Khaba - another deserted village with similar stories. It is actually same as Kuldhara as far as ruins are concerned, but in addition, there is a small Fortress on a hillock overlooking the village. This fortress has been revamped and it now houses a small museum with ancient artifacts from the village ruins on display.

Khaba Fort

We parked the taxi near the fort and I went off to stroll around the ruins and click some pictures.

Khaba Ruins

The fort offers a breathtaking view of the vast expanse of the village and the surrounding areas.

Museum in Khaba Fort

There were a couple of kids inside the fort that, apparently, tried to fool the lone tourists around. One of them approached me and said "Hello", I replied in "Hello" and the next thing he said was "10 rupees"...!! I asked him "Why brother?" in Hindi, which surprised him (I don't know why, I don't even look like a foreigner). Then another guy came and asked me if I'd bought the tickets to the fort. There was no ticket, I knew...so I simply ignored him, clicked some pics around while Malik (my taxi-driver) kept himself busy reading about the artifacts, the fort and the village. When we climbed down the Fort, Malik said: "This was better than Kuldhara, I liked it". I felt in him a desire to learn about things, to read...may be he can learn more and become a full-time tour guide for this place, I thought.

We still had a lot of time till sunset, so we drove towards Sam. The sand dunes in Sam are more widely spread, just adjacent to the road and almost at level with the ground, unlike Khuri which is  at some height. We parked the car in the parking and Malik decided to stay in the car only while I indulged myself in the golden delight of the sand. He had already warned me about the local camel-men and safari operators as in how they fool people around. I anyways had no plans to ride a camel (I had done it in Khuri) or a jeep for a safari. I just came to Sam so that I could see how it is different from Khuri. Escaping the hordes of local tourists, ever-convincing camel-men and all those mini tent-cities that have been put up there by myriad of resorts and hotels, I let myself get lost between the dunes.

Sam Sand Dunes

Sam Sand Dunes

Few tents by some resort @Sam

Its very hard to find a sand dune in Sam that is not littered and not marked by footprints. Its also very hard to find a perfect point where you can take a beautiful desert shot from.

I had walked for about 2 kms into the desert, and I could see other groups of sand dunes at a distance where I very much wanted to go. But that was not possible without a jeep or a camel. And staying at Sam just for the sunset had no point, so I walked back to the car parking, pounded the sand out of my shoes and headed back to Jaisalmer.

I liked being alone and experiencing the wilderness till now, but being a city-dweller I now wanted to just relax and chill out at my hotel room and sleep the day's fatigue off. I thanked Malik, bidding him goodbye and slipped into a local sweet shop that he had recommended for Pyaaz Kachori and Jalebi. But again, my luck had me savoring Daal Kachori, Mirchi Vada and Imarti instead. Imarti took a lead, being cooked in "desi-ghee" and very rich in taste. Back at the hotel, I rested for a while, had dinner on the rooftop restaurant of the hotel, watched TV and slept.

For the next day, I had plans to get up late in the morning, visit the city, a few "havelis" and the cenotaphs at "Bada Bagh". My departure was scheduled at 5:15pm, so that was the day when I had to cover the rest of the things.

A recluse in Jaisalmer - Day 1 (Khuri Sand Dunes)

I'm not a recluse per se, but I couldn't find any suitable title other than this...reason - this was a solo trip of mine to Jaisalmer. Being not a backpacker's trip in true sense (as it was planned more than a month in advance), it had a certain degree of freedom of choice. I had a few places in my "To-Visit" list, but I wasn't sure if I could cover all of those in the time I had given myself. So, a bit of planning with a bit of flexibility to allow changes on-the-fly was essential. I had a long weekend (a Monday being an optional holiday in my office), so that had to be it. I booked my departure train tickets for Friday evening and return train tickets for Monday evening.

As a habit, I always acquaint myself to the place before my trip. I was told by the blogs over the web about two deserts - Sam and Khuri. Sam is more popular (being bigger than Khuri), thus more touristy, more crowded and more littered. I wanted to be all alone in a desert, so I opted Khuri. I also came to know about Badal House in Khuri village where I could stay and get my desert safari arranged from. And then there was a bit of information on two deserted villages - Khaba and Kuldhara, which I was dying to visit after reading anecdotes about those and seeing the pictures on the web.

I boarded Delhi-Jaisalmer Express from Old Delhi Railway Station that leaves Delhi at 5:30pm and reaches Jaisalmer at 11:00am next morning, halting at about 36 stations in between. The train is in pretty good condition and you get clean sheets, pillows and blankets in AC 3-tier coach. After reaching Jaisalmer at 11:30am, I called up Badal Singh and he told me to either wait for the local Khuri-bound bus, scheduled to arrive at Gadisar Chowk (a 10-minutes walk from the station) between 1:00pm and 1:30pm, or hire a taxi to Khuri. Bus fare was Rs.20 and taxi would charge somewhere around Rs.500-600, so it was quite clear that I was to wait for the bus. There is no sign-board on the bus to Khuri that says, well, "Khuri"...as these are privately-owned buses, so I had to ask somebody in every single bus. The bus came at 1:30pm, crowded but not fully packed. I boarded the bus while a group of Korean tourists who were also going to Khuri preferred traveling on the roof, so they climbed up. After an hour and a half, I got off the bus at Khuri bus-stop, where Badal Singh was already waiting for me. I don't know how but he recognized me instantly, and so did I because I had seen his photographs on the web.

Badal house is a very simple, modest setup of a couple of mud-huts with roofs made of straws and hand-woven beds made from used "saree" or ropes. There is a small but very clean toilet-cum-bathroom where I freshened-up. By the time I changed into fresh clothes, my meal was ready...yummilicious "bajre-ki-roti" a.k.a. "baajri", "urad-ki-daal", "kadi", "ker-ka-achaar", rice and curd. I was all set to dig my teeth into "baajri" first, and then savour kadi-chawal, but finishing even one "baajri" was a heavy task that took eternity, and all my desires to relish other things on the table just got washed away. There was an English woman who has been coming to stay at Badal House for more than 20 years now and she has become a part of their family. We chatted for some time while they cleaned-up some green-leafy vegetable for dinner. Badal had already arranged for a camel (Babloo) and the camel-man Kesar Singh waited for me outside.

Khuri Sand Dunes as seen from a distance

I initially planned to stay in the desert for sunset and come back, but then I was told by the English woman that going to the desert and coming back after sunset (not spending the night there out in the open) was not even half the fun. That charged me up and there I was riding the camel, talking with Kesar Singh as we walked towards Khuri Sand Dunes, just about 2 kms from Badal House. There were already a couple of tourists at the dunes preparing to shoot the sunset, so we by-passed them and reached the far end of the desert, from where I could see not a single soul other than Babloo and Kesar Singh.

Form here I could see the beautiful dunes on one side and a vast expanse of barren land with sparse vegetation on the other. This land is a part of Desert National Park. I could spot a couple of brown deer and a fox at a distance.

We camped near a bush (where Kesar Singh has been camping), that was just a bush with no tents around and the bush was only meant to shield us and the fire from the blowing winds. Babloo rested nearby munching on his fodder and Kesar Singh went off to fetch some firewood...we had to stay there for night and cook our food..."this is going to be some fun" - I told myself and carried on with my camera to click some sunset pictures. I strolled around, wherever I wanted, clicked a lot of pictures, stood there in silence gazing at the huge orange-going-red fireball of sun setting behind the horizons. Cool breeze was making it all the more surreal...and it makes a haunting sound while passing through a dense bush, a different sound. I came back and chatted with Kesar Singh as he prepared food for us - Bajre ki Roti, Daal, Rice, Aloo ki Sabzi and chhachh which he brought from his home.

I asked him if he knew some folk-songs and he offered me a folk-tale instead, and a long one on that. I couldn't understand much, apart from the names of the characters and the concluding line that talked about some place where they still had footprints of a camel's three legs engraved on a stone. We then had food in stark darkness (the bonfire light was not just enough, was ever diminishing). Kesar prepared our beddings - simple cotton-filled mattresses and thick razaai (cotton-filled quilts). We slept under the star-studded sky, and it was actually chilling outside, but the razaai did its job pretty well (I actually had two of them :P).

We woke up well before sunrise the next morning. I again set-off for sunrise pics while Kesar Singh prepared tea, without milk and really sweet. After that we headed back to the village, but this time we walked through the desert instead of bypassing it, and it came to be far more mesmerizing than it appeared the day before. I had the actual "desert" feeling only when I was standing amidst the dunes, with other dunes surrounding. Golden sand with no footprints and beautiful ripples appeared to be God's most meticulous art-work that should leave mortals like me dumbfounded.



And then I got my dream-shot:



It was a lovely morning, and my experience of last night made it all the more memorable. I came back to Badal House, freshened-up and had my breakfast of paratha with curd and pickles. I had plans for the day, I had to visit Khaba, Kuldhara and Sam also (if time permitted). I needed a cab for the day and Badal tried calling some of his friends to arrange a cab, but all were pre-occupied in some or the other wedding function. So I was left with a local bus to Jaisalmer as the only option, and from Jaisalmer I could hire a taxi for other visits.

Aaahhh...after a long time

I watched "Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara" yesterday with a friend...!! The plan was to watch the movie first, then do some shopping if time permits and if it doesn't, immediately rush to IHC and get the tickets for the play "Adhe Adhure" next weekend. The movie got over by 4:00 pm, we left by 5:00 and I took metro from Noida to CP. But oopsss...I had no cash I noticed...!! I thought of getting down at CP metro station and find an ATM, so...I did that. But then, I had only ICICI bank's ATM card, that too not activated...!! So, I had to find one ICICI bank's ATM to activate that.


I tried calling IHC help desk to find if I could pay by credit card...but they didn't pick up my call :(


After 10-15 mintues walk I was done, I found the ATM...withdrew some money and got back to the metro station...but aarrgghhhh...I had never seen such a long queue at any metro station, and time was running out...!!


I came out, found an auto-rickshaw to IHC...and here came my favorite part - traveling this part of Delhi by auto...on a Saturday evening. I am usually a very lazy person to lift my ass up from a couch on a weekend and go out for something. But if I manage to do that, I enjoy traveling in Delhi…specially the area around CP and Mandi House. It quenches my thirst of wandering like loners (I only sometimes behave so, otherwise I’m a company-seeker fellow). The auto-rickshaw started from CP and as we left for IHC, we crossed the India Gate hexagon. To me, its charm has not faded, it never will. It gives me a sense of coziness, for reasons unknown. Pulling at IHC, I smelled the familiar air of the surroundings. On reaching the reception counter of IHC, I was told that the tickets sale was closed till next morning. Then I started making innocent faces, pleading them with childish cajole. After 2-3 minutes, during which I told them about the hardships I went through while coming there (which I actually enjoyed), I got two balcony tickets. I thanked them, thanked them again, walked to Jor Bagh station and came back home.

Ok, so this play called Adhe Adhure is written by Mohan Rakesh. I first read this play when I was in college. The girl whom I liked very much and secretly loved too gave this to me. The play is a very mature, thoughtful and provoking piece in itself, but I think the fact that I was in love with the girl who gave it to me played a major role in making me love this play. The female protagonist is going to be played by Lillete Dubey and male protagonist by Mohan Agashe. This star cast is one more reason why I just cannot miss this event at any cost.

People have their own “turn-on” things and they are driven differently by different stimulations. For me, its theatre and “soul music” (read Sufi) concerts. I have may a times taken a detour from my usual way back home to go to places where I can get passes and tickets for such events. Last time it was in March or April for Jahan-e-Khusrau festival in Delhi, the passes for which I had to collect from Khan Market. I was just not feeling any driving force for anything for the past couple of months. Theater festivals came and passed by, but I couldn’t attend any, I had no company for any of those events. But it was after a long time that I made extra efforts to get my tickets and I’m not going to miss it this time around. I will be watching this play with my Mom, who kind of introduced me to Mohan Rakesh (she’s also a theater buff like me, she’s been an active part of her college theater).

FB World

I always knew the tremendous power of Facebook in connecting people around the world. I've realized it a lot of times...but this time it was my blog that revealed it to me. I had created my blog in 2008, and in a span of three years, its statistics were as below:

Page Hits: 283

Audience:

From India - 20

From US - 3

From Netherlands - 1

Yesterday, I shared my blog's link on my FB profile. I created my AdSense account too. Now, when I see my blog's statistics, I see:

Page Hits: 315

Audience:

From India - 38

From US - 11

From Italy - 2

From Netherlands - 1

Thanks to Facebook and my FB friends :)