DAY 2 & 3 NAHAN, HIMACHAL (XXXIV)

26th June, 2015- 28th June,2015

I woke up the next day when the sun was above my head. Sitting under the sun sipping tea, I got a feeling that I am devoid of any existence, that I don't have mind or heart of my own. I fall for everything and I ignore everything. I am just flowing with the flow, experiencing life the way it is coming.

We had delicious breakfast at our home (by this time Writershill was more of a home for us) and headed for Renuka Ji Temple.

RENUKAJI TEMPLE, RENUKA LAKE AND PARSHURAM TAL

Before visiting Nahan, we had no idea that it was more of a religious place than a hill station. Renuka Ji is Parshuram's mother and Nahan has one big temple in name of Goddess Renuka.Around the vicinity of the temple there was Parshuram Tal and Renuka Lake. To my amazement Renuka lake is the largest lake (and probably the most beautiful) in Himachal with 2.5 km of circumference. Around the lake there was a mini zoo where we could see bears, monkeys and leopards and lots of fishes. We drove around the lake with water on one side and animals on the other. Though I don't like to see animals in cages but the beauty of this safari was marvellous.

The voice in the surroundings was as if a live orchestra is playing.
Sounds of leaves moving with the wind like a violin,
Sounds of fish in the water like a piano playing
Chirping of the birds like a flute
Sounds of our footsteps like drums
and the silence of the water as if leading all of them.

Renukaji Temple

A monkey having prashad- Renukaji temple

Captivating eyes

Parshuram Tal

Lazy Bear

Leopard

Renuka Lake

A painting?

Bed of lotus flowers

Renuka Lake

And I drank that holy water

JAMU PEAK

Not aware about the terrain and the road we decided to go to Jamu Peak some 8 kms from the lake. Well, it turned out to be 14 kms away with all kacha road. We stopped at a point where we saw two-three cars. We get down of the car and started descending the  mountain. There were tiny houses. The trip was becoming adventurous now. We found a small temple where we could not enter without our heads being hurt. We entered in a small wood tent and from there we climbed 2-3 stairs (all this while we could not stand straight as we would have hurt our heads). There we found the God Parshuram. I could not believe my eyes as to how a temple could exist in such a small place. The pujari there was a smiling 22 or 23 years old boy and he welcomed us. There was an old couple sitting outside the temple and the man was having hookah. He asked me where we had come from. Then with his eyes wide opened he said "By your own car? Can you drive?" I said "I can drive but we have come through taxi." While going I folded my hands and told them "Namaste" and in reply they waved their hands and said "Bye."

Entrance to the temple

 















We went to our car and saw that the other cars are going further. We asked them were they were going and they informed that there was a temple of Jamdagini, Parshuram's father some 3-4 kms away and they pointed at a peak. The roads were bad and the height was increasing. Our driver somehow got convinced to take the car in that terrain. We reached the spot and realised that there is steep trek of 250-300 mtrs to reach the temple. That group of around 15 people had come with a lady saint. They asked us how come we were there and we said "Just like that." One of the uncles then told us that only blessed people could reach the temple and they had been trying to do the same since 3 years. After listening to him there was no looking back. Even our driver also joined us.  The sons were holding hands of their mothers and were helping them to climb the mountain and daughters were holding bags of their fathers. We were at the top of the mountain and the words are less to describe the view. The same boy who was at the Parshuram temple was there also and I asked him whether he had a twin brother. He laughed loudly at this and said that it was him only and he came by climbing various other mountains.

Roads on which we travelled

Trek

The guy, preparing for police,  who helped me descending the mountain

 


















While coming back we were all tanned. I just love the tan on my body- the mark of watch on my wrist, mark of those sleepers on my feet, mark of that lace on my shoulders.
We again stopped our car at our very own Jalal river bed and were surprised at our recent revelation- River water removes tan from the body.

My diary and the Camera

UNKNOWN, UNTRAVELLED AND UNEXPLORED- NAHAN, HIMACHAL (XXXIII)

26th June, 2015- 28th June,2015

Day-1

Delhi-Karnal-Kurukshetra-Shahbad- Kala Amb- Nahan-Jamta- Writershill

Before starting any trip I get butterflies in my stomach and the same happened with this trip also. After experiencing a solo trip to Narkanda I planned to have an all-girls trip and decided to go to Nahan- an unknown, unexplored and less travelled place. We, three of us, started at 5 O'clock in morning and with our driver being professional we reached our destination by 11.00 am. 

I love road journeys. There are so many things, so many views one encounter during the journey. They are difficult to capture in photos and difficult to express in words. They are the moments which could only be felt- Early morning white birds sitting on a tree, a couple doing Surya Namaskar, a group of boys playing football in fog, farmers doing their daily course, a dog tied to a horse cart, a sadhu baba (saint) walking and laughing on road and a little girl in a truck with her mother and probably brother or servant carrying all their household stuff, even a two-wheeler in a truck. 

We chose Writershill, 300 kms from Delhi,  as our shelter- beautiful, serene, calm and a perfect place for reading and writing.

BADHOLIA TEMPLE AND WATERFALL

A mere km away from Writershill, Badholia temple looks like a small triangle in between the hills. Standing alone amidst the mountains and waterfall it was all silent. We climbed till the temple, there was a man (pujari) who stays there. While we were enjoying the view we saw that pujari has climbed a mountain and is offering makka (maize) to the monkeys. And while we were still looking at him in few seconds many monkeys from nowhere suddenly came to him. The sight was breathtaking. For almost 15  minutes I kept gazing at the sight, sometimes looking at pujari and sometimes at the way monkeys were eating. Supposedly monkeys were his best friends. He came down to the temple and pointing towards his bed he told us that he stays there and sometimes when the rains are very heavy he gets stuck for days and could not move out of the temple. I asked him for a picture and he happily agreed. While clicking I told him to smile and he laughed loudly.

JALAL RIVER

While coming back from Badholia Temple we found a stop for us- Jalal River bed. Jalal river flows through Nahan. There was no one in the vicinity and we jumped in the river. The tiredness of whole day was vanished in few seconds and we spent almost two hours enjoying the river water.

I am like the river, shallow in the start.
But once you know me well, I am much intense.

Lost in the greens

At night looking at the stars, listening to the music with Love Story by Erich Segal in my hand, I realised that lovers are like the stars in those constellations, apart but still always together. 

Looking towards the mountains

with her headphones on

I saw her crying

I looked towards her and smiled

With tears in her eyes she smiled back

I knew that was catharsis for her.

If laughter is healing, crying also is no less a medicine.Cry- Cry with your heart out, let those tears rolled down your cheeks and travel  to your heart. Allow yourself to taste that salt.

Reading and thinking I didn't realise when I went into dreams.  

Next sunrise of Nahan is following in next post.

LIFE IN A MACHINE (XXXII)

Today I went to hospital for my routine tests and follow up. Every time I enter that MRI machine a different set of thoughts run through my mind. It is a big giant machine, like a huge cave where they tie me up with a log-like bed and I am not allowed to move at all. They slowly put me into that cave and I could hear all sort of different sounds as if wild animals are howling at me. For those 40 minutes I lose my freedom of movement but my freedom of thoughts take all together a different turn. I don't think about anything else except me. All kinds of thoughts capture my mind- What would be the result of this test, will it be negative or positive, remembering rather revising my whole past life, remembering all the good times and the bad times, thinking about all the people I have encountered in my life, recalling all the books I have read and recollecting all the memories of the trips I had, imagining my life if the result is positive and knowing my life if it is negative. Well! Medical tests are the only tests where 'positive' result is actually 'negative' and 'negative' results are 'positive'.

The most interesting part is that there is always a drum music playing on in the background. When I asked the doctor about it he said "This is for the patients to enjoy.' I laughed at this irony and the doctor laughed with me. When I am into the machine that is the only time when I would feel all kind of tickling and itching. Life tests your patience when you least have it.

By the time they pull me out of that machine I am half asleep and it seems that someone is waking me up from my dreams. I say thank you to the doctor and the doctor passes a smile at me. Every time I ask him whether the reports are fine and he would say "You will come to know about it tomorrow at nine." With that suspense in my mind I reach home waiting for that tomorrow to come early this time. 

            

VIBRANT AND COLOURFUL- RAAHGIRI, CONNAUGHT PLACE (XXXI)

14th June, 2015

Raahgiri Day, meaning a day for passengers. I was hearing about this since long and today finally I got the chance to be there. It was 7 O' clock in morning when I entered Connaught Place, Delhi. Raahgiri is organised in inner circle of Connaught Place and outer circle is for parking. It was raining cats and dogs and to my amazement there was no parking space in outer circle. Seeing the parking I got to know that this place has something in it- something which attracted people even in that weather.

I finally parked my car, carried my umbrella and entered Inner Circle. I saw people all drenched in water, only few of them carrying umbrellas - dancing and walking, laughing, singing, cycling, playing, music coming from all directions. It was so vibrant and so colourful. I folded my umbrella and opened myself to the rains.

People playing football

Some spiritual music and dance

Colours

I haven't imagined Connaught Place, or I would say Delhi like this before. This is the place where different music forms and different dance forms exist, a place where all kind of people are present,  a place where existing love could flourish and new love could be found, a place where everyone is high- high on LIFE.

Chai Wala 

Jam session by Djembefola United and my friend Tushar playing Congo Bongo on extreme left 

Tushar 

Tag line of Raahgiri is "Apni Raahein. Apni Azaadi"- a line which truly suits this place where everyone is FREE. 

A WALK IN THE FOREST- SANJAY VAN

7th June, 2015

It was one fine day that one of my friends Vishal sent me a link on Facebook which states " A Walk in the Forest with I Say Organic and Swechha India". Facebook these days has become a great source for information. Though the event seemed to be very interesting but I was sceptical at getting up at 5.00 o'clock on Sunday morning and reaching the destination (Sanjay Van, Lado Sarai near Qutub Minar) by 6.15 am. I finally made up my mind and registered for the event. I put 4 alarms and kept my mobile in a glass so that there is no way out except getting up and finally I reached my destination on time. 

There was a group of around 40 people, all fresh, excited and some still sleepy. We were introduced to Dr Ahmad, an environmentalist, who was our guide for the tour. Some facts which he told us were quite amazing and astonishing. I was bewildered to listen to all that. Some were actually eye-openers.Here I am sharing some of those wonderful facts:

A squirrel's nest

- I have always wondered that why peacock is so beautiful and peahen is not. Then somebody told me that peacocks are beautiful so that they could attract peahens. To this Mr Ahmad laughed and told us that peacocks, rather all male birds are beautiful for protection and not for attraction. They are beautiful so that they could divert the attention of the predators from their eggs and female counterparts . Female birds are usually dark in colour so that they could easily camouflaged with the surroundings and breed and protect the eggs.

- Peepal is an only tree which gives oxygen at night also. Why Gautam Buddha chose peepal and not neem? Because peepal is a tree which emits positive vibes.

- In  India earlier the population of vultures was 8.5 crores and now it is just 3300 approx. This is because of diclofenac, a veterinary drug which is used in cows, dogs etc. And when vultures eat their carcasses they die. This took 10 years of research to know as to why are vultures are getting endangered..

-   Keekar trees which makes approx 80% of Delhi's green belt are actually very harmful and do not allow others tress and shrubs to grow in their vicinity. They release harmful toxins. So why does the government grow them and is not banning them? Keekar grows very  quickly and is a faster way to provide green cover, though Delhi government is now taking steps to prevent its growth.

- All leaves on trees are initially of red colour which are harmful to eat. It's a red signal to herbivores not to eat those leaves.They gradually turn into yellow and then finally into green colour.

-We got to know minute details of birds, their voices, their colours and their breeding methods- 7 sister birds who are always found in group of 7 with 2 males and 5 females,  Cicabird whose larval stage is 17 years and they make loud noises- There is silent valley in Kerala which got its name because there is no clamour of Cicada birds there, Woodshrike birds which put their food (insects) on each thorn of Desi Babool tree and prepare their barbecue.

Berries

Anjeer- this contains both flower and the fruit inside it and is used in many Indian dishes

We visited lake in Sanjay Van and found spot-bill ducks, cattle egrets birds and water hyacinth, a water plant popularly known as Terrorist of Bangladesh in India as it initially came from Bangladesh as ornamental plant and now is widespread in all water bodies and is of no use.

Water hyacinth

Sanjay Van lake

There were so many stories and so many more interesting facts that this two hour walk was not enough. There were so many scientific names which were difficult for me to decipher and so many technical and minute details about which I had no idea before. The walk was followed by organic breakfast- healthy and delicious. It was the Sunday well spent.

I remembered a poem which I wrote in my childhood:

Life on earth is in danger of extinction
Ozone depletion, population and pollution
Strangling her and no solution

Man O man! O selfish man!
Why are you cutting trees and shortening the earth's life span
Awake! Awake! Awake!Awake!
and do endeavours for God's sake

This is the time for you to act
Otherwise it's a sheer fact

That nothing will remain
And nothing to say
And there will come a doomsday!

      


A Walk In The Forest With I Say Organic & Swechha India

A Walk In The Forest With I Say Organic & Swechha India