What do you do when you are frustrated with the temperature of your place? Or what do you do when work overburdens you and you need an escape? For me, I googled up for the nearest hill station, and within 30 minutes, I had written a mail for leave at work as well coordinated with a friend to sort the next bus to that place. In the next one hour, I was already en route to the nearest hill station.
Now, lets start from the start. It was September of 2015 and some odd day of the week. Being a part of a fellowship program, I was not granted many leaves in a year and hence, I had to be very wise and judicious of it. The temperature in my residing city Delhi was at 35-40 degrees. Delhi during September sees a very humid climate mixed with tints of dry summer. Both of it together drenches out all the energy one could gather. There were no hopes of any nearby long weekends and on the work end, many new things had started to hit in making me anxious and concerned about giving my best to it. This pump up did bad (or I should say good) more than the latter.
One fine morning on an odd day of the week in this month of September, I woke up and my mind said, "I am not going to work today". Not that it does not happen to all of us, but that day, that calling seemed too hard to ignore. The inertia to go to work was harder to break than to ditch it and stay back. Furthermore, the travel junkie in me pushed me to go a bit rebel.
Lying on my bed, I figured out, is there something I can do about this? Then the idea of going to a hill station popped up. Temperature there would be decently cold and from Delhi, I can reach any one of them in 5-6 hours. Google served me what I was looking for- Manali. The closest possible hill station to Delhi. That day, I was happy that I had an active internet connection, a friend to rely on, and some savings from the past month. Within minutes of this newly found idea, I rang up my friend who was a Delhite and asked him the best possible, affordable, and quickest way to reach Manali.
"Take a bus from Kashmere Gate ISBT", he said. Next moment he added, "I am coming with you". The gallivanter in me skipped a beat hearing about a company.
Within a few hours of this conversation, both of us stocked up with supplies for the journey, were already on the way to Manali. It was a semi sleeper bus operated by some interstate bus operator services.
Next what I remember is waking up in the hills. Its 6 am in the morning and our bus is traversing through the steep cuts and turns at an altitude of 1500-2000 meters. Undoubtedly the cringe in me to get to colder temperature got subsided. We halted for a tea break. The moment I stepped out of the bus, from 35 degrees of Delhi, I could feel the 10 degrees of Manali instantly. My heart was happy for all the right reasons.
In the next 1 hour, we reached Manali, checked in to the nearest hotel, and went out on foot to see what this place has to offer. As I said, this was the impromptu trip, hence both of us did not know, what to do and where all to go. To add on to our misery, we just had a day off from work. We had to leave back max by the next morning. Few locals suggested us to walk up the Mall Road, explore the nearby cafes, and not to miss the local city garden. While we walked up to Mall Road, we saw a temple, and the rings of bell attracted both of us to visit the place.
We walked down the Mall Road and stopped at multiple shops to see the Himalayan and Tibetan crafts. One thing confirmed to me that day that hills have a lot to offer. The need is to go on foot and capture all of it. Manali has exclusively placed Tibetan colony and Market which caters to this section of the population. These people are very calm and peaceful in nature. They follow Buddhism. The mantra "Om Mani Padme Hung" is the contribution of this sect to the world. This mantra, started by the act of compassion under Boddhisattva tackles a sound in the mind to uplift the intelligence in the human brain. This mantra also draws parity with the Hindu tradition of revering the "Om" sound. The temple near to the Mall Road was ringing bells in accordance with this Mantra which filled up the air of Manali with a lot of positivity and purity. We surely wanted to hike our ways up to that devotee abode but before that, we thought to resort and check out some souvenirs that this town has been blessed with.
To talk about the souvenirs that this place offered, then Singing Bowls, Dorges, Prayer Wheel need to be mentioned apart from the obvious woolen Pashmina Shawls and fruits overloaded in the valley. This masterpiece called Singing Bowl comes under the Tibetan tradition. This is intricately carved furniture with inbuilt incense. Researchers say the vibrations created by this bowl can enhance the relaxation in the mind and reduce the stress exponentially. It can stimulate the immune system and also send beneficial changes in the brain waves.
On the left, you can spot the famously known Prayer Wheel. This form the next prized contribution of the Tibetan community to us. Prayer Wheel always bears the chant of the above mentioned Mantra. It is a cylindrical object that turns on an axle with a long handle. A very slight rotation of the wrist turns the wheel around. Inside the cylinder, the Mantra is written. Its believed that if one sets the wheel in motion, then the praying automatically starts.
Once we were done with exploring these few selected souvenirs, we made our way to the Hidimba Devi Temple. This cave temple is dedicated to Hidimba Devi, the wife of Bhima from the mythology of Indian epic Mahabharata. Its popularly said that Hidimb was the brother of Hidimba, and these siblings were born in the Rakshasha family. While on exile, one of the Pandavas brothers, Bhima killed Hidimb and then married Hidimba to give birth to the son Ghatotkatcha.
The cave place is where Hidimba used to do her meditation sessions. As the popular culture goes, this place is loaded with Tibetan Prayer Flags. These flags are usually used in hill based communities of South East Asia who religiously follow Buddhism. These flags are colorful rectangular cloths strung together on a thread. Using the wooden block printing, texts and images are printed. These are supposed to enhance the peace and vibrations in the place around as well as bring in productivity and longevity to the community.
The child in me wanted to see two more things, one was from where the Beas originated and the local garden that the people were talking about. So, dragging my friend to the "unallowed" areas, we ended up at the last point of the local garden where we could see the river flowing by. The sound of the river was no less than soothing and rewarding. For once, the traveler inside me wanted to stop by this area forever.
We could reach this point by juggling through a lot of stones and wires. This was the prohibited area of the town. But the adventurous hormones in us took us to this point. Though we both returned safe and sound.
The garden which the localites were talking about was situated just next to this point. It was the place where people gathered for a picnic. There were a few swings and a lot of playing areas. Moreover, the canopy of trees gave the sunlight is the best possible fashion. To our luck, we even spotted a few rabbits there. The locals were domesticating them and feeding food to these little bunnies.
After walking intensively to know Manali within a day, we both halted for the night in the hotel and the next morning started our return journey back to the place where we had escaped from- Delhi.
The city of Manali is done for now. What the next trip to Manali will bring in is the stories from Solang Valley and the Rohtang Pass. To conclude and calm the junkie in me, I get reminded of T.S. Eliot says,
"Only those can risk going too far, can possibly find out how far they can go..."
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