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Manali - A Date With the Himalayas!
Need an editable PowerPoint map of India After a gruesome day of corporate slavery in my plush office, it was finally Friday evening. However, it was not just another Friday evening, as the much awaited time to escape from our concrete forest had come. It all started when my friends and I decided to go to Manali to beat the scorching heat of June. We were all elated at the thought of escaping New Delhi and making Manali our base for four days. We assembled at our travel agent’s office dressed in shorts and tees with a backpack. He handed over the hotel voucher to us. I felt like a prison inmate out on parole. Soon, we were inside the white Toyota Innova, while our luggage was tied up on the carrier. We started our journey at 9.00 pm after buying Scotch, cigarettes, glasses and a few packets of peanuts and wafers. As our car cruised down the GT road, we drank, ate, sang and made merry! After a while, our driver stopped at the famous “Gulshan ka Dhaba”. This dhaba (a roadside eatery on the national highway) was famous for its mouth-watering, hot, stuffed paranthas served with white butter and milk tea. We all had paranthas, except one of our friends who had different plans. He gorged on deep fried pakoras (potato slices wrapped in flour and fried) instead. I thanked myself for not having eaten the pakoras. After a while, we offered him water and after drinking some of it, he threw up again. His system was simply not able to accept anything. He was also suffering from a severe headache and he continued to throw up. It was late at night, and there was no hospital in sight. Nevertheless, we continued the journey hoping he would be fine in some time. We reached Sundernagar in Himachal Pradesh at the break of dawn. We spotted a hospital on the roadside and got him admitted. After a couple of hours and a glucose drip later, he was fine. We paid the bill and started our journey again. We all took an oath to have only fruits and no other edible items during our journey. But we soon broke this oath when we had vegetable noodles at Kullu. Kullu is a small hill town close to Manali. It was like a regular suburban city with shops and eateries on both sides of the road and lots of pedestrians. The weather was cool with the ferocious Beas River flowing alongside the road.We continued our journey to break for tea in the evening at a place known as Mandi. We were still thirty miles short of Manali, which was our final destination and it was already dusk. We laid our lethargic bodies besides the river. We were sipping hot tea when a young lad sporting designer jogging wear came to us and started pitching his sales speech for a river rafting session. He promised fifteen kilometers of rafting for “just” Rs. 900 (nine hundred) per person. He tried to impress us by telling us how a Bollywood crew which had Hrithik Roshan, (a famous Bollywood actor) rafted with him last year. But it seemed very costly, so we all decided against it. We reached Manali at 9 pm and were welcomed by massive road jams. Since it was the peak tourist season, the number of vehicles was raised to the power of infinity. Heavy honking was the favourite pastime of the bus drivers at the entrance road. Though we were in Manali, we were miles away from our cottage resort, as we were stuck in a bottleneck. As time passed, we found ourselves gradually creeping deeper inside the town. After taking a left turn from a major intersection, we bumped onto the famous mall road. (In India, almost every “hill station” has a mall road which carries stories of historical importance. A mall road is the prime area in which major shops, showrooms, video game parlours and eateries etc. are located. Tourists tend to spend their maximum time on the mall road.) The mall road in Manali was a densely populated area at that time, which had people from all walks of life. I found plenty of tourists from West Bengal roaming around the streets. (Bengalis are considered to be avid travellers). Most of them appeared like astronauts due to their attire, which consisted of fur clothing from top to bottom. I was not amused by their appearance as it was quite cold and I was in still in shorts and tees. (I might have appeared like an alien to them) We checked in our rooms, had a warm bath and retired on the cushioned sofas. After a long day and a night of trouble and fun, the sofas seemed heavenly. We were served drinks and snacks followed by dinner in the balcony. After dinner, we buried ourselves in bed. We woke up at 7 am and were delighted to see the spectacular scenery from our windows. The sight of the snow-clad mountains was stunning. I took out my camera and started capturing every ice cap and every snow field visible on the peaks (thanks to the wonderful zoom in my camera). We felt blessed to see such a sight. It has been rightly said in the “Hindu Purans” (a sacred book of Hindus) – “As the morning dew is dried by the morning sun, so are the sins of mankind at the sight of Himalayas.” We had toast and boiled eggs for breakfast. After that, we headed to the Solang Valley, which is considered to be a haven for adventure sports enthusiasts. It took us half an hour to reach the Valley, as it was twenty eight kilometers from Manali. Solang Valley is the starting point of a trek toward the Beas Kund from which the mighty Beas River originates. (Kund means a pond in English). The view of the serpent eagles soaring high along the snow laden peaks in the Solang Valley is highly mesmerizing. Many Bollywood movies have been shot in Solang Valley. As we entered the Solang Valley, we saw lots of people flying in the sky (paragliding!) with the help of self-proclaimed pilots. On the ground, the major activity was “Zorbing.” Zorbing is a relatively new and soft adventure sport for starters. There is a big plastic ball with a vacuum inside it, which is known as a zorb. Two people are tied to the inner sides of the zorb, which is then pushed down the slope. It stops in around thirty seconds and is highly thrilling. We all tried zorbing and enjoyed it a lot. Then it was time for some paragliding. The moment I took off, I was breathless; however, when I was in the high sky, I was amazed. I flew like a golden eagle! We had our lunch afterwards consisting of ‘Maggi’ noodles and hot tea. It is the only thing in Manali which is hygienic other than bottled mineral water and fresh fruits. After lunch, we started a mild trek towards the northern side of the Solang Valley. Our destination was “Dhundi,” a quaint village, just before the ascent to the Beas Kund begins. The distance to be covered was eight kilometers on a plain hill road. After covering a couple of kilometers, we sighted a tractor coming from Solang. We requested him for a lift and he obliged. We were in Dhundi within minutes. (A special thanks to the person who invented “Wheels!”). The Beas River was violent here due to the descent. The gushing waters intoxicated us. After absorbing the beautiful scenery to our heart’s content, we decided to head back. We got a lift in an open truck on the return journey. We slept soon after having dinner, as we had to rise early the next day to go to the famous “Rohtang Pass,” which was fifty kilometers from Manali on the route to Leh & Laddakh. We started at 5 am to avoid the tremendous traffic snarl. We reached at 12 pm as it was an arduous drive. The road to Rohtang Pass opens only in June as it is covered by heavy snow prior to that. (The effect of the snow spoils the road and converts it to potholes and rough patches). It is said that Rohtang is a Persian word meaning a pile of dead bodies. As this pass was an ancient trade route, people must have died due to snowstorms and avalanches. We saw huge glaciers on both sides of the roads, ice walls and enormous snow. The temperature must have been around 2 or 3 degrees. The spine-chilling winds were blowing like speed jets. It was the best time to have Scotch, so we all had a round. Then we had Maggi noodles yet again and enjoyed skiing. The snow on the lower reaches was very dirty and brownish in color due to the large numbers of tourists. In the higher reaches, it shone like a pearl. The indomitable Himalayan peaks were standing tall, kissing the cobalt blue skies. They made me feel very small, yet secure. It was time to return back to Manali, so we started our journey back. We reached Manali at 6 pm. We halted for a brief period to have tea and then started again, this time for home. Slowly and steadily, the mountains were covered in darkness. With a heavy heart and a mind filled with beautiful memories, we said goodbye to Manali.
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