Feeling complete....

There are times when I wish I were back home. Home - where I am comfortable, comfortable enough to be me. Sometimes I feel that it is just homesickness, but then again, when I weigh it against facts, there seems to be some deeper, unknown sentiment that binds me to the place.

When I first left home it was for a new job. I was just out of college and my first job required that I move to a different city. I had my doubts about what I was doing. Moving to a new city meant leaving family, friends and everything that I had grown accustomed to. I moved, and surprisingly didn't have too much of a problem getting along with the new place (I must say that the new place was three hours from home, so I invariably ended up at home every weekend). Over time I had to move to a different city, this time further away from home. The frequency of my visits declined. Now they were once in three months. A job change resulted in me moving to yet another city. This time further than the last one...

When I look back at all this I notice one thing that catches my attention. I felt uncomfortable when I had to first move out of home. However the subsequent changes made no impact on me. The only reason I see for it is that none of it was like home. It didn't make a difference where I went, as long as it wasn't home, it was all the same.

I tried to find out what it was that bound me to that place so much that even after two years, I'd rather be there than anywhere else in the world. Today, the answer struck me all of a sudden. It is the bond created when you grow up in a place, grow up with the place. I might try transplanting myself elsewhere, but no matter what I try, I will never be the same elsewhere. The place is part of me and I am part of the place. Wherever I go, I carry a part of my home with me. Wherever I go I know that my home is incomplete without me and that I am never complete unless I go back home.

Now I have made up my mind, I am going home. It is just a matter of time.

To heaven and back

Well, if you are wondering where heaven is, it is right here on earth (atleast the heaven that I'm talking about is right here). To be more specific, it is located in Himachal Pradesh, India. The place I'm talking about is Kullu, otherwise known as the valley of the Gods. It sure does live up to its name...
It is a small town tucked away in the folds of the lower Himalays, apparently lost in time. The town of Manali is about thirty kilometres from Kullu (takes around two hours by road).



We (my team and I - six in all) started our journey from Gurgaon shortly after midnight on the 12th of July. We were jubiliant after completing a successful demo at work and were in the mood to celebrate. We hired a cab and set off to see this place that was so highly reccommended by anyone and everyone at work. To add to the excitement, google showed us tantalising images of mountains shrouded in mist and clouds rolling over cliffs. So off we went taking our winter clothing and a change of clothes. The journey took us longer than expected, twenty hours against the expected fourteen. The delay being caused due to bad roads, rain and our collective urge to stop everytime we got a photo opportunity... (the last being the major contributor).

We passed through Panipat and Chandigarh before entering Himachal Pradesh (HP). The leg of the journey through Punjab involved crossing the river Beas multiple times. However once we were in Himachal, the river became a constant companion, and the wide expressways of the plains gave way to the narrow, snaky, winding roads of the mountainside. We edged along savouring the sights that the mountains had to offer along the way, ranging from rock overhangs above the road to sections where the road hugged the sheer vertical rock face on one side and held the promise of a plunge into the icy waters of the Beas on the other.

The first phase of our journey ended at Manali, where we stayed for the night. We found decent rooms for Rs. 400 per room (thanks to the "off season", as they call it). The mall road was bustling with tourists till late in the night (well assuming that 11:00PM is way too late for a little town, hidden away in the mist). This made me wonder how the place would be during the "on season". Well to continue with the story of our journey - after making due enquiries about the weather and road conditions to go to Rohtang, we made ambitious plans of leaving Manali at five o' clock in the morning and heading off. The weariness of the twenty hour journey by road hadn't sunk in as yet, probably the chill in the air and the excitement kept the weariness away. However it decided to kick in as soon as I hit the bed...

I regained consciousness at 7:30 am. To cut a long story short (and leave out some uninteresting and routine bits in the process), we set off from Manali shortly after 9AM. The distance to Rohtang Pass (or Rohtang La as it is known locally) from Manali is roughly fifty kilometres. It took us four hours to cover that - reason: bad roads. Well it would be unfair if I blame the condition of the road entirely - we did muliple pit (read pic) stops. One of these happened to be forced upon us by the Border Roads Organization(BRO), we had no complaints though. The BRO was blasting a section of rock for widening the road, so as a safety measure they had blocked the road temporarily. A word of appreciation for the BRO is absolutely essential, taking into consideration how efficiently they clear landslides and keep the traffic flowing. The BRO was happily blasting rock away while we took a leisurely stroll outside the car. The air was cold and in a few minutes we were engulfed by a passing cloud...

Once we were at Rohtang, we took horses to carry us around. We poor humans were out of breath in the rarefied atmosphere at 13050 feet. There was some snow left from last winter, but not much. However the place offered an amazing view. The valley right below had a lake and the ground was carpeted with flowers...

I just need to close my eyes and I can sense the cold mountain air on my face... refreshing and relaxing.