It was time to take a short vacation from the hectic life of working as an intern in SAP labs and studying for my Masters revolving around the famous Indian city called Bengaluru.
I decided to take two weeks off and visit the cool hilly heavenly paradise of my hometown called Dharamsala.
One of the most memorable events for me back home was when we went off on trekking to truind in that freezing winter.
Me and my brothers - Shakya, Dukar, Namgyal and Legdup, we decided to make this adventure trip together on that 4th auspicious day of our Tibetan New Year.
I can still remember that freezing cold day in the month of February 2010, we were supposed to leave early around 4 in the morning as per the plan we made the previous day.
But finally we managed to leave home around 5:30 in the morning with mom fussing around trying to make us eat our breakfast before leaving.
With our prayer flags, holy tsampa and rice to make offerings to god and food for all of us to keep us energized throughout our trekking in the backpacks, we got ready for the journey.
In spite the fact that twice I felt few of us were going to lose our live and won't be able to return back home that very day, this trip was the most amazing and adventurous one I've ever made in my life.
It was totally pitch black when we started off on that chilly winter morning, icy cold wind splashing on our face and leaving us numb and shiver down our spines with torches held in our hand to
make our path. We kept on making our way uphill with determination and a tingling sense of adventure, wildness building up in our hearts in that early dawn.
This journey also turned out to be quite a spiritual experience, it showed us a glimpse of how life is different, intriguing in the wilderness of Mother Nature, outside of the luxury and comfort of the modern amenities at our homes.
We started huffing and puffing when not only an hour has passed since we started our journey showing our lack of stamina. Our fitness level can't adjust so easily after spoiling ourselves
always avoiding the harsh situations and exposing to the best of comfort for ourselves all the time.
Nevertheless, we were still climbing up to the Snow Mountains; to our delight we caught the first sight of snows on the road. We were so happy to see it as down the town of Dharamsala, snow didn't fall still.
Finally, we took a short rest at the white stupa which has always been a landmark for the trekkers saying that ’your actual trekking starts now’ and we took some snaps to capture the snowy moment of joy.
We climbed still higher, the rugged roads were all frozen up and the cliffs were dangerously covered with snow leaving us clueless as of where to keep our next step without slipping off some steep cliff in the snow.
After trekking for few more hours, we managed to reach the ‘Half way view’ restaurant which is supposed to be located halfway from the main town to the trekking place we were heading to.
There at the shop, we took some time to sip on some hot chai and replenished ourselves with more water. While sipping the hot delicious chai, we can gaze down at the Kangra valley where one of my brothers remarked, “All the houses looks like some small dirt and I wondered how we just get involved our life in those tiny houses all of our life; first to beautify ourselves, then our houses and then fight for petty reasons.
Realized life is not worth to be just getting stuck with only your own lives alone. With those deep thoughts, we decided to continue with our journey.
One of my cousin brothers wanted to take some time to smoke some grass which I'm totally against but can't help since all are big people and are well off to make right decisions on their own.
So one more bro to assist him in case of emergency decided to stay back for a while and rest of us went ahead with the journey.
After about 15 minutes, we could see that down the cliff, my other 2 brothers who stayed back were running uphill with refreshed energy looked like some tiny ants moving in that snowy path.
My legs were numb then swimming in the cold icy water inside my shoes. The only source of survivor at that point of time was the long supportive stick which fortunately we took along to guide the
staggering legs on the firm ground, poking it on the snow before making our next step to make sure there are no holes or gaps where if we get stuck we can have one more movie of '127 hours' in the snow instead of those rocks.
To add to the thrill, we found trails of animals left on the snow. When we realized that the foot prints of the animal is definitely got to be large seeing the size of those foot prints. One of my brother was in delimma whether to proceed ahead. But we are brave soldiers, once we make up our mind, we thought we should complete it no matter what happens.
Tiny snowflakes started falling when finally we reached our destination like a perfect scene out of a fairy movie with the perfect scene and everyone glowing and smiling.
Everywhere, the grasses and the rocks were covered with snow, not a single dry spot to lie down. But it was beautiful, that moment was so much worth the effort we have put in like the crazy hippies going on risking their life for only the mere sense of adventure and fun.
We spend some time lying down on the snow feeling the softness of the newly fallen snowflakes beneath our body. When we stood up and raised our fingers to the sky, we can
feel and touch the mist of the cloud, I could've said at that time ‘heaven and bliss just a finger away’.
After awhile when we got over with the magic of that moment, we realized we were exhausted and famished. So, put down our mattress and took rest for some time enjoying the moment, opened our packed lunch of roti with scrumptious aloo and chicken which we gobbled down in few minutes as all of us ravenous with exhaustion and cold. When you are hungry and tired, everything and anything in the world tastes marvelous and fantabulous which not even a five star hotel can offer.
The cool, sharp wind biting your skin and forcing us back on earth from heaven. Even in that freezing snow covered land, with the wind picking up slowly and snowflakes getting larger, my brave brothers managed to make a huge snow man. For the final touch, I started putting those tiny pebbles
which resembles our eyes, and wrapped my warm scarf around his snowy neck.
Then we were ready with photo session, laughing and smiling..Being with nature and nothing else.
We decided to climb a little higher when we have regained our energy with the short rest to plant the prayer flags as we Buddhist believe that Prayer flags bring happiness, long life and prosperity to the flag planter and those in the vicinity… and higher the prayer flags, more auspicious it is.
Everything grows more beautiful we as we climbed still higher, everywhere it was completely blinding white, the wind, the silence, it was so serene and just mere words are not enough to describe the feeling.
We were left amazed and awestruck with nature's sheer beauty and simplicity. It's majestic, magnificent and leaves you speechless.
You just want to embrace in the nature's lap and just forget about everything, all those huge worries of your life suddenly seems so insignificant and it's ridiculous that we even bothered to
worry over such petty things of life.
I realized, how gigantic is the earth and we are just like some tiny spec of dirt trying to act big but however big we are, we are still a tiny speck of dust in front of our giant mother earth.
We planted the prayer flags and white scarves and made offerings to god with mind, body and soul.
Finally made our way down when we are done with the sacred ritual as huge snowflakes had started to fall then.
Before long, most of the other trekkers who were had also made their way up were panicking for the fact that more snowflakes started falling with no sign of it stopping anytime soon.
They had this terrible news that just the day before; two guys had been frozen to death at the same place as they were trapped with the heavy snow and not able to escape down to
the warmth of the town.
The snow was fast covering the trail we left behind and the wind was blinding leaving us clueless how to return back. Luckily there was a group of trekkers with a professional guide who was taking
a different route back down to town. We decided to follow them, they were running down with the fear that their lives might just end with this trek once and for all.
So seeing the situation, we also decided to move back home, my eldest brother somehow being the eldest in our group, all the responsibility seem to have fallen on him... he made us run. Especially one of my cousin brother who was little more healthy than normal was huffing and puffing and my bro was poking him with the stick like a horseback rider whipping its horse to make it run faster.
We couldn’t run too fast as the ice had formed on the grass and making it slippery, one slip from the cliff and we wouldn’t see tomorrow for sure.
All that time, I was concerned about that over healthy cousin brother; cause me being the one who initiated this trek against my dad's will. The good part is that he is very jolly and even in that hue, he managed to break off some icicles for me and himself, hanging from somewhere on the way.
We were licking the icy lollipop in that cold.
I prayed all the way down, hoping we can see dry land soon. Finally somehow we reached down really soon with our hearts in our mouth.
Soon we realized we are on dry land and took rest on dry grass.
We started laughing on our stupidity, how scared we were when we faced near death situation.
We had loads of snacks still remaining in our bags, we distributed it to all the other trekkers nearby and sat on the warm grass munching on snacks and listening to a nice music playing from an old black music player trying to slow our heart beats back to normal. One moment it was snow and then next moment, it was dry, sunny and hot.
We moved down further and reached the Shiva cafe waterfall, the water was flowing down crystal clear. We sat there for some more refreshments. Dipping our feet in the cool icy melted snow water and our face soaking in the Sun with a cool breeze was another blissful moment. The eagles were soaring freely in the majestic blue sky as if they never felt the coldness of the mountain and nothing ever happened.
We left Shiva cafe and reached our Bhagsunath waterfall and swimming pool and slowly reached the town where we can see the normal crowds of tourists and the local people.
It was getting quite sunny and we had milk kulfi in the traditional leaf style to refresh us from the tiredness and exhaustion mentally and physically.
We were all exhausted but gay, especially my wish fulfilled, to completing one of my to-do list back at hometown. We slowly made our way back home with legs all sore but heart filled with joy. Since at home some recitation of prayers by the monks for prosperous new year rituals were happening, we went off to roof, opened up all the leftover foods, we had cup noodles and snacks.
So we ate off everything remaining in our backpacks happily exchanging our experiences and smiling from ear to ear as if we had climbed Mount Everest!!!
This was indeed a trip to be remembered and cherished forever in my life. I can feel each excitement still when I go through the pictures and videos we captured.
I thank all my brothers from the bottom of my heart for giving such a wonderful moment on the Snow Mountains.
