The mighty Himalayas doing a hide and seek with you day in and day out, splatter of rains from time to time, the misty clouds covering your soul, star studded sky and total silence with sounds of cricket.
Day 1
We started from Delhi on the Kathgodam express to Kathgodam from where we took a car to Mukteshwar – our final destination. We had decided on a small dhaba run by one Naveenji as our place of stay for the next 3 days.
Naveenji place happened to be way side dhaba with few rooms – a very basic arrangement which f made us bit jittery to start with. We started wondering about our different electronics like camera, mobiles, laptops which needed to be charged. But the morning breeze, the beauty of the Himalayas, the clouds made us forget all that and diverted us to the beauty and power of nature and how puny we are in front of them and also how detached we are from mother nature.
The whole environment slowly grew on us so profoundly that we didn’t mind the electricity not being there or the basic amenities we the city urchins are used to.
Day 2
Naveenji treated us to home cooked food and the aura of the place made us eat like gluttons which we consciously burnt out on our walks in and around. The walks took us through winding roads uphill and surprisingly none of us felt the pinch of a 16km walk. Un-polluted air, flowers and birds at every nook and corner and the nice cool breeze to add to that made us feel light and athletic. Our walk took us to Jim Corbett’s one time hide out when he was after the man eater of Mukteshwar. The bungalow perched on top of a mountain gave us a clear view of the far away Himalayas which houses greats like Nandagiri. The surrounding jungles made it an eerie environment and with Jim Corbett in our minds we kind of re-lived the stories of the man eaters lurking all around.
The very thought of not running about to meet personal objectives made us so relaxed that we didn’t mind the time ticking away from morning to evening just staring at the mountains far and beyond. In-between we visited the Pashmina Goat farm and the horticulture centres. With such refreshing off the beat intervals, we thoroughly enjoyed the homely hospitality of Naveenji and his family.
As fate would have it, after about 3 days of loosing our soul and mind to the mountains, we were jerked back to reality on our way back to Delhi. But we definitely decided to make more numerous trips in and around the place to soak in the senses of nature in our souls.
