Manali, a travelogue

Deep into my sleep and then “Chae garam chae,” pierced my ears. I was sleeping in the lower tier of a Delhi bound train and then Mathura came, so are the chaewallas. I looked askance at them, deep slumber as I had, tried to figure out where I was heading to; Manali, I had a monologue. It was still a long way to go, but my mind was brooded into the ‘googled’ view of Manali. We (me and Ranita, my wife) reached Delhi at around 10’o clock in the morning. The whole day was spent in the national capital. With the clock’s ticking away, I was waiting in bated breath for the evening, the time our bus was about to move, and then the time finally arrived. Delhi to Chandigarh was a breeze; smoothness of national highway 21 seemed to have accentuated the speed of the bus. We had a break at a dhaba, had dinner, and boarded the bus again. I closed my eyes. Last thing I remember was a nauseated feeling of twists and turns on a hilly terrain.

I opened my eyes with a view that can be treasured forever. The bus was running at its usual speed with the river Beas on one side and the snow clad Pir Panjal range on the other. I looked at Ranita who was still asleep. I woke her up and made her see the amazing spectacle. With eyes wide open and a gaping mouth she looked at the beauty, kept mum for a while. Even after visiting this hill station for the third time she was spell bound, such was the attraction. We reached at the city bus station at 7.30 in the morning and checked at our hotel that was nearby. Again, the pictures seen at google popped up in my mind. I laughed, because the real Manali that I saw till then seemed way better than the google pics. I decided to give google a break and brooded into the reality. Situated at 6398 ft, Manali is one of the best, I would say the best, hill station in India. The place is historically significant as it is said to be the home of Saptarshi, the seven sages and an abode of Manu who created human life after the great inundation. It is also known as ‘Valley of the Gods’.

Reaching the hotel was just the beginning of an unparalleled experience awaiting us. Mastan Singh, the hotel caretaker took us to a ‘luxury room’, as he mentioned. Spacious and neat it was, but the real luxury of it lied at the breathtaking view it offered. Even before I thought of getting refreshed after a hectic journey, the view of the sun blessing the snow-clad hilltops with ray abundance made me speechless. Somehow, I made myself composed and took some refreshment before getting a call from the reception that our driver for the day has arrived.

Vimal is a man in his mid twenties, gregarious and courteous, welcomed me with a warm smile. ‘Babuji, aaj Rohtang chaalenge’ (sir, we’ll go to Rohtang pass today). I smiled back and readily set myself into the backseat of the car along with my better half. Vimal played some old hindi songs in the car stereo, while I was cherishing the beauty of Manali, the way I could; by taking photos, by stopping the car at regular intervals and asking questions to Vimal. Rohtang pass is a high altitude mountain pass situated in the Pir Panjal range that connects the Kullu valley to the valley of Lahul and Spiti. It is situated at a dizzy height of 13,000 ft. I always knew these facts. But it’s something different to see it in one’s naked eyes. As we moved up the terrain, topography changed. There were lesser number of trees and more snows. We were just so happy being there. Our enthusiasm of taking photos was directly proportional to the amount of snow we started getting and inversely proportional to the number of trees. Snow became our mantra that time. Naturally, when we reached Rohtang, both of us were almost agog with excitement. It took us nearly three hours to cross the distance of 50 kilometers. By the way, I have forgotten to mention that we have hired a guide for skiing as I was interested in it. After bargaining he charged INR 2100 for it along with the dresses for us couple and trust me, they looked exactly like a spacesuit! My wife, though showed initial interest in skiing, backed off at the last moment. She was just too happy to take snaps while I was into action. Skiing at Rohtang was pure bliss. But one would easily be tired in that height due to lack of oxygen. I made sure that I drank enough water to pass some oxygen into my body. We were there for around 3 hours before heading back to the hotel. A drowsy feeling sneaked in and we both fell asleep while coming. After reaching the hotel, we told vimal to come again next day for a trip to the other parts of Manali. He smiled and left.

It was 7.30 in the morning and the alarm ringed, but I refused to wake up. However, the imagery of us rafting in ruffled Beas made me sit up and get ready immediately. After the breakfast, Vimal arrived with the known warm smile in his face. ‘How far we have to go for rafting’, I asked him with the silliness of a kid. He smiled and replied, ‘nearby, sir’. As expected, our car reached the place where the rafting was about to start. It took us INR 1500 to make a deal with the person concerned. My wife told me, I will rue the decision to do rafting in this chilling cold. Well, I was thinking in the same line, but my excitement spoke on behalf of me and all logic has gone for a toss by then. The rafting started as we have (read I have, Ranita was unwilling) decided to sit in front to get the birds eye view of the fiery river. We were joined by another couple from Bangalore and I must say, my broken Kannada helped me bridging the initial silence. The whole journey was for seven kilometers. The boat moved at its usual pace, sometimes punching the rock, vacillating dangerously and then got stable. Ranita shouted all along, so is the other girl. The male brigade was silent. I was actually enjoying the scenic beauty as I have been doing for the last 40 hours. The journey came to an end and wife looked at me and said, “Sabya, where do you get all these enthusiasm from?”. I didn’t reply, just gave a smile like Sharukh. WIfy replied, “Dhong!” (stop pretending!)

At the last leg of our journey, we were about to go to manikaran, but decided against it as Vimal told us that there’s only a Gurdwara, a hot water spring and nothing else. As this was our last day at Manali, we thought of covering more local places. Hence, we headed to Jana waterfall. A small village named Jana and a waterfall with the same name, may not sound that exciting. But, when we landed there, I was taken aback by the sylvan splendor seen nearby. No, the peaks were not snow clad. But the forest was heavy, and the sunlight is trickling down with some difficulty. Large shrubs and undergrowths are a common character there. And then we saw the waterfall, simple it was, and her beauty has been ameliorated by the surroundings. We had lunch at a nearby hut that served local dishes including red kullu rice, momo, rajma, gur, makai roti, sarsho ka shag, ghee and chutney. After the sumptuous meal, we headed back to Manali to see the Hadimba temple. Hadimba, as we know, is Vim’s wife in the Mahabharat era. According to mythology, Manali is the place where Vimsen and Hadimba spent one year as a couple and Ghatotkach was born thereafter. After Ghatotkach has taken the responsibility of the kingdom, Hadimba went into meditation. The hadimba temple is made in the form of a pagoda, where she is worshiped as Devi Hadimba. After our visit to the temple, we came back to the hotel as there was less time to visit few other places. At the end, it was time to say good bye to such lovely reception we have received. Mastan Singh wanted us to come back again and we readily nodded. He called an auto and we were off to the bus station.

It was evening and we were standing in front of the bus. While Ranita was busy with her sandwich, I was busy reflecting the happenings of the day. It is not everyday that one visits Manali, especially when you stay as far away as Hyderabad. But there were some mysticism attached to this place and I decided to come back again in near future. Clearly, I didn’t have enough of Manali. The bus started, the engine roared, a thrust on accelerator and with each passing minute we were moving away from Manali. The mood was sombre and I was feeling isolated as if a child is being taken away from her mother. Yeah, mother she is, Mother Nature. How can a child be far away from her for long? He will come back to her lap soon.