Manali – The place to be!
Manali, is one of the few places that justify the relevance
of the old saying ‘Love at first sight’. The road to Manali is itself a journey
adorned by the beatific ambience. The road meanders around the river Beas. On the way to Manali we crossed the saintly
site of Maharana Pratap Dam on Beas. On one of the curves of the road, the dam
offers many things at once. Not only it stops the river flow, it offers a
majestic view of the ambience around the mountains. The calm and smooth flow of
river makes you want to float above it till eternity. The clear open sky, bright
sunrise makes it appear as if it is blessed directly by god!
Himachal offers a variety of drinks and eateries. There were
large number of kiosks on the way up and we decided to take a
‘state-of-the-art’ kind of Punjabi rasoi. The waiter asked us ‘Where will you
eat- On the River or in the restaurant?’ I was astounded about what he just had
said! Eating food with Beas flowing under your legs! Whoa! I dint reply and
neither did he ask, maybe my eyes said it all! It was about eating in the
river!
With cold water caressing your feet, like a masseur fondling
your skin, the futile effort of the cool breeze to detangle your hair and the
fragrance of the sand on the wet rocks, makes you think whether God once
resided here? Or shall I say that I
could feel the deafening silence around the space. Covered with mountains on
the front side and river flowing from left to right, we ate our food enjoying
the music of the silence around. The tin tabulations of the flowing water above
the rocks, the way the water flows- every drop running its own race and trying
to reach first to the destiny unknown- the kind of a recess that this place
offered could challenge any place for the peace offered. I never wanted to
leave that place but a jiff of the thought that if this place, 60 km before
Manali, is so amazing then what about Manali itself? So, we left the kiosk and
went uphill to reach Manali. We were greeted by heavy rainfall and soon we realised
that our teeth had started to clatter. We had a good cup of coffee and soon the
rain subsided and we were again showered by snow! The numbness that snows
offers, made us rush towards our hotel. The moment we entered, the hotel
manager asked us what we could not refuse to, ‘sir will you like to have a campfire
tonight?’
The night was amazing. We cooked our own food –steaks, rice
and fish. We drank wine and enjoyed the spicy peanuts sitting around the fire.
Even if the snow was pouring down it had no effect on us as the snow might have
an effect on the temperature but could not affect the spirit and frolic Manali
had given even us at just a brief introduction. We enjoyed the whole night,
sang songs, danced and then we went to our beds.
Next day we went to Solang valley. Covered with snow for all
twelve months, the valley is famous for its adventurous sports. The snow
appeared to rule this place; it sprawled entrenching the entire valley and had
not left even a single piece of land bare. Our welcome was done by an ATMV.
WOW!! We begged, we prodded and was finally got successful in convincing the
owner for letting our hands on the vehicle! We drove it like we owned it!! We
almost create uproar in the surrounding areas by driving that vehicle as
everyone around us also started demanding to drive it.
We went to the topmost point of Solang Valley. While we were
climbing uphill, we saw people flying around, up above there! Yes it was the
time for us to fly! The place is famous for Paragliding. We all were excited to
fly! We went to the point and then we saw the valley down from that point. All
of us winced back! Nobody wanted to jump down and yet everybody wanted to fly!
What a paradox! Somehow I took the charge, thinking about the famous words that
drives the youth crazy- ‘Darr k aage jeet hai!!’-, and went first for the
paragliding. I stood next to the cliff and the pilot; yeah actually call the
instructor-a pilot, told me run off the cliff!
‘Are you kidding me?’ I exclaimed.
‘Nothing would happen, go for it, you would enjoy it!’ he
replied calmly.
‘Darr k aage jeet hai- you are a roadie man! Go go go!’ my
friends coaxed me.
I closed my eyes and
just ran through it! Next I heard my pilot’s voice- ‘Open your eyes’ .The
moment I opened them, the Olympian moment made me forget every sort of a fear
that was holding me back! The zephyr smothered my body, engulfed me into the
divine freshness of it. The surroundings just appeared as never ever before.
The silence in the middle of the air, the solace on the top of the mountains-
watching the mighty mountain peaks bow down, as if the birds are also wondering
– who the hell is he? He’s not one of us! –made me remember all the love I
mustered in my life- friends, love, family -all of them appeared in front of
me, smiling bright and sharing the happiest moment of my life. The silence was
stupefying- it offered the music you want to hear, and I mean any kind of a
music you want to hear and no matter it may be at an infinite changing pace- it
was just as if ‘God is the DJ, life is the dance floor, love is the rhythm and
YOU are the music!’ I gyrated around the Solang Valley, enjoyed every moment of
it, refreshed my inner silence, danced with the God’s music, and finally came
down!
The moment I came down I was left wondering that after
sometime when I would be back home and would be telling my pals about it, for
sure they would be envious and sceptic of it- human tendency you know!, how would I prove this to them- I mean I did
not have a single photograph of it! I was sad and depressed wondering how would
I remember these moments after 20 years ahead of my life? Suddenly seven
people, holding cameras, rushed forward towards me and said ‘All of your
pictures are here!’
‘What?’ I was spell bounded!
Himachal tourism has
also put some photographers to capture all of your moments while you are in the
air. When I say ‘all of them’ I mean all of them, as half of them take
photographs while other half puts the complete video down on the film! Whoa!
‘Give me all of them!’ I replied without wasting a second.
Just as the photographers left, a man came and said, “Sir
would you like to enjoy roly-poly too?”
“What the heck is roly-poly?”
“That is roly-poly”, he pointed towards a huge 5 meter radius
tubular ball.
“And then what?”
“We would take this ball up to 3 km uphill, harness you
inside it and push the ball down hill”
My friends were super duper excited. Without replying they
went uphill and the man signalled to his friends above “Here they come”
They made the arrangements and my friends asked “aren’t you
gonna come?”
“Do you think I am a fool? What is so adventurous about it?”
“You gotta come”
“No! I aint a fool”
In a jiffy they pushed me inside it. I mean all six of them!
And I was wondering where was I? You can say a ‘No’ to everybody except to your
friends- another human tendency- I dint retaliate and bowed down to their
command.
I just couldn’t stop wondering, where was I?
I was harnessed on one side and my friend on diametrically
opposite side. I said “If anything happens to me, I am gonna shoot all six of
you!”
Next moment that man said “ready?”
“YES- NO!”
He peeped inside “what happened?”
My friend said “yes was mine and the no was his, you better
ask him about it”
“Will I land safe? I mean we are going 3 km down, you
know.....I mean” Before I could complete he forced the ball down.
For next 120 seconds all we, me and my friend, could hear was
each other’s vocabulary, made and developed by all the frustrating moments of
our lives, of slangs! We coiled, sometimes on top, sometimes on the bottom,
sometimes on the left and sometimes on the right, changing directions
continuously! The world changed topsy-turvy every second! Thing, apart from
slangs, was my friend’s plea, “Stop! Stop! For god’s sake please Stop!”
Finally we came out of it and my friends asked “How was it?”
“It was divine”
Before I could complete one of them said “Really? This ball
is not sound-proof, we heard you guys searing!”
“You feel divine because you can feel that a meeting with
god is not very far away! You can meet him any moment!”
We burst into laughter and then left for our next spot-
camping!
We arrived at our camping destination. We were showed our
camps. Now that is actually what I came for! Camps in middle of the trees with
nobody around and of course -the campfire! The tents were 9 feet tall and with
a zipped entrance. I chose a tent and went inside- the tent was provided with
all the proper necessities- bed, blanket and a perforated window, which you can
cover during the cold night. We lit the fire and sat around it enjoying the
music and food. It was time for –a
classic hookah! The camping people made a “safe to health” hookah for us so
that we can keep ourselves warm in the relentless cold night. We were also accompanied
by some foreigners this time. So, we talked, smoked, danced and danced and
danced and danced with them! We taught them some Bollywood dance steps. And
soon we realised that after all the steps you make and take while dancing, the
best way to teach and enjoy the dance is to do Bhangra! Put your hands high,
open up your legs a bit and then make all kind of possible permutation and
combinations with all four of them! And Guess what? The foreigners too learned
it at once! Tired and exhausted we went to our beds and dozed like never
before. Before going to bed one of the foreigners said to me something,
something I could only understand before I bid adieu to Manali.
Next day I was told by my guide that we are heading towards
our final destination- last but not the least-river rafting!
We reached the rafting point and it had the name “50-50
rafting point”
My friends, yet again, were all excited and I was, that too
again, sceptic a bit.
“What does this mean? 50-50 rafting point? Does that I mean
50% safe and 50% dangerous?” I asked honestly.
“Shut UP!” they said in unison!
We sat in a raft with three people on each side and one on
the front side. We were given the necessary instructions on ‘how to be safe’
and were also given life jackets and helmets. So it was time to steer our way
through the Beas. Initially it was calm and smooth floating above Beas and I
was enjoying the very moment of it. “What an ambience” everybody said. With
mountains on both the side and Beas bisecting them, I passed enjoying the, yet
again paradigm of Manali, “the deafening silence”. This was fun and I told my
rafter how much I was enjoying the calmness and smoothness of the river.
“Not very long”
“Sorry, I couldn’t understand”
“Look out there and you would understand”
The river had become a race track with solid stones in
between it- as obstacles-guarded with huge tides all around. “Are we going to
cross pass curving along them?”
“We are going above them”
“WHATTTT!!!!!” we all exclaimed.
There you go, just stay upright and hold your grip tight on
the raft! Was all he said and next moment we were rocketing above them, like we
had 100 speed breakers on a race track! The whole lot of water came towards us
roaring like a Lion and tried to engulf us with a gigantic tide and appeared saying
“This is my house!!” We shacked, we winced, we humped, we bowed, we beard on,
and with clattering teeth we managed to come out of it. The calmness had
converted into a battle- a battle to survive! We were wet and the water showed
no sign of mercy, it was icy, arctic, frigid, polar....and the whole lexicon
might fall short to describe the coldness of it! Finally the rough part was
over and it was calmness after the storm. But not for very long, the next rough
patch was some seconds away but it seemed to have less rocks and water level
had also dramatically dropped down. We were a bit relaxed and the next moment
we heard the rafter saying “grip the raft tighter this one is a mighty one!”
The water level was low, rocks were lesser and still he had said
that it was a mighty one “how come?”
I got my answer as people in the front started saying “Stop!
stop! Stop!”
They told me that the water had not actually dropped, it was
going through an abyss and rocks seemed less because those rocks were on the sloppy
side of the next lower level of the river- we were about to go to the lower
level of water only to be welcomed by a guarding abyss!! It was like a
miniature waterfall going into a pit! We screamed- but to no avail- the rafter
showed his teeth like a Villain. The raft shacked and along with it trembled
our hearts as we hit a rock after another and slopped down into the fathomless
pit. The raft racketed, turned nearly one twenty degrees to the raging water
and again we met with a roaring tide!
With nobody saying a word, nobody looking at each other and
everybody as expressionless as we were sleeping, we all had the same feeling
“where the heck is the finishing line?”
The villain rafter turned into a friend as soon he said
“This was it!” We reached the finishing line and we were shown our camps to
change the clothes.
The final surprise was virtually- ‘we care for you’ type of
a tag line- of Himachal tourism, when we saw a person, again with a camera,
saying “both videos and photographs, what do you want- photos or video or both
of them?” The man had actually run for seven kilometres taking the videos and
photos of your entire journey!
After rafting, it was the time to bid adieu to Manali. The
moments lived in Manali were ravishing, beatific and the ones I can never ever
forget in my life. Some things in your life gets so much involved with you that
they actually become a part of you, and Manali is one of them in my part of
life. All the time spent here, camping, gliding, rafting, campfire etc have
become a part of my life, such that even when I go back home I am going to miss
these moments for a long time- as I say, they became a part of my life. And
when we cross the borders of Manali, with all these ever-lasting memories, I
understood completely what that foreigner had told me “We come to Manali every
year”
