Me and this world - a tête-à-tête

Roomies at Room No 8, Left to Right, Neha, Mariko, Bijoli, Me, Amri, Ela and Jeny The year would have begun on a sad note when I was still fuming from last month’s arguments and my behavior. But God had something better in mind! On the very first day, I went for a drive to Mahabaleshwar. And travelling on very first day marked this year as Year of travelling for me. Team Wanderers at Mengjai Hill Then came first weekend and after a long time Team Wanderers had the first re-union at Mengjai hill. And then came second weekend and I lived through another dream of climbing Harishachandragad via Nalichi wat. This route to get atop Harishachandragad mountain is said to be one of the toughest  routes. Highlight of this trek was also that I was only lady with a crowd of some 30 gentlemen. Then I put stay as a metro was awaiting my arrival. On February 1, 2014, I left for Kolkata for my rakhi-brother- Samrat’s wedding. Here I stayed with a typical Bengali family. Unders...

When I was booking my tickets for travelling back home post BMC, I had realized I would be having fourteen hours in Kolkata between two trains. Right then I had decided to make best use of this time, but I hadn’t made any concrete plans. Having been in Kolkata twice before this occasion, almost all the listed tourist spots were done for.  During the Basic Mountaineering Course, I had quick chats with some of the people who were citizens of Kolkata, but nothing fruitful had come up. During the October stay in Kolkata before course, I and Vivek had visited Indian Museum and I hadn’t carried my camera inside for reasons unknown to me. So, I had another visit to the museum on my mind. But this definitely was not a full day activity.  Also, I wanted to spend some time alone, so I actually avoided rescheduling my tickets. On the morning of November 10, 2014, the batch of BMC 304 graduated from Himalayan Mountaineering Institute.The photo session lasted for an hour o...

Prayer Flags in Yoksum Our training in Higher Himalayas came to an end. Our chief instructor - Lakpa Sir told us that they would be sending some people to Yuksom as advance party. The people who usually walk slow were determined to be part of this party thus I was dead sure that they would nominate me to be part of this group. Therefore, on 5th November 2014, at early morning 19 students from BMC 304 & 50 - odd students from AMC - 172 left the base camp and marched towards Dzongri. Me & Piyali The first day's trek was the toughest task as it involved couple of steep climbs and the distance to be covered was 26 kms. Route was chalked as Base Camp at Chowri khang - Bikbari - Dzongri La - Dzongri - Devrali - Phedtang - Tshokha - Bakkhim. All we knew was Base Camp to Dzongri is 13 kms and Dzongri to Bakkhim is 13 kms. With a quick lunch & tea break at Dzongri, we proceeded to Bakkhim. When I and Piyali reached Bakkhim, it was already dark. Rest House at Bak...

A promise that will last forever...  It was third week of November 2003. I was recovering from relapsed Malaria and pneumonia and had returned to my parent’s place from Navi Mumbai. My then husband turned up one early evening and surprised me with a gift. The gift was a cute little black Labrador retriever puppy of less than 3 months of age. (November 20, 2003) I always wanted a dog but my parent’s understanding of responsibility had always denied acceptance of a dog. We had fish and birds but a dog was too much. I had dreamt that when I will grow up I will get myself a German shepherd and my ex-husband always had dreamt of having a black lab. So obviously he picked up a black lab. When the puppy came home, my first reaction was, "ohh my baby is here!" Day one On day one, this pup sat near the chair which was like ten times his size, six months later he found that the space beneath this chair can be his hideout when a bath is called upon, and a year lat...

Actual Itinerary:  3rd August - Pune - Delhi early morning flight, Delhi Manali Bus 4th August - Reached Manali in morning and Left for by Himachal Tourism's bus, stay at Keylong (Via Marhi, Rohtang La, Khokhsar, Sissu, Tandi) 5th August - Keylong - Leh via - Jispa, Darcha, ZingZingbar, Baralacha La, Sarchu, Pang, Tanglang La, Rumptse, Upshi, Karu 6th August - Rest, Local site Seeing - Sakthi Monastery - Festival, Chemday Monastery, Hemis Monastery 7th August - Spituk Monastery, Guru Pather Sahib - Gurudwara, Hall of Fame, Shey Palace & Monastery, Thiksey Monastery, Shanti Stupa 8th August - Pangong Lake 9th August - White Water Rafting from Chilling - Nimmo - 28 kms 10th August - Khardung La, Panamik, Sumoor Monastery, Hunder Sand Dunes & Camel Ride (Nubra Valley) 11th August - Diskit Monastery and Back to Leh Via Khardung La 12th August - Tso Moriri and back to Leh ( Mahe Bridge) 13th August - Left for Manali - Stay at Keylong 14th August - Reached manali - L...

13 August: It was 4 something, when I woke up. Praj was ready to leave hence I freshened up fast and we went to Stanzin’s office across the road. We called Stanzin but Dorje- our driver to Nubra came outside. He said he would drop us to the bus station. We were wondering what to do and in couple of minutes, Stanzin also appeared. He told Dorje to go back to sleep and started the car. In couple of minutes we were at the bus station. The bus was jam packed. And to our surprise most of them were foreigners. The attendant checked our ticket and took charge of our luggage and we gotten on our way. I had decided to sleep all the way as it was the same old way we had travelled while coming to Leh from Manali; And as it is Avomin, my motion sickness tablet had done its job of putting me to sleep well. Although I was a bit sleepy, I could feel that the road was bumpy. The bus kept taking its halts for loo and food. I was just tired… bored may be of travelling all this time and all I wante...

10th August:  It was a good morning as it I could get up leisurely and get ready. We packed all luggages and kept in the guest house’s cloak room. (There were barely two big backpacks technically.) Today, I was well prepared with motion sickness tablet. We set ourselves in the SUV and picked up 2 Austrian girls Viktoria and Christa. They were on long vacation to India. We withdrew some money as we did not have any bookings made at the Nubra Valley. Our driver Dorje was a middle aged man, who claimed to be an ex-army. Jolly good fellow. He was fun to chat and seemed to be experienced as he knew how to handle 4 girls. Khardung La is barely 40 km from Leh. And most of the road to Khardung La overlooks Leh city. Shanti Stupa looked glorious in soft sunlight. Now, we were gaining altitude rapidly and I was haunted by the memories of Kargil war and Formula One car at Khardung La. Every time, we drove past the Army Officers, a feeling of regret, shame and pride kept revolving in my...

7th August: The day broke a bit late for us. The view from the room was astonishing. The far away snow clad mountains were inviting me for a trek... but... My health was much better than yesterday so we freshened fast and left for site seeing.  We hired moped from another guy who had a shop right opposite our guest house.  Stanzin Tolden is a friendly young lad from a small village 80 km from Leh. We also asked Stanzin to arrange for a shared taxi to Pangong Tso next day. He let us the moped which already had a bit of fuel in it. Yet, we filled additional fuel worth Rs. 300. And sped fast to Spituk. On the way, we checked Hall of Fame, which is open till 7 PM every day.    Spituk Gompa is said to be the traditional seat of HH Dalai Lama(s). So, I actually wanted to walk from Leh. We had to be careful with utilization of time hence chose to ride the moped. On our way, we saw a group of cyclists pedalling all the way to Spituk. (I was so jealous.) Aft...