The Himalayan journey

by Sooraj Ps (India)

A leap into the unknown India

We were two friends who had grown up together from our childhood onwards. We decided to go for a backpacking adventure into the Himalayas which was totally unexpected and unknown to both of us. One day we happened to pack up our bags and hopefully waiting for the perfect time to set forth to the unknown, but unfortunately the trip got canceled and we both were disappointed and we decided to go and sit in a bar and drink till our stomach was full and the very next day which was Christmas morning and my friend invited me for lunch with his family and in the evening one of his friends came along with some hemp and we smoked it and after that we decided to go the railway station as soon as possible and jumped right in , a train which is headed to the north. We didn’t think of anything else and which changed my life in a very different perspective. For two days we traveled in the train and we didn’t spoke with each other. And after the long train ride we reached delhi which was the capital of India, from there we faced many obstacles and faced pickpocketers and criminals along the way , and we ran and got up ourselves in to a bus heading to Shimla which is the queen of Himachal And met some of the local people at the place and they provided us with food and stay at their place and a warm fire to get ourselves warm and met an old man who boiled water for us and provided us with sleeping bags and gave lots of stories and tails . From there we got our bus to manali , which was our destination, the dream we both saw and it was nothing like we ever expected. It was a life changing experience and all the people who helped us along the way and the temples which provided free food for the poor and old pilgrims. And the hot springs which were warm at -27 degrees Celsius , which was the first experience of our lifetimes and the cold wind at the mountain tops were nourishing our souls and calming our hearts and I was at complete peace and the people provided us their homes at night and gave us food to eat . The people had to ego or superiority over one another they were peaceful villagers who did farming and lived day to day at the cold mountain tops . And it was our first encounter with ice and snow, which was okay with me but my friend had a knee surgery once and it was quite difficult for him to climb the hill and rocks and the slippery snow slopes and I used to wait for him over half an hour at the top for him to climb up to the top , at those moments , I was alone , completely solo , depending only on my own with my own natural instincts and the lessons which I learned from a tv program which was man vs wild . The place we climbed was on the way to malana village and the terrain was covered in 2 feet of snow, we both somehow managed to find some local people on the way and they showed us both the route to the village, and finally after a day’s journey we finally reached the village and was so surprised to see the ways of the villagers was so isolated from the rest of the world and was so different from from what we ever known in our lives. The traditional ways of their livelihood was being a part of our life itself and was addicted to that place and I wanted to stay there for the rest of my life. We stayed there for over a month and was hypnotised or brainwashed to stay there and I forgot who I was and everything about my past as time was passing my friend forced me to get back home . Back to the polluting traffic and the blind running society which was very disturbing to me and he promised me that we would come back here after few years, to live the rest of our life on top of the mountain or it can be said at on top of the world. And we decided to head back to our house where our families were waiting for us