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I lost my "Happy Place" - Spiti

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Hello old friend, It has been a while.  Hope you're doing well. just wanted to check in with you and share some thoughts about my recent revisit to Spiti. i know, i know, you must be thinking " Haven't you been there a thousand times already ?" Well, ....no. i have been there 3 times but that's not the point Yaar!!. This place HAD my heart.   Yes, I used caps to emphasize that something has changed. But I'll get to that later. I'm sure you also have your, very own, "happy place". A place you visit when the world becomes too much, a place that puts us at ease. For some it could be being with a close one, taking a hike or their own bedroom, in the world of books and music. For me Spiti has been my special place for many years now. A chance encounter in 2013-14 led me to this place and it was love at first site. The scenery played an important role in it but mostly it were the people.  It had a rustic charm to it. (Nako) The last time i was in the S...

A Love for stories

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 Hello world! Your boy is back !! Apologies for the hiatus. The kids can stop crying , the women can end their mourning and the men can stop holding their tears in. Yes I do write these blogs with a POV that: 1. I have millions of followers. 2. I know all of them by name 3. They love me unconditionally You must be thinking ''why is he really back ?'' ''Where could he have travelled this time ? oh let me guess somewhere in HiMaChaL ? " well..... yes, but there's more. I wanted to have a conversation with you guys about something. Let's dive right into it. I wanted to talk about this thing called ambition and my relationship with it. I always felt that I lacked ambition in life. When I see people chasing their "Dreams" I wonder "why am I not like them ?". Why don't I chase luxury ? or a hefty goal ? .Its like You see someone with something they wanted and then they get it. So you also get a thought of having it and that thought...

CHITKUL-The Escape

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(RF-Real friend, Me- Me) RF (calls): Hey man ?? where you at? Me: Chitkul bro....solo riding RF: holyshit...you're awesome man !!! Me: haha...i know RF: I want to have your babies Me: ahah...wait...what ?? RF: ...... Me: ........ *call disconnects* since we have started off this blog with a heartwarming, you may wipe your tears, true story lets get to the blog. It had been a few months now since I had done my one day ride to hatu peak. Ergo, I was oozing with wanderlust....so much wanderlust that no amount of hashtagging would suffice. so I started planning another one. After the narkanda ride I got comfortable with riding for long hours. so somewhere in January, I started looking for a place. while cooking up one of those khayali pulaos, I had made a map for a ride that I eventually someday will do. In that map, there's a detour to this village named Chitkul (3450 m). which is the last inhabited place on the Indo-china borde...

A pleasant change of plans: Kullu and Manali

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(if you haven't read the  Kheerganga-The land of myths  part then i urge you to do so as it'll give you more context.) Do you believe in fate? that a collective consciousness conspired to bring certain people into your life and they were right there when they were needed. sometimes I just can't help but wonder. After trekking down from Kheerganga we headed towards Kullu. The hike down wasn't easy but relatively easier than the climb. From Manikaran we went to Bhuntar and then took a bus to Kullu bus stand, then a local bus to the point where this small hike to Bijli Mahadev begins. while we were on the local bus I realized that I forgot to pick our cooking stove that was under my seat (forgetfulness). Though we were bummed but thought we'll light a fire and cook over it. Around 4:30 pm we started hiking and with us were few locals going home. A gentleman in his late 40s had overheard us on the bus about the food situation and extended his help. he ...

Narkanda-Hatu: The Road I Must

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 18 December 2015  I was unemployed for 6 months now. had no clue where I was going and out of whim, i decided to ride to Narkanda. it is a town 65 km from Shimla at an altitude of 2708 meters on the Hindustan-Tibet Road (NH 22) in Himachal Pradesh. so I made few phone calls to check if the road was open  and got a green signal from everywhere. so me and my brother on my bike and 2 of my friends on a separate bike headed towards Shimla. kufri solan  It was a beautiful morning. Bright and sunny. we rode real fast and reached Shimla in 2 hrs 45 mins. took a halt and headed towards Narkanda. At Kufri, things turned real bad. we were novice riders and didn't notice the layer of ice on the road. we slipped while climbing a slope. now this fall wasn't that bad as we were slow. we decided to head back to Shimla, park our bikes there and hire a cab. while returning back and taking a sharp turn my bike slipped on black ice. it was a terrible fall. m...

Kheerganga-The Land of Myths

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May 2015 After submitting my training report and facing my teachers for the last time, my engineering was finally over. It was time to face the real world that everyone talked about. So,  Me and my regular partners in crime decided to visit our beloved mountains before we set forth and try to find our place in the godforsaken rat race. The place we were visiting, this time, was Kheerganga. A place surrounded by myths and folklore of gods visiting and staying there for centuries. If it was good enough for the gods I guessed we mortals would have fancied it as well. We took a bus around 7 p.m. from Hoshiarpur and left for Manali. To reach Manikaran and beyond we had to get off at Bhuntar(Kullu).We reached Bhuntar in the morning around 5. It was my first time visiting this part of Himachal. The bus services at Bhuntar start at 6 a.m. We hopped on the first bus that arrived and reached Manikaran sahib. Then, from there we took another local bus to Barshain...

Wandering The Land Of Gods-HIMALAYAS (part-2)

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'Chasing angels or fleeing demons, go to the mountains -Jeffrey Rasley I had always had this affinity towards mountains. Just the thought of enjoying the thin air and the beauty of it all, is a reason enough for me to visit the valleys. I woke up to scenery so beautiful, that it felt like waking up into another dream altogether. Rejuvenated by a good night’s sleep, we prepared ourselves for the best leg of the journey. We got ready, had breakfast and then went to visit the Tabo Monastery. It is supposedly the oldest, continuously running monastery in all of the Himalayas. The 'stupa' there was the most beautifully embellished I have seen till now. Stupas generally represent the enlightened mind of the Buddha. One of the symbolic meanings is that they represent the five elements: the square base represents the earth, the round dome is for water, the cone-shape is fire, the canopy is the air and the volume of the stupa is space. Stupas are often used to store relic...