Watching You !

I stood here every moment to see you glow !

Koteshwar Mahadev

The Deity was dancing with the beats of drums and tunes of other musical instruments. On the shoulders on his devotees his colourful palanquin was swinging to & fro, up & down and left & right. These palanquins are not very big or with covering, these are open one just like big stools with four horizontal wooden poles to be carried by devotees. But these are beautifully decorated with mostly blood red coloured clothes. On the top rested main idol of the face of Deity made of eight different metals. This one is profoundly decorated with garlands of scented flowers and of coins, various ornaments, golden crown and with a gold umbrella. Beneath this main idol, lined up are other various idol of same Koteshwar Mahadev. One can easily judge the peace, happiness and eternal satisfaction on the face of Devataa (Deity). It seems that people who are carrying the palanquin are themselves maneuvering it but it is said that it is Devataa himself who drives the palanquin. All the four palanquins were moving all around the fair ground which was already filled more than capacity with humble devotees of Koteshwar Mahadev. People of every caste, age and sex were present and glorifying the fair. Young and old residents of Kumarsain were coming before palanquins to carry them and were feeling lucky to get a chance even for few seconds.

I was watching the entire proceedings with devotion, excitement and curiosity. The festivity was enhanced by grey clouds and then by rain. Air was filled with devotion towards Koteshwar Mahadev who is believed to be scared soul blessed by Lord Shiva himself and one is considered King of the area of Kumarsain, a small town around seventy five kilometers up north from Shimla, capital of Himachal Pradesh. For the devotees, this Deity is not some "God" but just like their beloved family member for whom they have extreme love and respect and the one who have blessings of God to fulfill their big or small requirement or to erase their day to day problems. For them this Deity is in constant touch with its people either by dreams or through his 'Gur" the main priest. The occasion was the local festival which comes after every four years when Koteshwar Mahadev would meet his other loving deities, Marechh and Malendu Devtaa. I spent last two days at that festival and was lucky to witness the farewell of all other deities from Koteshwar. Just like young kids those departing Devtaa were so reluctant to leave that their palanquins would not let its bearers take the exit route even when Koteshwar Mahadev himself was waiting at the end of road to see them off. Only the interruption of oldest 'Gur' made them ready to leave for another four years. The festival ended with the 'Nati' (local dance) by the people of Kumarsain. The charm on the faces of idols of Devtaa seem faded a bit cause of this departing.

More pics are available at:

Rainy Roads !

After a long wait finally rains are here. Everything around seems new, clean and so full of life. Colours are showing off at their best. The fragrance of wet earth is enlightening. I can imagine what would be the scene in hills. Numerous small and big water falls, gorges and waterways would be flowing in their full swing. White clouds would be hovering and mystifying the whole surroundings. The noise of rain drops on the leaves creating en thrilling music. What I am doing sitting here in office. I need to be there. I need to be driving my bike on those rainy roads.

Zindgi Aa Rahaaaa Hoon Main..............................!

What A Heart Wants ?

Those thoughts keep coming back every day now and then. Maybe those thoughts have never left me. May be it's deeply rooted in my DNA that keep surfacing with every this n that way.

Years back in around 1990 while I was roaming in Sangla valley of Kinnaur in Himachal along few friends, amid the small village of Sangla I came across a two roomed vocational training centre of Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram, an organization dedicated for upliftment of people of tribal areas in India. That centre was providing vocational training to big girls and basic education to small children of near by villages. Only a duo of husband-wife in their late thirties was running the whole show. They both belonged from Bangalore in Karnataka thousands of miles away from that small village of Kinnaur. They both were well educated and had their respective jobs back there and had decided to give six months for the welfare of their country and were deputed here as part of their non-paying duty. Those two rooms were their part of world for those six months.

Those few hours spent with that couple were engraved on my mind forever. With the divine surroundings of Himalayas, flowing of Baspa river, always smiling innocent people, mystic temples and Deities within, yellow harvest dancing in the fields, small houses made of stone and wood are still afresh in my heart. Sitting alone on the bank of Baspa that time I dreamt of settling there forever. I didn't know even after many years that if it was a serious thought or was a temporary attraction of young immature teen aged mind.

But one thing is for sure true, that all of my life till now, mountains fascinates me. It was not only that couple who showed me the way but as above I wrote it is in my blood which is very easily provoked when ever I see mountains. A small house in the hills is what I dream of for my retirement. The hassle basal of daily life, unnecessary competition in business and social life, rat race of earning more and more only to maintain your metro status, watching other people's possession of 'brands' and watching other people watching your possession of 'brands' sicken me. When will this blind circle end ? When I am gonna to be at my place? The place I have always dream of, the place where only peace of mind prevails.

But there is one hidden fear also. The way I wail about this routine life, who can be sure of that I won't get sick of that life too? May be it's only my mind, a confused mind. They say you can not get the depth of some one's mind but here it seem true with my own mind. Or may be it's just only one colour among the millions others contained in my mind. Who knows? But no doubt this colour is what my heart is made of.

The Natural Connection !

( A view of Sunni Town)

No doubt there is some connection, whenever I reach in hills, some unknown ecstatic excitement fills deep inside my heart. Nature always attracts me with full force. Exactly after a long spell of fourteen months I got a chance to recharge my spirits in mountains. Though it really was a very small visit, it indeed was a pleasant gift for me.

Occasion was of a friend’s marriage in an interior village near small town of Sunni in Shimla district. Nearly 45 KM from Shimla, Sunni is located on the banks of great river Satluj. We had to climb hilltop village Devarsu for marriage which was around 30 minutes walk from the road. Surrounded by large lush green fields and natural sources of water, this place gave tremendous look from height.

( Green Fields)


(Goshala )

Devarsu is a very small village of merely 25 houses with a centrally built one room Durga temple. Local ‘Band’ was playing classical raag on traditional musical instruments like pair of Nagara, Rannsingha, Karnal & Turhi when we entered marriage place. We were given warm welcome by the groom and his family, after all I was seeing that friend after almost twelve years. We ate traditional ‘Himcahali Dham’ in which all the guest sat down on earth and are served lunch with menu of rice and different dishes of Urad, Rajmah, Poldu, Kurri on ‘Pattal’ (the dishes made of ‘Taunt’ leaves) and in last as dessert Mishthan (sweet rice containing raisins and dry fruits) is served.

(The Band)

(An Old House in Devarsu)

We were compelled to stay there for a night by our host but some urgent business back home forced us to start back just after spending two hours in Devarsu. On the way back, up from village I saw two rafting boating in the far waters of Satluj down there. My heart bounced high to be there in that boat somehow but no, we had no time.

(Waters of Satluj)

(A wooden bridge at Satluj)

Lastly, we went down to the bank of Shatdru (Satluj) for ‘Jal Darshan’ (water view). This small trip was not less than a boon for me and asking for anything else would have been something too much that day.

Renukaji Lake !

After a long domestic parliament debate, finally it was decided to visit Renukaji Lake for last weekend.

Nearly 100 km from Chandigarh, Renukaji Lake is the largest natural lake of Himachal Pradesh. Fed by various underground springs in the Shivalik hill of Sirmour, Renukaji lake is shaped in a profile of a reclining woman considering a personification of goddess Renukaji, wife of sage Jamadagini and mother of Lord Parshuram one of the ten incarnations of Lord Vishnu.

As per legend, Sahasarjuna, an evil spirit, killed sage Jamadagini and tried to abduct his wife Renuka. With no escape in sight she flung into the waters of lake. The gods resorted her to life and lake began to be regarded as the embodiment of Renukaji.

The lake in the valley is surrounded by dense forest and a mini wild life sanctuary including a lion safari. The tourism and forest department has maintained the place well and has given a motorable road to encircle lake for spiritual purpose or for close glimpse of wild life and thick forest. The tourism hotel just at the bank of lake is a fantastic place to admire the view and relax from daily jhick chick.

The lake is deep, large and filled with uncountable fishes and tortoises. One end of the lake is covered with thousands of Lotus flowers giving impression of heavenly place. I really missed my long pending desire of owning a Sony H5 SLR and had to satisfy with my four years old poor 2.1 MP digi cam. Here are few shots.

View of Lake from left bank.

View from right bank.

The Valley.

Thousands of Pink Lotus flowers resting on the water.

Lord Parshuram Temple.

Traditional 'Nagara' at temple.

Having lunch without any fear.

A fruit called 'Khajoor' on the tree.

The banana tree on the way to lake.

Renukaji Hotel.

In the Lap of Devbhoomi !

That was the way I always loved. A great start to a new year. 13000 ft height, -7* temperature and 12 km trekking of snow cladded path to freezed lake of Serualsar.

Sona's birthday gave me an opportunity to revive my thrust for Himalayas. Jalorijot pass is around 140 km up north from Shimla capital of state of Himachal Pradesh (Devbhoomi- Land of Gods, as its called). At around 10300 ft height Jalori Pass connects inner and outer Seraj valley. Another victim of today's global warming, Jalori used to obtain 20 to 25 ft of snowfall in good old days but now days its only 5 to 8 ft. And when I reached there it was not even that much of snow. On the name of population Jalori have only a tiny temple and a couple of tea shops being run by local villagers of nearby lower areas.

When we reached there in the noon of 6th January, the bone chilling breeze was challenging us to stay steady on our feet and was comfortably reaching our skin through heavy and thick layers of warm clothing. As if this was not enough, Rajeev asks us to take off our shoes (socks we removed ourselves as no one could afford them to get wet in snow) to offer prayer at temple. I could not understand either my feet were burning or freezing. Trust me, the pain of burning or freezing is almost same. It took around 10 match sticks and 3 pairs of hands to lit the Dhoop at temple. After we somehow managed to wear our shoes back on, we started for the Serualsar lake, around 6 km trek from Jalorijot.

With panoramic view of thick oak forest, snow covered peaks and steep gorges, the trek to lake was just terrific. As the snow on trek was week's old and thus freezed, it was really tough to keep step steady. Paramjeet fell twice on the ice as he was not experienced to walk of icy trek. At some points the trek was so narrow that a loose step could start a non stop toss into endless fall. On the way to lake we were joined by three local lads. One of them, Lagan Dass was amateur singer and on our request he sung some melodious Himcahali songs for us.

It took us two and half hours to cover the distance. Soon we got the first view of lake. Whew! It was breath holding, surrounded by small hills and dense oak trees the lake was all freezed that one could walk on it. On one side of lake was two small treditional wooden Himachali temples of a devi called Budhi Nagin Mata. One was around 50 years old and other was newly built in the same style. The idols of Budhi Nagin Mata were recently shifted to new temple.

The lake is at around 12500 feet height. According to local saying, ancient sage Shring Rishi meditated there, a golden temple is lying underneath the lake and Aabhi named birds keeps the lake clean of all the leaves or other stuff. To my surprise, even being surrouned by various trees, not even a single leaf was there on the bed of lake. The temple and lake is worshiped with ghee and it is a custom to encircle the lake with flow of ghee by devotee if a wish is fullfilled.

The depth and source of water in the lake is unknown and according to saying once a man from local town to keep his promise offered a pair of gold earrings in the lake after his wish for son was granted. But on the way back to home, feelings of lose of gold engulfed him. He thought may be a son was written in his destiny otherwise also. What this temple has to do in it? It was such a waste of money to throw gold earrings in the lake. In the midway around 30 km downwards from the lake, he stooped at another temple for water at a natural water fall. As he put his palms under the water fall for drink the same pair of earrings came along the water in his hands. This temple was of the husband of Budhi Nagin Mata of Serualsar. He was very happy to get his valuable back only to realize that his only son was dead when he reached home.

After we performed pooja at temple, it was time for pait pooja. We found a shelter to protect ourselves from cold air and ate aloo paranthas made by Sarita with green chilli chutney made by me and hot milk.

After spending an hour at lake we started back for Jalorijot at 3’o clock. On the way back we also found a couple of empty mud huts made by sadhus for shelter in summers. How do they people feel like while living at such places? Anyway, its nice as long as you keep walking as it keeps you warm but as soon as you stop you start shivering of cold. Back at Jalori pass all of us drank tea at Mamji’s stall.

Around 10 km from Jalori to Khanag is a beautiful old bungalow now a rest house of PWD. It had nice veranda and lawn in front. If ever I could get one in my life, it is going to be exactly the same.

We reached Kumarsain at 8 in the evening and after saying goodbye to Rajeev and Sarita, I and Paramjeet started back for Chandigarh.

This was my another memorable yatra only possible cause of Rajeev & Sarita (and of course Sona). God bless them. This was great start of year and I really wished for at least two more such trips in this year. Let’s see what God has kept for me!!