Dharamshala-Call of the Hills

One more of my fictitious birthdays that Amol is made to plan and execute to perfect celebrations was this trip to Amritsar and Dharamshala. It helped as the "Border-Gavaskar trophy" was to be played at the highest cricket grounds in the world at Dharamshala. Apparently there is many a slip between Mahaldar holiday plans and BCCI ground realties. The match moved to Indore over poor ground conditions but opened up five divine days of holidays for the Mahaldars

My birthday dinner was the Langar at the Golden temple. A bit of flashback here. Circa 2011,while I battled with my DM residency, long distance parenting, spurned spouse, externship in AIIMS roles, an Aamir Khan tear jerker movie called Taare Zameen Par hit me hard. I was convinced my preschool baby was definitely dyslexic. I wanted Amol to have him evaluated. Now I can count on my fingers of 1 hand , the things Amol has refused me till now and this was one of them. In this background Amol n me visited the Golden temple and in my mind I thought that if all turns out well with Adi and he reaches academic excellence, we will all make a trip back here. I did not voice this out to anyone lest it got jinxed. A good 12 years later, Adi in IIT, Amol unaware of my golden vow planned this trip. Universe always conspires to have our deepest desires fulfilled

The airBnB overlooking the temple helped us catch the Amrit Vela kirtan at the Golden temple . Crowds at wee hours in the morning, dawn at the temple to the chants of " Ik Onkar Satnam" (AR Rehman immortalised it in Rang de Basanti for the non Sikh folks) and "Karah Prasad" rich in ghee made the experience surreal.

A quick visit to Jalianwala Bhag in the morning, Amritsari lassi and Kulcha chole, shopping also factored in completed our Amritsari leg of our holiday.We thought the rest of the trip would be gastronomically this satisfying but I was mistaken on 2 counts. I came down with a stomach bug which later caught up with Adi too and we had more cyclopams than momos on the trip.And the blessed Amritsari kulche's taste apparently stays within the 10 km radius of the city. We tried Kulche at dhaba, fancy restaurant, roadside cafe, inhouse airBnB kitchen but were left wanting. I could do this 3000km trip again just to have the roadside butter doused kulcha chole at the railway station road. A road trip to Dharamsala in a car with only 2 seatbelts for 4 passengers had me anxious throughout. Our driver Mr Sonuji, as unique as the Amritsari kulche tried to assuage my fears but of no avail. But it was more than compensated with the yellow mustard blooms providing the back drop for DDLJ poses.

Amol quipped that if non availabilty of the seat belts was the only thing to complain about the entire trip, then we have indeed had a wondeful one.

Our airBnB in Dharamasala, Guleria villa was a sprawling mansion with an inhouse waterfall, swimming pool( after my Nashik hypothermia induced near death experience I vowed off non temperature controlled pools), view of the snow peaks from every nook, window, manned by nice caretakers. Adi set up his "just out of packaging" Apple Macbook Pro in the balcony overlooking the Dhauladar ranges "because he could",but what transpired was he obviously forgot to get it back in while we went out for dinner, and it had to obviously rain, and obviously with Adi's Buddha like calmness he casually slipped it in mid conversation and it obviously evoked an inversely proportional opposite reaction from us,our caretaker had to breakin to rescue "precious" and calm our frayed nerves over the frantic phone call that "sirf boonda boondi tha"

Day 1 - cycling around the Dhauladhar ranges with a part time techie, full time guide was the perfect way to break into this lovely landscape. MTB, steep upslopes covered in the lowest gears, heart rate at the highest , more vultures on 1 tree than I had seen in my entire life time,pinecone fir trees, village roads, Kendriya vidyalya kids singing the prayer song so out of tune, lots of photos, home made poha were the highlights of our cycling trip

Gyoto monastery, full of boy monks, scriptures and mobiles competing for the monks attention, big Bhuddha. Spicy Thupka made worse by adding more chilly sauce at the behest of a friendly Tibetan in the cafe did no good to my inflamed bowels.

Norbulingka institute showcasing some of the finest artwork of the Tibetan culture, another big Bhuddha - A medicine Bhuddha holding a bowl of herbs , life size paintings of Buddhist teachings and beliefs, a cafe that thankfully served soothing food like pastries and pies. I also bought silver prayer wheel earrings and felt one with the surroundings. Shopping meets Spirituality. My misplaced phyto enthusiam landed me into voluntarily picking out stinging nettles aka "bichua patti" . It burns like the sting of a scorpion and the more I yelped , the other doctor , Dr Amol gave me "gyan" rather than an antidote. After some time the poison and me numbed out.

Google your trip on the go had us undertake a long windy drive to Masror rockcut temple built in Nagara style architechture dedicated to Shiva n family, Vishnu and family . It is picturesque to say the least and the fact that it has withstood the ravages of nature and tourism speaks a lot about this place.

Another long drive later (distances are short but the hilly roads take an awful long time) we reached Kangra fort to have the gates shut on our faces. Tired boys and still enthu for photos me, makes a lethal combo . I quietly snuck in and the boys had no excuse but to follow. What followed was non cooperation movement launched jointly by the boys for photos. Precious golden hour minutes were wasted in arguments. The fort had endured many battles. Originally built by the Katoch Rajputs ,it changed multiple hands, namely the Mughals, Sikhs,Gurkhas and like all things Indian ,finally landed with the British. Now the mute walls witnesses wedding shoots, music shoots and the Mahaldar skirmish too.Lots of photos later (They finally relented and Amol uses a pic clcked here as his dp still) and having thoroughly exhaused the boys we called it a day

Day 2- Trek to Triund. 10 years ago Amol n me scaled the Himalyas from Manali. I always wanted to experience this with my son. The stomach bug got the better of Adi. Amol enthusiasm to trek and the love for his wife quickly ebbed by the time we reached Bhagsu Nag. Amol parked himself at the base camp citing spiritual pursuits from the Bhuddhist chants that echoed from Mcleodgunj below. Adi climbed up inspite of the stomach bug but was quick to shoot down my future trek plans (I had done 1 with spouse, 1 with son and I wished to do 1 with my grandchildren) Rhododendrons that look like roses on trees, the sweet air of the mountains,cute mountain goats, some rowdy ones too, mules that carry gas cylinders and other burden causing a traffic jam on the hills, dogs that follow trekkers to the summit in the hope of some tidbits and do it effortlessly over and over again, colourful houses of Mcleodgunj on one side and the snow peaked Dhauladhar ranges on the other makes the 10 km trek worthwhile.

It is also a lot more fun to tell fellow trekkers that they have a long way to go while we have almost descended. The thing about treks is that we suffer while climbing but reminisce them fondly once we get back home. The sweat of efforts is quickly dried by the sweet mointain air. The moments of exhaustion are flossed over by the beautiful pictures (which I like to review over n over again) We celebtrated our scaling the summit with a Cadbury silk like brand ambassadors of Modelez Intl

Amol got stung here by the same nettle sister leaves and this time I felt happy at this revenge of the sisterhood . After reuniting with Amol and garam Dal chawal, we saw the Namgyal monastery, the residence of THe Dalai LAma. The monasteries are full of boy monks that it is hard to believe there are any lady Tibetans. It is sad to see a generation of refugees who will never know their motherland. Amol always says it is better to die in ones own motherland than live a refugee. I thought it was too radical till now.

Day 3- The boys wanted a non activity day and I coulnot have agreed more.

We walked to a Shiva temple by the river and visited the war memorial and tea gardens in the evening. The roads were lined by wild peach trees in full white blossom that they look like they have caught all the falling stars in their branches.

We happenstanced into a Aghanjar Mahadev Temple . Lord Shiva is supposed to have blessed Arjun with the Gandhiva and wished him luck in the war.An eternal fire burning over a hundred years and a Gupt Shivaling under a huge boulder where we had to crawl in to enter but once in we could sit and pray.,We also braved one last round of momos with the last remaining tablet of cyclopam and with that we bid goodbye to Dharamshala, holidays, Adi and Amritsar in that order and boarded our respective flights out of Amritsar.