Gaurav Purwar

After trekking for around 16 km, I remember, we had a wonderful sleep that night. Early in the morning, our guide woke us so that we can climb to the last destination of Kheerganga, the Kund. We pushed ourselves cause we were waiting for it since last evening and we packed a pair of clothes and started to walk. The weather was pretty cold, I guess it was somewhere in between 2°C - 4°C. The place was mostly covered by gray-colored clouds, and the wind was urging them to move ahead. A major factor that was missing on the trip was a clear sky. Yet I could not be focusing on the half-empty part of the story, so I shifted my focus towards the half-filled part. After 10 minutes of climbing on a steep surface, we were in front of the Kund. The Kund is a hot water pool near an ancient shiv temple. And from that place, you have an iconic sight of the valley. After making proper arrangements, we jumped into the Kund. Damn! The moment we entered, time did likely paused and we went idle...

Dusk started to cover the Kasol. Stars and the moon were taking their positions. So we decided to return back to our camp from the Jim Morrison Cafe. That day we already spent a lot of time on the streets, so we were familiar with the road and we didn't ask Google aunty to guide us. At night, Kasol was shinning with lights. Although that night, the city was packed with the crowd. While standing there, I was able to feel a different kind of satisfaction. Around me, there were people laughing and hanging with their mates, and the best part everyone was engaged in themselves. A fusion of music with the heavy sound of running water of the Parvati river was breaking the series of silence. Apart from this, a trance music beat was not leaving my head. It was in my head since we left the cafe. I wish, I could gather some courage and asked the cafe staff for the track name, cause I even don't know how to search for music beats on Google. No doubts all cities look amazing at ni...

After 14 hours of travel for Bhuntar, we were losing our patience. It was mainly hunger and desperation to reach our camp. Our focus was on the beauty of Kasol, which was visible from Bhuntar. But the struggle was, “How to get transport to reach Kasol?” __ “Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet”: Aristotle We had a tight budget so our first choice was obviously a public bus. Unluckily, during that period there was a huge crowd at Bhuntar bus stand. So we decided to alter the plan. We went to the taxi booth, but no success achieved. Now, we went hopeless and we were not sure how to continue. As usual, MC came with a conclusion out of the topic, “Let's skip all and have some momos!” No doubt we were hungry, and we couldn't deny his proposal. We settled at the Momos shop and we were eating like a monster. We spent an hour eating and resting. As we over, we ran toward the taxi booth as an empty taxi was approaching the booth. Luckily with some patience, we were final...

Kalka is not only a terminus of the broad gauge railway of India. However, from there one of the mountain railways of India originate. This railway line is around 96 km long and connects Kalka with Shimla. It passes through diversified scenes and shows marvelous engineering. There is a roadway that connects Shimla with Kalka, but to be the part of my bucket list, I chose this rail route. How is this rail route different from other rail routes?  This mountain rail route is identified by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. And do you know, this 96 km rail route has around: 988 bridges 917 curves (with a few which are too sharp) 102 tunnels (I counted it by myself) The whole route is covered with dense forest and rich diversity. In some instances, you might find clouds floating near you, plants waving you off, mountains running by your side and the Sun playing hide & seek with you. On 31st August 2019, I was lucky to witness this heritage rou...