Himalayas - The Final Frontier

Question: Whats that one thing that will catch your eyes when you step into 'the zone'...i.e. the mountain range that starts from the Gangotri National Park?





Answer: Every damn view takes your breath away. Everywhere you glance in this majestic Himalayan range you feel your camera, feel the urge to click and capture every view your eyes behold. I kept hearing from my elders, my wife, few friends that this is God's abode, the place where the Gods reside. I come back from this trip mighty convinced.

While I must say that we could not garner strength to complete the route we had envisioned to trek, I still thank my stars for getting to see some of the most breathtaking sights I could have seen in this lifetime. To hell with my plans to go to New York, Sicily and Athens. This lifetime, I would want to try and finish trekking this range called the Himalayas. Herculean task, but not impossible.

The trek started with gusto. Our porters had carried away our heavier luggage, moving with superhuman ease towards our campsite. They are mountain people, brought in the lap of this majestic range. Trekking, to them, comes as naturally as traveling in jam packed trains to a Mumbaite. While I felt envious, I also wanted to enjoy and seep in the beauty of the trail and not just hurry away like a dummy. We saw many such German, Austrian and Israeli robot like trekkers on our way. Scaling the heights like a programmed robot, eyes set just on the trail, trekking away in a formation, constant speed and not a smile on their faces. Whilst me, trekking a bit, sitting on a loose rock at times, watching the roaring Ganges move by in her fiery yet magnificient form, staring amazed at the steep Himalayan peaks, standing in their imposing poses, looking down at us with glee.



It was a 9 km trek from Gangotri to Cheerbasa, our revised campsite. Our guide, Mr Suri, calculated 5 hours to scale that stretch for rookie trekkers like us. But the way we started, seemed like we would scale it in 3.5 hours flat. But alas, I thought too highly of the group, which consisted of me, my wife and her office colleague. within a kilometer, my wife, R, got to know how it felt when people fainted. She sat down on a rock to rest and feel better. She hadnt eaten anything before the trek and that proved to be a bad idea. So we ate our packed breakfast, puri (small fried rotis) and aloo ki sabzi (potato curry), on that rocky Himalayan trail, with the Ganges below. That moment felt surreal. Eating a meal, whilst scaling a small Himalayan peak, looking down below watching the Ganges flow and a glorious Sun shining in greeting...this is what dreams are made up of. Anyhow, wifey was back on her feet and with sudden and surprising exuberance. The trek resumed but with some cautious pace, much to the annoyance of Suri.

Has anyone seen mountain brooks? Im sure yes, there are many across the world. Well, the ones you got on the Himalayas, are one of the most awesome sights to behold. They are nothing but water from melting glaciers all around the Himalayan range. And they bring along a lot of rocks on their way down. We encountered our first such mountain brook, or nala, as they are referred to in Himalayan trekking jargon. And the only way one could cross them is a plank of wood!! With a heavy bag on my back, and the thought of falling in the icy cold Himalayan water and having wet shoes all along the trek made me shiver.


I breathed a sigh of relief when I finally managed this tight rope walk. Seemed like I had scaled the Everest!! I thought to myself, 'If I can do this, then the literally unmanageable trails ahead, that Suri is freaking us about would be a cakewalk!' But alas, yet again I had thought too fast.

The trail got tougher and tougher. We were scaling up in altitude, and the trail was becoming more difficult by the minute. We encountered our first 'blind turn' trail in a few minutes. Take a look.



Did we manage it? Or did we fall face down, through the steep rocks below, into the roaring Ganges? Stay tuned!!!

The Spicy Killer's domain - Misal Pav at Mamledar's

This is not the place I expected when P told me he was taking me to the joint which served the most tikhat (Marathi for 'knock you off' spicy) Misal.
Misal is a famed breakfast meal of the State of Maharashtra in India. It is a dish easy to make and hence very popular. Misal literaly means a 'mixture'. Its made of dried peas and moth beans submerged in a maddeningly spicy curry. You can load it with chopped onions, a hint of lemon juice and a ready made mixture called farsan. While you get them in various magnitudes of being spicy, we friends wanted to dare the spicy version this joint produced.
The place was an extension of a government building. Most of the thoroughfare seemed to be government staff and physical labourers. Misal serves as a cheap mode of a good nutritional food and not surprisingly is a preferred outdoor lunch/meal by the lower middle strata, although it is very regularly dished out at home by one and all.
The surroundings didnt look exactly hygienic, not that most street food joints in India have that luxury. But die hard foodies like me dont even observe such hygiene blocks as the bigger desire is to have that famed dish.
"Lets get on with it guys," I exclaimed marching into the joint.
Thankfully we got a table for ourselves, which had 25 glasses of water. My friend R wasnt aware why we had selected this place for a meal and told the waiter to takeaway the extra glasses as we were just 4 of us. The waiter nonchantly ignored.
"Heck, why is the guy acting weird? I mean 25 glasses on each table of 4 people! This is ridiculous!" blurted R, rushing to the Manager and demanding him to remove the extra glasses.
The Manager ordered the needful and a victorious looking R came back to his seat.
"That was a great achievement man. Cant understand how foolish some people can get!" said S. He looked hungry by the way he was looking at the other customers lapping up their Misal curry.
We had ordered 4 tikhat Misal's and within a minute we had the piping hot dishes on our table. The curry was looking temptingly crimson. The dish had to be had with pav (a loaf of bread). The dish itself is popularly known as Misal Pav. R & S looked reluctant to eat as they werent the archetypal spicy food seekers. They came from cocooned backgrounds, where they were imbibed the rule of avoiding street food, especially the spicy types. However I pushed them in and the odessey started.
Within 2 morsels, R was in tears and sweat laden. He couldnt stand the chilly hot and spicy curry known as rassa. He gulped down as many pav's as he could to nuetralise the deadly effect of the spicy curry. And then it dawned to him why the 25 glasses of water were kept on each table of the joint. And that thought also brought an emotion of shame on his face, of the shameful folly, of being secretly laughed upon by the waiters and managers. I quickly caught this and remarked that the curry today was extraordinarily spicy. It made him feel a bit better, noticing me, the man who could gulp down half a box of chilli powder (its a hyperbole!) without shedding a tear, struggling to stay calm.
We all finally finished the meal. Strangely inspite of the spice and chilli trouble, we all seemed to relish it. Thats the piece of magic this place brings out of its cauldrons and saucepans day and night. The most deadly spicy Misal's and yet the most tasty and relishing.
"It was a bad start, but A, I must say this was dhasu (Hindi slang for Phenomenal)! I mean I wanna surely come back for more!". R saying this was a testimony of the fame of this place's dish.
We signed off with a glass of taak, Marthi for buttermilk. The feeling of having a glass of sublime buttermilk after the spice typhoon was out of this world. The 4 of us left content, pledging to come back for one more daring journey into the valley of unknown, for a one on one with the Spicy Killer.

A celebrity I want to stalk....Udaipur Lake Palace

Our white Ambassador entered this quaint town. The itinerary read, Udaipur. "H, you are now in the land of royalty! The abode of the kings, queens and princes. Presenting you, Udaipur!” I remarked with a TV Host smile and voice modulation. "Oh good Lord, A! I must say, I'm looking forward to this one. Why, we could get lucky any moment and spot Your Highness with his royal entourage, crossing the street, from one palace to another!” whispered H with a perfect classy tone and ascent, reminiscent of an East India Company Officer on vacation. Swiftly climbing the stairs of our limestone bathed hotel , I was excited about this possible rendezvous with royalty. Actually, come to think of it, not royalty but celebrity. Both me and my friend H, came here with the built up-fed in-by the world notion that Udaipur was after all the numero uno luxury-cum-royal ambience seeking holiday destination of international and local celebrities alike. We knew the place was beautiful, but the excitement was more to catch a glimpse of hot shot celebrity. Possibly because we had seen our share of palaces in Jaipur and Jaisalmer. We didn’t expect anything different in Udaipur. Our hotel room, inspite of being a two star accommodation, was spacious and had palace like features. Pillars in the room, a royal bed etc etc. You already felt royalty opening her arms and embracing you! I called for some breakfast. “Can you get me boiled eggs and toast? And you Your Highness King H? What would you prefer?” “Ah! Some fried eggs and toast please.” And so there we awaited the royal cook to render his magic and get us some fantabulous breakfast. We wanted to cover the whole of Udaipur that day as we had to move on to the next destination of our road trip early next morning. Barring the hilarious incident that occurred later with the waiter bringing H fried rice instead of fried eggs and the subsequent volley of abuses and flowery profanities hurdled by H, everything went on smooth. Which meant we were ready to explore! Nice cobbled streets, old houses of sand, colorful locals with their magnificent pagdis and lahenga cholis. Well, our less travelled minds, took these as similar locational traits of all of Rajasthan’s tourist towns. By three noon, after consuming a roadside paratha lunch, which by the way, was absolutely sumptuous, we proceeded towards the main attraction in town….the famous Lake Palace of Udaipur. “Another palace! I’m looking forward to the ferry ride on the lake; I’ve had enough of palaces.” “Oh H man! What if you notice a famous Hollywood celebrity standing in the palace balcony? Look at the positive side man. My strong intuition says, we are going to get lucky this evening!” By the time we reached and paid up the kind of-expensive ride fare and boarded, it was nearing five. The ferry started its trip with a smooth swirl from the stand. The homebound sun was glaring right on our faces, with the fort on our right. I walked up and requested the captain to maneuver a U-turn so that the sun can be evaded. The ferry now was taking a U turn and thankfully we evaded the sun. I was sitting and chatting up with H, ridiculing his sense of humor, when a shade of gold caught my eye. I glanced towards the palace at the bank of the lake (Lake Pichola), which all this while, was totally non-existent to us. And my heart skipped a beat!

The rays of the setting sun had painted the City Palace golden. The beautiful pillars and columns with intricate archways and the numerous windows and balconies, ornaments of this imposing series of structures, took a totally different, or a divine form. There was a certain soothing melody or harmony the palace reminded off. With its brilliance casting a reflection on the turquoise waters of the lake, the view was surreal. I’m a lousy and lazy photographer, but I could feel the most strong craving or desire to capture this view for my memories sake. The Jagniwas lake palace (in the middle of the lake) off course, simply put, is a work of art. Not because it has anything spellbindingly special about its architecture. But what is special is how this palace completely compliments its surroundings, creating an experience you can only dream off. Surrounding hills, blue clad Lake Pichola and the white stone and marble Jagniwas Lake palace create a magical or mystical portrait, specially enchanting during dawns and dusks with nature splashing its colours of gold and auburn. And the City Palace at the banks with its imposing presence and breathtaking grandiose, makes the lake ride on Udaipur’s Lake Pichola a spectacular journey through a kaleidoscope of culture, art, beauty and mystique. An experience not to be missed.

“A! Im staying back another day here. This “lake ride” is the real celebrity and I am a celebrity stalker till tomorrow!” whispered H, in a voice shaken with excitement and wonder.
I readily agreed for another plunge in wonderland.