Felt like forgetting everything and losing myself
School, college, job and a regular mechanical life slowly sucks life out of you. Days, weeks and years pass, and you always feel the same. And in such a monotonous setting, it isn’t a surprise that a simple weekend trip to a far off place can give you 2 lifetimes in 2 days. Out there in the middle of nowhere, between snow clad mountains, a rocky terrain, trees and trees as far as you can see, just you and nature, it is so easy to lose sense, of yourself, your family, your life, your dreams, everything. Living in the moment and clinging to every single moment tightly. And just be a nobody. Never had I ever thought losing this fundamental sense would be something I would want. Getting away from everything in my life, good or bad and escaping into a bounty of wonder.
Experienced new strange emotions
Smoking and drinking is criminal in my world. Relationships are foreign, stupid and complicated. But suddenly they all started making a little sense. Like out of nowhere, in broad daylight, while trekking up snow clad roads, I wanted to try a shot and lose sense completely. Alcohol aside, at many other random moments, there were so many other temptations and emotions I had never known even existed. Even putting them into words feels wrong now.
Fortunate or unfortunate, I somehow managed to cling to my senses. I didn’t get carried away though was always on the edge. I discovered self-control, something that was till yet unknown to me. I am impulsive by nature, so never really think twice. Now I feel offended that I possess a certain degree of self-control. Never had I ever thought this would or could happen to me. And more so that I would openly accept it.
Back to the real world, I am happy all my records stay intact. :p I am perhaps just a little more accepting and flexible. And a little less judgmental!
Music
Music in the regular day to day life is listening to songs on your phone while travelling to and fro from office. Or watching music reality shows on weekends. Once in a year, attending a concert in college fest. Twice have I attended live concerts with powerful soulful music. And that was simply awe inspiring.
But never have I ever been a part of it. Before this. We were lucky to have a guitarist amongst us. For the record, he plays well. That is to say you can make out the songs he plays :p 😀 Jokes apart, he is really cool at it. So this was a time we “sung” to the melodies of guitar. “Sung” to maine aise hi likh diya. We were so bad at it that 4 log gaane ke koshish rahe the phir bhi awaaz sirf guitar ki aa rahi thi . I never knew I was such a woeful singer. Before this I used to think of myself as an above average singer.
I still do, but that’s because I am an optimist rather than a realist. 😀
- Late night musings
Shimla being a tourist place, we had thought the attractions would be open 24-7. But it was all closed down at just 11 at night. And we had to content with horrible fried rice from a bar. Even the drinks were taken down by 11. Night life you see.. :p
Had it not been a trip, I would have been thoroughly impressed by no drinks after 11. Never had I thought I would feel surprised or maybe bad for drinks not being available.
- Adventures
Desi knight bus ride:
It started when 2 out of 5 of us almost missed the bus. For those of you who think, there are a lot of games you could play in a group on trips, we ended up playing 21 questions and favourite 5 colours :D.
Toy Train Secret Out:
We got so lured by DSLR and seeing better versions of ourselves that we almost missed our bus. Later, we made a real discovery. The Toy Train. We had all seen the royal toy train in Parineeta. But the real one was worse off than the worst local train in the country. And what was more, people had to reserve seats on that. :p Luckily we didn’t.
The epic snow fight:
Trekking in snow never seemed to end. On reaching the summit, began a snow fight between India, Pakistan and Bangladesh that ended up accidentally diminishing China. :p.
Monkey Mania:
Jaakhu temple( I guess JAAKHU means Hanuman ) was the topmost point. And a hanuman temple without monkeys is like Amit without guitar, Sumit without DSLR, Shivansh without art and Vishnu without me :p. Here you didn’t need to fear wolf-dogs, but before monkeys, you better keep your head on your shoulders. A very sporty monkey tried to snatch Shivansh’s glasses by climbing up his shoulders. Another one really liked my gloves. Amit, Sumit and Vishnu kept waiting for their turns but the monkeys only liked us.
Food:
Living off just 1 or 2 square meals had been unheard of for me but I made it through. :p.
The history books need to be corrected about the staple food in India. It is not chappati and rice, its chai and maggi. Strange, you don’t get milk anywhere but this chai and maggi is available at every few steps.
Movie:
Dead tired we raced down to watch a movie: XXX. What still surprises me is why we didn’t walk out. It was so nonsensical. I guess only as a token of respect for the effort we had put in to reach there.
And now comes the fun part-
Skiing, tube sliding, horse-riding, snow fight, everything was simply ethereal. But the one that was the most fun was sliding down a real snow slide.
Till date I had only one pet name. Manu. But on this trip I got 2 more. “Moti” and “Mirchi”, both of which don’t suit me. :p Its just the ‘M’ connection.
Back to the real world
It has been 3 days after we came back. I am back to my jail life. Never have I ever appreciated my real life this much. It is this real life with dreams and ambitions, confusions and frustrations, boundations and limitations that made this experience so special. And I wanted to put this all down, before it got lost in time.
I remember writing this once on a different occasion, but this seems to fit in well here too!
“Sometimes after knowing each other for years, you feel like strangers
And sometimes, just a few hours and you become friends for life
Sometimes, even years can’t change your beliefs
And sometimes mere moments do what years didn’t”
Manu
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