Lone Wanderer…

It was dark. I checked my watch; it said 8:30pm. It wasn’t that late, I reflected. But here I was, miles away from home in Himachal Pradesh and I had missed the last bus to Dharamsala from Bhagsu Nag Mountains. The roads were steep and several kilometers away from my hotel. A thought crept in my mind of spending the night outside but I had to let it go as it was getting too cold out here.

My friend Saswat sat down on a bench, held his head and let out a sigh of relief. I asked few cab drivers to drop us, overpriced they were. They tried taking advantage out of our helplessness, thinking we would give in and pay him how much ever he asks for.

“What you want to do?” I asked Saswat

“I don’t know. We can look for a hotel here.” He said

“It will be too expensive here.” I said and then a crazy thought crossed my mind, a weird smile came on my face.

“Let’s walk”

I said and started walking. I am sure anyone else would have been there in his place would have dismissed this crazy thought of walking down these slopes. But there was a guy who wanted to have some adventure and was a partner in my crimes.

We had backpacks stuffed with clothes, laptops and camera. It weighed at least 10 kgs. We had no water on us. The road was dark, no lights to guide us. On one side there was dense forest, mountains on the other side of the road. We had no clue where the road ends. One wrong step and we would have fallen deep down. But we kept on walking, kept on talking.  

Not even a living soul was there, the road was deserted. All one could see from thousands meters above sea level was lights coming from the city. It looked amazingly beautiful. As if I was in space and the city looked like stars twinkling bright on a dark night. Every time we kept looking back, realizing we have walked down so much gave us a great feeling of conquering our inner desires.

We crossed St. Johns Church, the graveyard. A thought crossed my mind to spend some time at the graveyard but I dismissed it immediately. Not that I was scared but there was point in jeopardizing our safety for this. The road that led to the graveyard was uneven and even a slight mistake would take our life, as it is at a good height.

The stretch from Bhagsu Nag Mountains to Dharamsala is 15kms. In between for 5-6 km there is a military base. We were caught by army officers, they kept asking weird questions. I showed them my press card and immediately there was a change in their expression and tone. They offered us lift to our hotel. We decided to walk and finish the journey we had set for us. Moreover I don’t want someone to help me out just because I belong from Media fraternity.

We kept talking about useless stuffs, talked about weirdest things we had done in past, we sang, we even danced in the middle of highway. I had never done that. While I was walking suddenly this thought crept in mind, maybe this moment would never come back and I might regret that I couldn’t dance then. I always had this weird thing in mind to do; I wanted to dance on the middle of a highway. And the very next moment I started dancing. People who know me, they know that I don’t dance at all. I always shy away from dancing in front of people. I get conscious and then I can’t dance.

But there I was, in some unknown place on a highway dancing like crazy. There are certain things in life which I have to do and doesn’t matter how crazy or stupid it might be, I have to do it. Life has blessed me with what I asked for. There is nothing much asks from my life. I am doing things that I wanted to do. Plan a trip somewhere and explore the places, food, drink and stuffs that make those places special.

Travel excites me. There are people who think I am crazy. But whenever I get a chance to travel, I love to do. Last vacation I just took my bag and went to Varanasi to cover Durga Puja. Even there I had my part of adventure. This time also I decided to come here. Amidst the mountains and chilly weather, it’s fun. People usually prefer going back to their home in vacations, I prefer exploring new places. Not that I don’t like going back to home, but travelling is more important for me.

I wanted to do this. I don’t know whether this was adventurous or not, for me it’s more than that. I realized one thing about myself. I may get tired doing things that I don’t want to do. But when it comes to doing things that I love to do I never get tired. While I kept walking down enthusiastically, I could feel the adrenaline rush in my body.

For many, it is just a trip to a new place. For me it is something else, something that I cannot define in words. Something that I feel only at that particular moment when I am experiencing the thrill. For many more such adventures to come and many places to be explored, I will see you on the other side soon.