HI everyone….its been a long time since u heard a story about anni since he got lost in his neighborhood. This time its different and on a larger scale…the stakes are high and anni had finished his 6th sem exams. Sadly according to him, he had scored ‘low’ in exams compared to his class mates. However, people at home were really happy about his scores and had actually allowed him to goto BADRINATH with us, myself and ani. Cool right…..yeah I know. Badrinath is in the state of Uttaraanchal, Gahrwal Himalayas. This was the experience of lifetime for us and we learned real real important lessons from our adventure(it was really). It was August 18th, 2010.
“Anni…be careful…don’t kid yourself when you goto Ganga riverrrrrr….”, these were the words we heard from anni’s parents when the Karnataka express started to roll its wheels at the Bangalore City railway station. We had booked our to and fro tickets a month ago to Delhi on the Karnataka express and from Delhi to Haridwar on the Mussorie passenger. We couldn’t believe that our parents had allowed the three of us to goto Uttaranchal. The plan devised at home in front of our parents was that we would go to Haridwar and from there, goto Badrinath stay there for maximum of 2 nights, get back to Delhi and to Bangalore from there, after the usual trip to Agra and Mathura everyone takes. The plan stayed undisturbed until we reached Bhopal, where we were joined by another group of guys going to Badrinath. “Is this your first time to the Himalayas?”, asked one of those guys. “Yeah….and we are excited as hell…what about your’s sir??”, asked Anni. “Well we have been to the Gahrwal 6 times before….we actually want to visit all the piligrimages there….this might be our last time…and we are heading to Badrinath this time….and yess, we are excited”,explained the commuter. “Where all have you people been before in the Himalayas”,I asked. “Well….as he said, we have been there 6 times before and we have been to… Kedarnath, Bhyundar,Bhyundar again, Gangotri, Yamunotri and Hrishikesh alone coz the weather was brutal that season and we couldn’t go further”, explained another guy from the group. “They seemed to be really interested in bhyundar”, I thought. Apparently Ani was also thinking the same thing and he asked “Whats so so special at bhyundar, is it a tourist spot or something??”. “Ofcourse it’s a tourist spot, it’s the beautiful place ive been to in my life and im sure icant find any place better than that on this planet my boy”, said an elderly person from the group. This was the moment where everything started to fall in place to make our trip memorable and life threatning at the same time.
It was 10 in the night when the tales about this place Bhyundar started to unfold. It was also called THE VALLEY OF FLOWERS, mystic right….We really found it hard to believe that there is a valley which has almost every species of flower in it. That too a valley full of it….unbelievable. That night….i still remember, none of us three could sleep. Leave apart that the train was wobbling like a cradle set in some sort of ‘jerk’ mode, it was this incredible oppurtunity in front us to goto Bhyundar. Ani was frequently looking at both of us searching for some ‘So Bhyundar it is!!!’ looks . Finally at 3 am in the morning Ani broke the ice, “Hey , I know you guys are afraid to break the code, but lets goto Bhyundar…We have been to Badrinath with our parents. Lets do something different this time!!!Im sure we cant go to Himalayas together for a very very long time after this one!!!”. “Yeah, I second ani”,Anni seconded. I had no choice, really, I saw no other options open, including the obvious option of going to Badrinath as planned. The name valley of flowers had sink in soooo much into me that, everything else sounded inferior to that. I know its crazy….but that’s how I felt…thanks to those 7th time going himalayan freaks. The next day, we replanned our schedule with a great amount of help from those people who inspired us to do that. We planned to start our journey from Haridwar to Valley of flowers from 22nd august, stay there for 3 nights and return to Delhi by 28th morning and catch our return journey train the same evening. We gave up the Delhi darshan and the Agra-Mathura trip which bought us an extra day. We would cancel the return ticket from Haridwar to Delhi and thought taking a bus back to Delhi from Haridwar, which would again buy us some time. The plan was ready by that night, fully foolproof. We very well knew that nothing should go wrong in our plan, as people at our homes were unaware of anything about this. That’s what we ‘PLANNED’.
We reached Delhi on 20th morning, took rest in the station itself as we needed to save some money for our unexpected adventure. We boarded the Mussorie passenger at 8:00pm the same night and reached Haridwar the next morning at 6:30. We really needed to take bath, we hadnt taken bath since almost 3 days. So, we stayed in Hotel International, which resembled absolutely nothing international, for couple of hours.Then, we went to the Ganages to have bath. It was truly awesome, the water was totally cold, icould feel my heart throbbing rather than beating. It was literally like the water taken out from a refrigerator but sweeter. It was the first glimpse of Himalayan treat awaiting for us. I can never forget that river bath I had. I wish there was a Ganga river in Bangalore. I know its far more impossible than wanting a 10.00 cgpa in your grade card. So, we enjoyed to our fullest in the Ganges and headed back to ‘international hotel’ . After having lunch, we went to see Haridwar, the Harki-pouri, Chandi devi the calm fields nearby were just magnificent for city boys like us. This was the kind of break we were craving for. Life become so stress free when you come to these places. You can really experience the 24hrs in a day, unlike in Bangalore or anyother city where relativity has its upper hand. Okay I maybe wrong with the physics, but in short LIFE ROCKS IN HARIDWAR…..Our next destination was the valley of flowers….little did we know what was in store for us….little did we know the consequences of our hectic schedule…unaware and totally not bothered about anything other than bhyundar, we started our journey towars the mighty Hiamalayas………
To be continued………
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