Here I am , back after 7 long years and 7 seas across!! 

Chapter 2

                                                                                                      24 July, 2011

       Been here in Vashisht five years ago with WWF camp, I knew that the morning would be beautiful. Just after a five hour sleep, sprung out from my bed, worrying that I might have missed the early morning spectacle since it was already 8am. Stepped into the balcony and I was right, the mornings here are spectacular indeed. The only word that came out of my mouth was 'wow'.

      My view was blurred because of the fog that covered the whole valley,  the wind was chilly which was being accompanied by light showers making it even chillier and biting. Through the fog you can see a white,sleek, meandering river, with the Dhauladhar range in the background, the river Beas*, which is known for it's meandering route across Himachal Pradesh crossing many famous hill-stations like Kullu, Manali en-route before merging with Sutlej in Punjab. Soon after my lazy friends woke up, we all headed towards the Vashisht Hot Spring bath for which this place is famous for, just a few meters from our hotel. Taking a bath in these natural hot springs containing sulphur is truly therapeutic and relaxing, which was much needed after long strenuous journey we had. If you are planning your trip to Manali, then I would strongly recommend you to stay in Vashishth instead or at least visit it for the therapeutic hot sulphur springs. Vashisht is less crowded, has cheap hotels and is also known for German ,French and English bakeries. The localites are quite friendly too, you can visit their houses if interested in exploring their lifestyle and typical architecture of their homes.It even has a small theater that often plays foreign language movies.

       After a heavy breakfast at some local restaurant, we planned to trek down to Jogini waterfalls so that such activity would help us acclimatize to the altitude and make our trip to Ladakh easier. The trek took us through some apple plantations and Himalayan forests with majestic deodar/cedar trees and other flora of the mountains adorning our way. The route to Jogini waterfalls can also be bypassed to reach Hadimba-Devi temple in Manali. This route is very treacherous since Manali is in the south and lower,but the route to Jogini waterfalls is in the north,

which means that you have to go north first, find a way takes you to the banks of the Beas and then follow the river south to reach Manali. 

By noon or so, headed back to Vashisht after the trek to go to Manali for lunch and the whole evening to spare at the market not shopping for gifts or anything, but help our cook buy our ration for the rest of our journey to Ladakh, that would last atleast till we reach Leh.

      At this point, I would like to stress on one issue that bothered me a lot then and does even now. I was disheartened looking at the state of Manali that it is in today. 

Completely different from what I had seen six years ago. The market, or the 'mall' road, was cramped with shops on both the sides, roads were to fix some problem, tourists flocking in hordes, hawkers on roads apart from the shops,hotels,cyber cafes,etc.This place didn't a bit, seem like an hill station. Commercialization has taken it's toll on Manali. I would say, the place has been ruined due to rampant tourist and commercial activities, leave alone the hippie issue. Even away from the mall road, you can see mountains dotted by some settlement or hotels. The government planning to build a check dam adding to the issue. Just few meters from the market place, you would see garbage dumped untreated lying in the open to be carried away by a nearby stream or rains. If you had been to Manali, say just 5-6 years ago, you wouldn't have been so disappointed, but at present, the situation seems to be out of control. This is one of the reasons why people have started scouting for newer locations,and I recommended you Vashisht. The new and lesser known places have retained their beauty and haven't yet commercialized (hope they don't).

      Anyway, next day, we had to make an early start at about 3am in the morning. Early to bed, way early to rise. Our next destination .......... 

Note:

* It is said that Beas is a misnomer for Vayasa  and is named after Veda Vyasa, the presiding patron of the river, he is said to have created it from its source lake, the Vyasa Kund. The original name of Beas is Vasistha.

    

Desert in the skies! Chapter 1

       I have been planning to write about this since a long time,very long time, so long that that it's been exactly one year from now. Normally, it's difficult to remember so much for so long, but the experience I had was once in a life time, making it difficult to forget.
     On the 22nd July,2011,I embarked on an unforgettable journey to a place that has left a permanent impression in my memory. A place that is truly heaven on earth.A place which flaunts nature's bounty.A place where mountains and rivers and lakes and grasslands and deserts exist in harmony with each other.A place that is both amicable as well as hostile.A place set in the majestic Himalayan ranges.

        A place that is called Ladakh!

     Ladakh, a region in northern India, is a part of the state of Jammu and Kashmir.Jammu and Kashmir consists of three regions: Jammu, the Kashmir valley and Ladakh. Srinagar is the summer capital, whereas Jammu is the winter capital. While the Kashmir valley is famous for its beautiful mountainous landscape, Jammu's numerous shrines attract tens of thousands of Hindu pilgrims every year. Ladakh, also known as "Little Tibet", is renowned for its remote mountain beauty and Buddhist culture.

Leh is the capital city of Ladakh region and is also home to many Tibetan refugees. 

      I was truly mesmerized by the beauty of Ladakh.In this series of Desert in the Skies, I will try my best to describe my journey in words accompanied by pictures alongside,but if you want the real image of this place,you have no option but to go there!

      So, to begin with, Ladakh is the northern most region of India sharing hostile border with China (Aksai Chin*) and Tibet (I do not acknowledge it as China). To reach there you can use any means of transport** except water,obviously. A one-stop flight from Mumbai to the capital of Ladakh region, Leh, is available via Delhi. It is approximately 4hours 30 minutes journey by air depending on the carrier you choose.
This might seem to be the best option considering the time it saves but, I didn't opt for this one. Instead, I opted out for a rather strenuous journey by train- not to save money,but will be explained later. I was accompanied by eight of my classmates, all of us in the third year of Mechanical Engineering.
     Our train journey started on the 22nd of July, 2011 at around 11:35am by Paschim Express*** with our destination being Chandigarh. This journey takes about 29 hours (if your train is not late) with the train traversing through 5 states- Maharashtra(source), Gujarat, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and one Union territory-New Delhi  finally reaching Chandigarh. Believe me, traveling in Indian railways with such long routes is also an experience no matter what class you travel in - all have their own stories. The beautiful landscape of all the places en-route, changing traditions of people as you cross states, changing languages,the smell, the food, the colours, you can witness all these in just one journey. Not forgetting the chaiwalas making rounds every 10 minutes and the typical pantry car food.This is what makes Indian railways so unique.
     So, our train ride was quite a lot of fun, with one of friend welcoming diarrhea by trying out food from every station, two of them getting caught by cops for smoking at a railway station - which is an offense, and a lot of other things off the record. Anyway, at about 4:30pm on 23rd July, we reached Chandigarh.
At Chandigarh we were joined by four others, - a cook, driver, a wildlife photographer from WWF, and another friend of mine who organizes adventure treks and is also a botanist. We had hired a 12-seater mini-bus for the entire trip.
     Our next destination was Manali which is 285km from Chandigarh and takes about 5-6 hours by road.
We actually didn't stay in Manali, but at a place called Vashishth which is about 5km from Manali.  

Vashishth is popular for its hot water springs and some of it's bakeries. It's less popular amongst Indian tourists, I don;t know why, maybe because of it's proximity from the Manali mall road and no mention of it in a regular holidaywala's itenary.

     After a long and tiring journey all the way from Mumbai which started almost two days back, it was time to get some sleep in our hotel rooms which were quite spacious and comfy and adding to the comfort - the tariff.

                                                             (End of Chapter 1 )

Notes:

*  Aksai Chin is a disputed territory in the state of Jammu and Kashmir, that is claimed by India but controlled by China.

** Transportation information and timings will vary from place to place. I have mentioned with respect to Mumbai since that was my source destination.

*** The last destination of Paschim Express is Amritsar. The train splits up at Ambala Cantonment.

Hello again!

Hi,
 Since the creation of the blog, I did not live upto the expectation. I just did not update the blog.
First post remained as the only post for almost a year.
Well, I really wanted to share a lot here, but never got the time or if even if time permitted, it took a while to draft a new post, which bored me a lot. Not forgetting that I was quite lazy too or I would prefer to catch up some sleep instead of sitting here.
Anyway, now that I have graduated and found some time for myself, I wish to spend some time here and share a lot of stuff with the world (or whatever small audience I have).
Till the next post comes up, and if you are interested to find out what I have been upto past six months, you can catch up by clicking the following link,

teamredshift.blogspot.in

Thank You!!!!

First Post

Hi,
    Most of you must be wondering what this blog would be about. Well,before creating this blog, I had lots of stuff in my mind which I wanted to share with everyone. I couldn't think of a better platform then this,so I came up with my very own blog - 'Very Harsh'.

    The reasons why I chose this name for my blog are a plenty,the primary being.... it's my name!!

'Harsh'-as you all know, means very cruel,ungentle,rugged,etc in English,whereas in Sanskrit -  (हर्ष),it means exactly opposite.It stands for joy,happiness,etc and all of these adjectives define my character.I am sometimes rude,or have very harsh opinion on certain matters and at the same time very humorous,childish in nature.(No more describing myself ,I'll leave the judging part to you!).For people who know me or are very close to me,Very Harsh might mean completely different for them.Inference is upto them.

      So,I hope you enjoy reading my blog and keep following it!!
Thank You!