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Showing posts from March, 2018

Himachal in winter 2/ On the foothills of Dhauladhar

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What a gift from God! I was thinking this only while entering Palampur. Actually, the scenic beauty in this town is just mersmerising. The whole region is located almost around four-and-a-half thousand feet above sea level. In spite of that is region is absolutely plain, with the snowcapped Dhauladhar in front of us. The British-era tea gardens have increased the beauty of the region. This is a brief description of Palampur. It was foggy all around in the morning when we started our journey from Bilaspur. However the fog cover lifted completely as we progressed a bit from Palampur. It was totally sunny all of a sudden. We didn’t take the straight road to Palampur from Bilaspur. Mandanji told us that we would visit the Jwalamukhi Temple on our way. Jwalamukhi is one of the most important religious sites in Himachal Pradesh and also it is one of the 51 ‘sati peeths’. Jwalamukhi is situated at a distance of 100 kms from Bilaspur. When we reached Jwalamukhi the Sun was over...

Himachal in winter 1/ Journey starts in Bilaspur

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This is a story of wish come true. The wish which I made way back in 2011, have finally been fulfilled. Will come to the wish a bit later, first let’s start from the beginning. Madanji came and hugged us as soon as we arrived in Chandigarh station late last night. He is Madanlal Sharma. In 2011, he was our pilot when we toured for twenty days through the rugged terrains of Kinnaur Kailash. I can still remember the moment when we first met. Madanji, at first expressed his annoyance seeing our tour schedule. But as the days progressed, he became our close friend, our guide in the tour. While ending our journey in Chandigarh that time we could see drops of tear in his eyes. Now Madanji has developed his business. Six years back he was just a driver, driving agency’s car. Now he is a car owner and has his own agency. But we didn’t lose touch with him in these six-and-a-half years.   To be frank we were very skeptical about touring Himchal right in the middle of winter. W...