The Himachal Trail

Hello beautiful readers,

It’s been 5 years since I have been running this blog and today I was just randomly checking the stats for my blog and I was surprised to see that I have readers in 42 countries across the world and that made me so happy. I would love to thank each one of my readers for showering so much love for my writings which are irregular and mostly random in nature.

Well, so today I am here to talk about my first ever official tour. Well, it’s been more than a week since I returned. And I had planned on writing this blog post as soon as I came home. However, you know how writers are, right? They are big-time procrastinators when it comes to writing. Okay, okay, I should not generalize. I’ll talk about myself. I procrastinate a lot when it comes to writing because I may have written the entire article, report, blog post, poem or whatever that I want to or have to write in my mind, I am always trying to look for better words and phrases in between the bookshelves and sassy movies, and oh yes, songs too.

Honestly speaking, I had forgotten about the fact that I had decided to write this blog post that you are reading currently. Today, at lunch, our boss casually mentioned that these people did not send in any of their write-ups or feedback about their trip experience and bam, Thomas Edison of my mind lit up!

Enough of the introduction I guess. I should come straight to the point before I exhaust myself with the introduction only and end up writing nothing for the purpose I started writing this in the first place.

Oh, did I mention that I started a job in my previous blog posts? I think not. Well, I completed my post graduation just a month ago and headed off to a vacation- read this as Meditation Camp. I described it here in this post- https://euphoricbeing.wordpress.com/2018/05/12/vacation-diaries/
And I returned from the camp on 13th May 2018 and had my first day of office life on 15th May 2018. So that’s about it.

Well, details about my office life in some other post, on some other day. All you need to know is that I like my job and the people around me a lot.

Now, THE HIMACHAL TRAIL, for which you have been waiting for a while now after reading the above 403 words. I appreciate your patience, treat yourself to a cup of tea/coffee/whatever you like!

As a part of Office Capacity Building Tour, we went to Jibhi, Gushaini, Tirthan Valley and Jalori Pass for a week. This was my first ever road trip to the hills without my parents. I have been an extremely protective kid and never got permission to go on any of the trips with my friends. So this was kind of a lottery ticket for me as my parents could not say no because it was official.

1. The Journey BeginsMy journey started on the morning of 2nd June 2018 along with my colleagues. We took an early morning Amritsar Shatabdi from New Delhi to reach Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana on the very first day. The journey was an amazing one with one cute incident, as you may call it.
   So I had to board the train at 7AM, I woke up at 5AM, had a quick bath, did last minute packing and rushed and got on the train on time. Now, I have traveled by Indian Railways a lot and Rajdhani and Shatabdi Express have great food. So as soon as I sat down, being a typical forever thinking about food Punjabi Upbringing I waited for the breakfast and IT DID NOT COME till 9:30AM. I legit went to the Shatabdi Cabin Crew and asked them about the breakfast around 9AM because I was HANGRY( I get angry when hungry so Hangry xD) and my colleague Surya noticed this, so by the time we reached, it turned out to be an inside joke between me and him and throughout the trip we shared a laugh whenever I quoted- I am Hungry!So we reached to Ludhiana, chilled around a bit and at night began with our road trip. So, mostly I have experienced motion sickness on road trips, therefore, I took my medicines, put on the most romantic playlist I could, and slept. I slept so much throughout the trip that next morning people said that I slept so much that I compensated for lack of sleep for others. I even tripped while sleeping and had forgotten about it until I was reminded about it later.
2. Jibhi-The Lato Hut StayWe reached our destination on 3rd morning and checked into the resort-The Lato Hut. I loved the place but didn’t like the food. Presence of WiFi compensated for the food and the extra sweet tea which made me doubt the existence of tea leaves often. Every morning I would wake up around 6.30AM, go to the river right in front of the resort and read a book, listen to songs, make videos, chase the butterflies and put my feet in the water and do- Chhai Chhappa Chhai, Chhapak Chhai. This was my alone time in Lato Hut every morning.
3. Jibhi-Village Visit and Balu Temple and WaterfallIn Jibhi, we had three things- The Waterfall, The Balu Temple, and The Village Visit.
   I enjoyed all the three activities immensely. I have never had a bath in a waterfall. I have seen many but this time I had a bath too because my mother was not there to tell me I’ll catch a cold and since it was a small waterfall, I did not fear that I will fall and hurt myself as I am very much prone to falling because of I don’t know what defect.The trek to Balu Temple was funny. I didn’t fall at the waterfall but fell twice in the trek to the temple and laughed it off like always because life is nothing but a comedy. Reaching the Balu Temple was giving me a feel of Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak movie with its ambiance. I felt like I was being in a Bollywood setting and sang the song- Gazab Ka Hai Din, Dekho Zara Ye Deewanapan Socho Zara.
   
   The Village visit was a nice experience because a) I had never been to a village. b) The pathway leading to the village was so narrow and risky that I felt that if I tripped, I would injure myself badly. This was the time I was completely in the moment like it was taught in the meditation camp. This was the time of full awareness. c) I ate a sour apple picked right from the apple tree in the apple orchids.
4. Jalori PassRead about Jalori  Pass on Google. I know only one thing here-the location was perfect to wear bright colored chiffon sarees and dance to romantic songs of Yash Raj Movies where clouds flow around and there are winds and everything beautiful which words cannot really do justice to.
5. Gushaini, Tirthan Valley

   I am a selectively lazy human being and I love to sleep a lot on my trips. This place took away my sleep. My parents and I are risk-averse people. Throughout my life, we as a family have stayed away from any sport or activity that could be potentially risky or dangerous, we are happy and content in our lazy bubble. Here, I indulged in Rappelling, River Crossing, River Jumping and damn I was scared. But I wanted to do the activities as well. So I was busy in a battle with my own self-The Head Vs Heart and as a result, I cried. I did not want to cry but I did. It was kinda embarrassing to shed those tears in front of everyone but then that’s what makes us human and I was not upset after that. I don’t know how I did all of it but I did it and I am so blessed to have such an amazing support system at the office. Very few people are lucky enough to go on such an official tour and overcome their fears and have a team that is so much supporting and close-knit. This was my happiest phase on the trip.
   

6. The Overall ExperienceOn the whole, this trip was life-changing for me. Each day was a new day, each experience was a new experience. I have wanted to have a trip like this for ages but never really got to have it until I had this job. This trip made me get comfortable with my people and shed away all my inhibitions. I sang and danced, I talked and laughed and I bonded well. It’s important to have friends in the workplace and this trip helped me make friends along with professional relationships.
    

   
   When we are kids, we are asked to go to school, study well so that we get into a good college, build a good CV in college so that we get a job and when we get a job we wait for weekends to relax and wonder what next, however, I am at a point in life where I am content and I enjoy my work. Work does not look like a work when we tend to enjoy it. This job is probably the best thing that could happen to me. All the upswing and downswing during post graduation was worth it because had I been elsewhere, I don’t think I would have got the experiences and the learning I got here. My belief in the fact that Universe always has better plans for us, all we need to do is to be patient is stronger than ever.

   I have a long life ahead of me and so much more to do, the woods are lovely, dark and deep, I have miles to go before I sleep. But here I am, at a point in my journey where I learn, work and relax while I still have to learn the mechanism of income tax.

   

   This much for today, see you all next time with new stories and some very random jokes.