If you were able to divide your time between two places evenly which place would it be.
People living an urban life will agree with the fact that we are blessed with enough courage and potential to fight the daily traffic, reach our work, empty our creative juices and then again steer clear the traffic and head home.
To rejuvenate and refill the mind, body, soul and spirit we do take breaks. It pays to take some time off from our regular schedule whether it is at office or from home and plan for a change. It also gives us the immense opportunity to discover and explore new venues which this journey provides and it helps us grow further in our personal and professional life.
If I had the power to split places daily I would choose Manali. I have visited this Himalayan hill station thrice and it offered me to go back reloaded. Each of the visit is associated with a part of my life, while people would not like to visit the same place again then in my case I chose with a reason every time:
- My first visit was when I just had started earning some penny and it was with my friends.
- The second lap was when I got married – my wife saw the albums and insisted to take me there. So it became my second visit.
- When my daughter grew up she was fascinated by watching our photographs(seems see inherited from her Mom) in ice covered mountains and the listening the stories which her Mumma had narrated that she succeeded in convincing me. We wanted to relive the moment with her and make her dream come true of making a snow man. So this became the third visit and it happened a few months back.
Passing by the caves made by drilling mountains, salute to the engineers. This shortens the route by connecting the mountains.
The place is calm and quite and the ecology provides relaxation of the mind and soul. The cold weather provides immense warmth for the mind and body. You tend to forget all your worries and pain.
Besides the hill there are loads of pine trees, apple, plum, pear and cherry trees all around. In fact the place where we had out up had a orchard and we would ensure that we had our share daily.
The place is also abode to many temples each having it’s own historic relevance and a story behind it. One such temple is associated with Sage Manu and it is believed that the place got his name from the sage.
Then there are Buddhist temple where you discover your inner-self by chanting:
Om Mani Padme Hum
A powerful mantra which echoes in the halls and transforms you. It means that you transform your impure mind, body and speech into a high and pure body, speech and mind of Buddha.
Never miss out to enjoy the local food and restaurant by taking some tips from the locals and enjoy shopping from the traditional and ethnic markets with loads of steal deals to take away.
The visit to the snow cap Rohtang Pass is the USP. The paradise is uphill 50-60 kms. The snow capped mountain has a wide variety of sports activity besides skiing. The wind blows very strong and is very cold and dry at times, with the pressure dipping it may add to bleeding. The temperatures dips to very low and usually you descned back before after noon.
Some random clicks from the snow capped hill top. Just a few people there, only you and the hills.
As said good or bad time will pass and it is always hard to say good bye to this place.
Good bye blue sky, good bye to see you back again soon….
So take a break, lets recharge ourself and spend some quality time with the world we love the most our family.
10 years back we printed photographs for all occasions and maintained albums, Now I wonder after 10-15 years how do we ensure we have the digital photographs protected with us?
I have another hobby of creating a video every time I visit a place, this consists of the photographs as well as the videos and I do good editing in it. It takes quite some time to complete it. I made the video for this vacation too, however it was too long so in fact I will share a small sub set of it. Do take some time out and hope you enjoy watching it:
Have a great time ahead…. Keep travelling and posting.
Subhash Chatterji's World 