There is nothing usually worth writing about what you did, who you saw, how you felt and what you saw. But then, what is left to write about if you discount all of the above experiences? Also the question whether an experience can be written about in its purest form is what has kept me from writing about my time in the mountains.
When you are at an intersection in life, it is very difficult to know what is the right thing to do. However, if we take it that there are patterns in the way life moves, then it is a given that sometimes we are forced to move too. To places we never thought we would ever call our own. And because moving entails a change, it can only be a good thing. And so I moved to Dharamkot in Himachal Pradesh a few years back because I was convinced at that point that a change was overdue.
The place I was to run for two years was called Om Cafe and it was named so by its previous owner Pinku, a 34-year-old, who used to run it for years before he decided to take it easy. It was built on the first-level of the building with two floors. Both the floors were on ground level as it was built on the steep part of the mountain. It was the lowest range of the Himalayas, the Dhauladhar range. So you can imagine what the view was like. From where Dharamkot was, you couldn’t see the first snow peaks from most places as it was in the shadow of the snow face. And so, it could have been a secret, but who does not want to spread news of beauty and the true meaning of life? And so Dharamkot was a badly kept secret.
We travel for a variety of reasons. And everything narrows down to sublime simplicity in the mountains. The the tourist mind-set in this mountain town was in rhythm with the surroundings. And there was something called, 'season-time' when visitors arrive. They come looking for isolation, silence, wordless harmony and something that can only be found in places that are in the middle of nowhere.
There is also a strange sense of community among tourists because they are possibly going through the same kind of experiences and the need to get away from something. Till a day comes when the tourist becomes a local. Like I did. Being 'local' is however the toughest part of this transition, but you have to do it, because otherwise you are forever stuck in the aforementioned intersection and never get to have the experience. Though you are in it. And that is the purpose of travelling in the end. To become.