Dances on Snow Flakes

(This is a travelogue I had written in Feb 2004 which was well received amongst many of my friends.)

Some time last month, there was a mail floating around in our office. The mail was about a tour organized to go skiing in Manali in the month of January. Few of us friends got together and decided to go, and boy were we excited. To add to the excitement, my mom got onto the bandwagon as well. Many of her friends and (our) family went about raising doubts and questions, "Will you be able to do it", "Yeh umar mein! Kahin haddiyan tooti to?"... Well following is a small (!?.. ok not small) pen down of my thoughts on the trip... Hope you enjoy it. It is not anywhere near the real thing, but still I hope its worth your read..

All of us were extremely excited about the trip. There was some struggle to arrange for woollens and thermal inners etc for the trip. I mean, who would know where one can buy woollens in Mumbai !! The plan was for all to meet at Mumbai Central Station in Mumbai, take the Golden Temple Train to Delhi. By 'all' here, I mean 42 of us ski-hopefuls. We were then to board a private bus booked for us, to Manali. The ski camp was 13 Kms from Manali , in a small hamlet in Solang Valley. The name of the guest house itself was enough to set our imagination loose.... "Snow Nest".

The road to the mountains

Thankfully the 42 were punctual and there was no trouble getting all the members into the train, save for one couple who missed the train and then had to take the next train. It was a 22 hour journey to Delhi by this train and though we were not looking forward to such a long journey from within the dark-tinted windows of the three-tier A/c compartment, it was great fun. All through the day, about 15 of us played Antakshari, Dumb Charades, Scrabble, etc. The stop at Mathura was specially memorable, as some got off and got back in with the famous Mathura pedas. We all had a tiny piece of those and bang!, we said farewell to our control-freak diets...We were about a half-hour late on our arrival at Delhi, and it took our group some time before we could spot our luxury bus at the station. At 9pm we were off and on our way, with a brief break at Karnal (Haryana) for Dinner.
We were expected to reach Solang by 9am the next day, but it took us much longer. The route we took was Delhi-Chandigarh-Bilaspur-Mandi-Kullu-Manali. The bus maneuvered hair-pin curves for hours in the Bilaspur-Kullu belt to reach Solang finally at 2pm. The roads were in a good state, but the terrain being very rugged and winding around many hills and mountains, it was a bit tough to stomach for people with delicate tummys. From Kullu district, we began to sight the snow-capped peaks, crystal water brooks running softly on smooth white rocks and a slight chilly breeze. There were a lot of Oooohs and Aaahs at this point, but there was much more in store for us!

Trying to get cozy in Snow Nest

The day we reached was a good day to acclimatize to the winter there. Most of us were accommodated in the Snow Nest guest house and the rest (most of the bachelors) were put up at the Friendship hotel. We were introduced to our Solang Coordinator, Amar Thakur and later he introduced us to his group of ski-instructors Bobby, Soum, Bhagat and Nirmala. All were from a clan of Thakurs and were residents of the village there with wonderful light tanned skin, light-brown eyes and hair. All our meals were at the Snow Nest. The food all through the stay was sumptuous and never oily. We had the traditional Momos, Tibetan snack which is actually a non-veg filling within a steam rice paste covering (We had the vegetarian version of these as well). We had a dinning room with a fueled Sigdi (a small metal enclosure for burning wood with a chimney to let out the smoke out of the room). This was the main and the only heating in the entire Snow Nest. Ok,.. Its a bit difficult to digest but yes, none of the rooms had any heating at all. But we all had attached baths with geysers. After dinner, we all had a short walk into the night with a few venturing to tell some horror tales. Ofcourse the rest of the talk was more about the anticipation of snow and skiing lessons expected the next day.

The snow fight

I had set an alarm for 6.45 in the morning. But inspite of the 3 layers of razais(woollen blankets) I had a disturbed sleep through the night and woke much before the alarm set off. The first thing I and my mom did was check out the view outside. It had started to snow lightly. And the view was Wooowwww...
We had a direct view of the highest mountain in the Solang valley from our balcony and a few houses further down the slope in out valley. There was a layer of snow on everything we could set our eyes on. Doors were banged and everyone was woken up. There was a scramble to get dressed, or rather 'packed' is the term I use. So many layers of clothing, gosh! Four of the guys were already done with making the Snow Man. All that the snow man required was to accessorize. I gave it my sunglasses, a black fake fur cap and a nice red muffler and our snow man was brought to life. We had a 2-3 hour long snow fight and lots of pictures taken with the snow man. Some guys chose to behead it and took snaps with its head in their hands. Poor snow man :(..


Our first skiperience

We were divided into groups of 20 each, since there were about 20-odd ski equipments available. Our group was the first one to start off!! I think it was the first time on skis for all of us and the ski boots were a bit of a put off. Many of us were able to get into ski-suits that were available and all of us had a hard time getting into our ski-shoes. These boots have nice soft foam from the inside and are in a rigid polyurethane shell. They are rigid right from your toes to mid-way of the calf, which is why one has to actually 'learn' to walk with them on. All of us nearly seemed dressed for a shuttle to space minus the helmets. Thankfully we didn't have to carry our skis to the ground with the boots on. Now all of us experienced the new technique of walking on snow with the boots and our ski poles for support.
Finally we had our lessons on how to get onto our skis. Each ski boot had a ski to go with it. We all got onto our skis and started to slide in the snow. It was a flat ground, so we had to use a lot of arm power. Eventually the sliding lead us to pushing using the ski poles and I did have short skiing sprints. Oh, by the way I forgot to mention another detail, it was snowing all through this time and at one point of the lessons, it worked up to a blizzard-like weather. The snow started getting stuck on the under-side of our skis and that started posing as more friction to work against. I had heard that there would be a lot of falls before we could actually ski, but I didn't have to face many. Infact only one. The instructors had taught us two methods of getting back up after the fall, but trying those out was baddddd.. The legs get into such a weird position with the skis on, that it requires some amount of athleticism to get back up. I always needed assistance :).
I started to tire out and so did the others and about 3 hours after we started out, we were clambering back to our snow nest. It was a cold night again and the snow never showed any signs of waning.

Snow troopers
The next morning it was still snowing until midday. Once the heat of the sun started reaching the wooden roofs, the snow started to melt. There were mountains of snow (vanilla icecream was more like it) everywhere and even the SUVs were snowed out. All the pine trees were looking like a line of Christmas trees. The roads and paths leading to it were a blanket of white. It was a bit tough while stepping into the snow, as you could not figure out a stone from the mud underneath. Our group had the afternoon session to ski, and to make most of our time we made way to the ski ground, a few minutes from our guest house. Here we had rides on snow bikes!, the tyre slides on the snow slopes. My mom noticed another thing and she went wild. Para-gliding!! The initial rate quoted for that was 800 INR. And once the whole group of 20 got to know of it, about 13 of us were ready for it. The rate per head was a mere INR 300. Can anyone beat that! We took a snow bike to the top of the slope from where the glide started. Once buckled up, I was ready to go. There was a driver saddled along with each glide and he took care of the maneuvering. The drop was about 100 feet, about a minute in time. The key was to run the whole steep slope downwards until the take off. I'd never been on this one till that time, but it was fabulous. It was a clear day by then. Blue skies against the snowy rugged mountains. We floated until touchdown and the key to the touchdown (atleast on snow) was to land in a sitting position with one's legs parallel to the ground. Some of the others didn't get the instruction and ended up somersaulting or landing on their faces.
Well that was the end of the snow sports. We had lunch and then moved out to the next session of skiing. This time we were expected to be pros in snow walking, and had to carry our skis on our shoulders to the ski slope. Yes, today we skied on either of two gentle slopes. The main techniques taught were how to snow plough, which is the braking mechanism. On the slopes, there's really no real energy required to move. It was all about balance and brakes. Next technique that was taught were how to climb up a slope. Initially I think a few found this a bit tough to master, but most of us enjoyed the second day a lot. There were quite a few people falling on this day in comparison, but it was worth effort. The 4 instructors were very good. It never felt like it was a group that was being taught. I think I can vouch for all, in that that all felt they were given individual attention. My mom enjoyed the ski a lot and many of the instructors were pretty appreciative of her efforts and did a lot of one-on-one. One of them had represented India in Iran once. There were children as well, residents from the village come out to ski. The 8-year olds were cruising the slopes like children in our part of the world ride bicycles. We were also taught to make turns, which many of us tried but required more practise. The walk back to the guest house now was tougher. The light was failing us and the snow was beginning to turn into ice.
We had lots more fun playing games over dinner and we moved into another hotel for the next 2 nights. This one had heaters! (phew) and a sigdi as well. Still somehow didn't manage much sleep. Many of us never felt hungry during the five days, inspite of the activities of the day. But, all stuck to the eating regime as it helps to acclimatize.

Around Manali
The snowing had abated, and now there was ice everywhere. The snow while melting into water was developing into frost. The water pipes were frozen and the hotel waiters were pouring hot water onto the water pipes. All in the bid to get the ice packed within, to defrost! :) The roof top edges were dripping icicles and we were breaking them by the twos. A fancy dress competition ensued with all getting into the rabbit, walrus, devil and what not getups. Cigars were the most common usage as just the breath coming out of our mouths was smoke enough ;). The fourth day was our day to roam around Manali. I did not mention about the animals in Manali yet, which is a topic in itself. The main animals here were mules, donkeys, horses, rabbits and dogs. Any animal had a thick coat of fur. The dogs were the best (I'd be a tad partial to them as they are my favourite). They were all what we call tagda in hindi, extremely healthy and wolf-like because of their heavy furs. Though they were the most ferocious by looks, they were the gentlest and ready to follow you everywhere for a petting. They never seemed to feel the cold and tread on snow with ease along with their pups.
We had fixed up a small tour with a contact there. The places we visited were:
Vashisht hot water springs - There are separate baths provided for the ladies and the men to have the hot water spring experience. There is lovely ornate wooden door to this bath which is exquisite. Also a temple dedicated to the Vashisht Muni.
Hadimba temple - This is by far the most popular temple in Manali and has a four-tiered pagoda. Everyone was quite surprised that there was a temple dedicated to Hadimba, the rakhshasi from Mahabharat. According to the Mahabharat, she had a very cruel brother who challenges Bhima. On being killed she demands to get married Bhima, as she had taken a vow that she would marry anyone who kills her brother. There are loads of local ladies who roam around giving the tourists a chance to pose in the local Kullu costumes with yaks or very white and fluffy rabbits (they somehow seemed sedated as they never moved! freaky..) for as cheap at Rs.20.

Manu temple - This temple is believed to be the only temple in India dedicated to the Rishi Manu, the creator of the human race. This stands on a small hill in very silent surroundings.
Rohtang pass- Was unfortunately closed as it usually is over the winter months.
Buddhist Monastery - We were very interested in this visit. Its in the middle of the tibetan community's residential colony. Very colourful.
Shopping - Lots of flea markets and antique-like tibetan works as well on sale. Somehow the bronzed works are not really cheap, and the tibetan folks dont seem very interested in bargaining either. Lots of feng-shui that you can get here for the same cost as in Mumbai. Many of us bought a lot of salwar kameez suits, shawls etc, but only if they were a good good bargain.

Serendipity

Our route back to Delhi was most uneventful. Thankfully most of the group members were able to stomach the twists and turns downhill.. We started at about 4pm and reached Delhi at 3am! Checked into a small boarding kind of hotel to dump our bags. About 4-5 of us were interested in the shopping rather than the sight-seeing. But since the shops didn't open until 11am, we decided to tag along with the other dozen gone off to see India Gate (war memorial at New Delhi). Whilst reaching the place, we noticed the place was swarming with security personnel. Wondering if it was a normal Delhi scene to see this and hoping all was ok, we approached India Gate and found it was closed for the 26th Jan Indian republic day parade. After 5 minutes of taking snaps from a distance, we were about to leave when we noticed a baracade of richly decorated motorcade coming down the Janpath towards India Gate and much more following behind it. Imagine our luck, we were about the witness the dress rehearsal of the 26th Jan Republic day parade, and that too from a distance of 2 feet only!
Standing on the pavement, we saw the initial motorcade of the chief marshals of the navy, army and airforce. Next came the display of the war missiles. Heavy army battle tanks, Agni 1 and 2, Brahmos, Prithvi missiles, mobile satellite communication equipments and a small air show of sukoys !! Next came the parade of our soldiers from the different regiments, some were the BSF (Border security force) on camels and horse backs. We considered ourselves so blessed to witness the entire march (believe me, some of the guys were thinking they would win the lottery if they bought a ticket then and there :)).

Now that I'm back at home, the snow flakes didn't seem to leave my dreams and it took quite a while to get back from the daze. Did I really experience all of this! Truly blessed was our tour and I keep turning the sheets of my album and recount my memories..

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