That twinkle on the hill: Chapter 1/2 - Kausani
In the mysteries of the Milky Way,
Will you remember, a spark of earthly light?
Perhaps, if you could hear the mountains sing,
In that twinkle on the hills at night...
‘What is that light twinkling on the hills?’ I asked Sharmaji. The pitch black canvas of the night was punctuated by just one sparkle, far away and elevated.
‘That is the village of Gwaldam,’ came the prompt reply.
‘Gwaldam?’ I tried to trace that name in the atlas of my mind, but failed, ‘ What’s special there?’
Sharmaji laughed. His guffaw was that of a mountain veteran, who had all the opportunity to escape to a fatter paycheck, but had decided long back to submit to his love for the mountains, for his home, and trade money for happiness. ‘For you travellers, it can either be another tourist spot, or if you can love these hills, it is another memory, waiting to be etched. It is like a flake of snow, just like my Kausani - once you hold it, it will melt. Yet you will get that feeling that you had held, for a few moments, something special, very special.’
‘And what about you, Sharmaji, how is it different? Won’t the snow flake melt in your hands as well?’ I tried to joke back.
The old man gave a peaceful response which I will never forget, ‘For us who stay in these hills, sir, we don’t even try to clasp the flake, we just watch it fall…’
Sharmaji was the manager of the Himalayan Mount View Resort in Kausani. It was my first of many trips to Uttarakhand - with a new-found love for mountains, I had been severely maimed by the brutal yet tourist-laden beauty of Nainital, Ranikhet, Almora, Binsar and Bageshwar. My mind already saturated, I had landed in the sleepy village of Kausani, which gave an altogether new meaning to ‘overkill’. So far, it had been getting shifty glances of a snow clad peak here, a cloudcast summit there, but Kausani seemed to have a generosity that was unparalleled - an entire swathe of mountains on full HD view. On the top of a ridge, so uniquely placed was the hamlet, that a string of mountain peaks scattered in different locations seemed to continue one after another in a mindblowing panorama - one after another came Nanda Ghunti, Trishul, Mrightuni, Nanda Devi, Nanda Khot, Nanda Kot…
The mornings would start with a scramble to get the first woollen cloth you could lay your hands on, and then rush to watch the first light of day cast a ruddy blessing on the Himalaya. Watching the day come alive thus on the freshly snowed peaks made you feel as if you had come on a pilgrimage. Each morning I would wake up very early to watch the red sunrise, then feel blessed to see thewhite snows shimmering against a blue sky and wonder why wouldn’t early man consider these peaks to be the abode of the gods. Not only were they difficult to reach for the mortals to even get a glimpse, the beauty was as overwhelming as it was forbidding. The mind gets numbed, and you get a feeling that this is a different world meant for someone more superior, more worthy, who else than the gods! So much overwhelmia - where else would the Mahadev meditate but the Himalaya!
If the mornings were enthralling, imagine the evenings - mystical, melancholic and mesmerising. for the alpenglow on the peaks was yet another chapter that would leave you stupefied, only to be plunged in darkness, as if the lords wanted you to introspect, to be pensive, to understand the bigger picture beyond the shenanigans of an otherwise, worthless life.
I would watch these gold-spangled evenings on the mountains from the open terrace of the resort in Kausani. Night would descend, I would hear the mountain crickets buzz to life, the stars awaken, but entranced, I would continue marvelling at the silhouettes of the peaks, mingling with the darkness of the night, and wrap my shawl even closer, musing about life. It was on one such evening that I found Sharmaji watching the sunset as well. That was the first time I heard of Gwaldam. Like a child eager to explore more of the world around him, I made a mental note that day to stretch farther next time, and go to the next ridge.
Now restless with the taste of the mountains, it was as if the genes of the primitive wandering man had arisen anew within. There was that curiosity to travel closer to the abode of the Gods, next time to the twinkling lights, to Gwaldam…
7th November, 2020
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