I shared 600 plus pictures of the Himalayan Trek with my best friend forever and she replied with just one thing."The Bonhomie" is evident. You look so happy and beautiful and relaxed.

True that.




People who know me well, know that while I am an amicable person, mingle around with several, I generally do not take initiative to make new friends or let new people into my life. Know that asking me to meet at a mall or a crowded place is a disaster, since I will just not do it.

They know that a long drive, nature,a grove, a farmhouse, a trek are some of my favorite things.

In all excitement I signed up for the trek and post that every single day there was one thing that I wished for. That we got a nice group accompanying us on the trek and that I would enjoy the company of these new people, whom I was apprehensive about.


GIO didnt really share with us details of the co trekkers, we only knew there were 3 males joining the same expedition. We were to take a cab drive of ten hours to the start of the trekking location together. 

I recall asking the representative from GIO how old the "three males" were and where they were from. Amrita my fellow trekker could have died of embarrassment at that moment. I then told her, look we take the last seat in the Xylo, so we dont have to share the seat with the newcomers and if we do not like them we can stay out of making small time conversations.

07;30am @Haridwar on 7th May, we saw 3 boys join us on our vehicle. A quick look at them, they seemed decent, rich and full of life.

We knew we would have fun. I mumured a silent Thank You for my wish of good company being answered.

So here are the characters



Yash - the naughty guy with  supreme wit and the ability to crack a joke with a poker straight face.

Aadit - the good looking bugger, who was a keen observer of "beauty" well, mostly his own!

Ankush - the Sensible , sober buddy, who carried the aura of  "Why fear when I am here"

Amrita - Like the missing sister of Yash. We could have had a competition of "Who can use more expletives in one sentence". Completely detail oriented she left no stone upturned with the nitty gritty of our trip.

As the journey unfolded, the bonhomie was innate. Right from the beginning of the car ride. 

We dealt with hunger, motion sickness, sleep, missing barbie pillows, romantic music to noisy beats, an over smart driver, stopping for pictures and much more. The bond seemed natural and we were at ease with each other.

We found ourselves, falling ,laughing, failing to pick up the fallen since we were laughing that hard! Collecting logs for the bonfire, accompanying each other to the "Cathole" at night, huddling together by the bonfire with stories of ghosts.

Playing Chinese whispers, truth or dare, rock climbing, rapelling, shouting out for the others in the tents next door when we heard them fidgeting about in the sleeping bags.

Waking each other up, picking out the forbidden cauliflower from the pakoras, going dizzy with mountain sickness and drinking garlic ginger water - It was distasteful and smelly but it helped.

We nudged each other through the ups and downs, through the stream and rivers, through the cold and the heat. Sometimes stopping for the one who was tired, many a time pushing the other and saying you could do it. Sharing food, laughter, spirits , pictures and the pains. Oh yes we did about 50 kms of ascending and descending in 4 days, we scaled rocks and rocks and rocks, it seemed like the mountains were alive and teasing us to do it. The rocks seemed never ending. 

Lending a hand to the one who needed help, keeping pace with the one who was slower, taking the bag of a fellow tired trekker, carrying two bags sometimes.

The guides Abhishek, Jagat and Dishu Bhai too were with us at very step. 

We felt like a family with a common goal and objective. We were happy to haul each other up at every step and wait nonetheless. Unique needs of every one took a backseat, we were in it together. We wanted to get to the peak together.

This is what helped us make it to the summit and then back down to camp as well. The descent took us about longer than we thought and caused more pain than we imagined.

I must talk about the fetter that the 3 boys shared. It seemed well orchestrated, except that there was no maestro here. Everything was discussed and done in consultation with the other. Logical arguments were accepted and they stood up for each other without hesitation, right or wrong did not matter.





Looking at them took me back to manifold instances where I shared/continue to share the Bonhomie.

@ School writing poetry about the teachers and giving them nicknames

@ Mount Carmel College working together for the college fests,staying overnight,watching the fashion parade and of course teasing the men who dared to enter the gates of Carmel. Riding triples on my scooter, escaping from the cops.

@MBA - Bunking together, group studies with the boys and girls in the "Ladies Room", or so it was called when it had a transparent door and only housed all our blazers !!!

@ Commercial Street - shopping with my besties, bargaining for deals

@work -  the laughter we share ..the entertainment we provide to the outsiders in the elevator

@ home with my other half....and my children and family.

Even today with the few that I connect with despite not being in touch for several years, meeting my besties from across the world feeling like the same old "Tapori" gang. 

The time, the distance, the years, divergent backgrounds, differing interests, contrast in age and gender do not matter and the connection is seamless.Smooth like it was meant to be.

Here are some favorite pictures..from the recent times

"The Beasts of Burden"

It started with the Shopping... like always..

We were excited and raring to go. The two month wait post booking seemed like an eternity that just would not end.

We had ample time to think,plan, to shop, to shop ...and shop more.

We were quite driven by the modern urban "civilized" people that we are and hence hygiene and smelling fresh in the mountains appeared to be a basic necessity. In went our favorite creams and moisturizers, wet wipes and spare clothes and sweaters and stoles, shawls and floaters, flip flops etc.

For some reason, we believed that we needed to carry food (yeah right! the service provider had clearly mentioned 6 meals a day) and so went in the sattu ke paranthe, dry fruits, chiwda, mixture, khakras, protein bars, mint etc.

Medicines, well we could have treated an entire village for the common ailments, if you know what I mean!

At the end of our packing we felt quite accomplished and satisfied at having ensured everything that we needed was packed.

If you have watched the movie "Wild" you would know how Renee Russo stumbled over backwards while picking up her trekking bag. 

We were almost there, and the 60L bags were full to the brim and we had slings for other "stuff". 

3:00 am on D Day and hubby dear helped me with the bag. He couldn't help but remark, how the bag weighed and looked heavier and bigger than me and asked if I really thought I could scale a mountain with that kind of weight on me.

I must admit it seemed impossible to me as well.

Upon reaching Auli the Eco Lodge from where we were to begin the trek, we dumped baggage. consolidated the medicines, chucked the extra clothes, kept one kit of essentials like sunscreen and viola, weren't we proud? The bags weighed 3-4 kgs lower than earlier.

Feeling quite glad, we started the ascent to realize that, we had a lot to carry. The weight yet managed to bog us down.

It was warm and suddenly in a few minutes we were cold and needed gloves as well. It could rain with no notice, the sun playing peek a boo with the clouds and the rain.

The weather was like the emotions. Sometimes warm, sometimes cold, sometimes unbearable, sometimes pleasant. Ever changing though. The mind also played tricks and games along with the weather and the ascent brought some strange scenes back to life and memory. Some refreshing, some repulsive.

In truth the physical baggage we were carrying suggested the emotional baggage as well.

We reached camp by the evening and we were frozen, quite literally with the heavy bags and the weather. Our ideas of freshening up were dissipated as even sipping water was extremely cold. We focused on collecting logs for a bonfire without which we would have been icicles.

Some more stuff from the bags was shed at the camp site. The extra clothes were given up to embrace the reality that we would be unable to bathe or clean up with water in the cold. Changing clothes too was unnecessary since we were wearing a minimum of 5 layers.

And this was when the bags became light. The physical and the mental. The onward journey now seemed pleasant and enjoyable. 

I recalled what my better half and family told me about just enjoying the experience and not worrying about home and family.

At that moment I told myself, "Let Go" and all will be well. 

That is when there existed no load in the mind and on the body. I knew that I had to surrender myself to the present and reality and forget about every other part of my life.

They would cope and did cope wonderfully well, in my absence, the only difference being in me.

Brought me to the question, what is all the baggage that I am carrying that stops me from enjoying my journey of life. What is it that I don't want to let go, that makes me unhappy?

Not having any connectivity for 4-5 days at a stretch made me miss my family, but I was not anxious about them. Not knowing what my children were doing, how everyone was coping, did bother me initially.

However being away in the luxury of nature and away from everyone and everything familiar to me, helped me cope. I was living my dream, surrounded by majestic snow covered peaks, walking between the clouds, sleeping right under the stars, drinking water off the streams, listening to every wish of mine come true. 

Pangarchulla Peak @ 4700 mtrs

Gorson Meadows

 I knew if I had to enjoy what I had craved to do, I had to LET GO.

Sometimes...hmm many a time in life you have no option but to let go. No option but to go away, no option but to accept the reality, no option but to take the route you have chosen to take.

Carrying unneeded trappings only makes the journey arduous and unpleasant.