Ghuttu - Uttarakhand / Remote villages of the Himalayas - 2

After Ghansali village in Uttarakhand, we headed next to Ghuttu. This was another small village kind of thing located remotely from mainland. It was one of the better populated villages with a GMVN guest house. It had a good place to eat. There was a bus which would start each day morning and go to Hrishikesh which would be around 7+ hours journey. Apart from that, the another bus would come back and be parked at Ghuttu overnight. This is the place, where we actually relaxed and had great dinner after a hard hard trek. It had a flowing river, lesser population, less disturbance,
amazing sunset.

We got to stay in this place for almost 3/4 of a day from 1pm in the afternoon till 6 30 in the next day. I cannot really call this a remote village, but indeed was an awesome place to unwind after a long arduous trek.

For lunch we ate all sorts of junk food, Samosa, gulab jamoon, veg chowmen.

Dinner was usual roti, rice and curry!

Cheers,

Ghansali - Uttarakhand / Remote villages of the Himalayas - 1

Auden's col was one such difficult trek, where we had exhausted everything in order to complete this trek. We were at our end of our energy levels, we had been stuck in snow blizzard for a day, we had rapelled from 500 feet using a single rope. We had crossed glaciers and we had walked through rockfall and avalanche zones.

Finally after a hard day's climb, we got to this village. The best part of reaching this village was encountering kids each one of them asking "Mitthi". Initially we did not understand what Mitthi was. But it meant sweets or toffees.Incidentally these kids request each visitor to that village sweets. Unfortunately, after being in the Himalays for 9 days, we did not have any
stock of chocolates of toffees. Everything we had was stale or just gotten over. We spent one whole evening plus night in this village guest house. I can never forget this village due to the hardships we encountered in reaching this village.

Cheers,

Remote villages of the Himalayas.- 0

Though I have been only on a few Himalayan treks, I am fortunate enough to visit few villages remotely nested within the Himalayas.
Reaching there has been problem, but upon reaching the remote village, the feeling of joy excitement is nothing short of unparallel.
Its always fun, thinking of these remote villages. Reason being, they are are so remote, its kind of achievement, after days of wandering in the Himalays like a mad guy, we end up amidst these villages which are almost a day or two away from regular human civilization.

So here goes the list of remote villages which we were fortunate enough to visit amidst our Himalayan treks.

- Ghansali / Uttarakhand.
- Ghuttu / Uttarakhand.
- BaraBhangal / Himachal Pradesh.
- Rajhgunda / Himachal Pradesh.
- Kaza / (Spiti)Himachal Pradesh.

Cheers, more description to follow.

Alter thoughts - 7

There is a general saying which goes, man should not sit idle, instead should strive for excellance. Excellance comes with hard work, meaning an individual must be in continous pursuit, which indirectly means he should not idle time doing nothing. He should always be focused.

I have seen people idling time. Where they do absolutely nothing and spend time, over discussions having tea, or sleeping under a tree. These people are often criticized for not being productive, growing old doing absolutely nothing.

So let me tell you my side of the argument and let me try to convince you why.

I am totally in favor of people who are sleeping under a tree, idling time over conversations and growing old doing absolutely nothing. But why is that the case?

Assume a situation each and every person works very hard. you will not find an individual, who is unproductive. Everyone works their heart out. But have you ever thought, are there sufficient usages of everyone striving hard.

A cobbler can work hard and stitch 100 shoes instead of 10.
A metal worker can work very hard and come up with loads of pressed metal, cut metal polished metal.
A cook can churn up 100 meals instead of 10.
A driver can drive all day long and drive 1000 kilometers instead of 100.

Lets take a step back, a cobbler will stitch 100 shoes only if there is a demand for those many numbers, if there are buyers for so many shoes. Why will a cobbler stitch so many shoes when there are no buyers?

Same way, a cook shall not cook, if there are no people to eat 100 meals.

There it goes, whats the point in the cook, driver, cobbler being so productive and hard working? when there is no demand for his work.

May be there is a way to artificially induce deficit in the market where in people can buy junk.

So, whats the point in everyone being so productive, striving for excellance. This brings us to the point where people criticize idlers, people who grow old doing nothing.

Are we correct in criticizing them, of course NO, as long as they are able to feed themselves comfortably, who are we to criticize the idlers?

After all life is meant to be enjoyed. For some people enjoying may mean through hard work and earning money while for others it might be just idling time.

What say,

Cheers,

One such Trek to remember - TTTT 38

There is some kind of general presumption that goes with a Himalayan trek. The presumption is that, after each Himalayan trek, any individual ends up losing weight, because, its exhaustive, walking, climbing over days together is not simple task.

But I have one such tale to share, where, my weight neither decreased nor remained the same. Yes, you heard it right, it means that, my weight had increased after the trek.

We went for a 12 day trek in the Himalayas, in September 2015, and when I came back to Bangalore and checked my weight, I had increased 0.5 kilos.

I may have eaten proper food in the time between completion of trek and me checking weight. But still, I think I know the root cause of this.

We had 10 ponies carrying food supplies. We had eggs till the last but two days of the trek. We crossed 3 high altitude passes and each time after pass crossing, we had chomen /noodles , pasta, custard and other food. On arriving at campsite on each trek, we were treated with loads of food.

No wonder, my weight increased over 12 days!

Cheers,

PS- How I wish, I do the trek again.!

Trek was Bara Bhangal trek in Himachal Pradesh, crossing 3 high altitude passes.
This route is fondly called the shepard's trail!

Happy birthday, Jamsetji Tata

Remembering the architect of India, Jamsetji Tata on his 178th birthday.