Part 1: The Journey to Discover Tranquillity!

“Let's not have a sniffle, let's have a bloody good cry. And always remember the longer you live, the sooner you'll bloody well die”, sang Joan Baez. But on my birthday this year, I decided not to cry or sniffle, I decided to travel.

What’s better than the majestic mountains when we think of travelling? Well, some will say the beaches or cities, but being an urban creature and not much of a swimmer, hills and mountains are always my favourite. The mysteries hidden behind its every turn, the monumentality of the stony structures, the lush greens and the abundant greys, the simmering blueness of the vast sky, the mountains call me. And I answer their call.

On the new day of the new year, my husband and I started our travel. One of the very few days, when I woke up before the sun did, that too in the chilly winter of Delhi, but the excitement worked as the alarm clock. Wrapped like a rolling stone, we rolled towards Kausani.

Kausani, a small hill station and village in Uttarakhand, lies north of Nainital and sits at an elevation of 1890 m. Our train reached its nearest station, Kathgodam on time, and we hopped on the car that was pre-arranged. Ankit, our driver, was a nice young fellow, who played a lot of Garhwali and Kumauni songs. The chamakni chunri of Gulabi Sarara (a Kumauni song by Inder Arya, that was played a zillion times), waved along with us in the traffic-jammed bumpy dusty adventurous yet glorious Himalayan roads to our destination.

It was the New Year’s Day. People were returning from their holidays to their mundane lives. And we were going in the opposite direction. Roads became emptier as we rode higher, the sky became clearer, the birds’ songs became more audible, and the air became cooler. A ride of almost six hours, from the station to Kausani, was tiring yet refreshing. The silent conversations I had with the Pahadi songs, the undulating terrains, and the accompanying Kosi river made my journey a contemplative one. That’s what I love about mountains, it makes me, a conversationalist to a wind whisperer.

Our stay was reserved at Himalayan Retreat, a resort situated almost six kilometres from the main town of Kausani. The town had a few houses, hotels, and shops that sold essentials, and not much of a crowd-puller, yet. It was already evening when we reached our stay, which was nested within the forest on the higher slopes of Kausani. Wherever we travel, we try to book our stay at places away from the main tourist location, and this one was no exception. After the warm welcome by the owner with a refreshing juice of rhododendron, we settled down to our cottage. The cold evening was enthralling, bringing out the excitement of winter-loving me, the cold that I missed till now in Delhi. The owner promised that our morning would start with the clear 360 km view of the Great Himalayan ranges from our window, including the Trishul, Nandadevi, and Panchachuli ranges, for which Kausani is famous. After a homely, hot, and tasty meal prepared fresh by the kitchen staff, we called it for a night, tired yet contented, with a wish of waking up to a cold, clear, and prospectus morning.