Exploring River Trails and Village Tales of Himachal Pradesh

It is only after waking up in the morning that I come to know what I have to do today and where I have to go. Well, today my two friends have come from Delhi and I wake up in the morning and like every day, I talk to the flowers, asking them about their night and dreams. Later, after enjoying some sunshine, we all plan to go down to the river for a walk. Actually, the plan was that we would go to the river below and catch fish. All three of them are from Uttarakhand and in their village, catching fish from rivers and streams and eating it is very easy. And I am a vegetarian who has nothing to do with all this.

Before leaving I meet Shiro, Shiro is lying in the sun like me and having fun. After talking to him for a bit, we started descending towards the river. Our friends have just come from Delhi today, so it will be a little difficult for them, but it is a lot of fun when everyone is together. There is a descent till Kauthadu village and after descending about 400 meters we reach the river where the devastation of this monsoon can be seen.

Here water is flowing from under the debris. Walking on debris, we cross villages nestled among apple orchards. Here we see the Pahari washing machine which is made from wood. Local people put clothes in it and wash the clothes with the girl's sticks. Nearby we find a hammam in front of a house in which local people heat water. After reaching the river below, we start descending, this is Dhagiana village and its height is 2200 meters.

The purpose for which we had come here has turned into dust. There is very little water in the river here, so little that there are neither fish nor frogs in this water. Disappointed we decide to go back. This time we start going not by trail but by jeep track. Some of our friends are walking a little slowly, we did not even bring water, hence they are facing more problems. Back in front, there is only smoke on the mountain, nowadays the local people cut the grass of the apple orchards and set it on fire.

As we walk along talking, a local lady invites us for tea but we have to climb up so we decide not to stop. As we move ahead, a woman tells us that a leopard comes here and takes away all the animals around the house. There are dense cedar forests here, so leopards find a place to hide. We are returning via jeep track, we are walking slowly...talking...having fun...laughing a lot...and making the new year amazing.

At the end we walk fast and want to reach home, the sun is setting and we start running to return home. The last one kilometer is completed by walking through apple orchards. After coming back everyone is hungry so some people make Maggi and I go to another house to get milk. It takes 40 minutes to bring milk, after which we drink hot tea and heat the room by lighting the stove.

So that was all my day today. I hope you are enjoying watching and reading 2450 Meter Life. Come on friends, see you in the next post, till then live life happily. Well, this post is originally written in Hindi and Google Translate tool has been used to translate it.