Someone take me to the Mountains!!

One fine morning, my mother casually asks me, "Are you writing recently?" "Only for myself", I reply. With puppy eyes she tells me to read her something. I sigh, "you will either laugh or wonder what's wrong with me.🥲" It baffles me out sometimes; how we centralise our parents for most of our problems and yet don't even talk to them about it. Anyway, she convinces me with her pouting face and I explain to her a poem about the mountains and how I need a house in the valleys. Trust me, there is nothing, literally nothing, your mom can't do 😭. Like, if she tells me to die, I die!! No kidding. 🤌🏻

(For secret reasons, "Gulaba" is my favourite place till now 🧘🏻‍♀️)

I once saw this reel where a hiker girl is at the bottom of a mountain and looks at the peak. Then she reaches the top, looks down for a view and says, what's the point? WHAT'S THE POINT? I wish I was there to tell her what's the point. What's the point in discovering a place that has only seen a couple of people. What's the point in consuming the perfect moment of a sunset that stays in your mind for the rest of your life. What's the point in getting to know the locals, the animals that wait for you to pet them, to feed them treats you brought from a sleep deprived city. What's the point in the overwhelming feelings inside your heart and butterflies dancing in your belly as you encounter the vastness of the rocks. What's the point of getting soaked in the fresh waters of a stream. I wish I could tell them all, what's the goddamn point! 😾

(At Landour; I can still smell pancakes, fresh bread and hot chocolate)

I discovered late, mountains make my heart flutter💗, mind at ease💐, and throat all thirsty🌝 like a long-distance lover does. When I first entered the mountains, early October in 2014, I was a pathetic mess puking my brain out all the way to Chamba. People call it mountain sickness, what I felt was: knocking at the door of death, all I wanted was to return to bed. No traveling, no getting dizzied in the instantaneous curls of the snake-like roads, no hiking, no getting attacked by leeches, and hence, no puking. I remember my mom citing Hanuman Chalisa throughout but it would make me more and more nauseous. The mountain breeze couldn't heal me, neither the Rajma-chawal we had sitting by a river. And I realised, this is not my cup of tea. 😩🫂

(just look at this bro!)

Being mountain lovers themselves, my parents dragged me into Himachal each year. My vulnerability continued and I used to sleep through the hours and hours of driving to avoid barfing all over the car😭🤲🏻. Until one day, something struck in me to give it try, to grow a slight likeliness towards it perhaps, just for my parents sake. I can't make them anymore embarassed! And trust me, IT'S ALL IN THE HEAD. Once I put my head out the window, inhaled the fresh winds, tasted the chilled water, saw sheep fast walk in herds, plucked a wild flower, had my first pahado wali Maggie that people of my age romanticise, climbed rocks and weeds to a temple, there was no going back. 

Now, I feel like I belong to the mountains. It seems very familiar, like a long lost twin maybe, or your bestfriend from nursery; you know everything about her but can't recollect her name. I become a different person in the mountains. I turn curious and have my extrovert side switched on! I jump like a toddler when he discovers bubbles, a kid when his father gifts him a train, a teen girl when she gets a note from her crush. My energy is over the world, I can climb till I'm injured. 3 kms? I can walk. 5 kms? I can walk. 13 kms? I CAN WALK!!!

(one of the roads in Shimla)

In mountains, summer is a spectacular sight for sore eyes and winter makes you roll in a furr ball. I'm not mentioning rains for obvious reasons, duh (💀)! I can name infinite things, the himalayan ranges posses that bring me surmountable happiness but you get my point. MOUNTAINS ARE COOL! 🏔️🍃

(I mean, look at this beautiful property at "Haripur" village)

Anyway, here is a picture of us 🙈 because she always asks me "aaj kya banaun" only to proudly ignore my suggestion later.

 

And if you feel like you wasted your precious time reading this blog, then kudos to me! Mission accomplished! 👄