Enlightening Pilgrimage of Indian Heritage

A Wish That Came Through

(From the Travelogues of Mathew D. Kunnappilly)

TO THE HIMALAYAS

Subash and I had reservations on the train for the 15th. We were at the station early, found our compartment and seats. My seat number was 25 and Subash's 28. A young man was sitting on my seat. I showed him my ticket and he simply nodded his head. This was a window seat and he was smoking a cigarette. He appeared to be little arrogant. I was little annoyed. But one cannot argue with another unless both speak the same language. What is the use of telling someone something if he does not understand it? So, I sat on the available space.

The train started on schedule at 9.10 PM. After some time the young man asked me if I was ready to go to sleep. First he asked me in Hindi. I told him "Hindi nahi malume"(I do not understand Hindi- this is all the Hindi I know but did my entire travel by using it) then he asked me the same thing in broken English (no better than mine) I told him that I was not in a hurry and he can take his time. (In Indian railways in ordinary classes, the seats are folded and unfolded to make beds and seats. So, if some people are sitting, others cannot lay down. If some people are lying down, others cannot sit. Both should be synchronized.) So, he kept on talking with his friends. He looked like in his mid twenties and, I think, was a sales man. Sometime later he offered me my window seat. I told him that he could sit there and enjoy his cigarette. He seemed very pleased. After a while he ran out of cigarettes. No alcohol or tobacco products are sold at Indian railway platform stores. Nor they sell it inside the train. But there are people who sneak in cigarettes inside the train and sell it at an exorbitant price. This young man tried to find one who sells it but could not find anyone that day. So, I offered him my cigarettes. He was very, very happy.

At around 11 PM we all decided to go to bed. So we set up the beds and went to sleep.

There is only one compartment in the train that goes to Tanakpur. At Pilibhit Junction, this compartment will be disconnected and the train will go to Nainital. This through compartment will be connected to the train going to Tanakpur. All this happened while I was sleeping.

Our train reached Tanakpur at 7.30 AM. By then we all were up. The young man asked me my destination and I told him. He said that he also was going via Lohaghat and we could travel with him. But latter on he said that he had some business to take care of at Tanakpur and only by noon he will be able to leave. That may be too late for us to reach Mayavati, therefore, suggested we take the bus leaving soon. The bus stand was about one half mile from the railway station. He came with us to the bus station. There was a jeep with other people in it ready to leave for Lohaghat. He recommended our going in that jeep because it will reach Lohaghat faster than bus. The fare was only a few rupees more than the bus. He talked to the driver, got me enough space to sit down inside the jeep. I thanked him and we said goodbye.

Tanakpur is a very small town. A hill station, you can call. It sits at the base of the mountains. The train does not go beyond this station.

Our jeep left the stand around 9 am. As you leave the town it seemed like going through a forest. As soon as you crossed a small river, your vehicle starts climbing. The road is narrow and cut on the belly of the mountain. There are some retaining walls but not adequate. Therefore, mudslides are common on the rod. We ran into one. A bulldozer was clearing it. In 20 minutes we were able to go through. If it was just few years ago, we might had stranded they're for two or three days until that cleared manually. The road is very busy. Since there is no train going up, everything is taken up by jeeps, vans, trucks, buses and privet cars. Now bulldozers are kept on the road.

The smaller hills you see are cultivated. Mostly terraced rice and wheat fields. Cattle and goat farming seemed common. The houses on those hills are nicer concrete buildings, not shakes like the once down at the valley and beyond. So, I suppose, they are financially better off. But no motor able roads to any of those houses. Walking is the only means.

There was a river that seemed following us everywhere as if to find a way out of the cleavages of the mountains, with us.

This could be as good of a place as any to say a word about the Himalayas. I do not know that if anyone else had made the mistake I made. To me Himalayas was a long high mountain sitting at the border of India and China to separate these two countries, like a brick wall. But Himalayas is not one or two or a few mountains. It is a range of mountains stacks one after another. It is never "The Himalaya" but always "The Himalayas". When we hear of Everest or any other peak, we think of it as the highest places of one mountain. They are but the highest places on different mountains. One other peculiar thing with the Himalayas is this. The proverbial "There is a valley for every mountain" is not true here. Some of the mountains are like two branches of a tree at the bottom. You can jump from one mountain to the other, at the base, without touching the so-called valley, the ground.

These mountains can humble you. When you stand on open ground, YOU STANDOUT, everything else around you subdued. When you stand on these forested mountains, they TOWER OVER YOU and you become a speck on it. Your ego is gone. Your sense of self-importance is reduced next to nothing. Anywhere else you may feel you are the master. But here, you are neither master nor slave. You are part of the nature, and become ONE with nature.

The ascending mountains, cloud kissing peeks, the dissenting mists, the whispering breeze, the thundering winds, the ever present rainbows, the ever changing shadows, oh, yes, all these and more, make Himalayas, not scenic, but majestic.

I am of the opinion today that the Vedic Writing could have been done nowhere except in the Himalayas.

We reached Lohaghat around 1 PM. Had some lunch. Hired a jeep and left. The road is narrow with bends and curves but paved and without bad potholes. The road ends at the Ashram’s gate.

Next:- At Mayavati