I
t was a wet monsoon afternoon.
My favourite cousin had come over
from Kolkata with his girlfriend, and
we were catching up on old times
over a hearty, comforting meal of Aloo
posto, Mochar ghonto, Cholar daal and Doi
maach. Out of the blue, my brother said,
“How about we drive down to Binsar for
a few days to enjoy the rains?” We have
always been a tad partial to Binsar for its
sheer, untamed beauty; and the thought
of rain-drenched silver-oak forests was so
tempting! No electricity, sheer night and
solitude in the middle of a forest make for
a near-spiritual experience.
“Why not,” I thought. The weather
was a seductress that year. The rain
gods had been kind and Delhi gleamed
a glorious green under dark rain-bearing
clouds. I have always been blessed with
gracious bosses, so I took the liberty of
calling up to take the next couple of days
off. We packed within 45 minutes and
zipped out on the roads. The 10-hour long
road trip hardly left a dent of fatigue in us.
We were in high spirits, the weather was
cool and driving on the rain-lashed roads
from Delhi to the Himalayas was a trippy
feeling. Occasionally I popped my head
out to feel the gush of the wet, earthy
wind kiss my face. How wonderfully it
refreshed my soul and stripped me of my
city stress!
As we drove up the gorgeous
Himalayas, the landscape changed colour
and texture. The hard, rocky mountains
64 Travel Secrets March-April 2015
lay wrapped in velvety