This is more like a backlog blog post coupled with today’s shenanigans! Last couple of days were all crazy with work - I woke up, logged in for work and logged off - Yup! That pretty much summed it up! Suffice to say - worst days ever till now. But the flip side to this was - I not only made friends with some fun people who are staying in this cottage but also learnt some bhangra and garhwali dance moves - two classic talents in my repertoire now! A very sweet couple - Honey and Dipangshu rocked the evenings with their bhangra moves and our very dear caretaker, Rajesh swooned the floor with his slow-motion Garhwali moves. Another friend, Dhruv imparted some good Rajasthani foody tips, mostly involving different types of Kachori, not to forget Supriya and her jumpy dog - Berlin who played along the whole time. Kamini Aunty cheered us on whilst cooking dinner for us and her sweet teddy dog - Doodle ran amongst us, confused at all this commotion! The Friday evening ended with a bitter after-work exhaustion but the night ended with a lot of bhangra cardio, cleansing the tiredness and the sore neck I got from working all day in bed! Anyway, next few days of no-work now and I went to bed thinking - Let’s see on which side of the topsy curvy life I find myself tomorrow…
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| Next morning be lit up as this Night! |
It’s Saturday morning and I woke up full of energy. A quick freshening up and I set off with one of my new friends from this cottage, Dhruv about 7:30 in the morning. From our little tucked in Stella cottage (Oh and I discovered that the house which was struck by the cannonball from Gun Hill, I mentioned in one of my last posts - is none other than the Stella cottage I am staying in! How uncanny!), we started to walk past the Library Chowk and took the way to the right from the forked road there. Destination - George Everest top.
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| Walking up the George Everest Hill |
The scene changed instantly. The valley opened up offering a glimpse of the snow-capped Himalayan range. The walk was a serene experience, the morning was calm and quiet, the flowers peeked from here and there, the leaves rustled in the soft wind and we walked on…
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| Mussoorie flowers - after which the place is named. Pic courtesy - Dhruv |
Turns out, we both - two strangers from two very different parts of the country - are equally interested in the funny green leaves and pretty colorful flowers and chirpy singing birds. The walk took its own interesting pace as we stopped to debate and google and browse through a fauna catalog to figure out the differences between - chir pine and blue pine and deodar. The cutesy pinkish Mussoorie flowers (after which the place is named) greeted with a sly sweet smile, the bright red rhododendrons burst out amidst the thick greens, sometimes from the top of the slopes, sometimes - from the bottom of the valleys, the violet and yellow tiny flowers peeked from the corners.
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| Glimpse of flora and fauna on the way. Don't miss the coconutty-bird nest there! :D |
We arrived at the bottom of the George Everest hill, legs already feeling warmed up pretty well. After a few tid-bits, we started the actual climb of this hill. A bushy-tailed dog followed us for a little bit and a few cows mooed while grazing the green pastures on the side of the path.
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| View from the Observatory at the George Everest House |
A bluish - yellowish bird suddenly flew by, joined by his (could be her, not sure!) friend with a greenish hue. The brown birds with an orange breast greeted us almost at every turn. The wise big langurs (the monkeys with red face and red bottoms are apparently bandar whilst the black face ones are langur) with whitish fur and black face sat on the trees, looking very solemn. It was not just wilderness and wildlife, though. I met many new interesting people. My companion for the day, himself, was quite engaging to talk to and it was only a bonus that we met a really comical uncle - ‘Where are you from?’ He asked. I said, ‘Kolkata’. He shrugged and twitched his nose, ‘Kolkata! What kind of place is that!’ and as I started to explain I found out he himself was from Howrah, Kolkata. We also met a family of three where the parents were super anxious about their teenage son’s fate to make it big in this life. My friend took the opportunity well and imparted some well-rehearsed corporate tips!
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| Climbing up the last steep now... |
The top of the George Everest takes the breath away. The entire snow-capped range opens up to an even wider screen! Bandarpunch and Swargrohini - my two well known and favorite peaks say a big cheerful Hello!
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| The snowy Himalayan wall! |
You can walk all around the house and the backyard which is full of rocks and trees and little wide green pastures. And then you can climb further up from this house to reach the top-most part of the hill. The rocks at the top are of a slightly different formation and you can go on all fours to get a good roughing up with nature. Dhruv was totally bonkers on making up his own adventurous routes and I,being scared but tempted, followed him with a feeble protest. We slid down a slippery hilly path, swinged ourselves tarzan-like grabbing a hanging branch of a tree, crawled up a narrow path to reach a top slope and pretty much, exhausted ourselves with wise-life gyans and silly banters on what awaits in the next phase of our own separate lives!
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| Top of George Everest Hill! |
Well, as it turned out, my next phase of this life took me to a years-old café - Lotte café up in the Landour bazaar. By the time we had completed our walk and came back to the cottage, it was afternoon. I took a little rest and then ventured out for a coffee on my own and that’s when, Lotte café happened. I won’t say much about this café because I have got a heavenly chocolate raspberry tart melting in my mouth at the moment. I will just say this - Walk up and down the hills of Mussoorrie and let the coffee in this café wash down your tired legs - you will feel blessed!
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| Lotte Cafe! |
P.S: The long day rolled into a long night with all my new friends from the cottage around a bonfire and a pancake from Landour - Chaar dukaan. A perfect end to a perfect day.
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