Time must have been
9:30am, we reached Manali. It was an uneventful journey. Our cab driver
KaramChandji was already at the bus station waiting for our call. We left it to
him to take us to a good stay outside the busy streets of Manali. After driving
a distance to leave the busy crowd behind we reached a beautiful home stay “Apple
House”. As the name suggests it was amidst apple and pear trees, bordering at
the end of the view were those tall mountains. The house/cottages are designed
so beautifully that you feel as if you are part of the wonderful nature outside.
View of the valley from our home stay
A day to wallow in nature, chill out and visit a nearby
temple. Manu and Manja had to look for bikes as they were to ride from here.
They left hunting for good bikes. We postponed our daily chores till evening
when finally we were ready to visit the temple which we had missed during our
previous visit to Manali. Hadimba devi temple, a beautiful temple amidst tall
trees. A unique structure with several layers of square tombs and a small note
on the history of this temple is worth reading. (http://bharmourview.com/himachal-tourism/manali/hadimba-devi-temple-manali
). The temple has a small entrance and you see a cave inside without an idol
but a footprint which is worshipped. The pandit serving the Prasad was generous
enough to brief us about this temple. Little away is the Ghatotkach temple.
I was a kid when I
watched Roja movie for the first time and by now have watched it countless
number of times and this is one place which comes to my mind every time I think
of this movie. And the same thing happened when I saw this temple. The scenes
shot in this temple started playing in my mind. It was Roja feeling. Such an
amazing movie and a brilliant place to shoot it.
After shooting few pictures with the group we strolled in
the evening market of Manali. A bust street filled with shops, restaurants,
hippies and cool breeze filling your lung. A group of people who carried
various colored oil in a kind of custom made bottle holder roamed around the
visitors waiting for a chance to do the magic with their oil on your body. It’s
a common sight of people getting their tired legs or a heavy head massaged albeit
the chaos of market. They seemed to be in no ecstasy. When someone among them
asked one of us if he wanted a body massage I wondered how someone would get a
body massage done, I mean where … there…. :P
It was almost dusk when we raced back to our home stay.
KaramChandji was a generous man, he offered us tea at his house. We were
surprised by the hospitality he presented for a bunch of new faces like us. We
accepted the invitation not to make him sad but I personally never wanted to
put his folks into uncomfortable situations. But he insisted that we all go. A
small family with a beautiful wife and two sons doing their schooling. They
were preparing their house for a festival in the village and hence the lady of
the house expressed her dissatisfaction for the condition of the house. We
enjoyed the world’s best pudina tea (At least for me this was the best) and lil
snacks. The super champ, younger son was busy pretending to study while the
elder son, her mother said was very studious. He studied in the town and was
not around.
Back home, the home stay chef had prepared the best of
cuisines for the non-vegetarians while the
rest almost starved with left-over’s of the afternoon lunch. Lil
cribbing, we hit the bed soon to start the next day early.
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