We reached our destination exactly on time; and our train journey of ten hours passed in a jiffy. We had booked a Tavera for next 4 days, and as we got out of the station, we could not locate the driver or the car. After constant follow up and wait of half an hour, our chauffeur arrived. He wasn’t apologetic on being late; neither did he give us a valid reason. We weren’t pleased with his behavior and knew that we needed to get a solution soon. The way he spoke wasn’t welcoming. Being from this part of the world where everyone is soft spoken and hospitable, it felt a little strange.

As we got ourselves at the nearby hotel for breakfast, we made our itinerary for the day.  We were to wait for our cousins for a couple of hours as there train delayed. If you haven’t heard of Pathankot, it is the army and air force station for the defence of India. After the partition if India, many refugees came from newly formed Pakistan and settled in Pathankot. It is relatively smaller town and there is nothing much to do. We went to the nearby mall to spend time, where our last resort was watching a movie. The movie was super annoying and I wanted to blame myself for getting my parents to watch this one, especially when they hardly watch movies.

After we were done with two hours of nuisance, we headed towards the station to pick our cousins up. On my way I met this person who was from Rasuwa, Nepal and was working at the mall. He had so many stories to share, and told me that lot of Nepalese work this side. He mentioned that they work on double duties to earn more and also when I asked him if he likes it here. He replied by saying: “I don’t enjoy my life so much because I miss my family but this place has stability to survive”. I thought to myself and his words gave me a reality check on how hard it is for families to live in Nepal. The salaries for the skilled and unskilled manpower are the same, which is one of the reasons for people to leave the country. He was really sweet and asked me if we needed something, he would arrange. This character of ours sets us special and I realized that each place and people is different. The tone of residents and locals on the Himachal side was loud, so I figured that everyone was impolite.

With lot of thoughts still running, I was happy to receive my cousins, and we left for Dalhousie. The way to Dalhousie is full of twists and turns. There are local buses which depart from Pathankot in the interval of 3-4 hours. On our way we crossed a dam and as we passed the hills around we knew we were in for a treat.

It had been long since I had taken a vacation and the wait was coming to an end. For someone who made her trip once every three months, a year of not exploring a new place outside the country was a crime. Travel for me is a different potion altogether. Meeting various people and interacting to a new face each day gets me recharged in life. To add to the rejuvenation the travel blogs and videos that I get to make about the locations are the best. These are memories stored forever.

So, our itinerary was set and we were ready to visit the two towns of Himachal Pradesh,
Dalhousie and Dharamshala. There was something which was different about the journey as we started. I wasn’t sure if it was the gap that made me more excited or was a series of delay waiting to happen. We were set for our journey and as the plane took off, I promised to see the beautiful hills and mountains again in a week’s time.

I have always been lucky with amazing co-travelers and met best of people while travelling by myself. I have made lot of friends in my flight from different parts of the world. This time as I was going for this mini –vacation with mom and dad, there were hardly chances of meeting interesting co travelers. My time just went by as I was playing with my new camera, and trying my hands on the perfect picture of clouds, from up the sky. As we landed at Delhi, I did not miss the opportunity to click some pictures of the cockpit and get more questions answered from the pilot. We had ample time to spend as our train was in the evening. We collected our baggage, and headed to the railway station where our next destination was Pathankot.

Gadgets are surely a boon, but there are times when we are dependent on it not realizing that a click can make a lot of difference. Similarly, as I was editing my pictures on the camera, I mistakenly deleted all the pictures. With my disappointment, I promised myself to be more careful and as we know we all learn from our own mistakes.

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