It is not often that one can appreciate the sound of a nib writing across paper. Only a state of absolute silence and solitude gives one access to such a luxury in our times. My weeklong vacation to Uttarkashi in the last week of December 2023 certainly gifted several such moments to me.
Any well-planned trip never leaves beyond the spreadsheets. I am the testament to this truth as I have made several spreadsheets with detailed travel plans in the last seven years for a travel to the Himalayas. Which is why thus trip worked. On the Monday, the 18th of December while making yet another travel plan for a motorcycle ride around South India Aadi asked why I am not planning to visit the Himalayas. On a lark I checked MakeMyTrip and saw that a return flight from Kochi to Dehradun would cost me 34K. That is a fair price for a total of 4 flights, so I went ahead and made my booking. The next step was to talk to my old friend Tilak Soni, Rider, mountaineer, adventurer and proprietor of Eagle’s Nest, a café and home stay at Uttarkashi to help me arrange my stay in Uttarkashi.
The Sunday morning, the 24th of December saw me arriving at the Cochin International Airport in time and after security check I proceeded to the lounge. The discounted lounge access provided by Kochi Metro Card would be ending on the 31st of December, so I decided to make the most of my second and last lounge access with the said card.
The Vistara flight to New Delhi was certainly a welcome change from the Indigo flights that I have been habituated to. Well-appointed and with proper business and premium economy classes this felt more like a Volvo bus than a regular local bus feeling that Indigo often gave. The food too was decent, and it was a good feeling not having to search for cash to have a morsel to eat in the air. I had embarked finally on my first solo vacation.
While travelling solo is not new to me, I have often travelled solo for work and there have been numerous solo rides in my life. However, this was the first time in my life that I am doing any sort of vacation alone. Trips with family as a non-earner apart my first trip after being gainfully employed and getting a five-figure monthly salary was my 2011 trip to Badrinath and Gangotri with Jayan Warrier, my photographer friend. Then there was the 2014 Gangotri trip with my mother where we were trapped by unseasonal avalanches at Dharali. My last vacation as a bachelor was in 2015 with my friend Ajith Ramachandran to Gangotri. Post my wedding in 2016 all vacations have been with Aadi. This time Aadi was on a previously planned trip with her friends to Lucknow and Varanasi and thus I was about to vacation alone. Regular subscribers of my blog and people who know me would know that I am no stranger to solitude. It is however one thing to enjoy solitude when one is habituated to it and quite another to be at peace with when one has been in a blissful relationship for around 8 years. Beneath the veneer of excitement at finally travelling to Himalayas there was an undercurrent of worry about whether I would actually be able to enjoy the vacation as Aadi had ensured that I was not lonely the past several years.
The security rigmarole at Terminal 3 of Indira Gandhi International Airport, New Delhi made me reminisce fondly about Bangalore and Hyderabad airports. For the transfer passengers there were just two X ray scanners and security check points. Add in an absolute lack of space, shortage of baggage trays and absolute pandemonium thanks to a few flights that were able to close their boarding it was a marvel that I was able to maintain any sanity at all. One hapless passenger had to return through the X ray machine at least 4 times as in the confusion he had not divested himself of all the things to be checked in. With dexterity that would make Tetris or Bangalore auto rickshaw driver proud I somehow tunneled my way through security and then on to the marathon that is the walk to Gate 49. There were surprisingly a lot of Malayalees on their way to Dehradun. I even saw a guy with a strong resemblance to the serial killer Cadell Jeansen Raja.
I have never really understood why people stand in unmoving queues to board a flight. People stand in queues for 10-15 minutes when the boarding has not even started! It is not after all a first come first serve. Everyone has a seat reserved for them and there rarely is a paucity in cabin space to stow their hand luggage. I always felt it prudent to board a flight only after most of the queue has dwindled down.
If the distance the airplane taxied around in the airport were driven in a straight line, I believe we would have reached Dehradun before the flight took off. At several aprons we were lined up behind several planes waiting to take off and each time I thought we are next to line up we taxi on towards another runway. Slightly irritating but comical, at least I had a solid nap. My decision to take a window seat was rewarded immediately upon take off. A few hundred feet above ground the grey shroud around New Delhi lifted to show a brilliant blue sky. Horizontally all I could see was the shroud of smog but vertically Delhi was adequately visible. In a few minutes I had another wonderful surprise, I could see the brilliant snow-clad Himalayas! It was quite wonderous to imagine how these Himalayas could have been seen by the people of New Delhi before the era of air pollution and possibly even during the height of Covid lockdown. While the aircraft was looping around Saharanpur during descent, I started noticing the bright yellow floodplains. Reminiscent of rivers bursting at their seams in all their muddy glory on further descent I realized they are dried up rivers and flood plains.
Yet another surprise was the Dehradun Jolly Grant Airport which now had a swanky airport terminal. It was a bittersweet surprise though; on one hand I was glad to see the progress in the form of Aluplast cladding and sky bridges being built on the other hand the quaint and charming feel of the old airport was gone and replaced by an industrial template.
Gathering my luggage, I immediately hailed the cab that was arranged by Tilak Soni to take me to Uttarkashi. The flight had been delayed by an hour, but the cab driver Rajesh assured me that we would make it to Uttarkashi for dinner. From past experience I knew the driving time to be around 7 hours and having left Dehradun at 4 I expected to reach earliest by 10:30. But the marvelous improvements in the road network and the breakneck driving of Mr. Rajesh ensured that we reached Eagle’s Nest by a shocking 8:30 PM! I was welcomed by Tilak Soni who I was meeting after 8 long years and after a delicious dinner of soup and noodles I crashed for the night, lulled to sleep by the sounds of River Ganga flowing nearby.
Horemheb's Musings 
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