Om Mahal

Our 10th Mahindra Homestay was Jaishree & Vijay Mankotia's Om Mahal in Kangra valley near Dharmanshala.

Crossing Shimla is such a pain. The traffic is unbearable and despite helpful cops standing at every turn we took a good one hour to get out of the maze. Since we were 'inside Shimla' now, we decided to pay a visit the dear old Peterhoff Hotel. In 2004 we had come to this heritage hotel to get flagged off on the Raid de Himalaya. 


From Shimla the road is pretty straight to Gaggal... just stay on NH 88. We took a couple of detours because of landslides (yes... even in the summer these things happen) and sometimes because we felt the off-road was more picturesque than the highway. We finally reached Gaggal (via Bilaspur, Hamirpur. Jwalamikhi and Kangra).


Om Mahal is pretty easy to navigate to. When you drive from Gaggal town towards the airport (a.k.a. Pathankot road) take the left that points to Masroor  monolithic rock-cut temples and keep going for about 5 kms. There are no boards so if you request Jaishree Mankotia she will send someone to the main gate to guide you into the estate.
When we entered the mango estate the trees were full of ripe mangoes, ready for harvest. And hidden between them were some Lychee trees.

So, you ask... were the next 3 days spent eating mangoes and lychees? Yes... and many more nice things... all while we looked at the Dhauladhar range of the Himalayas.


We asked Jaishree to prepare simple dal-chaval type of meals but she would sneak in one of her specialities in to the menu and we ended up over eating - as usual!


Major Vijay Singh Mankotia, is an officer, and gentleman... not to forget his roots in royalty and politics.  
Mankotia is a member of one of the princely families of Himachal Pradesh. At the Indian Military Academy he was  awarded the coveted "Sword of Honour", and served in the  Gorkha Regiment with distinction. After a premature retirement from the army he entered active politics, where he is remembered as one of the most versatile Tourism Ministers of Himachal Pradesh. Unable to fight the deep rooted corruption in the system for long he has today “quit active politics and decided to relax, catch up on my reading and meet interesting people like you...” he says.


The atmosphere at Om Mahal is spiritual - there are pictures of the Dalai Lama and Swami Chinmayananda all over the house - some of the pictures are with the Mankotias... “our family has been associated with all things spiritual for generations and we continue the tradition” says Jaishree.


There are certain advantages of being the guests of the former Tourism minister - you get to know of the off-roads to take and the best places to see, especially if you are short on time.

The next day we took a quick drive to Norbulingka, a school of Tibetian art and craft, dedicated to preserving Tibetan cultural heritage, located in small village Sidhpur near Dharamsala. Mankotia charted us of a “nice forest road” that was really beautiful... especially because  the entire dharamsala - McLeodGanj area is crowded with Tibetans and tourists.


The art and craft on sale at the Norbulingka store is prohibitively expensive, but I guess you have to consider the fact that they are trying to support about 1,50,000 refugees and run a government in exile... so we did our part for the cause and picked up a few souvenirs. Incidentally the original town of  Norbulingka is in Tibet (now under Chinese rule) and used to be the summer palace of the Dalai Lama.


While the Tibetians are very strict about the teaching of the traditional wood and metal carving techniques, they have given in to the western influences as far as the music their younger generation listens to - the Norbulingka class rooms were echoing with Britney Spears and Shakira.


The 6 o clock aarti and bhajan at the Swami Chinmayananda samadhi was our next stop. Memories of my first school in Kurnool came to mind as I joined in the bhajans, remembering a verse here and a phrase there. Some of the bhajans prayed to the gods to give the parched lands some rains. After the aarti, as we prepared to take the prasaadam it started raining, a fabulous hail storm. 


Everyone was overjoyed, some started collecting the large ice cubes and eating them. A few of the devotees stayed back to chat with us and we also had the honour to meet Dr. Kshama Metre, Director of  Chinmaya Organisation for Rural Development who was recently awarded the Padma Shri Award for Social Service.

The next day we decided to go to Dharamsala and McLeodGanj to see the Dalai Lama's personal Namgyal Monastery. The main teaching room of the Dalai Lama is located here and because he was out of the county the palace was not crowded.


We had lunch at the small Namgyal cafe which served some tibetian soups and italian pizzas. There were many monks wandering about in their dark maroon robes and shaven heads. Unless you paid close attention to what they were saying you could not tell if they Tibetin, American or Indian.


Thanks to Richerd Gere and the his charm in the western world a lot of Americans and Europians are actively involved in the support of the Tibetans... some of them have even taken to the robes.


The narrow mountain roads all the way from Gaggal to McLeodganj and back were a breeze for the Xylo... drives like a car, climbs like a SUV.


Back at Mankotia's place (or Palace if you like) the rooms were very comfortable and thanks to global warming they had just added their “first set of Air conditioners... just this year... it has never been this hot!” according to Jaishree.

The house is filled with family pictures and memorabilia from Vijay Singh's many travels. The library boasts of books from Archies digest to Enid Blyton to the teachings of the Dalai Lama or the collectors edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica if you like!


Wandering about the estate, we spotted the elusive Yellow billed blue magpie,  several bulbuls and treepies all over the place. True bird wathcers paradise. 


The silverware is actually made of silver (... not stainless steel), truly royal.  The behaviour of the staff and the presentation of the meals, even if it is a simple chai with biscuits, is just as royal. We were the first Mahindra Homestay customers to come here, maybe the first ever guests they have had since they started the homestay so we felt we were treated morel like family than guests. 


“If all the guests we get are like you, I would be very happy” said Jaishree as we left the next day on our way to Hoshiarpur to stay at our 11th Mahindra Homestay location - Citrus County.

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Krish Rauni

Our 9th Mahindra Homestay, Krish Rauni at Matiana, is located just off the highway (NH22 - a.k.a. the old Hindustan-Tibet road) and has a beautiful view of the valley.


The first thing Kishore asks us when we call him to ask for directions is “Do you want to climb 100 steps or walk 100 steps on plain ground... from the car park...”. Needless to say, after the exhausted drive from Corbett we opted for the plain ground walk, we were not taking chances at 8000 ft. above sea level. But what thrilled us even more was the fact that we were going to be staying in the middle of an apple orchard.


Krish Rauni was among the busiest homestays that we had been to so far. Kishore and Shobana are great hosts and despite having 3 other  rooms booked when we were there took good care of everyone. Everyone got their privacy and everyone got their attention. Kishore is great fun and has a very interesting humorous story to tell every few minutes. Shobana is a great cook and her paneer is among the best that I have tasted... fresh, soft and cooked just right.

We reached Krish Rauni in the middle of the biggest annual event of the little village... the local deity was being escorted back to the temple in the next village after spending the last 24 hrs a temple just outside gate - where we had parked our Xylo. We were lucky enough to get a glimpse of the deiety - “very auspicious” we were told.


The rooms are very comfortable and even had a balcony that overlooked the valley... better than and LCD screen for entertainment I must say. There was a TV in the rec-room but we did not even switch it on... we were too busy playing carom.


Most of the meals were served on the terrace which over looked the apple orchard and was arms length from a nice apricot tree. We got to eat apricots for breakfast lunch and dinner. The terrace was also the centre stage for most of the activity here. We spent most of our time and Kishore and Shobana made it a point to introduce each of their guests to each other and made sure every one was chatting up like one big family.

One excursion we went on was to Hatu peak - the highest peak in that area. at 11152ft it was supposed to “quite a dangerous drive... but for you folks it will be nothing... you have driven all the way from Chennai... and across the Chakrata, Tuni road... this is nothing... “ said Kishore as he explained the sights around the place. Our Xylo took the narrow road in its stride with ample room to help other cars pass too!


He also had a very interesting story to tell of  a certain dentist in the nearby town of Theog  Padma Shri Dr. Rajinder Singh. Apparently Dr. Singh had been awarded the Padma Shri for his skills in speed typewriting and not in dentisry... “Good thing I got to know of that fact before I opened my mouth to him... my wisdom and wisdom tooth... both are safe today” jokes Kishore.

Matiana is also the place where the various Indian sports teams come for high altitude fitness training before they head off to international competitions. Needless to say the area is also famous for the apples... that keep the doctors away.


With a belly full of a great breakfast and a basket full of fresh apricots we headed off to our 10th Mahindra Homestay, Om Mahal in kangra valley near Dharmanshala.

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The hills are alive...

There are many roads from Uttarakhand to Himachal... and we decided to take the most difficult of the lot to reach our 9th Mahindra Homestay, Krish Rauni at Matiana.


We left Camp Corbett at Kaladhungi after lunch and thanks to a board I saw at the Ramnagar entrance to Corbett National Park we took a road that was on the southern fringe of the park (via kashipura, Afzalgarh, Nagina and Najibabad). We got fleeting glimpses of some birds and wildlife as we drove to Haridwar for the night. After finding that the rooms at Ginger were dirty we stayed at a very decent Hari Heritage.

The next morning we continued on NH 72 to Dehradun, and beyond. In Dehradun we took a break to pick up some wildlife books at The English Book Depot on Rajpur road, and some great hindi MP3 cds in the market near the GPO.


From Dehradun we could have taken the 'plains' road to Chandigarh (via Herbertpura and Narayangarh) and reached Shimla via Parvanoo. But we chose to climb the Himalayas (again) and Herbertpur and head north on NH 123 up to Kalsi and then took the road to Tuni (a small non-descript town near the Uttarakhand-Himachal border on the Tons river) via Chakrata.

A good part of the last leg of the day was done in pitch darkness. Thank goodness for that.. the narrow roads and the cliffs were beginning to scare me... in the dark all I could see was the white marker stones on the cliff side of the hill roads and I felt secure... what you can't see can't scare you... right?


We found a small hotel (3 rooms only) in Tuni, who served us some rajma, roti and chaval for the night and gave us a decent room to rest our backs in... amazing that we actually found that place in the dark.
Uttarakahand has a lot of power problems and sometimes in these remote villages there is no electricity for at least 3 days.

The next day between landslides, dangerous cliffs and lovely birds we took off to Matiana. A few meters after we crossed the Tons river, which is the largest tributary of the Yamuna, we were in Himachal Pradesh.
The roads got better (but still had it's share of landlsides)... so we reached Matiana (via Hatkoti, Jubbaland & Theog).


In Himachal, the best part is that you get to see apple orchard on the road sides and... in season... you can pick as many apples as you want and nobody cares!


We stopped for a breakfast of samosa and chai and one small village... probalby just a few hundred people. Two young boys were staring at our car... the number plate... us... and wondering “where the hell have they come from”. Finally they asked us and when we said Chennai... they had no idea where that was!


We tried to explain, Chennai also known as Madras, samandar (sea), south india... nothing seemed to ring a bell... and then all of a sudden his face lit us - “Chennai Super Kings” he yelled. 


Wow! The first real good and useful thing that has come out of the IPL... it has improved the general knowledge of the kids in these remote places.


Because it was not yet apple season we decided to eat apricots - hundreds of them... little did we know that when we reached our 9th Mahindra Homestay, Krish Rauni at Matiana, we would have Apricots for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

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Himalayan Tsunami

Little did we realise some months back that here we would be sitting and writing about nature's freak nature. Little did we realise that in a span of 4 months we would have been part of her game, be it at 18,000 ft above sea level or at sea level in Chennai's shores.

When we signed up for the Raid-de-Himlaya (India's highest, longest, toughest and most arduous car rally)... we did not know they actually meant that... we always thought the 'jargon' about danger was just to 'scare' people off...

We signed up as we had just had a bunch of personal tragedies (prabha's father passed away in may '04 and my uncle - whom I consider my guru in the creative arts, passed away a few months later)... we wanted to get our minds off these things ... so we decide to go on the Raid.

People who always said we were crazy just confirmed it when we decided to drive up to shimla (where the rally was flagged off) from chennai... a good 2500 kms. We decided to rope in two more crazy people and let the fun start.

Passing through nine states in four days was tiring but an amazing experience of a lifetime. Each region we passed through we could feel the culture differences (and similarities)... be it the language... or be it the clothes which moved on from white dhotis and caps to pyjamas and turbans.

Travelling through the entire length of the country, we were admiring the crops and flowers in the fields, the innocent smiles of the villagers, the rain clouds and sunshine over the hills and the plains, the bird nests hanging on telephone cables, the black topped smooth highways ending in eternity, the dhaba food cooked with grease and love... the list is endless.

We entered a new country when we touched the base of the Himalayas. From Manali upwards, the terrain, the language of the roads, the vegetation, everything changed.

We realised that the rally was just incidental... we were there at the lure of the great mountains and particpating in the rally, calculating at the end of the day our penalty points, checking our vehicle and preparing for the next day were all just part of the act of moving further into the lap of these great mountains.

We got to see the great himalayas as they are today... and it is said... "they are evolving all the time.. so when you get back here next year.. they may not look the same"... they are after all the world youngest mountain range... always forming... everyday there is a landslide... every-day!

Words are too restricting to describe our experience with these very-much-alive-himalayas. Someone who has never been here might ask what is the beauty of stones and rocks which are in fact the only things we found here. But these stones and rocks speak a language no mortal should miss listening to in his lifetime.

From the colours which turn from yellow to pink to purple (and these are just soil and rocks i'm talking about, mind you), to the millions of folds in mountainswhich are never the same from range to range... from the occasional eagle or probably a never-recorded animal that suddenly appears and disappears, to the huge hill that looms up ahead with a crown of snow, so majestic that we felt so miniscule in its presence.

Towards the end of the rally.. the day we were to go over to the Tanglang-la pass (the second highest motorable mountain pass in the world) we were hit by a freak snow-storm... it was freak as the INSAT (India's multipurpose satelite) weather picture did not show any storm ... or any danger.

But, an interesting thing was that the storm was predicted by the locals... they watched the 'chinese crow' ... looks very similar to the crow we see in the cities here. The crow flies in a certain formation and it come to the settlements for shelter when a storm is coming.... a sign that the INSAT picture did not give us.

We were blocked off from the rest of the world for over a week and we had to stay in Army refugee camps for that time... before we were brought back to'civilisation'.

Forced to stay at the mercy of the army camp, we had nothing to do for a few days... nothing except pull on and pull off layers of clothes to do just the basic rituals, nothing except walk through a foot of snow to the next room to have a cup of tea, listen to the experiences of the army officers in the camp who, along with several others had done nothing but put their lives at risk at the coldest, cruelest, highest posts.

To read a newspaper or watch a movie is something else, but to face these men and see the lines in their faces as they recounted their experiences was something else. The jawans in the camp made sure that our tents were always warm. They would bring warm water (fact - water can never get hot in -10 to -25 celsius) in the oddest of hours. They would cook food for us and what they went through to put up with us gave us the meaning of "Athithi devo bhava" (Think of the guest as God)

As we moved from camp to camp, we almost did a research on the different kinds of heating systems we encountered... from plain simple 'bukharas' to kerosene bukharas which worked in a simple way of dripping the kerosene using a medical iv drip onto a stone stove that heated up a tin pipe... to electric heaters and gas heaters.... the heating systems progressively improving as we moved up into permanent camps from transit army camps.

Nature has her way of showing us that we are but guests in her house... all who had come to himalayas during that week were stuck in different settlements along the highway... nobody able to do anything against the avalanches and avalanches of snow that kept blocking the road during the nights, right after they were cleared using expensive snow-cutters and other exclusive machinery meant for the purpose.

So there we were looking up at the milky way, (for those who wonder if milky way is an icecream parlour up there - milky way is the galaxy in which thousands of solar systems - our sun and planets - like ours move around in their respective orbits), wondering where we, as individuals, stood with respect to this millions of years old nature and what were we really, really trying to do in our 80-year old life!

Getting back to civilisation was no problem after some days when the snow falls had subsided and we got back into the maze of our lives, finishing our car rally in the top ten.

Four months later, we were enjoying a great saturday night (moonlight and the Christmas spirit adding to the beauty adding to the spirit) sitting atop the single room in our farmhouse by the sea, we were basking in the pride of having conquered the Himalayas (though the fact remained that the Himalayas had conquered us).

The dogs were barking their heads off from about 3:30 in the morning (we have a black labrador - Yoda and we were baby-sitting another fawn labrador - Jessica) ... we thought they wanted to go for a walk... and prabha took them for a walk about 6:30... on the beach... so she did not even feel the earthquake... i was fast asleep though.

We left the farmhouse about 8:45... just minutes before the Tsunami struck.... and we heard about it...and came back there to see the second one hit the seafront plot and literally shatter the entire wall of my neighbours place... the stones were scattered all over .. like popcorn... nature's fury at it's best.

For the next couple of weeks we were busy trying to help organise things for relief work... talk to contacts... get supplies at discounted rates... get some money from people to buy medical supppies, water and home needs to be shipped to the various relief camps being organied by various friends and organisations that we have come to be associated with for the last 20 years in chennai.

We decided to go and see what was being done in the relief camps .. so we went to the affected town of Nagapattinam last weekend... and we saw the devastation caused by the Tsunami... amazing that 'water' could cause so much damage... but there are a few incredible things about the TSUNAMI...

The villagers do not want to give away the orphaned children to people who want to adopt (the children) from other vilages.... or towns... the reason - they feel that with over 50% of the children dead in the Tsunami... if these children leave the village too... there will be a generation gap in the village... so they are proposing to setup a central 'home' where these children can stay and the entire village will contribute towards their schooling, and emotional needs... great eh?

Another thing we found was that the 'self respect' and 'self esteem' has not gone out of these folks... some of them owned fishing boats that are more expensive than a Honda City... sometimes as expensive as a Merc... :)

They are ready to go back in the sea and start work.... they dont want anything free.. some of them are asking for assistance so that they can start work.. and they dont want it as AID... they just want a loan... they want to repay... just a lower interest rate to help them tide over the crisis...

Almost all of the people we met were saying the Govt. and Non-govt-organisations are doing so much that they can hardly find 'fault' with anyone.... but they are very frustrated with just having to sit around all day doing nothing.

There was an un-official ban on people going out to sea (more like a warning issued by the govt.)... till last weekend.... but now they are all slowly going back... and if people start eating fish the trade will begin to boom and they will be back in business.

There are many stories of bravery... and luck.. we met one child (13 months old) who was thrown into the attic by her mother (just before she died) and was found by rescue workers 3 days later... alive! Another family had a story to tell about the 'family dog' that rescued an infant while the mother was hanging on to another child... this was a mongrel... not a trained rescue dog!

Speaking of animals... it was amazing to know that very few wild animals have been affected by the Tsunami... only city animals (cows, domesticated dogs and cats) have been found dead... they seem to have lost their sixth sense... naturally.. with all the 'plastic covers' and papers we feed them i suppose.

One interesting 'fact' that was pointed out to us was that the Tsunami was predicted in the panchangam (almanac) last year... when we were sitting at the RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) office in Nagapattinam... we were shown a copy of the 2004-2005 almanac which said that 'giant killer waves would strike the coast of India near Chennai and Pondicherry as a result of an earthquake in Asia'.

From the chinese crow to the animals and almanacs.... the signals were there, the signs were clear... why did we no see them.. hear them... or atleast 'read' them.

Happy New Year... I do wish to wish aloud... despite freak snowstorms, despite tsunamis, despite personal tragedies.... after all, life is about hope and "in celebration of being alive".

Prabha & Harsha Koda

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