How is it that someone falls in life with a particular landscape. Only that type of a landscapes moves and soothes them. That is the place they continue to go back to as it constantly beckons you. For me that landscape is the mountains - snow covered peaks or austere landscapes. There is something in the endless vistas of the mountains that is peaceful and yes so intriguing that one can sit and view them throughout the day without getting tired.
Guess my love for the mountains come partially due to my lineage. My mother is from Himachal. And for the first 13 years of my life we have spent every summer holiday in our home in the mountains [Solan]. Now I don't find Solan at any great altitude, but in my childhood moving around the fields of daffodils and sitting watching the kandaghat valley to spot the chugging train was the best pastime. During holidays creating tea on a camphor stove and eating local bread felt adventurous.
Now 20 years later I have had the privilege to view the Kanchendzonga Massif, Stay at Kaza, drive through Tabo, Freeze in Chutkul, enjoy the greenery at Sangla and Rukti Valleys, Loose myself at Khab and marvel at the fury of the Satluj and its tumbles down making even the most stubborn rocks succumb. My heart is still restless to view the marvel yet unseen and un-visited.
Have sat on the edge of a restless Arabian sea during monsoons and have seen its fury at Mumbai. But for me, nothing beats the storm on the mountains where rocks gets hurled down at you, trees crackle, wind bellows and you realize just how non existent you are in the scale of Nature.
The magnitude of the Himalayas is unmatched and my love for them - undiminished and unquenchable.
