The Kalpa Katu!!
It's never a good idea to travel on a bad stomach. Even worse is to travel in the upper Himalaya with gastroenteritis. Anyways, here I was, trekking and driving through Kinnaur in eastern Himachal and realizing the truth behind the previous statement.
Having survived the drive to Chitkul from Chandigarh (with a night halt at Sarahan) I got over-confident and decided to go on a short hike to Nagasthi, the last post of ITBP before China border. Point to be noted here: Rujuta chose not to come for this walk, which at that moment I thought as over-cautious only to realize later as another right decision by the most mountain savvy person I know. Chitkul is at a height of 3600M and that brings into play the vagaries of altitude sickness. And my mates on that trip got a live demo of 'The effects of Altitude sickness coupled with gastro on the human body', and mind I may add. Nausea- tick, severe headache- tick, loss of appetite- tick. The drive from Chitkul to Kalpa remains one of the most scenic rides for me, in words only. And did I tell you, it was my b'day that day.
Kalpa, in Sanskrit is a unit of time equalling 4.23 billion years (in Guiness records also). Kalpa, the erstwhile capital of Kinnaur, lies perched on the side of a huge mountain directly facing the magnificient Kinner kailash range, less than 10km as the crow flies. So close that you feel like running across the inbetween valley and touching the eternal snows. So close that even inside the guesthouse restaurant one has to wear sunglasses coz of the snow glare. The guesthouse btw is a wooden structure whose design has been copied, and copied well from the local architecture. This was also the place where the then GG, Lord Dalhousie sat and prepared the first draft of the Indian railways. Now, this is what I call a historic place. And here I had reached a state of desperation.
Well, in Mumbai I had just started taking an ayurvedic medicine 'Katujarishta' and it has worked quite well. We tried to get this almost every place we stopped on the trip but couldn't. Nothing else was working and in my mind I just needed Katu and I will be fine. Few Kms above Kalpa is Roghi, a small village with only two claims to fame -its the last village on the 'old' Hindustan-Tibet road on Indian side and it's 'suicide' point has a 100% success rate. To this village we went for a stroll. Amidst its ancient two storeyed houses and kids with Tibetan features there was a house with a red cross sign outside. On enquiring we found out it was a govt dispensary and the lady in charge was the most important person in the village. She was the chemist, teacher and the middle-woman of roghi. And she has in stock the 'Katujarishta'. For INR 1.oo only.
God resides in the mountains. I beleive it.
Having survived the drive to Chitkul from Chandigarh (with a night halt at Sarahan) I got over-confident and decided to go on a short hike to Nagasthi, the last post of ITBP before China border. Point to be noted here: Rujuta chose not to come for this walk, which at that moment I thought as over-cautious only to realize later as another right decision by the most mountain savvy person I know. Chitkul is at a height of 3600M and that brings into play the vagaries of altitude sickness. And my mates on that trip got a live demo of 'The effects of Altitude sickness coupled with gastro on the human body', and mind I may add. Nausea- tick, severe headache- tick, loss of appetite- tick. The drive from Chitkul to Kalpa remains one of the most scenic rides for me, in words only. And did I tell you, it was my b'day that day.
Kalpa, in Sanskrit is a unit of time equalling 4.23 billion years (in Guiness records also). Kalpa, the erstwhile capital of Kinnaur, lies perched on the side of a huge mountain directly facing the magnificient Kinner kailash range, less than 10km as the crow flies. So close that you feel like running across the inbetween valley and touching the eternal snows. So close that even inside the guesthouse restaurant one has to wear sunglasses coz of the snow glare. The guesthouse btw is a wooden structure whose design has been copied, and copied well from the local architecture. This was also the place where the then GG, Lord Dalhousie sat and prepared the first draft of the Indian railways. Now, this is what I call a historic place. And here I had reached a state of desperation.
Well, in Mumbai I had just started taking an ayurvedic medicine 'Katujarishta' and it has worked quite well. We tried to get this almost every place we stopped on the trip but couldn't. Nothing else was working and in my mind I just needed Katu and I will be fine. Few Kms above Kalpa is Roghi, a small village with only two claims to fame -its the last village on the 'old' Hindustan-Tibet road on Indian side and it's 'suicide' point has a 100% success rate. To this village we went for a stroll. Amidst its ancient two storeyed houses and kids with Tibetan features there was a house with a red cross sign outside. On enquiring we found out it was a govt dispensary and the lady in charge was the most important person in the village. She was the chemist, teacher and the middle-woman of roghi. And she has in stock the 'Katujarishta'. For INR 1.oo only.
God resides in the mountains. I beleive it.
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