Trip to Rikhasamba (Part-1)

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9^th Sept 2011. (Hidden Valley)

I wonder on what actually was going on between the easterly and the westerly blowing from the lap of the Nilgiri and the Dhawalagiri respectively. It was difficult to figure out their relationship; were they friends or foes. Early in the morning a mild breeze travelled through the range of hills to meet Dhawalagiri, at dusk an extremely hard wind, striking rigid hills, travelled to meet Nilgiri and at noon a WAR which produced huge amount of fog covering the hills and creating huge disturbances to passersby. And we were stuck at the meeting point of these lively winds: Yak Kharka.

Yak Kharka, at about 4000 m altitude, was about 6 hours of walk from Tukuche. We had reached Yak Kharka after parting out a number of nature’s hurdles. Fairly, Mother Nature had become hostile enough to show us a way back. But, how could we give up with our own mother. After all we had same spirit as she did. We found different ways to escape better say struggle with.

Ghasa Village.

Kali Gandaki roaring down the villages of Mustang, Myagdi, Parbat etc., which we found along the side of the road while travelling from Beni to Tukuche was the only inspiration for us especially me to walk a long way on mild rain which could have easily ended up with rain fever and common cold for some weeks. The furious rolling down water was rhythmically hitting a huge stone in Kaligandaki. But the stone always managed to be rigid enough to divert away the water as sand blowing in air, in calm. What else it could be for me except inspiration.

Our travel to Tukuche nevertheless was a travel worth to remember. The single lane road passing through small narrow village followed by 60 degree tilting ditches could take any one’s breathe for an instance. But extremely beautiful waterfalls, green hills and beautiful Kaligandaki along the side of the narrow road made the travel a worthy memory. Among the waterfalls Rupse Waterfall is the one that stole my heart away.

Tukuche

Tukuche is one among the major stopping points for the people travelling to Muktinath. The small village of Thakalies gave us a sense of cultural generosity on our first glance. There existed four types of Thakali Society; Gauchan, Sherchan, Bhattachan and Hirachan. Each society has their own god and there are four monasteries built together in respect to these four gods, spreading the outer world with the message of religious tolerance of this small world of Thakalis. Thatch roofed stone houses with well managed firewood and Torans and Buddhist Flags flapping above continuously with the cool breeze blowing all the day are the specialties of this place. And most important is the simplicity and generosity in behavior of people.

We diverted our way from the trail which would further reach Muktinath via Jomsong and Kagbeni. We started climbing up the steep hill above Tukuche to reach Yak Kharka. Enigmatic environment of this place did not seem like in the welcoming mood. Cold wind blowing extremely was compelling our heart to scream. But yet we managed to stay there.

Yak Kharka

Morning in Yak Kharka was pleasant. Beautiful view of Nilgiri and Dhawalagiri on the blue background of sky and white patches of cloud, in no words, could be explained. Besides, the sudden development of fog due to a war between chilling and moist winds and its disappearance within few minutes leaving out clear view of ranges of hills and mountains can easily put any nature lover under the captive. Yak Kharka, as suggested by name, is the grazing land for yaks especially in winters. This place has some yak stable and few high altitude goats; chyangra stable. This place also holds some cultural significance. During August-September, a huge number of people visit this place to drink yak bloods. They believe that yak’s raw blood would make them healthy and cure many diseases including cancer.

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Training Camp: Chitlang

We, me and my friends from Geomatics Engineering, are on fields in Chitlang, Makawanpur now days. Enjoying the day long walks and warm sweat in cold environment with chilling winds, we are being taught to survey the places around Chitlang. Nearly about 3 Kilometers east of Kulekhani, this place was not so much appealing at first sight but much more interesting as time is passing. Filled with the distributed Newari communities, this place gives feeling of typical Nepali Villages.

Hari handling GPS Instrument

Beautiful Terrain seen from Khuchbu Village

Searching Control point after climbing a high hill.

Playing Cards in Fields

A magnificent apple garden at 

We are enjoying a lot with our works but more than that we are enjoying the environment and the place. Passing the steep hill to reach another village, walking through the old newari village, exploring the hiking routes around village, playing cards even in the fields are itself memorable. I have hereby included some of these moments:

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High Thinking: No Simple Living at All !!

Image Src: Spirit Matters

‘I am a simple guy.’ Is it my definition? Is it how I am? How simple I could be? And how can I rank simplicity? I mean how can I differentiate in between simplicity and complexity that is within me? Don’t I should be specific while defining me?

Here again I am in front of you all with the same energy that I possessed from my birth, but little bit of changed ideology. I used to say, while I was studying in school, that I will lead a simple living high thinking kind of life that I had learnt from biography of many idols like Mahatma Gandhi, Abraham Lincon etc. Actually I was not a kind of boy who would search for biographies of different renowned people and study; I read them as they were included in my course books. So, influenced with their lifestyle and effect on people I said to myself that I would lead such type of lifestyle in future. As quoted- “Simple living, High thinking”.

Even now I remember those days; I used to say proudly to my friends, “Hey Buddies! Be ready to wipe your eyes. I am going to be on the top one day, with the same ideology I learnt.” And how idiot I was, I don’t even know exactly what that ideology meant.

Those four words looked quite easy understandable to me and I bet it would be same for everyone who goes through those biographies during their school days. Moreover, it sounds more pleasant to our ears and it feels like heaven if we bring out those words through our lips. I wonder what the chemistry behind those four words is. Why do they synchronize so beautifully with each other?

But now I get surprised, why I took it so easy?  First of all, even if it sounds good, it is not specific in any sense. I don’t know how can we measure the simplicity and to which extent we can call our living is simple. Does it give sense of clothes we wear or food we eat or gadgets we use or way we talk or way we walk or what else? We can say the meaning of ‘Simple’ is complex itself. The word simple can be defined by anyone that would favor him or her. Wearing suit, behaving quite and even laughing slowly, ah! Let’s not say laughing it would be better if said smiling, could be simple living to gentleman type people while it could be, for some group of people, wearing dress they like, talking freely and laughing loud as they wish. Everyone’s living seems to be simple if we listen to them.

Everyone’s living is complex even. If we ask if their living is simple in sense of problems in life, then we would get almost all people disagreeing with the question. Some may show up with the lack of money, some with dissatisfaction with the way they live, some with family problems, some with problems with staff at work, some with health, some with tensions due policy and blah, blah and blah. People may think the life of saint to be simple, but fact is that saint even is worried for how to keep his influence on people as it is and if he is decent he is worried about when god will show up. So, how can we say then, Gandhi and Lincon’s living a simple one? They were bind up with a lot of responsibilities and were most worried for nation they were living in. So can we say their life to be a complex then?

Now, nearly 6 years after school, I feel like the first two words of that ideology are scraps. Life is always simple and it could never be simple as well. Let the life goon in the same way as it wishes. It is thinking that matters. So let’s think positive and do positive.

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