On The Lap Of The Silky way, Part - 9

On The Lap Of The Silky way, Part - 9

Silk Route Tour

Sitting on a chair on the side of the road in the large attic of this house, I was watching the vermilion sky painted in the color of the setting sun, which was slowly setting behind the hill. It is the last afternoon of October. The white clouds like cotton wool seemed to be traveling from one hill to another on an afternoon walk. They are walking around with the color of the setting sun in a beautiful manner, somewhere light pink, somewhere terracotta color, some of them have tied a knot on their black hair over their heads. The more I see, the more I want to see with my eyes fulls if the desire to see is not being met at all.

Putting on the outside light Dickie came and sat by pulling up a chair next to me. Now it's time to open her shop. She will now arrange tea for us and then will open her shop. She asked me whether I have brought the holy water from Baba Harbhajan Sigh's temple or not. When she heard that I have not brought it she said said that this holy water in the name of the Baba, should always be kept at home. If this holy water is in the house, the householder is blessed. No one in the house gets sick, the ghosts are afraid to come near the house. The Baba Harbhajan Singh always protects the householder from any danger. She repeatedly requested me to take this water next time. I assured her with a smile that I would not make a mistake next time. I was surprised to think of her simple faith. In this remote frontier village, this much of her faith is the only way to survive, otherwise Harbhajan Singh, a valiant soldier in the army, whose devotion to the service of the country is still remembered with great reverence, has been promoted to the seat of a benevolent deity. Today this girl has taught me how to become a deity by the karma of human beings. I felt a full joy once more.

In the evening, we all sat in a room with tea and pokora and chatted. We were so involved with laughter, jokes, story and songs, that couldn't understand when it had crossed nine o' clock night. The call came from the dining room. The people of this house are also getting relieved when all the boarders and their family finished eating quickly in this cold. Tonight our menu was Rice, bread, pulses, cauliflower curry, potato fry, chicken broth, salad, pickle and papar. After the meal I was walking on the roof for a while in the dark. Cloud less skies, deep dense speechless night covered with thick darkness. Innumerable stars were in the sky, it was looking like millions of diamonds wrapped in a huge canopy of jewels, as if the whole sky is eagerly approaching towards me to embrace.  As far as the eye can see, only the ink-covered peaks of the infinite mountain are awake in that ornamented radiance, like a faint desire. In amazement, my hands became folded. O immortal, ever-awake world, bless me to have my place in your wide bosom in the affection of any future age. Lord, never deprive me of this unfailing beauty of yours in any age.

As usual, the two ladies of this house woke us up with tea at six in the morning. After bathing and eating breakfast we start our today's journey, it was then about half past eight. Today we will go to Rolep. Tonight we will stay there. Rolep is not far from Padmachen. A mountain road though, but that road is so bad that it is almost completely unsuitable for driving. So we turned the other way and proceeded along the rural paved way, crossing the Rongli bazar once again.  It took a lot of time, but we don't have any hurry either, especially when we go out to see the country.

We came across Rangli Bazaar and saw a secluded tea shop. This place is quite empty, there is no crowd like Rangli stand. We drink hot tea with biscuits and start again. A little further on, on the right, the road goes straight to the side of the hill. The distance from here is only 18 kilometers. Beautiful shaded path. It is a bit rough and sometimes the pitch has gone up and holes have been made in some places. However, it was very nice to see the colorful decoration of small houses on the slopes of the hills, the leafy decoration plant, the red bougainvillea, and even some of the houses have spread out the colorful carpet of seasonal flowers in the small garden of them which was surrounded by barbed wire fences. 

At half past ten we reached our present place in the lap of the ditch on the road. The house has gone down step by step. There are about six rooms in the first step and the same six steps down the stairs in the next step. In this way the house slowly descends to about four storeys. The very last floor is quite a large modern kitchen, with a large dining room. It was quite a nice clean arrangement. We unloaded the luggage from the car, put it in a room for the time being, and gone out with the car again.

Silk Route Tour

We are now going to see the shower, the famous fountain 'Buddha Falls' of Rolep. The car stopped under a huge banyan tree on the left side. We were hearing the roar of the fountain from above, but we were unable to see the falls because of the dense vegetation on the side of the ditch. Our driver Dawa Bhai showed us a place covered with bushes and told us to go down. You can't go down just because someone says so. Some large stones gathered by moss seem to have slipped from the upwards and suddenly come down. On the left side there is still a slight support with the damp ditch wall but on the right side there is nothing to hold. 

Silk Route Tour

Dawa Bhai was repeatedly trying to boost our courage to go down from above.  Everyone else on the team was staring at me in amazement as I tried to land. Standing on the second step of the stone, I knocked on the shoes twice to see how far these shoes could withstand the slipperiness of such algae. I did not dare.  In my right hand I found a bamboo twig weakened by mites. Whatever may have happen let me try, thinking this, when I stretched my legs to get down, I saw that Dawa Bhai had come to my next step by stepping on top of me. These fearless mountain boys can read our unaccustomed urban impotence so accurately that at the right time they jumped into the role of savior and raised their hands and took us down. With the exception of a few, most of the team came down. 

This stream is rushing from a height of about 72 feet. The place where it is coming has been created like a pond. The resulting droplets of water are filled with water vapor all around. By the touch of this dripping water on our face and eyes, our mind seemed to be filled with an unknown sweet pleasure. There are lots of big stones scattered around.  Many pictures were taken by jumping from one rock to another. After spending some time in the lap of this wonderful immaculate nature, we came back up again. This time too, our Dawa Bhai was found in the role of savior for all of us to come up.

To be continued.........................................................................................