#TRAVEL DIARY #TIMELY /DIVINE EVICTION # KEECHAM/ KEY MONASTERY , HIMACHAL PRADESH

 

 

                                                 

"Travelling- It leaves you speechless, then turns you into a story teller "– Ibn Battutta

12^th March 2020

When I bid bye to my wife, her face was stiff with anger, agony and anxiety, obviously was not happy with my trip.  She was so persuasive to turn off this trip. She quoted the rumors about this virus  , deaths  in Delhi,  etc.!!. Nothing moved me l! .My mother had given up pursuing me and stopped talking to me. Finally , When my wife saw me with my back pack  in my car portico , she went  silent !, she reluctantly   gave a bottle of sanitizer  and  a bunch of masks  and asked me to  take care .  This was not the normal sendoff, and I know this is going to haunt me over this full trip .

My confident level was like anyone else! , because , we have seen the worst of these epidemics  like the SARS, H1N1,Mad cow disease  , etc , So my hope and assumptions were,  this virus will also  be contained shortly .I was so confident  about  our doctors and scientists without being aware  of what horrible things are  in store to this  world  in the months to come .

And ‘ you are irresponsible’ was the standard message from my friends .

The crowd was thin at the Chennai airport. Conspicuously, some people were in masks. I asked the girl in the counter , While collecting my boarding pass to  Chandigarh via Bangalore ‘ is everything ok !” ,I heard her  muffled  voice thru the mask  “  no problem , flight’s are on time “.  Masked  security guys  were pretending to be serious  but casual  .When I boarded the flight to Bangalore , the masked crew  gave  kits with masks , two sachet of sanitizer and  dry  tissues . No food was served.

 Welcome to the masked world! Ok!!.

 I thought it as a  routine process  like the way they demonstrated for H1N1 virus … I remember my client from Singapore  refusing to shake hands with me  and turned to the traditional Indian   Namasthe . There were in flight announcements about sneezing, coughing to be reported immediately to the crew ! That was the time I felt even casual coughs were carefully executed .

When I landed in Bangalore , I could feel  even more cautiousness among the airport staff, The spread  of  virus and the death reports around the world had set in . Covid updates  over the world , stats, WHO’s infirm comments and US’s govt’s nervous statements overtook the news  and were beamed thru the big screen TVs  filling   an air of gloominess  in the airport .

 When I landed in Chandigarh , situation was cool , same traffic ,business as usual , the previous day there was a marriage at the Raddison hotel where  we stayed , and the marriage mood was good ,though  the function was wound up quickly . Me and  Jaideep ,my co traveler from Bangalore could feel something  really wrong  but were ok ! with it . We played some rounds of snooker and had our shares of beer at the empty bar in the hotel ,  and  walked out to have some local Punjabi food .

 March 13th 2020

Morning ,we were joined by three more fellas  from Ahmadabad, Mumbai and  Meerut , totally six  of us started this journey from Chandigarh  . By the time We reached Keechum,   it was three days past ,  honestly we left the  350 miles behind and we were in a different world ,  we forgot everything , initially suffered the sub zero cold , we trekked , ate,took pictures , roamed around the snow laden mounts  ,  we spotted the snow leopards, red fox , Himalayan ibex . We were supposed to  spent 7 days at that height of 14000 to 15000 feet. 

On the 4^th day, the care taker-owner of the home stay we stayed in , an English speaking native lady, pretty much odd to expect that kind of charming characters in that remote areas,  at that altitude,  was making phulkas  for us in the thandhur  and we were all sitting around the stove to keep ourselves warm .While having dinner,  She mentioned about the spread of virus and  she  was called for a meeting to the nearest village head quarters for  some emergency medical related awareness.

We could sense some concern in her face

 March 17^th March 2020

There was hardly any people around in the Spitti Valley , its an off season for tourist, owing to the  bad weather ,yet , normally , it attracts  curious photographers, and bravados like me , but this day ,except for a couple of armature photographers  we couldn’t  spot any of them . This place is a snow desert, baring this  village, which has 20 odd  families! Literally no outsiders . The next day we made a trip to the Key monastery, a 11^th century monastery fully  covered with snow,  took some pictures and played cricket with the child monks , and  we met  the senior monk to take blessings. He offered us chai! and established conversation with us  :

“Where are you from ?”

We introduced ourselves.

“Do you know what is going on in the main land ?”

“Yeah!  the virus  is spreading …”  we answered casually

“Mmmm that’s it !!!.... do you know how many died so far ?  and about the  lockdown ??”

“----“

He was very straight and did’nt mince words “you guys are putting this serene place and this innocent people in trouble ! do you  know here’s not enough hospitals ! …if you are going to hang around here,  everybody is  going to be in trouble !  GO home now! I don’t want to see you in this valley! “

We were wondering!!  what went wrong!!! what is a lock down! did he really mean what he said!! , we have two more days left and we are just getting used to the cold and just settling down!

By the time we reached our home stay, a person from the monastery had already met with the caretaker and asked her to evict us  within 12 hours .

We were forced to vacate spitti valley two days ahead   of our schedule .  But! keep in mind, it  will take three more days to descent to  Chandigarh, we asked Anchal  our driver to get us in two days and  he was happy to do that .

On our way ,we experienced  the vibes of lockdown in the faces of the shop owners of whatever  few shops opened on the way ,  some of them were standing outside their shops looking for cars with visitors . There were hardly any vehicle coming from the opposite direction.

19^th  of March 2020

When we reached Chandigarh , the car dropped us in a junction of nowhere , we bid a hurried good bye to our fellow mates who were  equally in a hurry to rush to their destinations . We waited for a cab with our rack sack. Without shaving / bathing for 6 odd days we looked terrible  inviting  people’s  inquisitive stares   thru their masked faces  , as if we have landed with a rucksack full of covid 19 virus … Jaideep was arguing in the phone,  with someone justifying his visit and absurding and ridiculing this lockdown  .

We   checked into the Park Plaza  , the receptionist , manager , everyone was looking at us differently. When  every visitor is checking out Chandigarh ..these idiots  are checking-in. That night I got a panic call from my wife saying that our honourable PM has announced a janatha curfew starting from 12 AM  the next day  …Only then I started panicking and started scrolling my mobile to book my tickets to Chennai .

20^th of March

During the break fast ,Only  me and jaideep were there in that large  dinning hall  with a few masked local staffs, who in anxiety  were telling stories about virus related  rumors floating around  the city of Chandigarh .Since we were away from civilization for a week , we were curious and shocked to listen to the  horrible stories about the deaths and the mass cremations and stuffs like that from the hotel staffs.

I came to know from my office that all the flights were cancelled from Chandigarh, except  for  two flights  via Delhi and Bangalore. I took the Bangalore route and  when I reached Bangalore in the evening , the connecting flights to Chennai were cancelled and luckily I got  one flight which was about to fly at 9 PM. The lounge was closed , almost all the food joints were closed , social distancing – a new term was introduced , we were asked to stand away from each other , the airport crew were draped with white covers covering all  over the body including shoes , with special plastic screen shields in their faces , as if they are inside a  nuclear lab . Before checking-in they asked me to disclose whether I have got temperature, cough etc. In fact one doctor checked our temperature and  they were so alertly watching anybody coughing or sneezing .

That was the last flight to Chennai  and that was also delayed . finally it took off at 10 PM and reached Chennai by 10.45,. On my way itself I got instructions from my wife .. to go to the second floor directly and to soak all my clothes in hot water with Dettol , and quarantine myself for 15 days  .

 by the time I reached my house it was 11.45 Pm and the lockdown started at 12 am and it continued for say 3 months …

March 24^th 2020

I was in my bed  wondering , amidst the relatively silent day , without any car horn sound or human chatter or  anything , “how dreadful  it would   have! , had we struck in spiti valley ! or Chandigarh !. I cant imagine how we could’ve spent our time in  there  without food, accommodation, , transport , and  cloths!

I closed my eyes and thanked that  monk who evicted us !……….on time !. A divine eviction indeed!

-          - Rajesh babu , experienced as above  on  the above dates!.