Leaving Patnitop towards snow point—A short trip from Jammu
Last evening was windy and cloudy. Wind blew whistling
through the whole night. In a new place that too at a good altitude I feel
uncomfortable. I couldn’t sleep well. It was the first night. I take a little
time to adjust. At Patnitop it was our only night.
When we
came out in the open next morning, we found the sky still cloud covered but much
brighter. Tukai and I went round the area exploring. The flowerbed attracted us
first. A bunch of pink-tinged white flowers proudly raised their head at our feet.
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| Flower bunch - Pink whites |
Around
the pink whites stood a circle of bluebells. I don’t know its actual name, but
it was blue and had bells hanging.
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| The bluebells |
Usually
when you walk you won’t notice the small flowers that look up to you when you
pass by. If you stoop down you might find abundant beauty in them. For quite
some time I had seen Tukai specially interested in the small flowers, insects
and even pieces of dead wood that lie at his feet.
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| Together |
When
we looked up and ahead, we spotted a blue bird sitting on the flower bed. We
didn’t know its name then, but now I guess it was a blue
whistling thrush. The yellow beaked blue bird sat still—around it was a
sprinkling of pink white flowers against a backdrop of green grass.
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| Blue bird |
Himachal and adjoining Jammu and Kashmir are rich in natural beauty with a lot of green
cover. The nature of hills and the trees at Patnitop had lots of similarity with Himachal open hills that we had already passed through. We expected accordingly an abundance
of birds. We looked at each other with sparkling eyes—at least one showed
up!
In a few
minutes our blue bird flew away leaving us to our aimless wanderings. When he
looked at the green young plants with buds waiting to bloom, I had to admit
that Tukai had the ability to spot future possibilities.
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| It will bloom |
For some months this green faced me as the wallpaper
on my desktop—its green soothing me.
I love
trees and soon the majestic tree attracted me. I pointed it out to Tukai.
The Patnitop compound is old as old are the few remaining large trees. Over
the last forty years from the time I first went into a forest I had seen many
trees—large and tall with thick trunks and wide spreading branches, but never
before I met with a tree like this.
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| Majestic tree |
Near the giant of a tree stood another tall one bedecked
in creepers—as if it said—don’t you find
my guest beautiful?
I thought—only
the gracefully aged can collect a guest like this.
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| Guest of the gracefully aged |
This
backside we found the trees to be gracefully aged in their own ways. The group
of trees extending their branches touching each other looked like a group of
dancers suddenly going still.
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| Group dance |
Looking
through the branches the hillside just opposite was bathed in soft light now. Layer after
layer of tall trees rose to stop at a large bald patch on the hillside. Rows of tree at the top
looked like hairs standing on a bald head.
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| Looking through |
Turning
around a bit we were greeted with far away white dots of houses thinly spread
all over a valley. A bird could have flown straight down to land on a roof top
in five minutes it seemed. We liked the view and spent a few minutes looking at
the far away signs of civilization.
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| Life in dots |
Open
hillsides at this altitude in Kumaon or Himachal always enchant me. The trees
rise straight with spread out branches. Undergrowth non-existent—you can unroll
your mat and sit on the far away slopes under the trees wherever you wish. The
slopes are so gentle.
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| Soothing |
My
friend called—breakfast was ready. After breakfast we would leave for the snow
point. We looked at our far away destination. The hill top lost much of its
winter snow cover, but still some snow was left for us we felt.
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| Losing snow |
After
a quick breakfast we loaded our already packed luggage in the car and started
for the day. It would be near evening when we would reach back to Jammu, but now
snow point was our destination. With a slightly heavy heart we bade a silent
good bye to Patnitop—we never knew you were there, but we liked you. We would
come back again. Perhaps.
Author’s Note: We made our whole trip of Dalhousie, Khajjiar, Dharamsala and Patnitop
based on Jammu. As the locations were mostly in Himachal, I always remember
this trip as “beautiful Himachal”. Interestingly blue whistling thrush is
covered well under Himachal birds in the Net, but not easily available under
Jammu and Kashmir birds. When I searched for the birds in Jammu and Kashmir I
couldn’t get as good a bird-page
as I got for Himachal which I used in my link. Himachal is adjoining and nearby—flora
and fauna do not change much. I guess most of these birds will be available in
some or other parts of Jammu and Kashmir also.
The borders separating
countries and states are only human-made—nature has no such bounds.
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