Dharamkot and Tushitha

Finally we traveled like regular tourists. We went to Dharamkot, a small village further up from Mcleodganj just after the Bhagsu Nag mandir. We stayed in a homestay and what a different world it is. Mcleodganj is way too crowded. Narrow roads, traffic and congestion, shopping places, restaurants all squeezed into the hill top and no wonder people claimed that it is no longer the small non descriptive tibetan hamlet it used to be.

We stayed at a homestay run by Ria, a german who settled in india some 26 years back after marrying an Indian. It's a decent place  and doesnt hurt your pocket and bonus being able to taste some yummy cakes prepared by Ria. Her children are sweet and we had a great stay at their place.

One day we went up to Gallu temple from where the trek route to Triund peaks will start. Tirund trek is one of the easily accessible treks to himalayas. I birded for an hour at the temple and bagged two beauties - the rufous sibia and the black-headed jay. The rufous sibia calls echoed in the valley, the breeze, the view of the valley and the mountains, the music from the sitar being played in one of the hotel rooms all made the two hours spent a top the hill memorable. I vowed to return to the place to bird for couple of days and probably sight the Himalayan monal and trek the Triund peak sometime.

Black-headed Jay

Rufous Sibia

Green-backed Tit

Bar-tailed Treecreeper

After these lifers (birds), we headed back to the homestay and had lunch enroute. Since our kid cannot trek up all the way we had to hire a taxi, but the next day went to check the trek route which is different from the motorable road till Gallu Devi temple. As we were about to reach the homestay, dark clouds covered the whole valley and we were virtually chased by clouds and covered by them as we hurried our way to home. Within minutes after we reached home, it poured for an hour. We experienced the down pour in a himalayan valley

The above photo was taken at 1 pm when clouds covered and went past our room. It rained heavily. Before the rains we roamed around Dharamkot, especially the upper dharamkot where a settlement of Israelis exists. This small place is a hub of visitors from across the globe. You can encounter people from various countries living out of the place. Israelis predominantly live here and many restaurants have sign boards in hebrew and israeli food available in many small eatouts and cafes.

The next day we visited the Bagsu nag temple only to realise how much we are loving the serenity and calmness of the place. The temple is crowded with noisy regular tourists littering the place and we felt like running away. We decided not to walk the 700 mts to the crowded waterfall and hired an auto to drop is at Tushita, the buddhist meditation center. What a contrast it was, absolutely calm and wonderful location amidst forest. We had one of our wonderful experiences walking down the small road to the institute. The institute offer 10 day residential introduction course to buddhism and almost everyday(except for few) at 9-30 am they are open for public for an one hour meditation practise . Visitors were requested to maintain silence and we had a quiet and memorable visit. A place worth exploring in future.

We cut short our stay as my wife hurt her knee slipping off couple of times and we went back without trying the "family pizza"shop in Dharamkot which is apparently famous for pizza baked on stove that runs on wood. I could not try some Israeli cuisine too reserving it for next visit. I would recommend staying in dharamkot than in Mcleod ganj for the charm of small and nice neighbourhood. Gagan resorts where we tried lunch served nice food, but I would recommend staying in any home stays in Dharamkot than the hotels.

Let me close this post with a view of the pine, rhodendoron, deodar (dominating) forests of Dharamkot that I tried capturing on my mobile with a vertical composition experiment

Monsoon arrives

Last week went in a jiff. I am trying to recollect what happened in a week. The sunday started off with taking the kids of Nishtha for bird watching. The kids, I hope had a good time. I showed them the swallow nest and I had a lifer- Speckled Piculet. Noticeable change is the weather from past one week . Monsoon arrived and the weather is very humid. So we are getting used to a routine of bright mornings, overcast and rainy afternoon and clear evenings. I have been told that come July, it rains almost all throughout the day. But the sights of the hills and mountains are different now, with clouds playing hide and seek with the mountains and prediction of rain gets tard easy - Snow-caps not visible- Rain is arriving, Clear- Snow caps- No chance of rain for next 1-2 hours

Since the rains started, the water supplied through pipes gets murky and we started bringing water from a source from where many people in our neighborhood bring. Here is the picture of the cleaner and portable water source

Apparently the source of this water is from under the ground not a lake up in the hills as told earlier to me,  hence the water won't be murky despite of heavy rain.We boil this water and have it for drinking to be on safer side as the rains arrived. We regularly watch people go here to bring drinking water in the morning and the evenings. Kids join adults in bringing water home and they do help them in the farm too.

On Wednesday, our aunty finally announced that they are sowing seeds in their farm and I was more than happy to join them. I had my breakfast while they had their heavy breakfast and around 10 we reached the farm. By then uncle had started getting the field ready with bulls hauling the plough on the soil that was soaked with water. Here we go out to sowing

 I was expecting to sow some paddy but then they explained that they follow a different process where soaked paddy with sprouts are sprayed around. So step 1 was to clean the water filled portions of the field with a plough that has a flat and wide end. The fields were already plough-ed with the regular one, one week ahead.

As the flat-ploughing completed, we started step-2 where we jumped in and cleaned up the previous crops leftovers pulled out by the plough and we bury some of the leftovers under the mud and some we dump on the bunds that separates the portions of farm. We worked for an hour bending our backs and I got a hang of how they collect them by wading ones hands through the mud water. (reminded me of a "Pied avocet" feeding- google for it). By then dark clouds gathered and I had to take break for lunch just when it started raining.

Later in the evening, I joined them for step-3 is where we sprayed the seeds all over the place with hands. I was told that after 20-25 days, they plough the land and then align the sprouts in a linear fashion and add dung and goat, sheep droppings as natural fertilizer. The yield will be ready by December and they need to monitor the fields regularly but the major task is done.

Mid-week, we decided to cook some chicken. Since we live at one end of the village high up, so walking down and hiking up is tiring, so we decided to go to the next village further up to pick up chicken. So I ended up hiking 4 kms to get half kg of chicken. Phew never did I worked so hard to get some chicken.

Meanwhile I started taking english  classes for few students at Nishtha and it's a good experience.
Working with Nishtha also helped us understand the problems of the community. Domestic violence and alcoholism are a major problem which often resulted in single women striving to survive. Nishtha and jagori,  the two ngo's in the village work towards women empowerment, especially those of single women who were either deserted by men or those who chose to live a better life being single, away from the abuse. I have heard multiple instances of single women who deserted their husbands after surviving the violence for years and now living in dignity earning a decent livelihood in the village. They are sure an inspiration to many more. But the violence does have an impact on the young minds, especially the teenage girls who do not have a great opinion about marriage.

This week we are planning to go to Dharamkot a village further up from Mcleod ganj and stay there for couple of days. More birding and some regular tourist like sight-seeing on the cards. I am looking forward to the experiences :)

Birding - Rainbow- Farming-Doc visit

The heading pretty much sums up the last few days. I have been able to bird almost every day. Mornings starts with watering the plants at our mini farm and then off I go birding to the close-by place. I had some interesting sightings and lifers. I could not stop myself from walking higher up anticipating to see more birds.
I could see roads and I see the paths used by people and ponies ferrying goods to trek up the hills. Although little tiring the traditional routes enables you to walk further up the hills quicker. I have met herders, school going kids, workers, job goers all taking the paths and few of them inquired what I am up to. I shared my binoculars with some and explained to others about my interest in birds. Overall I never felt threatened or intimidated at any point of time. Warm people and beautiful land enabling experiences

Few days back we had a thunderstorm followed by a rainbow. At one end we could see bright sun setting and another end a storm that was about to finish it's task. The skies were beautiful with clouds and bright colors all around. I tried capturing it but felt like having a wide angle lens.

 The ladies finger seeds didn't sprout up as much as we wished to as it rained heavily the day after we planted the seeds. So this week we planted some chillies saplings. So my routine every morning and evening would be spending 30 minutes watering them gently.

Last week also made us visit the clinic run by Nishtha as our son started vomiting. He recovered in a day but still a little tender. The clinic run by Nishtha do not charge for consulting  and charges for medicines alone. It's a decent clinic in a nice building with few beds for those who needed attention.My frequency of visits to Nishtha and interaction with children increased and this weekend sangita- the nishtha volunteer and I are planning to take the children for a bird watching session.