The Quaint hills of Mussorie

A 16 hour day involving tonnes of work and a 4 hour long infuriating commute was beginning to take the smile off my face. I needed a quick break, my best friend was in town and Mussoorie was the perfect getaway for us!

Mussoorie is about 280 kilometers from Delhi and takes about six hours to reach by bus. There are very few direct buses plying on this route and we decided to take a bus up till Dehradun which is 30 kilometers short of Mussoorie.

There are multiple buses available from ISBT Kashemere Gate and they are quite convenient as well. We took a late night bus on a friday evening from Delhi and reached Dehradun by the break of dawn. Delhi had been simmering with temperatures already touching the 40 degree mark in April and Mussoorie brought such relief from the delhi heatThe change in the temperature and the slight nip in the air was just the perfect start to this weekend. We took a cab to Mussorie which is a one hour drive from Dehra Dun.

 Mussorie has a lot of hotel options and now some cozy Airbnb properties as well. We were lucky to be staying in a guest house that was nestled in the lap of beautiful mountains with magnificent views.
It almost made me want to just lounge in the terrace with a book to read!

We started our day with a walk down the famed Mall road. The Mall road is a perfect peek into all that this serene town stands for! Gorgeous food, lots of tourists and stunning views!
Walking down the mall, we came across the Cambridge Book Store which is visited by Ruskin Bond every saturday. Unfortunately for us, we had missed him by the time we reached the store. He lives in Landour which is a short climb from the main town.

We visited the Kempty falls in the day and honestly there isn't much to talk about there. Over crowded and extremely commercialised, the natural beauty that might have been has been totally ruined.
For the foodie that i am, mussoorie was a delight. Kalsang Friends Corner which offers chinese, thai and tibetan cuisine is to die for. The hot steamy momos and thupka made for the best afternoon meal we could have asked for!
Finding a place to drink was a real task in Mussorie and all we managed was a dingy hotel which had very few options. To drown out the misery of not finding drinks of our choice, we dug into more food! Chic Chocolate is a famous joint on the Mall road and from the moment we entered, we knew why! The menu had us spoilt for choice and the bakery items on display were mouth watering. We had lovely nutella pancakes and waffles and they were among the best i had ever had! They also had freshly made chocolates which were wonderful.

The evening sky brought rain to the hill town and we had to retire early for the day. The rain brought with an outpouring of emotion from me as well. Inexplicable emotions and myriad thoughts lulled me to bed that night.

The morning was just breathtaking! The mountains in the distance were covered with clouds and the sun tried hard to get past them. Enjoying their peek- a-boo, i stood in the terrace admiring the mountains. The imposing grandeur of the sky piercing peaks serenaded me! 

We headed to Lovely Omelette Center, a small shop on the Mall. It would be naive to judge the shop by its appearance because the owner served us a cheese omelette that i will remember for a long long time to come!

View from Landour

We walked to Landour post our yummy breakfast. The Climb up to Landour is lined with beautiful tress and views that take your breath away.  There are a lot of small shops that line the roads and i picked up some very cute decorative items from a handicrafts emporium. We walked upto St. Paul's Church before settling for lunch at Chaar Dukaan. As the name suggests, its a combination of 4 (actually 6) small shops that sell lovely, home style food. We tried paranthas, waffles and pancakes (Again!)! I have to say, Warm, homely and fuzzy, the food was the perfect way to wrap up our little holiday!

A quaint little town, with welcoming people, scenic views  and lovely food is just what you need to de-stress, rejuvenate and come back to life!

Moving On

The hardest thing I’ve had to do in my life is to try to move on. The constant, almost nagging, questions I got from friends, family and well wishers pushed me to think about this every single day post my break up. Had I moved on? What will it take for me to move on? Do I not care about him anymore? Is it time to find a new man? Frustrating as it was, I decided I needed to find these answers for myself.

A random heated argument with my love had led to a five year old relationship being torn apart. I can’t even remember the reason for the argument anymore but egos had flared to an extent that there was no going back now. I felt petty and stupid to have thrown away THE relationship of my life but all my attempts at damage control had been thwarted by my man. Had I hurt him too much? Was he being stubborn? Did he not feel as strongly for me? Were we not meant to be? Was this really the end of my fairytale? I asked myself these questions every single day.

For months together, I woke up with a heady mix of emotions. Despair, Anger, desolateness filled my days and nights. I buried myself in work to divert my mind from the constant hammering in my head but it only made me live through my day. The nights were unbearable. The quiet of the winter made me hear my own heartbeat. I would stare at the ceiling, lying on my bed, for hours on end hoping that maybe, maybe this was just a phase and he would call me and tell me this was just a big mistake.

Months passed but that call never came. I soon had begun to accept that the relationship was over for good. I had learnt to swim in the ocean of pain and my head was now pushing to reach the surface.  Acceptance had healed me in a lot of ways. I was no longer angry with him. His reasons, now, seemed like they could have been true. I stopped doubting what we had. I knew our relationship was real and whatever happened was, maybe, the hand we were dealt.

The entire moving on cycle- Betrayal, Anger, Despair, Acceptance played out several times and I went from “I hate him” to “I don’t care about him” to “There’s no way I’m going back to him” to “It’s okay, maybe this was it”. The questions which haunted me were now not that difficult to answer. Or at least so I thought. Had I moved on? Yes. Did I not care about him anymore? Umm.. Well just a little maybe. Was I affected by him everyday? No. Did I need him back? No. Had I moved on? Yes. Did I still love him? Yes.

Ironic as it it, I had learnt that loving someone did not necessarily mean wanting him, being with him or not wanting any other man. Loving someone did not mean, I had not moved on. Moving on for me was just a process to come to terms with the fact that I was not going to be with him and that a life without him was foreseeable. It did not change how I felt for him. If I was to see him today, after 18 odd months since we broke up, I would still want to give him a tight hug. I would still smile at his stupid jokes. I would still wish we hadn’t thrown it away. That’s what love does to you. Running away to say I had moved on and I didn’t care about this man was never going to be the solution. The only way out was to know that love will remain.

Had I moved on? Yes.      

New beginnings

I have been wanting to write for as long as i can remember.

It all started about 12 years back, when writing meant scribbling details of my day in a closely guarded diary. A diary that would change with each academic session and add to my woes of hiding yet another one from my mother. Few years down the line i figured i had been highly unsuccessful at keeping my big secret a secret and was a hundred per cent sure my mother had read some if not all of them! Thankfully for me, she never brought it up. And neither did I!

Those diaries are a treasure. Till date. My eyes well up when i read my take on my first crush, my first "love", my first kiss and so much more! I wish i hadn't given up on them! I wish i had a record for every day of my life which i could read and re-read when i was 60.

The next thought was to write a book! Pacts with multiple aspiring writer friends have not yielded any results so far and i wonder when they will! Its a dream nonetheless which i continue to hold on to and hopefully will have something to show for in the next 10 years (i'm a realist you see!)

Writing took a new turn when i got introduced to blogs about 6-7 years back. I was scared of who might read what i wrote and thus only a handful of people knew i had a blog. I wasn't sure what to write about.. was it okay to share your feelings in a blog post? Did a blog need a theme? Plagued with these questions and the fact that i was getting uncomfortable putting my life out there for everyone to read, i stopped posting there as well.

So then how am i here?

Coz like i said.. I really wanted to write! And a lot has changed in these 7 years! For one, i've grown up! I'm a lot more accepting of who i am and don't care to be judged anymore. I know now that i can't have a theme.. coz i'm equally passionate about love, travel, food, politics, sports and and a lot more! I may or may not realize what my true passion is but till such time i will pursue, whole heartedly, each of those things and everything else that interests me on the way! Puruse them and write about them!

So here we are! This blog is going to be about me! About all things that interest me, all things that i might have an opinion on, all things that i might want to share and some things that i might not want to share.

I believe its going to be a fun journey, this new one! And i would love for you to join me. Welcome aboard!