Kalap. . .

Before i say anything about my experience of staying at kalap, i have to thank one person for making this trip happen for me. It’s me! Nobody can stop us from doing what we want to do, living our life the way we want to live apart from our own selves. I feel, hardest thing for us, is to believe in our own instincts over reasons!

I am going to share something with you that i had written sitting by the ganges, while i was riding in the mountains on my friend’s motorcycle, under the dim light of a glowing moon, next to a fireplace on a cold, i mean really cold winter night! It was after i returned from kalap and i was doing this only because i brought myself to kalap. I guess this is as close as i can get to calling it living! A life!

Today, I just feel that i was plain lucky to have made that trip, which was on offer for anyone who followed their instincts. There were enough reasons for me to stay where i was and see someone grabbing that opportunity and just wonder what it’d have been like had i been there. I guess there’s something special about each day of those 21 days i spent in kalap. But above all is what the experience does to you after, as a person. . .

After 20 sunrises and sunsets. . .

It’s been so many days now since i came back from kalap but everyday i wake up, its like the memory of that loved one which fondly returns with all the moments you’d shared together. Each day away from kalap, is a day closer to the next time i will be in kalap. It is definitely just a matter of time. And time, as i know spreads its wings and flies faster, when you’re living your life to its fullest.

So what is it about kalap that makes me want to go back?! I wonder, just as much as you might be wondering. I wonder if its the long ride in those small cramped up buses with the locals coming in all sizes? Or i wonder if its the ever changing scenes outside the window as you rise and rise up on to the mountains? Or was it the trek up to the village with that heavy bag that I was carrying? I wonder! Or was it the warmth of the people who welcomed you in the darkness of cold night i arrived?! Or was it the surprise that was in store for me when i woke up on the first morning? Was it the innocent conversations, the simple lifestyle, the wooden architecture, the cattle, the beautiful people, the snow fall, the mountains, the colours of the sunset, being witness to shooting stars on multiple occasions, the delicious cuisine, the freezing cold nights, the fireplace, the occasional bath, the solo wanderings into the hills?! I wonder! Or was it the singing and dancing late into the night?! Or was it the new dance i learned which teaches you to hold on to those around you?! Was it the experience of living in the clouds for the first time in my life?! Was it shooting pictures and feeling good about those frozen moments?! Was it the bonds that I made with the people in the village or was it the moving goodbye when I finally left the village?! Was it the peace and solitude i found in isolation from the rest of the world?!

I wonder and perhaps that’s the best i can do, wonder! The joy is probably not in knowing the reason that makes it memorable but in surrendering yourself to the inexplicable innate urge to be back again in the hills! In Kalap!

The time i spent in kalap not only rejuvenated me but has brought me back the things i loved about myself. What it is, is probably not what i want to share but i will tell you that i have rediscovered my lost self! But what kalap did to me is that, i am all set once again to lose myself and this time i know there’s mountain, a hill, a river, a beach, a bird,a tree, a motorcycle, a road, a friend, a stranger, the sun, the moon, a tiny corner in some part of the world where i can find myself! Lost, to be found!

 Kalap turned out to be like a wish i would’ve wished for, if i had not been there! The time after those 20 sunrises and sunsets, seem like that early morning dream you wake up to and in that wish to continue to live in that dream to see what happens next, you close your eyes! You only find fragments of the last dream but in the excitement of seeing something new becoming a part of those fragments of the old dream, you resist opening your eyes to the light of the day and continue to sleep! You’re not asleep but just sleeping!

But unlike a dream, when this journey ends, i know it was for real. Every step i took on those roads that came my way, everything i saw, everyone i met will be for real! It was my life! Like a dream!