Deosai - My little escapade

To lose ourselves, To find ourselves.

To open our hearts and eyes

In essence, to become young fools again__

To slow time down and get taken in,

To fall in love once more

To feel alive again__

People ask me what am i running away from? Why do i keep disappearing? Why do i keep transforming? Why i don't stay put at one place? How does my life take turns? How do i tell them it's nothing that i am running from but rather into, running into a million things__ things called life.

Out there where i meet myself, where i can feel my heart racing, the feeling that tells me i'm alive, a place where myself and the world starts making sense to me. Where i don't have to meet deadlines; if the sun is setting and its getting dark i don't have the fear of getting lost because i know this right here is home; a place where i'd quite like to stay put.

Where i am not answerable to anyone and I don't have to meet anyone's expectations. Where i don't need a watch to keep track of time or a compass to keep track of my destination. That's where i belong, the world where i don't have to use expensive perfumes or wear trendy clothes to keep myself presentable, the world where I'm not asked to talk in a certain volume or tone, where i don't have to care about my eating or sleeping patterns because the natural order takes charge itself, where i'm surrounded by people like myself, where there are no phone signals or gadgets to consume my precious time that i'm supposed to spend elsewhere.

The world where under the open sky among the wild life and in the heart of highest mountains i can concentrate and enjoy on things as little as sipping my chai and munching on the biscuits i recently developed a liking for. Where with each gulp i can actually feel how the food actually tastes like. The tantalizing aroma of the chai made of yak's milk and probably on cow's dung mixed with the smell of mud, green fields and flowers. While the chocolate slowly melts in my mouth, oh i forget to take another sip enjoying the warmth of chocolate and the next time i take the cup to my lips i realize my tea's gone cold because of the wintery spell in the air. Yet i happily gulp it all down knowing that i took all the time in this world to enjoy this luxury.

I know that there's no hurry, i can enjoy all these lil' things because i am away__ running in my own world. Running after lil' things called life.

Deosai – The Land of Giants cradled in the lap of Himalayas is the second largest plateau on earth after Tibet in China. The moment you step into this heavenly place you instantly give recognition (approval) of the name, there can’t be a more apt description for this place.

One starts conceiving the image of Big Ogres and Giants walking and stepping with their big feet on the enormous fields and pastures of Deosai. You are anxious and tempted for the sight of the Giant Bear and all this while when I was roaming in the deserted and lush green fields of Deosai my mind was engaged with the thoughts of ‘The revenant’. Deo-Sai, Deo means “Giants” Sai means “A large shadow”. Giants here is probably referred to the Big Brown Bears of the region and the large shadow must be the Cotton Candy clouds always hovering above you, always ready to cast (pour in) a rain spell. They move and their shadow on the plains of Deosai can be seen dramatically moving, it’s almost magical to see something unusual like that happen, a sight one can never even imagine living in the concrete jungle of urban life. In our fast paced city life we’re so busy we hardly get to even notice the sky or appreciate even if by chance there are to see any clouds. But the clear skies of Deosai are a treat to sore eyes. At night when the sky is clear you have a heavenly view of stars shining bright and it's cherry on the cake if you get to witness a full moon too but mostly the moon is hidden behind the clouds especially in the monsoon season of July till August. Although one does not instantly get to spot a Bear and some even come back without sighting at all. But after a little hard work and patience, we did get to see a big brown furry ball quickly climbing the plateau. I directed to my friends but it disappeared in the flowers all of a sudden.

Only to realise later that it was no baby bear but infact the Himalayan Baby Marmot, who wouldn't let you get closer and quickly shy away in their diggings. I so wanted to adopt one and bring it home as a companion for my Presian cat, which i was sure my cat would quickly befriend as he also liked alien creatures like myself haha.

At 9 in the morning one of the five tourism department guys deployed at ‘Kaala Pani’ offered to accompany us to the area near Sheosar Lake for Bear sighting, but some other travelers who returned from the sight said It's too late for us to go now. they said,

"At one place we saw fresh footprints indicating that there was a bear in the surrounding only a while ago but we couldn’t spot one in the binoculars. After trying for 15 minutes we did spot a Big Bear but it was at the distance of some 2 km already from the spot of footprints where we were standing". Said T, “we could’ve found him somewhere near and have seen him with our naked eye from a safe place but he seems rather agitated and disturbed to me. Something has caused annoyance for him and he’s changed his route and ran away.”

When we probed further into this matter he told us, When we were about to leave after satiating our desire of bear sighting, we saw Gujjars along with their cattle coming from the same way the bear had gone and so i knew this was the reason why the Bear ran away.”

To our questioning he further told us, "We are very much against these Gujjars for they create disturbances for the wild-life here. We banned their entry some few years ago but they reached the courts and agitated that they’ve been crossing these regions even prior to independence and no one could stop them from taking this route and claimed it as their right of easement."

Eventually, they won the case and now move along with their cattle. But the wildlife and Bears specifically remain disturbed by their presence and movement of cattle or heard. Bears used to come down to the nearby pastures and fields but now they remain confined out of our sight because they want peace and isolation.

There are days when you wake-up at the earliest hour of the day, i'm not sure if i can call that early morning even or perhaps when the dimming stars are marking the end of the night, and it's pitch dark outside, you know and all of a sudden you're wide awake.
Not because you had a nightmare or have a deadline to meet. You just wake-up calmly, without any alarm buzzing in your head or the stress of getting out of bed to follow the routine of facing the world.

I just love such mornings, where you can stay all tucked in your bed and enjoy the view that your window presents, the constantly changing hues of the sky, the sunlight beaming through the clouds, the birds starting to play their music. There's a calm and silence these things create and you just want to absorb it all.

It just feels like the whole world is asleep and you're the only one awake and in that moment nothing feels real. You forget all your problems and feel as light as a feather because for now it's just you, your world and the sunrise.

In Deosai the inclemency of weather is so harsh that it makes one tremble and shake even during the month of July even during the day time in the scorching sun; the wind is so strong it pierces the ears. Luckily we got an Igloo on a fairly reasonable rent for two nights since there are no hotels in that entire region and setting up the camp in such a severe windy weather takes hours.
Although Deosai nights despite the chill of the weather are not something to be wasted inside the tents and Igloos. One must experience bonfire and hear the stories from the tourists and T’s about the winters of Deosai and their adventures and fights with Bears.

All this time that I was roaming in Deosai I was wishing and hoping something like ‘The revenant’ would happen there. The film had left such an impact and Deosai was a perfect place for the possibility of any such thing to actually happen in real life to you that it sticks to your strong perception and reasons to believe. The stories we heard were no less. While sitting around the fire warming ourselves with hot chocolates and multiple layering of warm clothes, Mr. Shah shared a recent story, saying, “Can you see this shredded tent? Only last year in winters the Bear came down and attacked our tent. Luckily none of us got hurt and we made him run away without causing him any hurt either." In winters when everything is covered in snow, the bears smell the food in these pastures where we stay and they attack us. We try to turn off the light and finish the food as early as we can so they don’t attack us in our sleep. There are no tourists in winters even the police moves out, its freezing here in November, but we have to stay at our posts because some crazy adventurous guys do turn up and also we have to keep a record of wildlife and their activity and report it to the head office in Skardu. We have our differences with the Gujjars, but then we’re glad they stay and cross these regions because when there’s no one here in winters, they keep us company, and we have something to rely upon otherwise this places is too haunted to dwell and survive in.

Though unfortunately we couldn't spot any Big Bears but we did get to enjoy the company of the beautiful horses roaming in the wild.

Deosai offers the most distinguishable and unique order of the nature implicit in the growth and reflection of the different types of flowers literally having multiple combinations of all the colors there possibly can be on the face of this earth. In this manifestation of elegance one feels like God was experimenting and playing art sprinkling and spraying colours at random fields that when you look at them you don't feel like plucking but rather lie down in those fields and never get up.

To be continued....