It was in May 2001 while doing a trip from the Holy Kedarnath to the Holy Badrinath – two places of immense importance in Hindu pilgrimage; one sacred to devotees of Lord Shiva and other to followers of Lord Vishnu. This bus called Bhookh Hatral(Fasting strike ) starts at 4.00 am, fromKedarnath, verdant hills , and reaches in 12 hours time at Badrinath. The route between the two divine places has a plethora of flora and fauna and the might milky Himalayas in the background.

Perhaps it is best to save the other places for some other time. At that time Bhookh Hartal was a major bus for transportation for people not in private vehicles. I vividly remember the day in the hot summer month of May. The bus was full of Bengali tourists who travel a lot to the spiritual centers of India and Kudos to them for they are the ones driving the tourist economy in India.

As the bus winded the way up through the backdrop of Chaukhamba peak and ranges passing through dense pine, cedar, oak and other coniferous trees all eyes were fixed way up at the mountain peak which looked supremely beautiful from miles away. Soon the time came and after a huge turn we reached Chopta, situated at 3200m with meadows or Bugyal’s as they lovingly say in Garhwali.

All the tourists got down and the driver announced “it will stop for 20 minutes”. Someone informed there is a high temple of Lord Shiva, supposedly built by the legendary Pandavas and later sanctified by Shankaracharya, at 3800 m just about an hour’s trek away and known as Tngnath. All the passengers got down and were just stunned into silence with the heavenly beauty of the place.No cedar trees could be found here only raga and abundant fir. The meadows carved such a beautiful look and behind there was the lovely view of the Himalayas. No one wanted to leave that place.I wished to be back and also trek to Tungnath. That was then.

This year in March me and three college mates decided to fulfill our own destiny and reach the shrine of Shiva enroute Chopta.The whole trip being eventful is an understatement. But I want to just highlight the place of immense beauty, perhaps the most beautiful place I have ever seen. We had an eventful journey till Chopta.

On the way we we saw amazingly tall Fir trees some extending to 200 feet and rhododendron which had painted the mountains pink and red. The silence was heart rendering and can melt anyone. You hear this cucooking of birds and insects and the wind making a huzzy sound as a jungle conversation.For here are some of the most dangerous roads of the world . Then there is the Kedarnath Musk deer sanctuary, a rare and endangered creature also called the Kasturi Mrigh and has several references in Mahabharata and other ancient scriptures. While we were wondering at a wonderful Fir tree and took a turn, a deer quite different from other deers sprinted across the road and vanished in the jungle. The face was long, body short and it had a dark brown coat. The deer looked at us and off it went. Amidst all this scramble everyone started shouting to each other to get the camera but no one succeeded. Everyone’s heart was pumping.

A musk deer has a scent in its navel which spreads all over the jungle , musk deer is not aware of this scent;’s origin and  is always looking to find the source.Our saints and seers have wisely used Kastoori Mrigh analogy of higlighting that all strength and qualities are hidden in one’s own self and to look hither and thither for it is a waste of time.Look inward as they say.

Suddeny we saw a  wild fowl and one of our friends went after it in the dense jungle, the fowl got alerted and dashed across the road to a steep hill vanishing into dense undergrowth.Our friend followed in excitement and reached quite far and narrated his vision of the whole family of fowls gathered from the top of a craggy cliff  (perhaps discussing the chase by a human which is rare here) But he forgot he had climbed far in excitement and came rumbling down and landed near me.

The fowls around got nervous and ran for cover after hearing our mad scramble. However after helping each other settle down and congratulating which did not stop till we reached Chopta, “for how many people have seen a musk deer” we were boasting.

After a terribe argumentative about the folly of chasing the fowl and 10 minutes talking about the qualities of musk deer we reached a sharp turn where a glacial ice block and about 30 rhododendron trees had painted the mountain pink.It was bitter cold now as no sunlight comes to this part.

After a quick photsession we embarked to close in on chopta.It was now over 3000 meters and the cool breeze could be felt.The beauty cannot be described as well as the weather after seeing the roasting season which had started near Rishikesh and around.

 We carried on with the backdrop of huge mountains and started to admire the beauty of the mountains, where with another turn we came to saw the Himalayan Panarama in front .For we were lucky as in summer the haze a combination of smoke ,pollution screens the Hiamalayas .

We carried on being happy to witness the beauty and grandness of the Himalayas.For to see these ranges is a feeling which I have never experienced anything better to it .We reached Chopta passing through even dense range of Raga, Fir trees and there were no pine and cedar as they were all left behind.On the side of the road you could see shacks of Forest department.

We reached Chopta.After crossing to a small Market we headed for  the meadows or Bughyals from where you can see the Himalayas , pink mountains, white snow, very few humans a breathtaking sight.Chaukhamba peak is the most prominent of all the peaks here, you can also see Neelkanth range of Badrinath.We were stunned and immediately started to soak in the atmosphere , I took this opportunity to click a lot of picture , where suddenly a cracking hand held wireless radio was heard and two men were rushing towards us.They were forest officials.They warned us to stop taking any pictures as this is restricted and not allowed, and gave a thorough talking to us.He was relentless and not happy that we took no permission.Despite us informing him about our ignorance.

But then as always an ace  in the pack ,one of our friends spoke the local dialect, knew all the peaks and then we waxed eloquent about the great Forest officials of India.For now were were locals and suddenly treated with respect and also allowed to take pictures discreetly.

We were so tired now after days of driving but had decided to go to Tungnath a temple dedicated to Lord Shiva at 3800 m above sea level.A small treak from Chopta we knew.Only one person knew the exact time and he said it will take two hours of strenuous trek.We told him that he was discouraging us and asking the shop keeper who told us it was only 45 minutes we were delighted but this trek was confirmed as a mere half an hour trek by the two forest officials.Now it was  a done deal to trek up.Our fourth friend said he would sleep in the car as he has been there many times without further saying anything.

The forest officials showed us an extremely short route passing thorugh sublime and beautiful rhododendron.We took off and in the first five minutes had to rest as this was nearly 80 degree climb.The forest officials had informed us that sloth bear, leapord, wolf, wild dogs redide here and the in the summer comes a great visitor-almighty Royal Bengal Tiger.

There were only three of us and the sun was on top of our head ,were were exhausted completely but carried on.After a difficult 30 minutes we reached just pure snow everywhere in the mountain, saw some of the biggest langurs who fled on are our arrival deep into the jungles.Now we kept climbing to the sky .I  saw some pugmarks which looked like a tigers and quite a few from leapords.We carried on and suddenly with raga trees. snow , meadows carved.On the way of this stteep trek 80 degree all the time we met two tourists one Taiwan and Russia who had come from Hyderabad where they worked for a multinational.After a quick chat we moved forward and soon reached Tungnath shrine whre Hheavy snow made it impossible to move forward.

 We took a mere 1 1-2 hour all the way cursing the forest officials.but on reaching Tungnath all our pain vanished.It is serene as in  all Shiva shrines we felt and the view from the top was jaw dropping.You can see and feel only beauty here.There were a few westerners here who went even further to Chandrashila just above Tungnath at 4000m.We dropped this idea as we ran out of gas and were short on time.

After offering worship to Shiva we relaxed to suddently see the two forest official appear from nowhere.For they took only half an hour .But they told us they had told us  a reduced time for trek to encourage us to reach the beautigull Tungnath and we were very thankfull.

 He suggested by pointing to a mountain on a parallel range- to  Deori tal a beautiful spot and informed us that we should go there as  it will only take you half anhour to reach there.This idea was shot down by immediately as it arose.

 I took a few pictures and the forest officials posed a lot of time s for pictures but I oliged as they said they did not have any pictures from here.We left Tungnath as suddenly as we had arrived.along with the forest official we came down a short route and when we reached the Chopta our Calf muscles and thigs were numb.

We all had some delicious pakoras, chai and some short time later headed to Rishikesh.Going back through the dense jungles  we vanished from Chopta leaving a heavy trail of good thoughts , waving goodbye to the forest officials promising to post their pictures.And promising to be back to the mostbeautiful and serene place on earth.After 2001 it was 2010.

Please Visit : Pine and Cedar