Mountains are the poetry of God. One needs to visit them to appreciate their true beauty. It is difficult to describe them as feminine and write about their charm, allure and grace or to call them old and huge and characterise them as man-like. Nonetheless, there is this point on the map of Himachal Pradesh, a part of Chamba district that is still in its infancy, pure and untouched by the humans, who tend to commercialize anything and everything. One striking feature of the Churah Valley is the two types of mountains that are found here. Ones are those that are covered with lush green trees and vegetation, where the streams flow in between and their mollifying sounds takes the whole fatigue out of one’s body. Then there are those that are the victims of landslides, they look naked devoid of bushes and greenery. Their soil is fragile and unstable. The small stones crumble down the deep gorges. It is true that weather changes far too quickly in Churah. During an instance, it suddenly started getting cloudy although just a few minutes back the sun was shining with all its glory. The clouds started to appear and covered almost all of the sun. The sun rays piercing the clouds created an illusion such that one is going to witness some incarnation of God. When one travels across these mountains, quite often one gets to hear the sound of small rivers or rivulet. These streams are the muse in a sense that one tends to wander in the path of their sound in order to locate them. For, the more difficult terrain one travels through, the more beautiful the destination one arrives at. As a part of Shodh Yatra, we were to be a part of meditation exercise on one fine day. Each one of us was to select a secluded place on a given trail so that one could reflect and speak to oneself without any disturbance. As written earlier, I heard the sound of water and thus walked a bit far away along with fellow Shodh Yatris to find a place near that water source. The view that I arrived at was breathtaking. I could spot a waterfall along with a place where two types of small rivers met. One was full of clay as it was the rainy reason but the other stream was of pure water. The water was extremely clean, the pebbles, stones at the bottom could be clearly seen. It was nothing short of a divine moment. I could see shepherds, their sheep grazing at a higher altitude. The commoners told that it was also possible to spot bears as well. I could see the clouds kissing the mountains. The clouds were absolutely white in colour. They looked like the beard of Santa Claus. Truly, they were actually the gift from above. It was at this virginal and unblemished place that I decided to introspect myself. When I closed my eyes, I could feel the slow cool winds touching my face, blowing through my hair and voice of the flowing water and chirping of the birds. Churah is nothing short of a heaven on the face of the earth. It will take your breath away and make you fall in love with nature at first sight.
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