Beauty sometimes shows its existence directly, other times it’s better to be seen as a faded glimpse or hidden behind something. And if beauty is hidden behind the clouds then it could be the best moment of your life to wait for the right moment to appreciate. To me, beauty is not only something that pleases the eyes but also pleases the other senses and the mind. True beauty makes you see beyond the lovely sight.
The day was August 14th, I was in Chandigarh. The day before I reached here, at midnight, I went to meet my friends Harpreet Singh and Amit Sharma, who were my ex-colleagues from a company where I was working previously.
In the morning we planned to visit Shimla, a hilly bike ride. So we packed our accessories, ate Parathas (Wheat flour fried bread) at a Dhaba (Restaurant) in Chandigarh, and then proceeded with our traveling.
The path was a bit rough and the traffic was at its peak as it was Sunday. Anyhow, we managed to penetrate through the busy road rejoicing nature. The sky was cloudy, whiteness was on us with greyish spots. The horizon showed the lining of blue and green color.
As we reached Panchkula, slides of mountains covered with trees and vegetation started. One after the other, in different effects and designs, nature was displaying itself. We took a halt at the roadside and captured the presentation of mother nature.
It was like timeless beauty – always a pleasure to look at and often so appealing that you cannot resist exploring it more and more. In the words of a poet – “a thing of beauty is a joy forever”. I want this joy for my days to come.
There was grassland at the lower hillside where children were seen playing. The chirping of birds could be heard at distance.
We were shooting continuously, apprehending the charm of the area. The scene from the balcony was like we were above the mountains, among the clouds.
Then we reached Parwanoo, but due to a shortage of time, we changed our path toward Kasauli. On our way, the chirping of grasshoppers was heard, and the blowing of wind was filling us with excitement more and more. As we headed more and more towards that greeny place, we were stepping more closer to the Clouds of Kasauli.
I mentioned the word clouds because on the whole trip we were covered with clouds. The wet road, and the frosty vegetation was growing aesthetic even more. We were basking every moment.
As we advanced, the visibility reduced slightly due to the clouds. We both were shaken actually. Clouds were like a canopy on us, nothing was visible. I was wondering where we were heading to. But our lead rider Harpreet was aware of the turns, he has a great vision to look through the clouds.
Soon we reached Kasauli. The buildings were beautiful with red and orange colored shedding. And even blue were seen somewhere, trees in between them and around them, and clouds as a protector from above were giving a thunderstruck scene.
Finally, we reached the main city. The city was small but beautiful with short-height people(as there are in mountainous region) and a perfect location.
Our first destination to visit in Kasauli was Sunset Point. Sometimes I regret why I chose the monsoon season to visit Kasauli as that was the time when Sun is hidden behind, not being able to make its path clear due to rain.
But still, the view was ultimate, could stop one in his tracks. Here too the clouds played hide and seek with us. At one instant the view was clear and in the next second all white.
The whole environment was cheerful, people come here for a picnic, children were playing, old people gossiping, and few people like me and Harpreet are busy taking snaps and competing who was better.
This type of healthy living environment can make anyone much more healthy and help him to live even longer. There was no sorrow, only smile and happiness all around. It seems as if nature was singing to us in its full rhythm. Wordsworth, a staunch lover of nature, believed that nature is a storehouse of joy and pleasure. The dancing winds, the smiling flowers, the lofty mountains, all were here which I enjoyed. Beauties of nature are unlimited, what one needs is just to explore the right place at right time.
