The night before the journey.

We all are going to die. That means that we are alive at this moment. To know its true meaning, we should meet people. People about whom we know nothing, and would never know anything until you travel to their homes.

Hence I travel.

A Journey of thousand miles begins with a single step. -Laozi

I am going for a journey that is at least two thousand miles long and I can’t wait to take the first step.

My mind is Inarglia. Yes, Inarglia. It is special mixture of anxiety and excitement. And you are a bit stressed and skeptical about the what happens next. You could compare it with your state of mind when you are expecting a baby with your girl/boyfriend while you are still at high school.

And of course this is no formal definition. I needed a word here, I made it up.

Now coming to the point, I am travelling to Spiti Valley, starting tomorrow. It is going to be beautiful. It is a long journey that would last about a month.

I am excited about the volume of things that could happen in during this month. My previous experiences has taught me not to expect anything from a journey, even if you have invested a lot into it.

My writings are not going to reflect even a minute fraction of what I will be learning throughout this voyage. I am a terrible writer.

But it doesn’t matter, in fact nothing matters. Man proposes, Entropy disposes.

That is exactly what is taking me to the Inarglia. I will return a changed man. I would be learning a lot. A lot from people whom I have never met before. I will meet some best people purely by chance. I may miss even better people again by the same chance.

It doesn’t matter.

Man proposes, Entropy disposes.

I have my bag packed and the ticket booked. All I should do is to take that step and savour the rhapsody that the Himalayas serve me.

I will keep writing nevertheless. I am not sure if I could update my blog from there. I don’t know what I am going to do with the photos that I take.

I even don’t know what I would be doing in Old manali or Spiti. I would probably go to the Key Monastery. I may spend my time at the hotel room reading the stuff that I like.

I am telling myself not to expect anything. For I know that I lost my tickets that I booked one month ago when some Gujju decided to sit on the railway tracks demanding 5% reservation in the government jobs.

I hope to know more about the people who reside in the villages. Far away from the main stream politics and media blitskreig. I would like to know what goes inside their heads when they choose their underwear. I hope its not another disgusting picture of Akshay Kumar in one piece. [Doing my bit of stereotyping the villagers]

I hope everything goes fine and I return as a changed man. Drop me a word if I should do something for you in the Himalayas. I will try earnestly to fulfil it.

See you all soon. Bye.

Written on May 26, 2015