FOOTHILLS HIMALAYA @ JIM CORBETT NATIONAL PARK

Jim Corbett National Park, the home to the mighty king of the jungle and inspiration to the "jungle book" is worth a visit, not just for its king but for every flora and fauna there and the best places to put up for your duration of stay are the forest guest houses inside the forest zone (Dhikala being the best one). But the better they are the rarer the availability, rarer than spotting the king himself. But it's not a news of disappointment anyways because here comes Rushil Shergill's foothills Himalaya home stay into picture and trust me it will be a much better option.

right at the foothills with the forest around

Needless to say, tiger spotting and staying inside the Forest sounds more thrilling but if you go as a tourist and book a safari directly with forest office your chances of spotting a tiger gets thinner. On the other hand, if you have Rushil to accompany you; his knowledge of the jungle, about secret whereabouts of tigers and his familiarity with the locals can thicken your chances of a game or two. I think my husband rightly called him young Jim Corbett of India. Plus you get to experience hearty Punjabi hospitality, a sneak peek into the life of a falconer/organic farmer/self made architect building his new rammed earth wall house with quite efficient chimneys all by experimental learning.

organic onion farms

We were not lucky enough to spot any tiger but I swear we do not regret it as we visited quite interior parts of the jungle where no safari jeeps go, saw the surrounding village, farms, got introduced to art of falconry; all thanks to our generous host. His whole family treated us with such warmth and fed us with farm grown organic mouthwatering food over rounds of drinks and countless stories about the jungle and their life in the wilderness. Even their dogs seemed to be trained in hospitality. They came running to greet us (like old friends), slept under our bed (sleeps are sound with a furry friend at your feet) and stood guard at night when we were star gazing in the open (leopards do visit the village occasionally).

the cottage and the fruit trees' garden in front

In the end, while leaving after just two days, we didn't have a "check out" feeling but as if saying goodbye to a friend and his family after spending a whole summer with them.

Details - 

Jim Corbett's winter house

• Location - Kotabaug, Kaladhungi, Uttarakhand ( just 30mins from the Jim Corbett National Park)
• Commute by air - nearest domestic airport @ Phoolbagh, Pantnagar is around 50kms away. nearest international airport @ Delhi is around 295kms away.
• Commute by rail -  nearest railway station @ Kathgodam is around 44kms with Shatabdi running every day to and fro.
• Commute by road - of course you need taxi in any of the above cases. Call for Jitin Bhai's taxi service @ 9412039589, it's very prompt with decent drivers.
• Stay details - there are 3 double rooms to opt from and tents are pitched if need be.
• In and around - National Park is indeed the reason for the visit but don't miss Jim Corbett's winter house which is converted into forest museum, buy his books "man eaters of Kumaon" and "My India" for thrilling hunting stories.
• Seasons - Summers are best for tiger spotting, rains are dramatic to visit and winter treks around are fantastic.

MY YOGA STORY

You can call yoga as just a form of physical exercise till you revert back to it just for flexibility, strength and weight loss. This definition of yoga that I presumed,  hurdled me to stick to it for anything longer than a month. Asanas are actually a preparatory tool to train the body for stillness required for the further stages. This outer most stage involving the physical body is called Annamaya kosh. 

The physical body is controlled by the sensory organs which are controlled by the mind and the mind by the breath. Controlling breathing is the next stage called Pranamaya kosh. To move further inwards to this stage however, you would need a prescription by your doctor for some ailments ( it does not show benefits so much on the outside unless it's practised for a longer period and so is not so interesting). I was though curious to know the further journey and how would that benefit me. Pranayama and asanas together ensure a healthy mind and body for the yogic progress.

A regular and steady practice of both would start affecting various spheres of your life magically. My food preferences, my mood swings, my temperament started changing. My patience, perseverance, tolerance increased in a course of time. This stage called Manomaya kosh ignites a thoughtless mind that activates the intellect.

The breath that controls the mind is kryptonite to the intellect. This activated intellect will have a hundred doubts and a million questions and will thus need direction for further journey. A good guru is a must here. I wanted to know all about yoga, it's origins to its preachers to its goals and teachings. I began reading lots of ancient scriptures and preachings by Patanjali, Swami Vivekananda and many more; asking my guru for translations and more explanations. This stage is called Vijnyanamaya kosh.

I won't say I crossed all these stages for the next one. It's not correct to cross them. You need a constant practice of stabilising at this yogic path through these stages going through lots of failures, learnings, acceptance and evolution to be able to experience the innermost stage called Anandmaya kosh or the blissful state.

FACE OFF

Facing yourself got to be the toughest task in the world. Well I don't mean, looking into the mirror, not literally of course but sure metaphorically.
There have been millions of good, bad, embarrassing, shameful incidents in everyone's lives since childhood and irrespective of the fact that we forgive those or not, they get stored into the dungeons of our minds. We lock those scary dark places, leaving those dirty, filthy prisoners to their fact hoping they would disappear with time. And then we get busy with making new experiences, busy with jobs we assign ourselves to the daytime and family and friends for the rest of the day. Nowadays not even the nights are lonely and interrogative, thanks to our cellphones and social media.
We have become so equipped with things to do, that we don't allow ourselves time to grieve our loses, time to contemplate our mistakes, time to plan improvisation. We as a community, have fought and achieved right to information but as humans we deny those rights to our minds, to question our frigidity, our cowardice, our incompetence or our successes and pleasures.
And as a result, we cannot sit alone doing nothing. Any such void becomes a sign of danger to our lives. Within seconds of stillness, our minds rush back to those long forgotten locked forever dungeons, opening every door, visiting every prisoner, digging out every I-don't-want-to-remember-that-ever moment, making it impossible to face ourselves ever alone. And then we plan our every second of the rest of our lives so carefully not to allow such moments to appear ever. But the mighty nature has planned such time for each one of us. At some point in our lives, we will have to go through the dungeons and decide either to go lock ourselves with those prisoners or to hear them out and release them, accepting all our shortcomings and strengths.
Those who have been there and done that will always love to face themselves (figuratively of course).

Introspection...

There are two kind of human beings on earth. One- who just live as humans, enjoying the perks God bestowed on our species. And two- who take the matter way too seriously and think of it as their responsibility to act as a higher being.
Mistakes still happen by both. Just the difference being, one carries on whereas other one tries to evaluate, analyse and evolve.
When you chose to be the second kind, the path gets twisted. The worst enemies you see are the first kinds.
It is hard to see how being a human being, it is not considered by them to not respect the opportunity. You think every human, has in him to act as one. So.... So you try to make them understand and in the process disturb their perfect harmony.
You are all righteous with your concept of higher being behaviour- respecting nature, protecting your loved ones, growing with the nexgen, always trying ways to self improvement and all the wacky ideas you think of as "higher being code of conduct". But while thinking all this, you in your perfect imperfection try to interfere with other's vision of themselves. You take it on yourself to make the world around you, not just better but better than the best. You reason it out as you cannot see wrong happenings in front of you and not attempting to improve it. And so you forget the fact that you cannot and should not chalk out everyone's path which would get synonymous with you being dictator. And you are ultimately not being the second type that you initially set out to be.
When Gandhiji said, Be the change you want to see in the world, he did not mean to later go and by any possible means change the world yourselves. So here is a little addition to his original saying just for these second type enthusiasts to go easy -
Be the change, you want to see in the world, then...
Be patient and give way for the world to change,
If it does not happen overnight,
Wait for a fortnight,
If not still...
Just forget it and concentrate on your personal journey.