Enchanted

This is the second post that I am commencing with a name which is doing the rounds in popular culture in recent times, but I can’t seem to help myself! Though, to describe what I am about to write, ‘Frozen’ would work just as well. :P

When I woke up and looked at my itinerary today, my heart leaped to my mouth. The schedule just mentioned one word- ‘Gulmarg’!  Oh, how much had I heard about Gulmarg! It has been described variously by different people but the common thread that runs through all descriptions is the undisputable fact that if heaven could be brought on earth, it will probably pale in comparison to Gulmarg. Flanked by snow covered mountains on all sides, even in the midst of the scorching heat of the Indian summer, all that meets the eye is endless rolling meadows and rows and rows of tall coniferous trees. Who know there are so many shades of green! *_*

For someone like me who has lived her entire life near the sea, mountains hold a special appeal. Snow, even more so! But considering I have come to the valley in the peak of summer, I did not have much hope of watching the snow within touching distance. I had convinced myself to be contented with a distant view of the snow-covered peaks. Never was I so wrong! :D The handy cable service at Gulmarg, bafflingly called ‘Gondola’ came to my rescue and helped me land straight on the very snow-covered peak I had been admiring from a distance. A weird sledging experience, a wardrobe malfunction and a horse mishap later, here I am, grinning nine to a dozen, happier than ever before in my life, bewitched by the mysterious hold that the mountains have always had on me and continues to do so.

P.S. All I could think of when driving through the, for lack of a more fitting word, beautiful meadows, was the many Heidi episodes I had devoured as a child. A re-run seems to be in order. Till then, ta-da!