23/01/2013
I am paying my heartiest gratitude to Mr. Tikam Singh Chauhan & Managing Director of TIG Mr.Dhruv who were recently organised Magh Mela Expedition - Gorchha Village very near to Koti Kanasar, Uttarakhand
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This time it was not a regular leisure trip but an amalgam of culture and adventure. A village trip to Jaunsar-Bawar region of Uttarakhand, which we promoted as an expedition for our upcoming project. A place which takes you to the stone age in Himalayas. District Dehradun, Tehsil Tuni, Village Gorchha, this is the place we decided to explore and chose the name of this trip as Magh Mela Expedition. Magh Mela is a month long fair which is celebrated in this region every year in winters. The uniqueness of this period in the village is very interesting, which you will read in coming paragraphs. Our motto of this expedition was to promote this area of Uttarakhand as a destination where one can live and learn the basics of life, a place of eternity and peace. We also wanted to create and provide some earning opportunities for young generation of the village who unwillingly go to downtowns like Vikasnagar and Dehradun to earn their bread n butter leaving their family, friends and lifestyle behind.
Tikam and I was planning this trip for a long time and finally after confirming the exact dates of festival, we zeroed on a DoD i.e. 09 Jan 2013. I must update my dear readers that Tikam Chauhan is an active member of our upcoming project and is efficiently engaged in organization’s inbound tour consultancy division, plus he hails from the same village, Gorchha. Being a resident of that area once, he was our leader and guide on this compelling trip of ours. We were 5, all highly motivated urban city people who took part in this superb jaunt. Tikam and I, Kamlesh, Rahul our newly added team member and our boy Aadrit, once a colleague and now a passionate adventure rider from Dehradun. We all went on this spree to learn more about Jaunsar and its people. A place forgotten where folks still have all the respect for their culture and has courage to follow it religiously.
Commuting from Delhi to Gorchha: We chose to keep it as basic as possible. We took an overnight Uttarakhand roadways volvo bus to Dehradun and from there we hired a Bolero (a Special Utility Cab, 8 seater) till the village. The total journey we covered in less than 10hrs with enough short halts. Starting from Dehradun to Vikasnagar, Kalsi, Sahiya, Chakrata, Lukhandi, Koti and then village Gorchhha. The road is not too bad and it was a picturesque drive through Deodar trees and apple orchards. With chilling weather, every time we came out of the car, we were freezing. Our longest halt was at Chakrata, we had breakfast and got some packed snacks and chocolates along. Foreign travelers can't enter Chakrata being an army cantonment area. There is another route which doesn't take you into Chakrata cantonment, cuts from Kalsi towards Himachal border and then via Tuni town it reaches to Gorchha. As I mentioned above, road was not too bad but the only rough patch was after Koti till the village. We all enjoyed the traveling part and were excited for upcoming challenges. On 13 Jan 2013 we depart from the village and our Bolero driver, Neeraj Ji picked us from village and dropped back to Dehradun. Neeraj Ji was one dramatic entertainer for all of us on this trip. On a funny part, while driving he poked his nose in everything we talked within us and told us stories to prove his intelligence. With his interesting stories we never realized the distances and I thank him a lot. When coming back, I desired to drive his bolero and he gave me the keys happily. I drove his 2009 Mahindra Bolera Utility from Sahiya to Dehardun and enjoyed it undoubtedly. That night our families were celebrating Lohri back in Delhi and we boarded our overnight Volvo back to home.
Village Gorchha, preserving old times within: I have seen a lot of villages and have spent a lot of time in villages since my childhood but this one took my breadth off, a remotely situated mountain village where life is as hard as living in a jungle like tribes. The nearest town from where villagers get their important amenities is 2hrs drive away but most of the raw material is grown and produced in the village only. Mostly grown cereals are Paddy, Wheat, Maze, Cholai, Mandwa etc. Apple is one of the specialties here and every house has a small or large apple orchard. They grow apples together and sell them in nearest whole sale market. Some other grown fruits are Plum, Peach, Orange and Guava. Although there are technologies like mobile phones, satellite TV connections, solar panels, electric heaters etc but majority of the villagers still use their old methods in their daily jobs. The attraction to me was their traditional houses, beautifully carved and crafted in wood and built in typical Garhwal design and pattern. Amazingly, the entrance doors here are very small due to security reasons. The wood logs they use are collected from forest after prior permission of forest dept (those naturally uprooted Deodars only). Houses are mostly two story apartments with ground level for pets, food grain store rooms and top level for the family members. The whole village looks like an ethnic resort on mountain steps with very traditional Uttarakhand style decor.
Jausaris, people with honor: People here are hard working, simple, noble and caring. According to the legends, their ancestral roots go down to Hindu epic Mahabharat heros, Pandavas. They have an interesting story of how their ancestors acquired this place but I cannot tell you the story right here because the real fun in listening this story is from the local people. Villagers here have a hard life to live still their love for traditions and customs are inspiring. People of this region are called Jaunsaris and well known for their unique religious believe and customs. They are social people and help each others in every possible way to make things easy. Men here do the farm jobs like farming, pet keeping etc and women do all the household jobs. They have a small school up to standard eight and for higher studies kids go to Vikasnagar. On our last day, we were invited by villagers for tea and snacks. We learned a lot about their lifestyle and way of living when we talked to them. People here love their culture and do not wish to leave them for any reason, which I feel is very brave way of thinking and living. I am not writing more about people and customs here as I would request my readers to visit this place and experience it all by themselves. Trust me, you will easily nestled get in their houses and hearts like us.
Uniqueness of Magh Mela: This eventful festival is celebrated in Jaunsar and some parts of Uttarkashi, every year. The month of January is known as Magh in hindi and the name itself indicates that it is celebrated in January. The significance of this month is very natural and social for the villagers. After the snowfall in winters, people here can’t work due to the extreme weather conditions, they utilize this time being social and visiting their relatives. This full month folks enjoy with their family and friends as men come down from uphill and mountains with goats and sheep due to snowfall and cold. The celebration continues for whole month and every night they arrange music and dance program inside their wooden houses. Every evening program is held in one of the other villager’s house and all villagers gather in the same house that night to sing and dance. Seeing them enjoying together like one family, I felt so amazed. Food is another factor which contributes in the celebrations. Special cuisines are prepared every day in this month and we had tummy full of meal every time we were served these local delicacies. We all enjoyed the food very much and we miss it a lot now. This festival brings the close ones together and we felt blessed to be a part of this.
Moyala Top Trek: This expedition of ours was a blend of culture and adventure as I wrote earlier. We had our cultural experience in the village but real adventure was yet to come, trek to Moyala Top, which is a 9088ft mountain top above sea level. On 12 Jan 2013, we kept Gorchha as our base at 6618ft and we started climbing this unexplored mountain top with Tikam as our trek guide. It was a moderate type of trek but some patches in between gave us hard time to climb. It was fun hiking in the jungle with not so exploited treks. These barely visible treks were marked by villagers who bring their sheep and goats upside for grazing in summers. We never saw any human or any animal in our whole trek except some monkeys. After struggling through the steep inclinations and snow, we finally reached to the top in 3 hours and 30 minutes, the view took our breadth away and it felt heavenly. A hard core 7km trek with the steep climb of 2500ft to this place was all worth. A small natural lake makes it a perfect spot for nature lovers. According to Tikam, this pond never dries and the water remains as pure as freshly flowing. There is an ancient small wooden temple dedicated to lord Shiva situated on the top of one of the hills. We all were tired and hungry like horse but visited the temple first. The temple was in a rickety condition and Tikam told us only a few villagers who come here in summers perform prayers and other rituals. After giving respect to lord Shiva we chose a safe place to camp, fire and lunch. The freezing wind and a little drizzling made it difficult to light the fire but we made it finally, after all I’ve got quite an experience in making fire. We had some packed snacks, roti (bread) and slices of raw goat meat with us. I will never forget that lunch in my life, we actually earned that food for us. We spent a good 2hours there and then started trekking down. The sun was about to set but there was daylight till we reach around a kilometer down the hill. It started getting darker and we were not even half the way to our base village. We could see the dim lights of village from our trek but the real distance was around 5 to 6 km away. The villagers had warned us about a Tiger (Bagh) wandering in that jungle, and suggested to be back in the day light. They also informed us they have being hearing this tiger's growl for few days and it was not safe in night. Trust me we were all scared to death and with all our energy left, we kept walking down with flash and torch lights on. Though the houses had electricity but it was pitch dark out when we reached the village. It felt like being reborn, we had a mixed feeling inside of getting there safe and another one of completing this adventure with fun. The trek was full of thrilling experiences and gave me a sense of achievement. That night we attended a cultural program of singing and dancing organized by the villagers and was amazed by the lifestyle here again.
Gorchha, an inspiration: As a traveler and explorer, I am very much inspired by this village and its people. Here, I learned to live simple with sense of preserving our history and culture. Nature is another reason I am falling for this place, as it provides a full dose of scenic beauty to its visitors. People here teach us to live in peace and care for our mother nature. This trip for me was an expedition to explore traditions of Jaunsar region, when I started but I found so much more here. I have no more words to express my achievement and experience in this trip to Grochha.
I give my heartiest thanks to the people here for giving so much love and respect. I am also very thankful to Mr. Puran Singh Chauhan who is the current head of the village locally known as “Shyane Ji” for taking care of us and providing us the shelter in his house. Many thanks to all ladies who cooked delicious food for us and special thanks to the kids who took part in every activity we organized in the village, they kept it loud and crowded. I just love this place and will plan to visit again in the month of April, when the village celebrates Bisu festival (Baisakhi), which will add more cultural programs and other thrilling activities. So till then, I have my memories of past and plans of the new journey.
