Himalayas

Mountains ho!

I love mountains and my friend George Breed calls me Yamabushi, Japanese name for Mountain Spirit. The sight of snow-clad peaks, wooded trek routes, circuitous paths leading to a lone temple up a mountain, surrounded by silence and the clouds gives me a high and I can write and speak no end about them.
I can never say what happens there, but each time I visit, for just a week or ten days, there's material enough to write for a book with exclusive photographs of nature's grandeur and several articles published in The Hindu, the newspaper I continue to write for.
My visit is often a call. And soon the preparations are on, arrangements made and I am ready to go with my backpack and thermals. I wish to travel around the mountains of the world and I know they are all going to make me feel the same - the breath of rarefied air, nipping cold, moving mists, silvery snow and green topped mountain slopes. When I come back, there is sheer experience and loads to tell those who wish to listen!
Metro Plus, Young World , Sunday Magazine, my first trip, story ideas spring, wellness and trekking, snow walk.
- Swahilya Shambhavi.
(Picture: Snow-covered slopes of the Himalayas with sunlight trickling through the deodar trees at Dugalbhitta near Tungnath last December.

A view of the Grand Canyon, USA taken by Aravind Venkataraman, an avid ski enthusiast who also loves to trek in the Grand Canyon. I have a strong belief that the Canyon, which is more a mountain from the basement will have the same feel for me as the Himalayas. I look forward to visiting there sometime.)
(Maha Shivaratri, Patanjali Yoga Sutra, Bhagavad Gita, Vignana Bhairava Tantra, Indians in Chicago, swahilya.soulmate@gmail.com)