'Tomorrow in Birni Hills'

        The word ‘Tomorrow’ is for futuristic hope. It acts as a relaxing speech-word in the hectic disputed work-load. Thoughts become lighter and dissolve which were entangled earlier. In reality, ‘tomorrow’ concerns delaying work and makes things unorganized. In the same context, it hinders the quick response and tries to slow down the pace of regularity. But many a time, its comfort state can apart person from misery just only for momentarily.

Ohhh!!! It’s all about esoteric philosophy.

            It was the time when we were under the burden of project assignments assigned by our PI aka ‘Boss’ who was out of station for a week. This felt like a long weekend for us. We were hoping for free time the same as waiting for the first monsoon rainfall. We were more relaxed and worked care-freely. Subsequent days were diving in the same way with commence of procrastination.

For me, every-day was exactly the same where I have to check in medicinal field first before Lab. I parked my scooty on the stand at the ‘Chandpur garden’. Scooty’s inclined direction always in the bow position to the snowy mighty ‘Dhauladhar’.

If I throw the preview of my medicinal field of Valeriana’s location, the frontal view appeared as snowy entry to the herbal garden. One side of the field was surrounded by a fossil plant Ginko biloba which was arranged in a systematic pattern of different spacing. Another side was occupied with Drake tree (Melia azaderach) plantation with turmeric at its under-storey; researchers have tried an agroforestry system. And backside was over-captured with thorny shrubs and weeds. All sides of Valeriana field were enclosed with a green net at its boundary-line that could possibly separate Himalayan medicinal plants from other plant species. Almost every morning, the same green net boundary was always found tattered by the sneaking practice of night riders. These riders were giant Nilgai (an Asian antelope aka wild cow) and naughty rabbits. Continuous pug marks on field ground highlighted the direction of their movement. And last sunken jump to get out of the field showed their exit point after engulfing plant leaves.

Valeriana field: one sector of Chandpur Garden

             If my field premises were one-quarter of the circular area of Chandpur garden, the scented pink rose was another quarter up to its perimeter, the other two sectors were planted with lemongrass tufts and sweet Stevia (Madhupatri) plants. This was the pattern of the managed herbal garden which was once the eloquent garden of the queen of Chandpur. Locals say that at night Chandpur garden still shines with twinkling fireflies activities all over the area which glorify it like a Hindi phrase ‘Char Chand Lagana’.

        After reviewing the field I joined my lab-mates to get status for today’s tracking plan. We resumed the tracking for that day as mid-day was already over. So we had only last day ‘Tomorrow’ of accidental opportunity.

We will go tomorrow. That’s what we had decided finally.

But still, the plan was not fixed at all.

        The next morning, we forced each other to get along to track Birni Hill’ of Palampur (H.P). At last, we six finally agreed to utilize the last day without worrying tomorrow.

        We rode to Birni Temple from Chandpur with our own scooty/bike by crossing beautiful pahadi villages. First, we visited a wooden furnished Birni temple from where our track started for hill. Our guide (Babhit) was well aware of routes. Crossing through mixed Himalayan Forest toward clean pastureland under a blue sky was an amazing journey. Enjoy-full journey intensified more by sharing thoughts and discussions with each other. We got to know each other even more under real-world ‘Nature’. Moreover, our problem was the same ‘Pending Project assignments’. It was like we were a group of exhausters venturing out the Himalayas for solution.

        Considering the fate of luck and our decision, we got rejuvenating time away from project work. Finally, we reached a top hill of Birni. At that zenith point, we forget our daily affair sorrows. We were so into the present. The live mountains of Dhauladhar were much closer than our Chandpur garden. Their crown was covered fully with pride snow. Staring them constantly was like a booster for youngsters like us. Another moving sun in the clear sky was maintaining the temperature of adjoining snowy hills. The continuously changing position of Sun towards the west was a realization for the next day ‘Tomorrow’. For us tomorrow was the end of holidays full of pending assignments. But this track gave us enthusiasm for work. And we completed the pending works of two threes days within 5-6 hours. This is the power of rejuvenation after nature walk in the Himalayas.

Hill tracking is phenomenal where you interact with diverse innate of ecology, feel the essence of ecology, and recognize you as a part of it.

Covered track realizes that tomorrow is just an extension of longing today with the shade of night.

We should be live with the eyes of the present without fear of tomorrow.