"Dharamshala is a place in the lap of majestic Dhauladhar mountains."





"God created death to keep his creation young."

"Delhi Metro's Airport Express (Orange) Line takes you to Delhi airport conveniently."

Me at Terminal 3



"There are only two airlines-Air India and SpiceJet-that offer flight services to Dharamshala."

"The flights to Dharamshala operate only from New Delhi."





"There is no proper train service to Dharamshala."





"The weather at Dharamshala is highly unpredictable."

Breathtaking View of Mountains Just After Landing at the Kangra Airport





Me at Kangra Airport

"The airport at Dharamshala isn't exactly in the Dharamshala city but in a small place called Gaggal which is around 15 kms from Dharamshala and is called Kangra airport."





"The only way of everlasting peace and happiness is turning the will upon itself."





"Why do we realize the value of something only after losing it?"





There was an excitement in the air as it was 12th of July 2018. We were finally heading for holiday to our home in Dharamshala (Himachal Pradesh), a place in the lap of the majestic Dhauladhar mountains. Me and my wife had been feeling literally roasted for the past three months after bearing the hellish summer heat topped with electricity cuts ranging from minutes to days in Etawah (Uttar Pradesh), a place where I had gotten posted recently owing to a promotion transfer.Our flight was an Air India flight expected to depart early morning at 6:35 am the next day from Terminal 3 of the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport at New Delhi. I took leave from office right after the lunchtime and came home. Just then I received a SMS that our flight AI9813 shall now operate as AI9713 on 13-Jul-2018 and depart at 1055 hours. I immediately cursed my boss and thought that he didn't allow me the leave with a good heart.Ever since I joined my organization (it is a Public Sector Undertaking), I never had a high opinion about my seniors of the older generation. There are no doubt a few good men among them whom I really admire, but I always found the views of most of them extremely hypocritical, decadent and pessimistic. Fed up from their tyranny, I always found a great solace in a thought expressed by Marcus Aurelius in his bookthat God is young, loves the young and is always on the side of the young. He created death for the very purpose of keeping his creation young wiping out that which was old and unnecessary.I cursed Air India too whose mismanagement and bankruptcy had been making a lot of news recently. I checked their app and found no update. We called up their customer service and received a reply after perhaps 20 minutes of holding the line informing us about the cancellation of our flight. I checked the weather at Dharamshala over Google and found prediction for rainfall, I always had this little fear in my mind even at the time of booking the flight. I thought that I had booked the flight over train for the purpose saving time and that purpose seemed to be getting defeated. I even thought of booking a hotel in Delhi for the night as we were going to depart from Etawah on the evening of 12th July itself by the New Delhi Swarn Shatabdi Express (12003) but abandoned the idea in favor of spending the night at airport saving a little money.So we departed from Etawah at around 6:30 pm and reached New Delhi Railway Station at around 10:30 pm. We came out of the railway station on the Ajmeri Gate side (towards platform 16) and entered New Delhi Metro Station which is at a stone's throw from New Delhi Railway Station. I then recharged my metro smart card which was out of money through the Paytm app. We then took the Airport Express (Orange) Line and left for Terminal 3. In about half an hour we arrived at our destination. Before entering the terminal we had a good photo session at the station as there were very few people around and hence we were less self-conscious.At the point of writing this blog there are only two airlines which offer flight services to Dharamshala namely Air India and SpiceJet and that too only from New Delhi. The opening up of metro service to the airport is also a great relief as it saves a lot of time and money. But frankly speaking I feel the air ticket to Dharamshala is overpriced considering the fact that I had recently been to Kolkata from New Delhi and cheaper tickets are available on that route (Kolkata being approximately three times far away from Delhi as Dharamshala). The airport at Dharamshala doesn't operate at night time and the weather there is highly unpredictable as it can rain anytime. There is also no proper train service to Dharamshala, the only thing that comes near to that is a narrow-gauge British-era train that runs from Pathankot to Jogindernagar which comes nearest to Dharamshala at Kangra (approx. 20 kms) or Palampur (approx. 35 kms). But I don't have an issue with lesser connectivity, as I believe some beautiful places are better left untouched otherwise they lose their charm. Many money-minded people might not agree, but that's fine.Coming back to airlines, the SpiceJet departs to Dharamshala from Terminal 1-D while Air India, as already mentioned, from Terminal 3. Terminal 1-D is for low cost carriers like IndiGo, SpiceJet and GoAir and is used for domestic departures. On the other hand all international flights and domestic flights other than budget carriers mentioned above operate from Terminal 3.The two things that strike you about the Terminal 3 is how massive and magnificent it is. It literally seems endless. So after entering the terminal we went to an Air India counter and showed them our ticket. We were provided with a piece of paper mentioning the change of our flight which we were told to present while checking-in. We had brought our dinner from home and the price of everything from coffee to snacks to food as at every airport was exorbitantly high. We couldn't sleep much all night and finally checked-in at around 6:15 am. We then window shopped for around two hours with me spending most of my time as usual in the book shop and then proceeded towards the Gate 42C alloted us on the boarding pass. My eyes were feeling really heavy now. I brought a little breakfast for us which costed us around Rs. 500!As the scheduled time for the flight drew close we came to know that the flight had got further delayed. People waited for a while and then made queries from the ground staff of the airlines standing at the gate. Someone out of them told that the delay was due to bad weather at Dharamshala. I grew a bit anxious as the thought crossed my mind that maybe this flight might get cancelled and then we would have to move to Dharamshala by bus. This would mean that all the benefit of starting early from Etawah and two days of holidays would be ruined. I called up back home at Dharamshala and my mom told that it had rained heavily in the morning and now the weather was clearing up.Finally we got the signal for boarding the shuttle bus at around 12 pm. Almost half of the passengers were Westerners. As the shuttle bus moved, it started raining heavily. The atmosphere in the bus was as if everyone had heaved a sigh of relief because many of them had been waiting for hours like us because of the cancelled flight. I further consoled them by saying that the weather was clearing up at Dharamshala. We then reached the small plane that was to take us to Dharamshala and entered from the backside. We had gotten seats 3C and 3D and I gave her the window seat as she was flying for the first time. She seemed initially a bit scared when the flight took off and was super excited once she saw the clouds below her.We finally reached Dharamshala at around 2 pm and the view we saw just after landing made me feel as if I had entered some other realm of existence, some other dimension. The feeling grew even more stronger once I came out of the airport. The sunlight, the greenery, the clouds, mildly cold air, the slow moving life-it was absolutely magical. All our tiredness was washed away in an instant. The airport at Dharamshala had not changed much, it was pretty much the same as it was in 2007-the last time I flew here. I spoke with a guy with whom I had spoken in the shuttle bus while I was waiting for my luggage at the conveyor belt. He was a chief engineer in the merchant navy and coming back home from Singapore. We didn't take any taxi, as the fare they were asking of us was Rs. 560 but most of the poor tourists did. They were sharing anyways. We simply came out of the airport, took a bus to Gaggal and then from Gaggal to Dharamshala. It costed us around Rs. 50. I was even thinking of walking to Gaggal but my mom reminded me over the phone that construction work on a bridge was going on in the way, so there would be heavy traffic there. The airport at Dharamshala isn't exactly in the Dharamshala city but in a small place called Gaggal which is around 15 kms from Dharamshala and is called Kangra airport.We finally reached home and the joy I felt upon seeing my mother and sister is beyond words. This journey back home wasn't a normal journey. It made me ask myself many questions. It made me question my idea of success. Is success just all about moving up the invisible professional ladder? If yes, then are its costs-leaving your family behind, getting uprooted from your native place-really worth it? In the eyes of my colleagues and friends, I am successful with a great career ahead of me. But how long can we live by the opinions of others? It was no doubt me who had worked hard to get this promotion and at one time it seemed the only thing that mattered but now I realize deep in my heart that I didn't want this to happen at such a big cost. It was only the jibes of the colleagues, seniors and society and some inflated idea I had of myself that had brought me here. Neither can I swallow my promotion nor spit it out.I sometimes feel that Arthur Schopenhauer was absolutely right in stating that we are not led by intellect but by will-which is a blind force and can only lead to more desires and more pain. This blind force can never get quenched. The only way of everlasting peace and happiness is turning the will upon itself. The journey also made me search where that old version of myself was lost that which was ambitious, wanted to see the world, meet new people, exchange ideas, was fearless; where did that go? Before this job, I was at Mumbai at a Marine Terminal for 3 years and after that when I joined my current job near my hometown, I was very happy. I was enjoying everything-the job, the nature, time with my family-but then things like negativity at office, the realization that my current post wasn't enough (It surely is never enough if you feel it is not!) drilled into my head subtly and not-so-subtly by colleagues, seniors, society and perhaps me too took over and I became obsessed with promotion. I stopped enjoying the nature, simplicity of life and time with my family and began to take all that for granted. Today I have lost all that and realize it's value. Why do we realize the value of something only after losing it?The answers to the above questions will perhaps define my future and my life.