My Re-birth story!

Chapter I

The Pandemic was a phantasmagorical carnival we never could have fathomed. On one side, we saw the havoc a microscopic organism could wreak and on the other side, we saw humans fight unanimously without discrimination of borders, gender, race and colour. Although the economy came to a stand still, we proved to be resilient and have started to pick each other up with faith!

The positive side of Corona : It made us Human!

Being an entrepreneur and a self declared Glippie (my personally coined term for a glam hippie), a major blow to me apart from the unbearable loss of loved ones was stability. Unlike most of my peers, settling down was never for me; be it in a career or in personal life. So, it should not be a surprise that my first blog after a long time is about travel and hospitality. Wanderlust is a fairly new concept but one that I haven’t been alien to. However, for me it is more than ticking off countries on a map. It has been and will always be about the journey of evolution.

Happiest when traveling since 1990! A nomad soul dad instilled a sense of curiosity for travel!

I personally went through the hell of contracting the Corona Virus in it’s notoriously murderous glory of the second wave. However difficult the physical aspect may have been, to me the mental health aspect was devastating. I lost ten of my near and dear ones after I recovered and I had a survivor’s guilt. Braving a smile on my social portals to instill positivity in my people, I locked myself in a room for about a month before God came in the form of friends pulling me out to the hills of Manali. I spent approximately a month to regain from the ambers of my past self and decided to spring back up.

The only picture I have of the actual hopelessness I felt during the aftermath of Corona.

Manali was a mixed bag of shunning what didn’t serve me and accepting change. I revelled in the marvel of who I was becoming even though it was scary. I gave up on second guessing myself and sang at my loudest clearest pitch at Rocky’s, a panoramic view restaurant at the tip of Old Manali! Realised that love doesn’t come packaged in forever and each soul you meet has some to offer you. Knowledge doesn’t always come in books but it is in abundance in the wrinkled stranger’s words.

My stay was broken into two parts -One in a quaint Buddhist town of Khaknal at the beautiful Kypo Khang. This part of my trip helped me with the decay of all the unnecessary parts of me. Kypo Khang , with it’s extremely hospitable host Shubham Rajput was a home away from home that eased me into the idea of travel. Home made delectable food of choice and comfortable beds helped. Major parts of our day included fun activities like dance and healing meditation.

I noticed my body language shift as I shunned negative beliefs and the agony I had from survivor’s guilt!

Part Two – Near the bustling (not so busy when I went) heart of Manali is the Spruce Mansion run by Mr. Pankaj Rana. The enormous rooms with the most comfortable beds became my home for the rest of my trip! It helped that the owner arranged my taxis and travel to nearby must see places like the Manu Temple, the Hidimba Temple and The Rohtang Pass. If you are heading to Manali, a must do is the Rocky’s Cafe atop the entire kasbah of Manali, say hello to the inimitable host Rohit for me when there! Other than that, the Lazy Dog and Page 3, have great ambience and food! (Let me know in comments if you’d like a more detailed blog on what to do in Manali! )

Going back into a world I so loved interacting with thanks to the beautiful souls around me!

The second leg of my travel saw me become the uninhibited self I always was and I owe it to my birth state to have re-birthed me into Sherry 2.0! I have full faith that if you are going through anything from stress to confusion to a midlife crisis, Himachal has answers you’re looking for! I will write detailed part blogs and keep in touch!