Of Manali and the snow angels!

Till I was about nine years old, snow was one of the only extreme weather conditions I hadn’t experienced. They say you need to work hard to make your dreams come true…well in my case I pestered God till I got what I wanted!

My father picked the Christmas vacations to book tickets to Manali in Himachal Pradesh. Ooo my excitement knew no bounds! I was born as a hyperactive child and dreaming of making snowmen infuriated my mother a little more than usual, that she had to shut me up by “blackmailing’ me!

Then the important day arrived. I could only imagine what Manali would be like: powerful snowstorms, glistening mountains, people greeting us with warmth, kindness, warm and delicious food and wonderfully fresh air. We had actually made plans to drive from Chandigarh to Manali, so all the snow and the snow-clad mountains did not pop out of nowhere. We were slowly getting used to it. When I held my first ever snowball, I was so frozen that I would have literally heard Idina Menzel’s “Let It Go” (had released then; plus the snow ball was too cold so I didn’t really have a choice). The white, cottony powder chilled my hand, so I put my hand inside my pocket to warm it and we continued to drive through the sea of white.

The next couple of days went by so quickly that they beat Usain Bolt’s two hundred metre race record! Snowfall had turned the River Beas frozen but that didn’t stop my mother and I from doing some dangerous river crossing! It was easy though, all we had to do was remind ourselves that we wouldn’t drown, but just cause the ice to crack a little. It was quite reassuring. Now when someone said ‘snow’, one of the most common things that came to my mind was skiing! Being the only child in the family, it was about I got spoilt! When we came closer to the mountains, the slope gave me jitters! I would have agreed to ski but I died. Right there. Died

We did, well I DID, end up skiing, but in a place which was slightly less dangerous and less steep; spent half a day playing sport but my “give-upness” kicked right in.

From skiing to sledging, river crossing to go-carting, from making snowmen to snow angels and eating equal amount of food when compared to Jughead, my winter vacations were memorable enough for me to remember it for over seven years!

And thereby hangs a winter’s tale! 

 - Rtr Eera Bhatt

Rotaract Club of NM College