Himalayan Memoirs: Baethi Nanda devi-Atkuni-Gothu

From Baethi, we started walking on the forest path. Occasionally the canopy of endless greenery would clear up and reveal small settlements. One such settlement was Atkuni: a small hamlet which had an ancient Bhairav temple. After some time the forest path ended and we came into a small town. We had to descend a mountain whose entire valley was under paddy cultivation. It was quite tricky. The greenery of the endless paddy was almost blinding. After the endless paddy fields we came across an auxiliary road which will take us to where we intend to stay the night: Gothu. Once we reached Gothu, Maamaji told everyone that tomorrow’s trek would the most difficult one so we better get some good sleep. Nevertheless, I decided to join maamaji for the sathsang that he was supposed to convene at the nearby temple. He openly admired and approved my peity. Sathsang was fun with the now familiar Garhwali tunes and impromptu dances by 70 year olds. Gothu was also incidentally the last place where I could keep up my asana practices.

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