Our manali trance!
It was 15th of May, 2014. And the day after; manasvi’s journey to manali. If I try to recall, all I can remember is her face melting into nervousness, a bit feared, clueless, and her terrible change in behaviour of what to do and what not to do.Though her cousins were up for the journey as well, but scared-smeared face seemed she’s all alone going to venture new place, filled with dinosaurs.
Had to see her off in the evening; With best of lucks and emotional hugs of gleeful goodbyes and fake formal tears of miss you! Just kidding!
different times, different people, same experiences
27th of May, 2015. Same name different body, my little macho man was to set her foots in the Himalayan ranges, now if I try to recall, the scene was totally opposite than that of a year back. where my girl, manasvi shah’s anxious face is all I remember. And here this lil’ macho man, manasvi nag, had not so similar behaviour (not in any case). Her “I’m freaking excited” face seemed like shes going to rock that trip. That fast and furious rush of adrenaline and temporary hyperactive disorder could tell me, “a lot can happen”. Again formal tears, emotional hugs, and miss you’s and goodbyes and all sort of loves and cares were showered upon her as usual.
nature! <3
Now *FLASHBACK*
It was 5th of June, when I met manasvi shah back, I had to tell her things, a lot of things, and she had to tell me tonnes, Kgs and bulk of things.
When that evening I was with her walking down the lane, her smile, her behaviour, her personality, her body language, her simple gestures, whereas everything had changed, kind of seemed beautiful .
She started with her long narration of experience. And to be honest, it took her more than a day to explain me everything in detail. And like a fairy tale, I silently listened to her endless topic “Manali”.
Her train to Chandigarh which then took her to manali, on the way her, time created new friends, new experiences, accidents and incidents, for her, I believe so far it has been the best trip of her life. thrilling adventures, freezing water falls, fresh breeze, white cold snow, lush greenery, streams, pure nights and wild stay.
snow treek!
And now time to come back to the present, till now if you remember my lil’ macho man too went to manali, we met her after a long time as usual.
It was the normal Mcube day again, we had no place to go, so we decided to go to crosswords, the serene atmosphere and our loud talks, wouldn’t be a perfect match?
Manasvi nag, the tomboy of our gang, turned into a guy finally (joking!) though her face was shimmering with happiness, couldn’t control herself to start her part of talk, we could notice change in physical appearance as well ( that I mentioned of a guy above, it was a joke) no, but seriously, she grew taller, her walking pattern was different than usual. And her vocabulary skills of typical alien language, gave me and shah a expression of “ woah! She changed”
We sat down, I knew the topic couldn’t be about Ahmedabad’s development or agricultural problems, but about a place called Manali
So I shut my mouth once I knew that the topic is going to be divided in two different experiences
Nag- I made new friends!
Shah and me- OBVIOUSLY!
She couldn’t control herself from speaking of all the unspoken words, in case I heard something, then the conversation of both of my dear same-named people!
Shah- “we did rappling”, nag-“we did that too”,
shah-“we made maggi” nag-“we did the same, we had some sort of maggi making competition”.
shah- “did you go to that freezing waterfall, what the hell was that called??” Nag-“jogni falls?” “yessss, that!” “yes ofcourse, that was the freaking best, I couldn’t control my legs, I want to be there, so badly”,
shah-“you slept in tents?”, nag- “yes ofcourse, it was a camp stupid”. Shah- “you made friends?” Nag-“yes, dozens of them”
nag- “remember pinky?”… “omg how will you remember her, sorry I never told you about her…”
Yes, that’s how the conversation actually went, in all, there is no single word spoken by me, I just heard them, reviving the fresh old memories? Yes kind of!
jogini falls!
“you know it was so beautiful, we didn’t actually use our mobile phones, rather just to capture the amazing scene changing every hour, the snow was so pure, I felt like staying in there forever, the plants, the greens , the woods, the breeze, the fresh air we could breathe in day or night, it was such a relief to actually forget about the reality, and stay with the strangers filled with memories.”
“I made such an amazing friends, though we know we wont be together forever, but I sense, we’ll stay in eachother’s heart maybe till the end”
our different groups, our same love!
“I know man! I just want to go back, meeting new people, experimenting the different culture, eating different food, and experiencing new things”
There talk seemed endless, and the truth is, its actually endless, it just wont end, its been a year for one and few months for the other, but the conversation never stops.
To be continued…
M cube collab. writing- Meghna
photo edits- Manasvi s.
content design- Manasvi n’
photos of Manali (Manasvi s) by Anand Bhuva
logo and featured image of the post by Siddharth Laheri and Meghna.
thanks for contributing 🙂