तेरे अपने ही तुझको जलयंगे कुच्छ दिन रोएंगे फिर भुल जयंगे

Songs
How they've always been with us across all phases, and years later,  they remind you of that particular phase,  the smell and sound of it! The trip/trek to/at Parvati Valley had bowled me over with three such songs!

Zooming through Delhi lanes and by lanes to Bhuntar,  with a weird stranger by my side had made me very irritated.  I chose the single window seat to sit at,  to avoid long conversations and to really have small talks with interesting fellow travellers,  if at all.  I have gone into a serious no new friends midnset for now.  But to my luck,  some guy came, sat beside me,  who also happened to be a Bengali. Now this was a new thing that I experienced with Himachal tourism buses,  single girls could have fellow seat mate as single guys. This generally does  not happen anywhere in Karnataka,  across all travels.  If you're a girl,  you'll only get a girl beside you.  This situation could have brought me interesting friends but no,  my co-passsenger was nosy, irritating and over friendly with his Bengali connect.  3 hours into my irritation,  A sacrificed her seat (partly because she found this guy cute)  and we swapped seats.
This is where we crossed the HUGE Gurgaon toll, with golden sunset, after over 40 hours of no sleep (consider US timing office and straight airport cab and early morning flight and Delhi shopping and bus now),  the bus driver played 'Channa Mereya' (another new thing about Himachal tourism where bus drivers play songs the entire night non-stop to keep themselves awake),  B and I slept off with the ever so famous and repeated and learnt and felt and relatable old song,  which was the last thing we wanted to hear but well, here it was, while the Golden Gurgaon waved bye bye...
महफ़िल में तेरी
हम न रहें जो
ग़म तो नहीं है
ग़म तो नहीं है

2 days into the trip (which I will write about later someday)  it was time for us to leave Tosh for Bhuntar again. We had to make it to Bhuntar before 5pm to be able to river raft. We obviously were late since our over adventurous hotel to Tosh-stop trek was impossible on back to back days (again, a tale for later).  When we finally arrived we had two options,  a direct cab to Bhuntar (like we did when we came), or a cab to Barshaini and then, local Himachal tourism bus to Bhuntar.  We of course chose the latter because
A.  We were almost broke by the end of the trip
B.  We really wanted to experience the local pahari bus
The problem being, all three of us were dead tired,  slightly pukish and our river rafting timeline was at stake! We somehow made it to the local bus, fully crowded.  The conductor confirmed that half of the crowd would get down at Manikaran/Kasol. We agreed, but to stand on the spiral roads in a moving bus which had nothing close to luxury, was difficult.  Slowly the bus started to take sharp turns and the afternoon sun did was not kind.  However,  someone from the last seat had a speaker that played Yellow and Let Her Go back to back.  That day,  a bus full of high Israeli-s,  young Indians and localites started to sing Let Her Go.  It was unreal to look at the Delhi girl sitting on the seat whose support you're taking to stand, sing in chorus with the half eyelid closed and stoned videshi.  It was such an overwhelming feeling to sing with a bunchful of strangers,  over the Himachal twists and glittering sun. We of course made it in time for the rafting...
Staring at the bottom of your glass
Hoping one day you'll make a dream last
But dreams come slow and they go so fast

Our rafting manager (Anuj bhaiya) was an over enthusiastic person who kept calling us ever since we contacted him.  This of course made us,  Bangali-s, a little skeptical.  When we got down at his office he gave this HUGE introduction,  and photos and what not about Kullu and his service. Occasional 'smoke karte ho kya',  'Kasol mein kya kya kiya ghumne k alava',  'Kullu aaye toh hum Kullu ki speciality offer karenge hi Madam' followed. His agenda included,  taking us to rafting point,  guide us through the rafting,  rafting the entire 15km,  drive us from the point where rafting ends to a changing point,  take us to a hotel for dinner,  take us through/to the local market and then drop us to the night bus.  All of this for a pretty cheap rate and again,  we were skeptic.  We were so skeptic that mid rafting when he told us to jump into the river,  I thought he is actually plotting to kill us!  We of course jumped and had an amazing rafting experience (more on that later). After rafting and changing,  we had no energy left to shop,  it was close to 6:30 and our bus (which initially was at 9:30,  got cancelled, and now new bus was at 7:30) was in an hour.  We told Anuj bhaiya to take to a dinner place,  to this he said 'hum apne favorite jagah le k jayenge'.  He had called our travel agency, got the number of the driver and declared the bus will not come before 8:30. In the open jeep there were we three,  Anuj bhaiya and three more of his 'bhai-s'. The jeep started.  Parvati river on one side and mountains on the other,  slowly the night arrived.  The dim lit houses on the hills looked surreal, but in a while,  Anuj bhaiya took a route which had zero lights and zero houses,  we got scared. Thank you airport security,  our pepper spray was also gone. When we panicked,  he stopped us to a shady dhaba,  started rolling joints outside and told us to order whatever we want.  It was close to 8. A gave me a good scolding when I tried consoling them, saying I have crossed all limits of being irresponsible with life. I obeyed them into not eating there and taking parcel.  Anuj bhaiya and his bhai-s were in their own world.  B insisted that we leave and he started the jeep again, stoned. The winding roads again,  no light,  this time there was a sky full of stars,  there was Parvati river gurgling beside, there was chilly wind and us in an open jeep.  This is when Anuj bhaiya played a song which took me to a different world.  I did not care about what would happen to us next and I'm not exaggerating (Maa,  everything here is purely fictional,  trust me).  What actually happened and how is a tale for another day but since all three of us are peacefully lazying over Friday night at this time,  this song, which will forever take me back,  to the moon,  and stars,  and parvati river,  and chilly breeze,  and mountains,  and open jeeps,  and FREEDOM!...
Yeh jeevan tera moh k dhaage
Gaath lage tut jana
Mudke phir nahi aana