Intoxicating Tosh

Tosh is a small village in the interior of Parvati Valley in Himachal Pradesh. It was snowing, more like sleet actually, when I reached Tosh from Kasol taking a shared jeep from Manikaran. I got down from the taxi and tried to open my umbrella in a hurry as I was preventing myself from icy cold rain and in this process a spike of the umbrella broke. I put the rucksack on my back and walked forward in search of a shelter. The taxi stand is in front of a bridge on a small stream which is the gateway of Tosh.

I entered carefully because of ice and slush. Just after crossing the bridge I found a hotel. I inquired whether accommodation was available. They informed that they didn’t have attached bathroom. The next hotel on the way was closed. Proceeding forward I found a hotel upward where there were guests taking selfies on the balcony. There was ice and the path was very slippery. I could not reach there. I shouted for help. A person came and helped me to reach the hotel. He was the manager of the hotel.

It was very cold and I was shivering, so the manager told me to sit by the fireplace in their dining hall, and take a cup of tea and then to see the hotel room and complete all other formalities. It was a nice cozy room. I sat there snugly beside the fireplace. There were few people around the fire. Some were guests, some were employees who from time to time came to get the warmth. I saw my room. It was work-ably good. I kept my luggage there, closed the room and sat again beside the fire. There was no electricity.

It rained whole day. People kept on coming and going to have shelter or lunch. Food was tasty, and Israeli cuisine was also available there. I had lunch, afternoon coffee and a tasty early dinner sitting all day there. In the evening it started snowing heavily. Electricity came back luckily. There was nothing much to do. Time to time I went to the top floor to get mobile network and to contact my son and watched the beauty of the snow covered village.

In the early morning when I woke up it seemed that the whole valley was shrouded with a thick white sheet of ice. I went out from the room to take a stroll in the village. I tried to roam around. I broke my folding stick in this effort. There was a temple of Jamdagni ( the great sage and father of the warrior monk Parshuram) in the center of the village, I went there, but outsiders are not allowed to enter. With the rise of the temperature the snow on the roofs started melting and fell with thuds. I came back to my hotel with difficulty. After breakfast I left Tosh at 10-30 AM.