[09/01, 18:53] Pankaj Kumar: Perks of Living at a small place....
I spent the best 7 years of my life at one of the most beautiful and serene place in the hills of Uttarakhand, Chakrata....
Chakrata is not so famous hill station nestled in the hills of middle Himalayas situated on an altitude of around 7200 feet MSL....
A nominal distance of just the 40 kms from the plains make this place unique as one just can find himself at an altitude of 2100 mtrs MSL jus withing a travel time of around 2 hrs from the plains...
[09/01, 18:58] Pankaj Kumar: Chakrata do attract tourists but only during the summer and winter months for very short duration of time unlike many other hill station where you may find people on the roads round the year...The tourist season of Chakrata do start in the summers from around mid May and lasts till the first monsoon showers by 15 or 20 June...Thereafter till Oct you can just count the numbers residents on your fingers here. After June its just the locals and shopkeepers here.
Another tourist season starts from the Month of Oct where few tourists start coming here but most of them do drop for Christmas and New Years eve only. And after New year eve people do come only for snowfall....
[09/01, 19:07] Pankaj Kumar: So basically throughout the year barring few months one can just enjoy the life of leisure at this beautiful but small hill station where everyone know everybody and even if you are there for your job you are easily accepted as one of their own....
You become the part of humble celebrations of few local festivals and fairs like Maroj, Magh and Bissu and being the small yet cosmopolitan place you can join the locals during the celebrations of Lohadi, Baisakhi, Navratra, Dashahara, Janmashtmi and Diwali too.....Apart from these festivals you become the invitee of many marriages and other local festivals religious and social ones ...
Even if its the small place with few shops and very small market you dont feel alone and you seldome encounter the feeling of lonliness which a stay in a big city at times can give you....
At small place you become the part of lives of all the residents, rich or poor, big or small as on daily basis you encounter just the same sets of people who you meet daily.....During these 7 years I was invited to lot many villages, lot many marriages and functions and fairs etc. I enjoyed a lot and now I am staying in a big city like Dehradun but here you feel like cut off from the humanity as if you are a non person for others....
