Good morning! I’ve just returned from a morning drive and trek through the hills of Dehradun. My host dad loves bird watching, and every morning he wakes up early to capture photographs of the huge variety of birds here. Yesterday I woke up at 5:30 to join him and his kids for a winding drive up the hills to Garhwal, the western region of Dehradun’s Uttarakhand state.
It was incredible to see how just a short drive could bring me to an entirely new culture of the Garhwali people, with their own language, dress, and traditions. Seated in the backseat of the car, I couldn’t make up my mind where to look. In one direction, the sun rose over a mountain in the distance, into the purplish pink sky. Alongside the road, kids in school uniforms made their way to school, some of them making a journey of many miles from their homes at various elevations. In the distance, a woman in a brilliant magenta sari worked in the fields. We drove through a village, and I watched a school bus jam-packed with kids pick up a few more at the gate of their house. My host dad pointed out the bundles of wood that were prepared for fires, the cow dung that would be applied as fertilizer in the fields.
A little while later, peering through binoculars from the edge of the road and a considerable elevation higher, I observed another community. This one was made up of a clump of tent-like structures. My host dad explained that this was a much poorer community. They are also a mining community—squinting through the binoculars I watched trucks drive back and forth from the limestone mountains.
Even higher, we got out of the car to explore on foot. My host dad pointed out and took pictures of all the birds and insects we came across on our journey through the trails. Such was the case this morning too, when we drove in the opposite direction to Jharipani, on the road to Mussoorie. Again, just a short drive provided an entirely new perspective with a stunning new view of the hills and of Mussoorie in the distance. Even the mountain air felt somewhat different. Not to mention the differences I felt between the India I’m used to, of the bustling city centers of Delhi and Mumbai. I’m so grateful this weekend to get a taste of something different—India’s natural beauty.