Drenched with extremely cold water that just came out of glacier, they were trembling badly with severe cold and wandering in semi-unconscious state to find a piece of snowless land; hungry and completely exhausted.
Finally they succeeded and snatched a pair of chair from a Bengali family who was searching for a same comfortable rest. Then they looked at the faces of each other and laughed out loudly and ordered three cups tea from a temporary built dhaba. Successful in their aim, the proud parents had taught their son a lesson that he would never forget in his entire life.
Nipun Bansal and Manjula Bansal, tourists from New Delhi, had shown their 12-year-old child, Harshu (Harshit) some miracles of nature which would help him live a better and nature friendly life. Harshu, 7th standard student was always curious to know that how a river emerges from snows and how the glaciers were melting fast. He always wanted to know that why trees cannot grow on the peaks of mountains and natural water was clean only at the sources without human interference.
Doctors by profession, Nipun and Manjula were visiting Rohtang for second time but Harshu was witnessing snow for the very first time. Manjula said Harshu was asking such a question explaining which was not possible for both of them. So they decided to demonstrate things practically for him which then would be a perfect mean of holidaying. “We managed to reach close to a glacier near Rahni Nullah. We showed him how snow was melting to form small stream and many streams together were forming a shape of river. An elderly shopkeeper told us that once the length of this glacier was in kilometres but now it had receded only to some meters,” she said.
Master Harshu was not in mood to talk junk and he was busy prying the place. “Don’t tease me please,” he said. When requested to express his feel, he merrily said, “Now I knew that the heaps of snows were not letting seedling to grow freely and human intervention was polluting water starting from its origin. I’ve visited Rohtang, now it should be closed for others; otherwise, they would pollute this white snow.”
It was being noticed at Marhi that along with fun, tourists were learning a lot from nature. Around a dozen small glaciers on the way to Rohtang and the fading colour of river Beas which was turning muddy after meeting the water melted with repeated walks of tourists was teaching them lot more than books of global warming and pollution. Ph: 9459248960
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