In 2014, a sudden plan materialized and 3 of us travelled to Rakkar, a village in Kangra Valley (Himachal Pradesh), at foothills of the majestic Dhauladar mountains. A friend of mine and his two roommates had warmly extended us their hospitality by letting us bunk at their place for the duration of our stay. We were most excited to visit Rakkar and experience the warmth of its people, culture and and ofcourse to enjoy the proximity to nature.

On the night of May 31, we reached Rakkar. We managed to find our host’s house nestled in a quaint spot of the village. The top half of a bungalow had been rented to them; the owners lived downstairs.

The house at Rakkar was a homely one and was peculiar for many reasons. I remember, our first night there was indeed an eventful one. We were tired after a long journey and called it day by 10-30pm. We were told that the weather has been unusually hot and the nights were not so cold. So, we all slumped around in a room with chatai mats and a blanket. A couple of hours later, my eyes opened… it was windy… and cold. We got up with the sound of the wind howling outside. I think it was around 4am… Along with the wind, came some “thud-thud” sound… sounds of something hitting the roof above our head. For a while, we ignored it but then suddenly I found cold icicles on me! They were hailstones falling on us from the ceiling!

I covered my head and moved to the corridor, where the hail was not falling. A crack in the ceiling caused pieces of hail to enter the house! Our hosts came running into our room saying- “the weather changed suddenly, we did not think there would be a storm tonight!… you can join us in our room… our ceiling is intact.”. However, there was no need for that. The storm soon passed and the weather became pleasant once more. We just slumped back into the chatais. Eventful I must say: This was the first time where we were woken up by hailstones falling on our heads and beds inside the house ! 😛

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