Parvinder is keeping his eyes on the road and hands upon the wheel. And it’s been like this since we started from Chandigarh. The road is rough and the land harsh but beautiful. But my mind keeps wandering to all that I have seen, the people I have met and the thoughts I have had.

Like in Tabo, we met these three photographers – Pranshu Dubey, Bharat Baswani and Chaitanya Solanki. Pranshu and Bharat are from Indore while Chaitanya is from Mhow. Pranshu is based in Mumbai as of the past few years.

I first noticed them in Nako, where the three of them were walking around the monastery and clicking.

Next we exchanged smiles of recognition at Gue village.

And we finally met and spoke yesterday evening on the slope, walking down from the Cave Shrines in Tabo just as they were walking up. And, later yet in the evening, we caught up at our hotel and Bharat presented us with his Himalayan Landscapes calendar – breath-taking examples of his photography from previous trips to Himachal.

From left to right: Pranshu Dubey, Chaitanya Solanki, and Bharat Baswani. Photo courtesy Pranshu Dubey.

All three are very unassuming and down-to-earth in their mannerisms (Pranshu and Chaitanya are from the National Institute of Design). Turns out Pranshu is the Founder and CEO of Pixeldo. And what struck me was that they were travelling … just travelling without worrying too much about when they had to return. Kaushal travels like that. He once bought a one-way ticket to Ladakh… and stayed there 25 days, before finally deciding to return.

I looked out the window and the change in landscape registered only suddenly when Kaushal called out to me: “Arrey aap isika intezaar kar rahe thhey, ab kahan kho gaye?”