Life is like that! 😯

What if life takes you nearer to situations you always wanted to run from !

In school and college, I was always scared of travelling on tough mountain roads alongside dangerous rivers and would rather drop the idea of such journeys.

I got goosebumps when i thought of Satluj river, which I had heard of as the most turbulent of all.

But call it a coincidence, hardly two months after I joined as State Correspondent with a national news daily in Shimla in the year 2000, there were devastating flash floods in Satluj river flowing down from tribal Kinnaur to Shimla district. More than 100 people were swept away by Satluj waters.

Most reporters in Shimla preferred to go uptill Rampur Bushahr in Shimla district, as the roads and bridges towards Kinnaur were washed off and there was no connectivity.

My office wanted exclusive coverage from the spot, mainly Kinnaur.

I was so excited about the field reporting that I forgot about my fears in the preparations for coverage of flood hit area.

When another woman journalist, a friend, with Hindi news daily, said she would also come along, I was happy.

We went by road to Rampur (120 kilometres from Shimla) and flew by army chopper from Rampur to Sangla in Kinnaur with government's permission.

The pilot of chopper took us nearer to the swollen river to give us an idea of devastation. We found it adventurous.

On way back, at Karcham, since the long bridge over Satluj river had washed away in flood fury, we had no option but to cross the river in a locally made jhula (manually operated open trolley on span).

Holding our breath, we sat with our eyes closed, hands folded, found us purely on mercy of God. In the middle of the river, the jhula stopped. We couldn't dare to see ourselves hanging at a height over the furious river. In 20 minutes, we reached the other side. It was normal course for tribals, but I felt like'Jaan bachi lakhon payey'..

From there we came 9 kms on foot to Tapri, including a trek of 6-7 kilometres on stony stretch along roaring and surging Satluj. Friendly locals helped us walk with caution on the slippery river side by holding our hands.

The two-day risky and hectic travel gave us national stories as we came back loaded with exclusive news with spot pictures of flood fury.

I got familiar with rough roads, so much that for last two decades I have been a frequent traveller to narrowest hill sides in Himachal to unveil the rare treasure of stories.

May be, sometimes the roads we fear to tread finally lead us to triumph!