Hidden Gems in Rishikesh

On the foothills of the majestic Himalayan mountains lies the spiritual town of Rishikesh. Also known as the Yoga capital of the world—this little town is a haven for hippies, adventurers, yoga enthusiasts and anyone seeking things beyond the obvious.Most travellers will land at Dehradun airport and drive straight to Lakshman Jhula or Tapovan. Their itineraries are often filled with yoga classes, visiting cafes and rafting down the Ganges.When I planned my yoga retreat in Rishikesh, I knew I wanted to do something beyond the obvious. Google as always was my saviour. A deep search on the internet revealed that beyond the doors of the ashrams, the cafes and yoga classes, Rishikesh was also the best place to find hidden waterfalls—IF you were ready to journey through some forest-laden hills..As soon as I saw the images on the internet of the pristine blue water cascading down mossy rocks, I knew this is what I wanted to do. No crowds, no hassle—just immerse myself in nature. That was the story you had read in the previous column. But reaching there was an episode by itself!You see, the thing with hidden waterfalls is well, they are hidden!! Most adventurers will not put down a location because they don’t want the space getting crowded and dirty. How was I to find this place, if I had no idea where to start looking.I put aside the fear and looked till I found an image of this ‘Hidden Waterfall’ via a YouTube hikers video and did a reverse search on Google. Sadly, none of the other nature enthusiasts had put up any location. I thought my plan was about to fail. But I refused to give up. I looked up video after video and read article after article until I found one where a YouTube travel vlogger had recorded that the secret waterfall was a 2-kilometre trek from her place of stay. That was all I needed. I looked up her place of stay and drew a two-kilometre radius on the map—this didn’t look like something that would be too hard to find, or so I thought to myself..Early next morning, I packed my students into the car—with water bottles and backpacks filled to the brim with snacks (we had no idea when we would come back) and drove towards the travel vlogger’s hotel. As I looked at the map, the closer we got the more my mind went into overdrive. ‘What if we don’t find this place?’ ‘What if we just walk in circles?’ ‘What is everyone going to say?’ ‘Will they complain?’—my thoughts bubbled endlessly. I shushed my mind and sent a prayer to my teacher, my Guru Swami Chinmayananda and asked for help and guidance—so that all will go well.Just as I prayed and opened my eyes, I realised that the signal on my phone had disappeared. We were less than seven minutes away from our destination. I rolled my eyes in anger and frustration—how could this be happening to me?!I took a deep breath and asked the driver to park the car near a local tea shop. I then asked my students to fill their tummies with masala chai and bun maskas as I figured out how to proceed. As they ate, I went to the chaiwala and showed him an image of the waterfall. I asked if he had seen it. He smiled a smile so wide, I knew luck was on my side.He asked me to walk 100 metres and just by the side of the road, he said, we would find a path going down. ‘It is gravelly and small but just keep walking’, he said, ‘and in two to three kilometres you would find the waterfall’.I was so happy! An unexpected loss of signal and an early morning chai stop thanks to the prayer I sent to Gurudev was exactly where I needed to be.