Bohemian Adventures LLP is an adventure sports company run by 3 women mountaineers Shashi Bahuguna, Guneet Puri, and Anusha Subramanian. The company focuses on land-based adventure activities and conducts treks, climbing expeditions, and skiing trips in the Himalaya as well as cycling trips and treks in the Sahyadri.
One person’s anomaly is another’s normal and with this extended period of lockdown, our normal has now become everyone’s normal. With that, here is a tale of 3 mountaineers who have been socially isolating for over a decade and their exploits in the home environment.
The predicament that we find ourselves in has brought a slew of happy advantages for us. For a start, we can wake up at decent hours in the morning now and not at ungodly predawn ones. Being able to have a lie-in, if we so wish on any day, is truly a blessing. Talking of having a lie-in, this is the longest, continuous relationship we have had with our beds in years!
Due to the extreme physical nature of our work staying in fighting fit shape is a given. All three of us have different preferences of workouts and times of day that appeal to us and we have been continuing these even in these blissfully lazy times. Shashi, a certified Yoga instructor, practices on her own as well as taking an online class for friends and family. Anusha does her cardio and strength training at home. She is an avid cyclist and this is one aspect of her workout that has been hampered. Guneet, the reluctant fitness aficionado, has been swimming and using a pool for strength training, as she is recovering from a severe ACL injury, sustained while skiing.
Like a lot of other people, we have also been channeling our inner chefs to extend our culinary repertoire. We have always liked to cook and would do so when we’re at home and on the mountains but we now have the time to take on challenging problems. Burgers from scratch with home-made bread and patties, pizzas, ras malai, jalebi, Sandesh, vada pav, we are going all out. We have also learned and mastered some dishes that can be made in the outdoors and we plan on trying them out on our very first trip after confinement.
Constantly traveling, as rosy as it sounds, robs us of a lot of pleasures that people take for granted. Our families bear most of the brunt. Not only do they cope with the pangs of parting but also with the constant worry arising out of the dangerous nature of our work. The pleasure of being home and with our families is indescribable. Shashi for instance spent a week with her parents for the first time in 16 years, since her marriage. As a bonus, the pleasure of not hearing the words, “if it wasn’t for the washing machine, you would never come home”, is also indescribable!
Living in cramped tents, in the far corners of the Himalaya, we understand better than most what it means to be deprived of daily luxuries and everyday things we take for granted. Of not having the time and sometimes resources at hand to do what we would like to do. We are, hence, making the most of this opportunity to do and learn things we have always wanted to do. Shashi is learning to make Mandala murals, Anusha is a newly minted chocolatier and has been trying her hand at making liqueurs, Guneethas taken to gardening and is taking CSS and HTML classes online.
We have a unique opportunity here for the first time in our adult lives to do whatever we choose to do. Finding joy in the little things and having patience is what is keeping us positive. Till the lockdown ends this is our way forward, this and eating mangoes!
