The Sweet Tribal Boy

Me and my wife were on our 2nd honeymoon at Manali, Himachal Pradesh. It is one of the most beautiful places of Himachal Pradesh & a popular honeymoon destination. Our bookings were done well in advance by my brother in law, who is elder brother of my wife.

It was the best hotel of Manali, Hotel Holliday Home, near the beautiful Vyas River flowing alongside. We had the best time there & the hotel owner has provided us a driver whose job was to show us popular places on Manali in Car. 

He took us to many beautiful destinations. He said that he will click our photos wherever we go. Wherever we visited, Hidimba Temple, Vashisht, Cotton Factory, Rohatang, Solang Valley, Manikaran & other beautiful destinations, everywhere he took our beautiful photographs. 

At certain places he even told me, " Sir please don't bother about time. You enjoy as much as you can. When you feel it's time to go, just give me a call & I will bring the vehicle here." 

Wherever we went, while we were exploring the place, that boy used to go somewhere for a while & used to bring the famous product of that place for us like popular fruit, popular craft, popular dress and much more. He was actually a friendly & great guide.

On our way back to the hotel, I asked him where he is from & what about his family. He told me that he is from a small tribal village in Kullu region of Himachal Pradesh which is very near to Manali & is the most popular place in India.

There we visited small tribal villages & became the part of there culture, song, dance, there food & much more.

While returning, we kept talking all the way. That boy was just awesome. Very friendly & nice. While we were returning back to Delhi, my wife tried to give him some money but he refused. My wife said, "I know you are a salaried employee of this hotel. This money is for extra destinations that you showed us, which were not mentioned in this tour package. Just have it."

The boy said, "No mam, this is my village & you are my guest. Because of you I got this opportunity to show how beautiful my place is. The extra tribal villages that you visited, in those tribal villages, lies the true cultural beauty of this place.

And I know, back home, you are definitely going to praise my village & the tribes over there among your friends and relatives.

This honour is more than enough for me Mam."

What a decent reply! 

This was my most beautiful journey in life. And that sweet tribal boy was really decent. His decency was very much visible in his unconditional love towards his tribal culture.