A walk down the serenity.. | Keoladeo National Park, Bharatpur, India

By: Mohd. Khizr Khursheed, Team Consultant at Vesna Tours | khizr@vesnatours.com

As a travel professional, being adventurous is our second nature. Luckily, I lived up to the dream of visiting something extraordinary not only once but twice. It was January’2018 and I was taking a group of American grads to one of the popular parks of Northern India “Keoladeo National Park”, a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.

Starting off the day from hotel, I was the least prepared individual amongst all during the bus ride with just a camera phone (100% professionalism) but the nonchalant attitude went for a toss the moment we stepped inside the park. The first thing that came to my mind was “Am I deaf?” because it was one of those rare moments when everything was so quiet and peaceful. Moments later, a naturalist joined the group and we were on the way to explore the best. The park has a trail path going through the never-ending landscape and one can see the countless beautiful birds, animals, plants, etc. Having a naturalist allowed me a time to look around and appreciate the nature’s gift. I run out of superlatives to describe the moment- it was gorgeous, exotic and mesmerising. The quint essential thing about the park is the serenity and the least possible human interference which makes you think that this planet is actually a better place!

After 5 hours walk, watching beautiful creatures and two meal breaks, the group headed back to the bus and I tried to capture the moments, the beauty, the extravagance of the place. Saying goodbye to the park was the hardest thing to do but the memories were worth cherishing.

Fortunately, my profession gave the second chance to say hello to the park in January’2020 and I couldn’t stop myself falling for the beauty and calmness while humming the following lines through the entire day:

We will be walking through leaves, When summers gone.. We will carry on..