“Pragpur”,they said. I’m sure I was not the only person who wondered where on earth we were being taken to for our study trip. Pragpur, I echoed silently. I’ve always loved traveling, but a glance through several websites did nothing to make me look forward to the trip. There was never much information about the small heritage village we were going to visit. And the fact that the place was cold only added to my doubts about the choice of place.

But then, we reached. Right from the start I was amazed. Throughout the 2 hour taxi journey from UNA railway station to our hotel in Pragpur at thefoothills of the Himalayas, I was spellbound. And I’m certain I wasn’t the only one. The place was beautiful- idyllic, calm and the perfect place to spend a lazy weekend. Sure, we weren’t there to laze around, but the atmosphere made the not-so-appealing job of measuring small-small details a lot more bearable. In fact, I can safely speak for everyone when I say we all thoroughly enjoyed our work. The people were pleasant and friendly. Everyone seemed to know that some 30 odd architecture students had come from Delhi to document the place, and they were downright eager to converse with us. When we weren’t working we walked around the place, exploring narrow streets and overgrown paths that weren’t strictly part of our designated areas, and discovering wonderful secluded places where we could take photographs.

One evening we had gone to the banks of the river Beas. That was an experience! We walked nearly 5-6kms uphill and exactly at the places we had to go downhill we got rides from two bumpy tractors going our way. But who’s complaining? The rides were incredible! Nearly everyone standing fell down and bumped on their seats all the way to the end. But the smiles made it all worth it. The destination was beautiful- crystal clear water, white sand. It was clearly a place not visited too often. There were rocks we could climb, all clean. It was a wonderful change from the city life that we all have got accustomed to.

We had bonfires, the first proper bonfire I had ever been to! Thankfully the stay was comfortable. So by the end of the first half of our journey, all my misgivings about the place faded away.