Off the beaten track, one village at a time
Mumbai: There’s a particular kind of quiet that settles over the lesser-known valleys of Himachal Pradesh — the ones without a name on most travel itineraries. It’s in these pockets that Seema Bose and her dog Lulu have chosen to make their story.
What started as one woman’s instinct to wander has become something larger: Hidden Himachal, a travel project built not around checklists and viewpoints, but around the in-between moments — a shepherd’s story shared over tea, a village that time seems to have folded around, a mountain road that leads nowhere obvious and everywhere worth going.
“It’s not really about ticking off places,” Seema says of the project. “It’s about slowing down enough to notice what’s actually there.”
Lulu, her constant companion, isn’t just along for the ride — she’s become the project’s quiet co-narrator. Every dusty trail, every unfamiliar homestay, every unplanned stop happens with her at Seema’s side, turning solo travel into something that feels more like companionship than adventure.
Why offbeat, and why now
Himachal’s popular circuits — Manali, Shimla, Dharamshala — have long absorbed the bulk of India’s mountain tourism. But scattered around and beyond them are villages, ridgelines, and communities that rarely make it into a travel brochure. Seema’s project leans directly into that gap, treating the overlooked as the whole point rather than a detour.
It’s a growing sentiment among a certain kind of traveler — tired of crowded viewpoints and Instagram-optimized stops, hungry instead for something that feels unrehearsed. Hidden Himachal doesn’t try to be a guidebook. It reads more like a running diary: part travelogue, part love letter to a region that rewards patience.
Following along
The journey is documented as it happens, in real time, across Instagram and Facebook under the handle @bose.seema — a mix of photography, short reflections, and the occasional shot of Lulu looking unimpressed by yet another scenic overlook.
For now, the destination map is still being drawn. But if the project’s early spirit is any indication, Hidden Himachal isn’t chasing a finish line — it’s committed to the wandering itself. For those who may be interested to know, Seema Bose is wife of late Advertising Pioneer, Pratap Bose.
