Want to experience local Kumao culture and explore village life in Uttarakhand? Visit Naikana village, near Jageshwar Dham… because I have found you a place! Not very high in the Himalayas in Uttarakhand, I happened to hike through dreamy villages, deodar forest, and secret rhododendron trails, where women would wake up at 4 am to chop wood across daunting terrain; where men would find a new job every day; and where kids who can hop, skip and climb down a steep mountain face while I precariously slide one foot in front of the other were certainly more real and practically successful than I was. My two-day stay in this sleepy village called Naikana, that, in fact, was located only 20 minutes away from a well-trodden road, was, in fact, lost deep inside a forest. It remained the most beautiful highlight of the many journeys that I have previously had across in Uttarakhand, for it took me to a world where iPhones, drones, and Instagram still held no value. While planning for my 20-day road trip …