Some things are just worth the trouble

15 secs of exhilaration for 15 days of hard work

Funny days are here again …. the twists and turns of life … when the ears hear something and the eyes detect something else …. When the mind goes bonkers trying to figure out the “gap” that it perceives in what it hears and what it sees/feels …. Overworked imagination hahn! … well, could be …. Can one help it … nope! … But yeah it is moments like these … the thrill, the challenge, the uncertainty which bring out the person that you really are … which define what you stand for … the USPs for the product “YOU” …

It is at moments like these that I am taken back in time …. When I dust my memory to extract that one instance when resolve triumphed all odds, when persistence paid off, when realization struck that no matter how tough the journey, the summit is always worth it …

I thus go back to my trekking days … when I set out to romance "Darwa Top, Garhwal Himalayas" standing at 13500 ft above mean sea level …

Uttarkashi is where we set up base camp … it was called the “acclimatization camp” – we were getting used to the “ice-cold water”, the regimen of waking up @ 5:00 in the morning at the shrill shriek of a whistle, adroitly relieving ourselves in the jungle/bushes/shrubs/anyplace-to-keep-compromising-modesty-to-acceptable-limits….

After the week long acclimatization regimen viz. all of the above and treks to the nearby hills with full gear and rock climbing routies, we set out on “The Journey” one fine morning … The whole group was quite enthusiastic and gung-ho … Thus is began ..

We had to trek for 15 straight days walking 28-30 kms everyday, starting from “Camp Zero” .... carrying 25-30 kgs of weight (we had to carry everything ... food ... change of clothes ... first aid kit ... survival kit, camping gear, extra shoes etc.) ...

Everyday there were varying amounts of incline ... sometimes 65-70 degrees ... it was a tough job ... it could break a man's will several times each day .... Everyday I used to think "Why the hell am I torturing myself?" .... The urge to turn back was very powerful .... I still pushed myself further everyday ....

After 15 days when we reached the peak .... just as I was able to drag myself to the peak and touch the stone there [dutifully it had "sapna + rajesh" scrawled upon itself; No rock or wall worth its salt goes without graffiti :-)] ... the weather turned .. one moment it was bright and sunny ... the next it was dark and snowing ... people scampered ... visibility was ‘1 foot’ and it was bone-chilling ... somewhere in the mad scramble I lost my footing .... I fell down and went rolling down the hill for what seemed like eternity … I thought I’d die there and be buried in the snow .... a cold, unforgiving, anonymous death …. But I managed to roll down and hit the track again when it wound its way around the peak ....

I waited to catch my breath and steeled myself and kept moving till I reached the summit base camp..... I have never enjoyed hot maggi more in my life ... neither have I ever seen a sight more beautiful and breathtaking like the one from beside the "sapna + rajesh" rock ... nor have I ever felt the rush of being "on top of the world" like I did there (albeit for 10 secs) ....

It taught me quite a few things in life

1) It takes 15 days of hard trekking to reach a point of bliss which lasts for 15 secs.

2) Those 15 secs were definitely worth the trouble

3) What we think is our ‘limit of endurance’ is just a state of mind .... our endurance is limitless

4) Maggi and all the other small things in life really taste ‘out of this world’ ... if we learn to appreciate them by using the proper ‘measurement scale’

5) Honesty and basic human values keep improving dramatically as we keep going further up ... needs keep decreasing....

6) Rajesh reached there before I did .... and he thought of Sapna when he saw paradise ......

7) Maybe sapna reached there [but she'd have written "Rajesh + Sapna" :-)] .... maybe they both did ....