Chronicles Of Himalayas...

40 talents.. 11 days..7 Camps.. 1 Target.. Sar-Pass in the Shivalik Range of Himalayas
Sounds Exciting isnt it? Yes it was.. but what it turned out to be was least expected by the "Talented 40". Each one of us lost some weight... and gained a lot lot precious thing.. Confidence , self satisfaction and genuine happiness.. thats a rarity now a days.. Watch the photos here

Initially, while starting off the names of places like Bhunter, Kasol, Barsheni gave me an alien impression.. I was imagining how they would look like and what would the base camp be like.. and i bet by end of the trek all 40 of us were so attached to these places that we felt bad to go back!!! We even stood there pondering for sometime and capturing the last moments before leaving..

It was chilling cold when we were reaching Bhunter from Delhi by an "Executive Coach" that they called it which had provided a lavish leg space for the biggest ant in the world.. Dunno if thay had even imagined a human would sit there.. but all the uncomfortablity vanished as i opened my eyes into the morning mist at mandi.. It refreshed me to every bit and i felt as if i am floating in the clouds.. We reached bhunter where we had to change the bus to reach Kasol.. Incidently, two girls in our bus were also travelling to the YHAI Base Camp (and were in our own group) but we had never imagined that they were going there.. Instead, we expected a group of foreigners carrying huge back packs to be coming for trekking.. But it turned the other way round.. which we found out once we were at the base camp.
On the way to the base camp was my first glimpse of the snow capped mountain.. Far away, the blue mountain with white snow..it was spectacular.. and what more, it constituted the background of our base camp :)
The water at the camp was so chilling that my hands became numb once i tried washing them. The plan to take bath was instantly dropped for next 10 days.. But somehow, hot springs the the adjacent areas came to our rescue. The first day was Quite Boring except for the visit to manikaran and bath at the Hot Water Spring(which was a great experience). Our Josh made us walk to manikaran and back(10 kms)Evening, we were served dinner at 7 PM.. the earliest i had ever had.. and later we were told the daily routine which i thought i will never be able to follow..

5:30 AM-- Bed Tea!!! (i would have called it the midnight tea instead.. i generally wake up at 9)
6:00 AM-- Morning Exercise (HA-HA-HA HAAAA)
7:00 AM-- Campus Cleaning (I tried to remember when was the last time I cleaned my bed)
7:30 AM-- Breakfast (Now whats that??? This breakfast concept had vanished from my life since last 4 years.. but thanks to YHAI, I feel hungry in the mornings now a days)

Although i was sure i will skip the bed tea, i woke up at 5:30 on the whitsle by the Camp Leader. It was not my "Will power"... it was the "Chill Power". The morning was so chilling that i HAD to wake up :D. I even Jogged to the place where excercise had to be done.. Although i did it uninterestedly, it did help. It recharged me and i was amazed at how a few streches and pulls can rejuvinate your energy.. It was just the start of the many enlightenments i got during the whole trip. We had to go for acclaimatisation walk by putting the Kambals in our Rucksacks.. It was a good climb and we enjoyed it. What we enjoyed more was the way our intro was taken. Basically, we were paired with another person and we had to introduce ourselves as the one we are paired with.. My intro was like.. "I have two childern and my son in law is here wid me.. " hehe.. it was actually fun..

Next day was equally chilling and so i didnt miss the Bed tea and didnt want to miss the exercise for a change.. We had to see off the group which was going to the higher camps..
The highlight of the day was Rappeling and the Rock Climbing.. It was a deadly experinence. Too good. It was amazing to see the instructors climbing a straight 90 degree rock in a way we climb up the stairs!!! There is one everywhere.. there was one kid in our group who did it well and we named him spidey as he reached top like a spider..
And then struck a brilliant !dea... Lets name each of group members with an SP-26 name (SP-26 was our Group name bye the way..).. and then flowed in creative names for everybody.. jungle raani, markie, bunny, chicken curry, picachoo, Deadly(dat was me :)), Da, bulbul(its a guy bye the way), Mozon ki Raani (Now dats a unique name), Commando.... and the list goes on and on and on...
Actually, this was the place and time when the group started opening up to each other.. may it be the shouting of "look this side" in 7 different languages or celebration of jungle raanis birthday.. Bye the way .. look this side in tamil is - "inge pakka paare" and in marathi is "iikade paha".. New additions to my Vocabulary... We had our first group snap here..

It was our turn next day to move for the higher camps.. I messaged one of my friends in the night saying sheer excitement is not letting me sleep.. It was bed tea whistle by the time i closed my eyes.. So we hurried on for bed tea, returning of blankets, Packing of Rucksacks, breakfast and in no time, the time for departure was there.. We moved on towards the bus stand while the other groups were cheering us...

The bus to uunchdhar from which the trek starts was one more highlight.. We went for 10 Kms sitting on top of the bus... its really is a great feeling and a super view sitting atop a bus in ghati roads particularly when there is a river flowing just beside the road in a deep gorge. From unchdhar, we had to get down some 200 feet towards the river, cross it and then again trek to Guna Paani.. the First Camp.. The trek was quite easy. we had a tea point and a lunch point on the way. At lunch point, i was offered to dare an act to cross a hollow dead tree from one side to the other.. I gracefully declined after looking at the feeble condition of the tree.. We were happy to reach guna paani earlier than the scheduled time.In the camp fire, we discovered a lot of hidden talents like alrrounder, syed, bhavesh bhai, paresh bhai, bunty(this guy could sing a song in reverse order!!).. Rimjhim even added more of Mountains and gushing waters into all the more unwilling us.. I appriciate his enthu of putting forward his poetry..There was an astronomer who accompanied us to Guna Pani and showed us lots of new constellations, stars,planets(we saw jupiter from telescope) and Hydrogen Clouds.. We also spotted some rare himalayan birds..

Fual Paani, the next camp didnt have a good feedback from the previous batches. We started the trek towards it with a full 45 degree climb and it worsened as we kept moving ahead.. We had the first glimpse of snow as we crossed a glacier on the way. With the best views all around we proceeded towards our target.. After a 55 degree climb, crossing of three waterfalls and getting frustrated on when the camp will come , somehow the camp leader welcomed us after an exhaustive climb :) but just when i thought it was over, it actually was not.. we had to walk more than a Km more before we could rest our butts.. and the tent.. that itself was at a 15 degree angle.. We somehow managed as we were less ppl in the group.. The Natures call here was another Circus which i would not like to talk about(Its beyond the scope of this post :D.. Its another post in itself.. hehe).. But the place was a good one.. Surrounded by dense forest and huge boulders it was a perfect camp. we had a good campfire here where we had the naming ceremony for the ppl with their new dhinchak names..

Fual paani to Zirmi Thatch was comparatively steeper.. We crossed Mica Mountains, woods, and the landscape was so different that what it was last two days.. the angle of climb kept on increasing but by now everybody was aquainted with this so that was nice now.. On the way, we could still see the road on which we came to uunch dhaar and started to trek. It was 3 days now and i was getting frustrated at why it is still visible although its distancing away.. Me and Jungle raani decided to put a case if the road is visible from sarpass as well. We reached Zirmi pretty early and had the first glimpse of the Sar Mountain. We got the best tent here.. lot cleaner and bigger.. The best part of zirmi was the aniversary celebration of makrand and vandana 11000 feet above sea level.. without they even guessing it will happen.. and all the more fun was the biscuit cake that was prepared defying all the constraints of resources.. With almost no resources around, conceptualising a cake and celebrating an aniversary..Hats off to the concept.. Click on the photo on the left hand side and look at the cake.. does it even look as if it has been made out of 3 packets of Parle G!!! Result: Makrand and vandana.. happiest couple around..

The next camp Tila Lotni was the Highest camp before sarpass.. The terrain was too good and the day was marked by grasslands, patches of snow here and there, crossing glaciers through jungle of Rhododendron flowers.. peoples feet getting blisters, competetion on who has the biggest blister(fore runners for the shield being antenna and bunny).. The day passed happily while we crossed the biggest patch of snow slowly taking care not to slip. Da even slipped and lost his stick. As this was the highest camp, the we had body piercing chill.. All the warm clothes, gloves, socks and everything we had carried this far had been put to use here and we were still shivering.. Located with the SAR as the background, with patches of snow here and there(one patch even loking like india map) and snow capped peaks all around changing colours with every passing second, we could never have asked for a better camp site than this. We had the earliest dinner of our lifetime here at 6 PM.. We even had a camp fire where we played the story building game.. Its a different story that the story became somewhat like the ekta kapoor soap.

We had to get up reeal early next day. Bed tea was 4 AM. We had to leave by 6 which somehow didnt happen and we left at 7. We had to leave behind rimjhim in the camp as he(yes its a guy) got high fever. With the beautiful sights of sunrays piercing out through the clouds, we started our assault towards the SAR.. The climb started right from the Camp and by the time we reached the 1st rest point, we could see the Sar Pass Clearly and it was snow all the way!!!.. As soon as we entered the snow, we started playing with the snow balls.. the sight was too good.. adults playing like kids.. We moved ahead in snow playing wherever we get chance.. we reached the SAR Lake.. It was a frozen lake at a height of 13000 feet and was a spectacle to see.. Miles off from the civilization, we felt like the owners of the mountains and the snow with nobody to stop us from being a kid again and playing with snow, drenching in rain, sliding multiple times and still wanting to do it more... Full Freedom..It was unexplainable...We reached a place where we had to slide on the slope and go down... Although a bit scary, it was enjoyable.. I even went halfway and tried to slide again :D... We moved ahead on the snow mountain slopes ahead when hailstorm greeted us. Most of us stopped walking. Hats off to sheriff who fought the battle all alone with nobody around him... Moving forward, we had the steepest climb in snow which took us to 13800 feet and from thare we had a long long long slide which took us to a tea point.. This slide was too good and the deadliest experience i ever had..

It was raining hard when we reached the tea point. People who had reached earlier there had already left for the camp and We waited for the rain to stop. Imagine 20 people sitting/standing/Tumbling in a 5X2 m shed. But anything to escape the hard rain outside.What i realised here was that by now, I had a changed attitude towards everything. The word Dirty had been erased from my mind.I sat just beside a cowdung inside the shed which i would never have done under normal circumstances. Once the rain cleared, we came outside and the sight was as too refreshing.. we were standing in a grassland surrounded by white mountains with brown patches where snow didnt stand... Just behind the tea shed was flowing clear white water from the river just originating from under the glacier on which we slid and came down.. and one well trodden narrow pathway through the grasslands which we needed to take to reach our destination... Biskeri.. By now, walking the unending path we were exhausted.. we had walked for some 9 hours now and the guide told us the camp is still 2 hours far.. With the refreshing sight, determined we decided to cover this distance in an hour.. we walked fast... on the narrow muddy pathway on the slope of a hill... From the hilltop was Visible our camp.. Amidst the clouds... Biskeri.. here we come... But we walked and walked.. and walked.. we even found another slide on the way.. only this time, it was not snow... it was MUD!!!! and it was amazing.. just when you start losing hope, you find something refreshing.. We found an amazing rainbow at eyelevel!!! Mostly i had seen rainbows looking upwards... but here was one which i was looking amidst the mountains and greenery.. without looking up... and that was not it!!!! There was more to come... We looked down and we saw green medows everywhere and horses running and grazing on it!!! Recharged we trodded towards the camp and crossed one more unbelievable pathway... It was full of a mix of mud, cow, sheep and horse shit... No its not disgusting to write this... because as i said.. there is nothing called dirty now.. And that was worth it.. The places we visited, things we saw, things we did would never had been possible without doing this.. Finall, we reached the camp and the feeling was as if we conquered mount everest.. We were exhausted, drenched wet, muddy, full of patches of unknown substances on our dresses but inside, we were clean,happy and full of an unknown satisfaction that still lasts... And it still didnt end.. we had the best Tea-Pakodi combi in our life here.. and i need to add... the ROAD WAS STILL VISIBLE.. Although we wanted to have a campfire today, commando ordered us to give campfire a holiday for a change.. So campfire went and rested... and we did too..

After the longest day of the trek, now was the time to get down... We started descending towards Bhandak generally compared to switzerland.. I was sure it wont be that good because I had already seen the best... We descended.. and descended.. Me, commando and Jungle raani even got lost in jungle for some time.. but Our SOS calls got us back on track.. For those who dont know, "eeeeyooo" was our SOS call and we should proceed towards the direction the return "eeeeyooo" comes from... We had to do rappeling at a place to get down and cross a river....

The Place we had lunch, according to "i object gal" it was the best trek, best meadow and best lunch... best maggie was what antenna added.. and i agreed.. the natural meadow we were in would outclass the best maintained parks/gardens of india by miles... And we reached bhandak... now.. I should accept that this was the best camp we were ever in.. Ground was not wet for a change and we could roam around in grass barefoot..The ladies on reaching the camp didnt go into the tent and camped outside for sometime.. and enjoyed the view.. It was amazing that I kept addressing each passing camp as the best.. each of the 7 camps was best in some way or the other and had something memorable to take along... We played tug of war, kabaddi and a chain game which was fun and was quite innovative.. It was deadly... now i am at loss of words for adjectives for things we did, things we saw.. so henceforth please assume the best adjective you know..

Next day, we were sad that the trek is going to end.. we had to trek down still and reach barsheni roadhead to catch a bus back to kasol base camp.. Even this trek was quite different.. We kept talking, taking photographs of snake lilies, talking abt forts, ghost stories, what we would do on reaching the base camp... We also had the Bhalu dog who accompanied us from the till the barsheni roadhead.. All the way.. He also helped us in another way.. He alone finished 4-5 Parle-G biscuit packets that we were struggling to finish all the way.. Somehow after lot of effort we reached barsheni and climbed atop the bus.. The bus journey was fun.. we tried singing songs which somehow had vanished from our memory now.. so we tried singing ads like "bijli hai shakti ise vyarth na gawaao.. jitni zarurat ho utni jalao" and "washing powder nirma.." we shouted our group slogan "ek do teen chaar... SP-26 superstar", "Jo bole so nihaal.. sasriyakaal" and "Ganpati bappaa.. moriyaa.." Hashi khushi we came back to the base camp... We were happy and sad too.. Happy to have completed the Trek and sad because we would have to part now... Truly i had never imagined 11 days would bond 40 people in such a strong friendship.. Manikaran welcomed us with hot water springs.. Bath after long time.. refreshing.. Icing on the cake.. The last campfire was fun too.. we had arranged a momento for everybody.. and everybody was too happy to possess it..

The enlightments we got...

1. Each of us gained 39 new friends...
2. The confidence that we can do lot more than what we think we can do..
3. Came to know how precious Tissue papers can be..
4. I personally was surprised that i can live without using my cellphone for such a long time.
5. The word Dirty has been erased from my mind.
6. I can live without taking bath for atleast a week..
7. The amount of cow, sheep, horse and human shit i have stepped on will be more than what i have seen in my whole life..

8. No more potatoes for next 6 months..

9.I invariably wake up at 5:30 in the morning even now for the bed tea..(which till now was as difficult as moving mountains and stopping tsunami)

But on a serious note, it was something i would treasure all my life.. like permanent dew drops on the petals of a red rose called life... Wow.. that was poetic...

They say "Life is like a box of chocolates.. you never know when you gonna get.." and WE GOT IT!!!