Sierra Foot-slogs — A Himalayan Souvenir.
S1 E1 — Behali Tête-à-tête
I couldn’t resist myself from listening to the mesmerizing burble of Parvati river. It was so calm and laze,Far away from black clouds haunting me. After a while, I pulled myself out from the sleeping bag.
It was 2.30 AM. The full moon of Buddhapoornima made Behali Meadows even more beautiful, those tiny white flowers were shining bright, I could see Snowy’s white sleek furs as more enticing because of moonlight. I had to wait till my other fellow trekkers get inside the tents so that I could spend time alone there.
I spent rest of the time till 3.45 AM sitting next to the smoggy bonfire and completing my letter to Charlie. I had a lot to write to him. I’ve been writing letters to him since last 2 years and all of them ended up as ashes in my room’s dustbin. It’s been a ritual for me on every journey to write letters to my unknown imaginary friend Charlie and leave them at random spots. A ritual which I acquired from a friend’s advice for me to get rid of platonic love disenchantment.
I tried remembering about past day on which we all hiked from Yosgo, Malana camp site. Unlike other days It was much easier. All of my team members were high in energy as we were going down to a lower altitude than Malana. Rarely few of them had suffered altitude sickness. Even the climate wasn’t helping them much. Like everyone, I was too curious to hike through India’s Cannabis Country. The curiousness helped a lot to disregard hot summer sunbeams and hike faster,but I had to consume more than 2 liters of water until I reached lunch & rest point.
After comfortable seven and half hours hike from Malana, everyone made it to Behali campsite with more eagerness as the snowy mountains appeared even close and clear. Once after reaching there I was so anxious. I tried hard to find the reason behind it but ended up with nothing other than a heavy head. I got slept on the meadows with a cup of tea near me. Another uneasy dream forced me to wake up,grab my diary and run uphill a bit for some loneliness away from happy people. Happiness & Smiles, too mainstream in the Himalayas. I came down here for something else I believe,
But when you put yourself into a group of complete strangers you should be super boring to keep yourself away from everyone and explore your own imaginary province. I got a couple of calls from my fellow trekkers to join their gathering and ice breaking sessions there but somehow I said no and resumed writing the letter to Charlie, After a while I found them very disturbing for me to focus on my lone conversations & writing so I decided to come downhill in search of new place to sit and write alone. When I was passing downhill through them a question pulled me back.
“Is your heart so heavy and rough to open up with us ?”
I saw a little girl looking at me with blue eyes filled with so much of curiosity. I said “No, Its not that rough and heavy”
“Ok. Then Why don’t you sit down here and let’s have a chat. I think you shouldn’t be rushing yourself on such a beautiful mountain isn’t it ?” She said again,Leaving me no choice. I sat down as she struck up a conversation.
First one of such in Behali.
Omi. Her name resembled to her face. Small and cute. Over the next half an hour or so I’ve been talking with her about the Haiku poems. I tried explaining about Haikus to my co-trekkers at Malana but failed miserably. Somehow I made better effort with Omi to make her understand little bit about Haikus.
Questions from a curious mind, You got to be so careful and beware about them. Specially if they are from little kids,cute girls and strangers. Omi’s questions were not finished by just one.
“Why do you prefer to hike solo ?”
“Well..” I started of on an edgy voice.
“Tell me the truth or choose not to answer. I don’t need you to give me an answer or something which is mostly manipulated”. She interrupted with a firm stand & leaving me even more shaky.
“A teenage relationship & a break up is inevitable to almost everyone I believe. It all stared from there for me. After planting myself on other options like gym,alcohol and all, I ended up myself with travel. Lone journeys were so cool on those days to forget bunch of thoughts used to haunt me & leaving me sleepless. But the idea of solo travel has changed over the last year from where it started. I have been so fond of traveling with best buddies as a group.But once solo journeys started, no matter a day hike or long one, I started to explore more. The people,nature,thoughts,challenges and even different versions of fear. Every solo hikes added something new to me and thus it became an addiction.” I finished explaining her.
“Still you didn’t answer my question. Do you prefer to hike solo?” Her voice was filled with overloaded curiousness.
“Well, I believe no one wants to hike solo. Or at least me.” She was giving me a confused look and asked me
“Are you going to repeat your Haiku speech and make me confused again ?” She asked.
“Not at all Omi.” I replied with a weird funny face. That Haiku speech was a horrible attempt and almost spoiled the mood of last bonfire.
I resumed talking after taking a sip of tea from her mug.
“ A solo hike is not about wanting to be alone from everyone, Instead its all about finding new horizon and meaning. Opening up yourself to unexpected people,incidents & challenges. Each day is a new lesson. You get to experience everything from a different viewpoint. Like when I started this journey, A night at Hazrat Nizamudin Dargah & Sleeping to the tune of lovely Qawwalis,Eating out with strange auto people in Delhi,Hiking with cattleman as I got lost somewhere near Bunthar. There will be lot of stories to be told by the end of a solo hike.But when you analyse at the end, you’ll be amazed to find out that you were never alone. And yes, That’s why I hike solo that I don’t want to be alone. Inside the city lights of Bangalore, I feel like I am alone but out here I am not”
“ I hear you.” She said.
I could see her eyes shimmering with some happy intuition, Or is it the reflection of my emotion I am witnessing on her ? The stars started shinning up above us, making it all set for entry of Budhapoornima’s grand moon. Temperature started to drop down and my co-trekkers were in search for wood pieces to set up bonfire. Without saying anything,me and Omi started walking towards the mess tent with her shivering cheeks and chin to grab some tea and start off with next installment of our conversations.
