Those in love would appreciate what it feels like to sleep in your beloved's lap. That is exactly what we felt that night. No no, i am not referring to the fact that there were 7-8 of us sleeping in proximity of each other. I meant resting in the lap of nature at it's best. And that beautiful morning was the icing on the cake. The dark stony architecture of the temple standing against the mighty white Himalayas with the sunlight spreading various shades of grandeur.
Soaked in that embrace of beauty, we made a move towards the temple once again. Special arrangements were made for all of us and we all got a chance to perform the entire detailed version of the religious ceremonies and spent quite some time inside the temple. This was in contrast to the various Jyotirlingas which I have been to where the queue is such that they don't even let you stand inside the temple for a fraction of a second. We were amazed to see so many elderly people who walked all the way up there. Religion and faith have immense power in them and make people do wonders. If only people equated humanity to such phenomenons.
As we moved past the temple, we could still see the ruins of that unfortunate day. Many houses and structures still lie there depicting that dark tale. In that silence, along with the sound of that gushing wind, one could also hear the screams of those innocent people whom we lost in that tragedy. We could also see some structures which were still on the verge of collapse and could further add to the damage and loss of lives but clearly the local administration had not made the effort to clear them up. We returned back to the base camp for our breakfast where we were served oil drenched pooris as thick as the layer of ice on those peaks, bad smelling halua as if made in kerosene oil and chana sabzi which was possibly the horse left over food. But trekkers aren't choosers.
After torturing our stomachs with that wonderful breakfast platter, we started the descent to Sonprayag where we were to stay for the night. It was fairly simple a trek with lots of time at our disposal. We left in small groups and I found myself tagging along Dr. Navdeep who has pretty interesting views about life and all that jazz. We attempted to make it slightly interesting by not taking the usual trek and inventing short cuts. After a while we stopped at an eatery where we even dozed off for some time to rejuvenate ourselves after that heavy dose of bhajiyaas. The best thing was this time around one could actually enjoy the scenic beauty around in peace. Otherwise in long treks, the only thing you get to see for most of the time is the not so panoramic view of shoes worn by the person moving in front of you.
We had hired some mules to carry the rucksacks of most of the OTs and apparently there was some miscommunication and the mules didn't stop at the last point of the trek and went forward. It took quite an effort to track them and retrieve our stuff. It actually turned out to be a "hard" trek but not because it was physically draining but for the stoned trekking path all along. The route from Gaurikund to Sonprayag was tricky and only jeeps are allowed in that area and that part turned out to be the scariest. We all made it in time and then proceeded to our stay in Hotel Jagat Raj IAS..err only Jagat Raj.
We all knew this was going to be the only luxury we were to get on this trek. A bed to sleep and a bathroom quipped with geyser, what more could we want. We all pounced at the opportunity and bathed as if there was a drought coming tomorrow. The next day was going to be the toughest, little did we know as we enjoyed the arabi ki sabzi in the dining hall.
Click here to read about Day 4
Soaked in that embrace of beauty, we made a move towards the temple once again. Special arrangements were made for all of us and we all got a chance to perform the entire detailed version of the religious ceremonies and spent quite some time inside the temple. This was in contrast to the various Jyotirlingas which I have been to where the queue is such that they don't even let you stand inside the temple for a fraction of a second. We were amazed to see so many elderly people who walked all the way up there. Religion and faith have immense power in them and make people do wonders. If only people equated humanity to such phenomenons.
As we moved past the temple, we could still see the ruins of that unfortunate day. Many houses and structures still lie there depicting that dark tale. In that silence, along with the sound of that gushing wind, one could also hear the screams of those innocent people whom we lost in that tragedy. We could also see some structures which were still on the verge of collapse and could further add to the damage and loss of lives but clearly the local administration had not made the effort to clear them up. We returned back to the base camp for our breakfast where we were served oil drenched pooris as thick as the layer of ice on those peaks, bad smelling halua as if made in kerosene oil and chana sabzi which was possibly the horse left over food. But trekkers aren't choosers.
After torturing our stomachs with that wonderful breakfast platter, we started the descent to Sonprayag where we were to stay for the night. It was fairly simple a trek with lots of time at our disposal. We left in small groups and I found myself tagging along Dr. Navdeep who has pretty interesting views about life and all that jazz. We attempted to make it slightly interesting by not taking the usual trek and inventing short cuts. After a while we stopped at an eatery where we even dozed off for some time to rejuvenate ourselves after that heavy dose of bhajiyaas. The best thing was this time around one could actually enjoy the scenic beauty around in peace. Otherwise in long treks, the only thing you get to see for most of the time is the not so panoramic view of shoes worn by the person moving in front of you.
We had hired some mules to carry the rucksacks of most of the OTs and apparently there was some miscommunication and the mules didn't stop at the last point of the trek and went forward. It took quite an effort to track them and retrieve our stuff. It actually turned out to be a "hard" trek but not because it was physically draining but for the stoned trekking path all along. The route from Gaurikund to Sonprayag was tricky and only jeeps are allowed in that area and that part turned out to be the scariest. We all made it in time and then proceeded to our stay in Hotel Jagat Raj IAS..err only Jagat Raj.
We all knew this was going to be the only luxury we were to get on this trek. A bed to sleep and a bathroom quipped with geyser, what more could we want. We all pounced at the opportunity and bathed as if there was a drought coming tomorrow. The next day was going to be the toughest, little did we know as we enjoyed the arabi ki sabzi in the dining hall.
Click here to read about Day 4
1 comment:
That third para, Swapnil, made me realise how subtly you could drift between emotions!!! It's beautiful the way you started with the tragedy and smoothly landed it at humour!
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