Nobel peace prize should be given to the person who invented the snooze button. That very feeling, when you snooze the alarm to sleep for some more time, that very feeling, is priceless. And its even more fabulous after travelling such long distances in a bus and that too in hilly areas. But what to do with all the snoring? With six or seven people compacted in one room, there is always a possibility of a defaulter. And unfortunately here there were many and ergo we had snores available in all possible frequencies of the spectrum. Anyways after struggling against these nasal disasters, one by one we all got up and the coordination for loo-sharing was near perfect with all bowel pressures rightly addressed.
But certainly, good coordination is not ubiquitous and so is the quality of adhering to the stipulated timelines. This is one of the few things we Indians need to understand. Time has immense value. We are here for a very limited quantum as compared to the evolution of species. And to make that count we must always be on the move to whatever place we want to be or to whatever height we want to climb. Unfortunately the expression Indian Standard Time (IST) is a misnomer as there are no standards with Indian timings.
Another issue which we seldom deal with is the absence of communication or the practice of inadequate communication. In the trek details that we were provided with, it was nowhere mentioned that we were all required to do a registration and also to go through a medical examination to be allowed to go on the Kedarnath trek. Unaware of this very detail, we were leisurely indulging in digesting as many Aloo parathas as we can. And then came the shocker. This development came post the Uttarakhand disaster of June 2013.
Now the authorities track all those who start the trek and ensure that they return back to the starting point in Sonprayag. Moreover, those who have some medical condition are not allowed to take on this trek. Both these processes take quite a while as there is always a long queue. Had we been informed about this, we could have started early. Fortunately, the local authorities cooperated as we were Civil Service probationers. If this was not enough, we were also not aware of the fact that there is a particular point in the trek called "Nancholi" which you have to cross before 1700 hrs and in case you get late, you are not allowed to proceed to Kedarnath. We only got to know about this just hours before the damn deadline and that very fact propelled us to transform ourselves into mules.
Fortunately we all made it in time. The rains surely made it even more challenging but we were happy to make use of the overpriced "Ponchos" that we had bought. The front party reached the base camp near the Kedarnath Temple in day light and boy o' boy it was so beautiful. We just managed to put our rucksacks in the huts and move forward towards the temple for the evening aarti. As it was dark by then, the picturesque background would only be seen when we would return the next morning. The temple is entirely made of rocks and one could agree that while other structures were demolished by the flash floods this would have been too sturdy to be touched.
This was followed by a bon fire were other trekkers joined us to share their experiences. Post dinner we retired into our comfortable huts and gave the much needed rest to our limbs. The trek that day was more or less smooth with the only exception of our senior most OT who started panting at the very genesis as he was carrying his rucksack against what was advised by others. That night, as we rested next to a religious wonder with snow clad mountains around it, we felt special. We wanted to keep that feeling with us for eternity. Perhaps, we did!
Click here to read about Day 3
But certainly, good coordination is not ubiquitous and so is the quality of adhering to the stipulated timelines. This is one of the few things we Indians need to understand. Time has immense value. We are here for a very limited quantum as compared to the evolution of species. And to make that count we must always be on the move to whatever place we want to be or to whatever height we want to climb. Unfortunately the expression Indian Standard Time (IST) is a misnomer as there are no standards with Indian timings.
Another issue which we seldom deal with is the absence of communication or the practice of inadequate communication. In the trek details that we were provided with, it was nowhere mentioned that we were all required to do a registration and also to go through a medical examination to be allowed to go on the Kedarnath trek. Unaware of this very detail, we were leisurely indulging in digesting as many Aloo parathas as we can. And then came the shocker. This development came post the Uttarakhand disaster of June 2013.
Now the authorities track all those who start the trek and ensure that they return back to the starting point in Sonprayag. Moreover, those who have some medical condition are not allowed to take on this trek. Both these processes take quite a while as there is always a long queue. Had we been informed about this, we could have started early. Fortunately, the local authorities cooperated as we were Civil Service probationers. If this was not enough, we were also not aware of the fact that there is a particular point in the trek called "Nancholi" which you have to cross before 1700 hrs and in case you get late, you are not allowed to proceed to Kedarnath. We only got to know about this just hours before the damn deadline and that very fact propelled us to transform ourselves into mules.
Fortunately we all made it in time. The rains surely made it even more challenging but we were happy to make use of the overpriced "Ponchos" that we had bought. The front party reached the base camp near the Kedarnath Temple in day light and boy o' boy it was so beautiful. We just managed to put our rucksacks in the huts and move forward towards the temple for the evening aarti. As it was dark by then, the picturesque background would only be seen when we would return the next morning. The temple is entirely made of rocks and one could agree that while other structures were demolished by the flash floods this would have been too sturdy to be touched.
This was followed by a bon fire were other trekkers joined us to share their experiences. Post dinner we retired into our comfortable huts and gave the much needed rest to our limbs. The trek that day was more or less smooth with the only exception of our senior most OT who started panting at the very genesis as he was carrying his rucksack against what was advised by others. That night, as we rested next to a religious wonder with snow clad mountains around it, we felt special. We wanted to keep that feeling with us for eternity. Perhaps, we did!
Click here to read about Day 3
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