“जैसे ये पहाड़ चढ़ना, तुम्हारे लिए शायद सिर्फ़ ट्रैकिंग होगी, लेकिन मेरे लिये नशा है।” Said Bunny in YJHD and now even I feel the same. I was 13 years old when this movie came out, but where on the one side I was thinking of travelling the world, like Bunny, on the other hand, I was not even willing to do a 4 km trek.
A few years back, I went to Chopta a district based in Uttarakhand. Here we decided to trek to Tungnath a Shiva temple which was a 4 kms trek. A day before the trek, we talked to a few horse-men to take us there, but, they ditched us on the day.
I was not at all ready to go, I didn’t want to climb that much, and the Bunny inside me just dozed off. But, my parents somehow convinced me to climb.
We moved ahead with the trek and while all the others were moving forward however they were able to, I was here cribbing at each step. And after a km or 2, I sat down complaining about how hard it is and that I would not go ahead.
My parents were sitting with me trying to explain how we need to go till the end and can’t give up in between. Just then a group of aged people came and sat near us to take rest. We started talking to the group. During the talk, my mother asked till where were they planning to climb. And one of them answered puffed with energy and said that they will go all the way to the top. As they went ahead, my parents started giving me his example to help me keep going. And truly so, that was inspiring. I still cribbed about it but, somehow dragged myself up there and the feeling of success and joy I got was unbeatable. And with this experience I learnt
मुश्किल राहों पर भी चढ़ना होगा,
अश्र सम्भाल बढ़ना होगा
मंज़िल आयेगी ज़रूर मगर
रुक रुक कर ही सही चलना होगा
A few years later, we went to Ladakh. But before going there, we diverted towards Phalgaon. We decided to trek to see this place which was called the Mini Switzerland. We wanted to do it while also wanted stopping at the two spots that were to come before that.
Here too we tried to look for horsemen. But because no one agreed on the prize we would go in, therefore, we decided to trek to the place. Again, the Bunny inside me went into a slumber. Anyways, we started to trek but I was reluctant, asking to go back on every step. We reached the first stop and then the second one. And none of them was anything more than patches of land and trees and birches. Finally we reached our destination. Mini Switzerland was basically, a garden with snacking points for the tourists. This time I learnt
हर वक्त मंज़िल सभी
होगी बहुत खूब नहीं
रास्ता भी कभी कभी
चुन लेना ख़ुशनुमा कोई
In a few years, we went to Teerthan. Here we decided to visit the Shikari Mata temple. This time,the Bunny inside me was waking up a little bit. I definitely did rant about the difficulty of the trek but, was determined to go to the top nevertheless. Throwing some tantrums and taking in some motivation we reached the temple. It was a beautiful historic building with no roof. Myth says it was built by the Pandavas without the roof. Hence, whenever someone tries to get one made, the roof doesn’t stay. And with this trek I learnt
बड़ी मेहनत है, या मेहनत करने की हिम्मत है बड़ी
बड़ी है मंज़िल या सफ़र करने की चाहत है बड़ी
And after all of this, let us come to 2022.
My 2nd Sem had ended and 3rd Sem was yet to start. So me and my brother went to Jammu. My masi lives there. We had planned to go to Vaishno Devi.
It was a13 kms long trek to visit the temple and I was ready to do this. Bunny didn’t even came to my mind this time. I wanted to be the main character of my own Indie film. What a beautiful underdog story will it be.
We went to Katra from Jammu in a bus. And then from there on, we started around 5-6 pm. It was pleasant trek for a few kilometres. But after a while, it became tiring and started to seem long.This time, however, I was determined to go all the way to the top without any complaints. So, we walked and walked and sat and waited and finally reached. We did our prayers, waited there for a while, ate and then returned.
I did cry in the end and my masi had to pull me from there on. We reached back to the base, took the bus and went back to Jammu. At masi’s place, when I removed the shoes, I saw a large shoe bite on the back of my foot and a huge blister near my foot’s thumb. My parents gave me the courage to get it mended by a chemist. It was painful for a while but, I knew I would tell stories about it one day. Well what did I learn?
कभी तो ले चुनौती ऐसी भी
कभी तो रख हौसला ऐसा भी
कभी तो ठान की करना है फतेह
वह शिखर जो मुश्किल बड़ा लगा कभी
As we move towards the end and I talk about treks I did recently. I would first like to talk about the heights I am on the way of to peak in life. These are hills called self-love and fearlessness from uncertainty. Those are different stories to tell but some other time. I learnt something from that as well which was
डरता क्यों है तू मुसाफ़िर
सफ़र तो चलना ही है
ये वक़्त है वक़्त का काम है
वक्त से आगे बढ़ना ही है
Finally, in the same year, we went to the Northeast for a family trip. Only god knows how many treks we did there. Almost every spot was 100 steps down and more to go up. Rivers, waterfalls and even caves. One of the waterfalls, Wei Sawdong based in Cherrapunji had fabulous bamboo steps to go down. I was scared at first but conquered it as well. And not just that but a lot of others. This time, forget Bunny, it was me, just me. Not only me but also my parents proudly told me how I didn’t complain this time. And with that, I can finally say that I learnt
जो ख़ुद पर भरोसा कर लिया
जो डरों से अपने लड़ लिया
और रह गई ना कोई बात है
तू स्वछंद है आज़ाद है