iCusp

• first things firsts no bathrooms , so you had do your daily activities under the open blue sky humming the tunes of the famous song "Neele gagan ke tale", it taught me of the importance of those four walls.
• The tents were as cramped as Ant nest's with 14 people with there backpacks as well as shoes cramped in the space little larger than a double bed .
• The smell of used socks and shoes almost made you vomit and if that wasnt enough they fed us with chola bhatura making the tents one of the biggest reservior of natural gas in India.
• Add to this the fact that it usually rained in the evening and the damp ground would make you fell as if you are sleeping on a water bed, and you immediately get reminded of Madhuri Dixit doing a sexy number on a water bed in one of the movies, Only here the Madhuri's were 13 in number and had beards.)
• You also had to deal with Harley Davidsons in the tent .. No kidding people snored so loud you felt like you were standing with your ears next to the engine of a Harley.
• No baths for 10 days , you had to wash your own plates with chilled snow water, dinner to be eaten at 7 in the evening , the lights in the camp were off by 9 and the day began at 5 in the morning.

Now before you think you are reading some Jerks blog who has nothing to do but crib about small things , let me tell you the good things that happen to you on trek , the things that make the trek worth doing.

Nature brings out the Philosopher in me and I set out on making observations and started to find out the lessons the mountains taught me in there own way.

• Mountains teach you importance dicsipline, every day we survive in the mountain is like a military drill from getting up at 5 in the morning to reaching the next camp at 3 in the afternoon , the unique nature of a military drill is that you have to do it come what may, so you walk whether its a clear sky or its raining. Whether you feel well or you dont , the mountain has only one rule accept the pain and move on to avoid inflicting more pain on your self.
• Mountains teaches you humility , there is no room for emotion like anger ,frustation etc. You kick the ground in the anger , you will slip in the sticky mud from rains , you curse at the sky in frustation and the next moment it rains even harder , there is simply no respite.
• Mountain teaches you importance of small things , if you didnt pack your bag properly the weight of the backpack is not balanced properly , it will feel a few Kg's heavier and you immediately remember the donkey wala story from childhood and you know exactly how the donkey felt when he entered the water with a sack of cotton instead of salt.
• Mountains bring your feet back to earth , they tell you that you might be a software engineer earning a high salary , but here you are even as fragile as a frog on a national highway.
• But once you conquer this deamon it also gives you the sense of achievement which is unmatched cannot be matched.

~The pain passes away , but the pleassure of creating a beauty remains ~ a very famous painter who suffered from severe artheritis when asked why does he paint when he has such unbearable pain.