Being atheist in a country like India is a daunting job.
With such a multi-religious culture and your life into this spiritual
extravaganza, it’s hard to steer away from religious thoughts. However as far
my experience goes every religion has one basis mantra- ‘be good and be good to
others’. And my travel tells me, it’s the sikh community who still believes in
it and work towards it.
So how did Hemkund trek happened for me. One of my sikh
friend wanted to visit this holy site. You will ask, hey what’s in for atheist
in holy site? Answer- Valley of Flowers, chance to trek to 15000 feet on
Himalayas, and to check my fitness on a multi day trek. As advised in my
previous entries, May-June bad times to visit cool, touristy and religious
places. When most of Europe and USA goes back to school, it’s time for brown
students to have their summer break. So book in advance or be ready like us for
an ordeal in probing and finding solutions to man-made problems.
Our ride was smooth from Delhi-Rishikesh. Rishikesh-Govindghat
was a nightmare (though we didn’t go to sleep). A twelve hour journey on a
vehicle designed to carry 5 people accommodating 9 people. During the twelve
hour drive through Himalayas, most of the actual work was done by our driver,
who was the only smoking partner for the journey. As rest of my companions
being sikh who are barred from smoking by religion. Our only work was to
scream-we are gone, we are alive. For people who don’t know what I mean (I am
not calling anyone a fool, I am just trying to find another way to explain
myself), imagine yourself on a roller coaster ride, with no guarantee of any
malfunction in the setup, and top that with stones being pelted at you
(Landslides pelt stones at you).
Now every sikh holy site, there is a gurudwara where you can
eat and sleep for free. This time they gave us blanket too. Evening a stroll
through the place, which would be hardly a block of the area you are living in.
Then was time for some face-to-face travel blog in the big hall where we would
sleep with hundreds of other people. People who were on to destination had
mostly interrogatory statements, which were answered by people who were from
the destination. Questions were centred on- how long does it take? How is the
weather? How many people are there? Will I be able to do it?
Next day early morning we started our trek. I can try to eat
up all the digital space in this world and try to explain you the feeling of
what I saw, it will not be sufficient. Even the photographs might give you an
idea, but now what I felt. Its calm, it’s serene it’s NATURE. After 14 KMs of
trek you reach Govind Dham (Known locally as ghangaria), crossing through tea
stalls, which teaches you lot of value of life, oops! Money. A tea cost you
Rs.10,Maggi costs you Rs.50 and a cigarette (Gold Flake) costs you Rs.8.
Passing through well paved walkway, sometimes interrupted by their bad
counterparts and sometimes by glaciers and landslides and only once by a
bridge, we reached Govind Dham. Again a very small village which serves a base
for next day’s 6 KMs strenuous trek. Here also gurudwara provides place to stay
and eat. You can also look for hotels as well in the season.
Next day we had to wake up early in the morning, and your
movement is totally dependent on weather. We were lucky to have a clear
weather. A 6 KMs path covering 1200m of
elevation difference. Covered with cool morning fog, we started our trek. After
around 100m the road divides, the straight one takes you to Hemkund Sahib; the
one on the left takes you to valley of flowers. As the fog clears, you will be
welcomed by a view, which is comparable to a window seat on a flight. You see
peaks that are higher than the clouds. Last few KMs are snow bound. So take it
easy, take your time, because a simple accident here might be fatal. And once
you reach the top, take few good breaths, as the landscape in going to take
your breath away. It was all happy at the top, with a channa curry priced at
Rs. 10 and a smoke of Rs.10 except for the fact that I lost my friends on the
way. The place where I had met a pittuwala (they are men carrying drums, daily
needs, medical needs or other humans on their back uphill/downhill). He offered
me to walk with him on way back. So spent some time with him, where he was
curious about life in cities. He also asked me a question for which I had no
answer- “As they say life in city is very god and relaxing then why do you
people come to mountains?”
I waited for my friends who arrived at 6 PM, which was
around 6 hours waiting on my part. They were in very bad condition to walk and
I was in a very bad condition to afford a room for Rs 1800 for three, whereas I
can just walk down for three hours and take shelter in gurudwara. So after lots
of discussion we decided on trekking back. We bought two flashlights. After an
hour or so it was completely dark; however Himalayas are more beautiful at
night. You see edge lines against a backdrop of star filled sky with snow
capped peaks shining like pearls in Dark Ocean. At around mid night we decided
to just lay down and stargaze for some time. We reached Govind Ghat at around
4AM, and every shop was closed. Luckily we got a place in Gurudwara to power
nap for 2 hours and in morning hunt was on for a hotel room. Being the only
person in the group to still walk properly was made responsible to find a room.
I got a room for three for Rs. 900. We slept whole day and in evening got
tickets for a bus back to Rishikesh, and then some shopping, stroll through the
market and some discussions.
Next day was journey back to plains, hot summer and polluted
air. What did I learn from this trip? First of all research paid off well, with
not much problem to find food and place to lodge. We knew the distances and how
to reach; to trip was according to schedule (thanks to nature as it did not
create any disaster). This was my first real Himalayan experience. Why real,
till now my experience was limited to hill stations.
When a person climbs a peak or mountain, he thinks that he
has conquered the height, but what he has done actually is conquer the heights
of his ego, anger and hatred. If watched closely, life in remote mountains is
not easy. People here rely completely on nature and people for their daily
needs, where ego, hatred and other negative emotions do not have a place.
Sometimes I ponder, modernization helps in every aspect of
life; but does it teaches to control your negative emotions and be a humble
human being again?
Due to technical difficulties individual photographs could not be uploaded, so here is a link to FB album, which contains images related to this trip.
Apologies for redirecting inconvenience
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