Learnings from 2023

As the 2023 is coming to end, I thought I should document my learnings.

1. You cannot force connection or friendship: We all know this, but I guess everyone still makes the mistake at some point and learns this lesson again. I am generally very closed person and I connect emotionally with very few people. If I get the hint that someone does not want to have that level of connection with me, I use to feel bad, but I kept those feelings within me without communicating anything to another person. Over the years I felt that may be if I would have communicated and made efforts people would have stayed. So, this time I thought I should make efforts but looking back viewing from a third person perspective, I made efforts to the point of becoming a toxic person in someone’s life. I tried forcing the other person for friendship knowing that it is something that they do not want. I cannot go back and change things, but I learned my lesson which I hopefully will not forget. I do need to communicate my thoughts once, but after that I should stop.                                       
2. Keeping yourself busy to distract from problems will not solve the problems: When we are going through difficult emotions generally, we try to distract ourselves by involving in work, entertainment or other things. But it is kind of running away from the problem. I learnt that I need to face the problem then only I will be able to find a solution. The time will not heal things perspective will. I need to sit, accept and understand the difficult emotions I am going through to take the first step towards finding the solution.
3. I need to learn to regulate my emotions: I act out of emotions and obviously end up making some wrong decisions. Instead of that I need to learn the technique of emotional regulation and delay my reaction.
4. I need to be comfortable with people not liking me: I need to get comfortable with people not liking me. I guess I have been loved so much in my life by my family, friends and people around me that it becomes very difficult for me to accept that people may not like me. I need to get comfortable with the fact that some of my traits can be negative for some people and its ok if they don’t like me.
5. I need to become more considerate of the emotions of people who love me: I found that I have become more selfish and have been focusing more about how anything affects me. I need to do that, but I also need to pay more attention to how my words and actions make my close ones feel.  
6. People will misunderstand you and giving explanations will not change that:  I need to become comfortable with being misunderstood and stop overexplaining every time especially when people are not looking for explanation.
7. You need to put lot of hard work in changing your food habits: Food has always been my way to deal with stress and it is not correct way. But I have found it very difficult to change this bad habit. I am still working towards it. Last year whatever efforts I made I failed miserably but I hope to try new things to overcome this bad habit.
8. It’s important to have fitness goals in addition to weight loss: There will be ups and downs in your fitness journey. I lost nearly 20kgs from May 2021-Sept 2022. But after that due to stress my bad food habits triggered and I was not able to go back to healthy eating. Last year I gained back almost 10-12 kgs of that lost weight but if I would have kept only weight loss as the goal I might have given up on regular exercise as well. I know that I need to work on changing my food habits but till the time I do that I need to have other minor fitness goals which will keep me moving.
9. I am comfortable with failing and trying new things: This year I learnt powerlifting, a bit of gymnastics, a bit of Olympic weightlifting and tried my hand at running and throw events at master athletics competitions. I ended up participating in an international powerlifting competition which would not have happened if I would not have started competing. At most of these places I was the only one with a non-sport/non-fitness background and so if I would have stopped myself thinking that I will not be able to compete with these people, I would not have been able to achieve what I did this year.
10. I am God’s favorite child: To succeed in anything in addition to your hard work and efforts, you need the combination of being at the right place at the right time with the right set of people. I am grateful to God that I always get that combination. Also, I always get surrounded by people who love me, care for me and protect me from all bad things. I have a very loving family, awesome friends who have been with me for more than twenty years and all the lovely and kind people I meet while doing different things. I actually feel that I am the luckiest person in the world and this year only strengthened that belief.

Turning 30 :P

I celebrated my 30th birthday today. Being a Friends Fan, the first thing which comes to my mind is Why God Why :D….

 

I was a bit calm this time compared to how I generally behave. I remember I used to be so excited about birthday that I would start planning  at least a month before. I will torture my family and friends by telling them repeatedly that my birthday is coming. I remember once in college hostel my friends put a notice on the Girls hostel door a week before my birthday announcing my birthday celebration. I have wonderful memories of all my birthdays. My friends and family knew how much important it is for me and they always made sure to make it special. Be it asking me to cut an inauguration ribbon on my first birthday in hostel or arranging a treasure hunt or putting lovely efforts to make cards and gifts or sending flowers anonymously in my office and scaring me the whole day but most importantly by making sure they are always with me. This time also my friends made sure that I have all the fun on my birthday.

Birthday is a sign of growing up, of becoming old. But I never felt that way, for me it was always a celebration. Probably because emotionally I never grew up beyond a teenager. I was same immature, childish girl for many years. I am still very immature and childish but slowly(very  slowly :P) I am progressing to become a little mature adult. I am actually growing old and it is not making me sad but rather I am feeling very proud about it. I am feeling happy to understand myself better and this helps me in setting right expectations not only from myself but from others as well. I understand that if I am so complex that it is taking me years to understand my true self than its wrong to expect others to understand me correctly every time. So I feel less restless now when someone  misunderstands me.

I had some things in my bucket list which I wanted to achieve by the time I am 30. Some I achieved but most of them are still pending. So I am doing the same what I generally do with my work, target the next deadline :P. My unaccomplished list majorly includes following

1. Learn Swimming – In progress hopefully this time I will learn 😀
2. Solo trip across North East India covering all the seven sister states and Sikkim.
3. Visit at least one city in each state of India.
4. Visit at least one country in each of the seven continents.(4 done 3 more to go).
5. Finish a half marathon. – Need to start running again. I stopped running completely from past 1.5 years.
6. Learn to drive a bike and drive from Manali to Leh. – I am not sure if I will ever be able to do this given my excellent driving skills but I will keep my hopes alive and  continue having it in my bucket list.
7. Summit at least one of the seven summits.
8. Visit Spiti valley

And many more …

1 and 5 are in my priority list and I hope to achieve or at minimum take major steps towards achieving them by my next birthday 🙂

 

 

 

Difference between being alone and being lonely

A friend’s status read Nobody should be alone and I thought how often people think that being alone and being lonely is one and the same thing. I have been alone many times in my life and I love it. In fact sometimes I prefer to be alone and spend some time with myself rather than going out in a group. I enjoy travelling alone, eating out in restaurants alone, going for movies alone, going for shopping alone. Being alone was never a problem for me and it will never be. It is wrong to associate loneliness with being alone. You don’t need to be alone to feel lonely and you don’t need to be lonely if you are alone. Loneliness is the feeling of emotional emptiness. I do feel lonely and there are reasons for that. I don’t always feel lonely when I am alone. I feel lonely when I miss some specific people, I miss the emotional connection I have with those people who are my family and close friends. When I am lonely having large number of people around me, going with me to places won’t cause my loneliness to go away. The difference between being alone and being lonely is while loneliness is the emotional emptiness, being alone is the path of self discovery. Its a great feeling to be alone but not lonely. Being alone unlike loneliness is a very positive state.

My first encounter with snow – Kedarkantha trek

As I mentioned in my Chadar Trek post I registered for Kedarkantha trek as I wanted to do a winter trek before Chadar trek. For me it was just a preparation for Chadar trek so I was not having much expectations from the trek but it turned out to be a very beautiful trek which will be there in my memory forever. I experienced snow fall for the first time, played with snow, trekked in snow up-to knees and did snow sliding. This is one of those treks, I will definitely do again whenever I will get a chance.

The trek is of 4 days. The base camp is at Sankri village and it takes around 7-8 hours from Dehradun to reach. I registered for the trek with Indiahikes and we were supposed to meet the group on 21st December at Dehradun railway station. I reached Delhi a day before so that I can spend a day in Delhi with my friends Kritika and Raina. Though you are in touch and talking to your friends regularly but it is always special to meet your close friends in person after a long time. We chatted, remembered our old times and in the night Kritika dropped me at New Delhi station and I boarded my train to Dehradun.

Day1: Dehradun-Sankri

I met everyone at Dehradun railway station. Garima and Kapil were making sure that everyone in the list is present there and then we started our journey to Sankri.  We saw the Kempty falls in Mussoorie on the way. The drive from Dehradun to Sankri is very beautiful and  I thoroughly enjoyed it. We stopped in between for taking pictures and finally reached Sankri at around 4 in the evening. We met our trek leader and Indiahikes staff in the guest house. We settled in the guest house and then went for dinner which was arranged in a nearby restaurant. While we were coming back from dinner we realized something white is falling on us and when I realized its actually snow fall, I was so excited. It was a lovely experience. We went back to guest house. Our trek leader briefed us about the next day’s trek.

Day2-Sankri(6450ft) to Juda Ka Talab(9150ft)

When we woke up in the morning, it was still snowing. Nobody was sure whether we are moving ahead or not. But we got ready, had breakfast and were waiting for the final confirmation. After some time our trek leaders asked us to assemble in front of the guest house for the briefing and then we started moving ahead. The snowfall continued which was making it difficult to walk but everything was looking very beautiful and white. The trek pictures on the first day showed green pine trees but what we were seeing is all white 😀 I was totally loving it.  I was feeling like a child –  I was making balls of snow throwing them  doing all the kiddish things and enjoying :).

We kept hearing in between that we may have to go back as the weather is not good but finally we were able to reach our campsite Juda Ka Talab in late afternoon. Our tents were already pitched in by the staff. We kept our things in the tent and had tea. Campsite was looking very beautiful, everything was covered with snow. The lake was also frozen.

We were called for dinner in the night. It was one of our trek member Aditi’s birthday and her husband madhurendra arranged for a cake. It was the best way to celebrate one’s birthday, in the middle of mountains :). All of us wished Aditi, enjoyed the cake and after dinner  went into our tents. The temperature went down to -17 in the night and everybody was freezing but somehow we managed to sleep.

Day3 – Juda ka Talab(9150ft) to KK base camp(11250ft)

2 of our trek members returned on the first day as they were not well and we heard 5 more are going back. We were just hoping that they all will be fine. We had our breakfast and started our trek to KK base camp. Today’s trek was very short so were able to reach our next campsite in 2 hours. This campsite was even more beautiful than previous one.

We met the previous batch trekkers who were coming from the summit and were hearing their experiences. They were telling us to start the summit trek early as they started a little late and only 6 of them were able to complete the summit. The lunch was being served and I was not very hungry so I skipped my lunch. We pitched our tents and sun came out so we were roaming around the campsite. In the evening we had the campfire in the huts which were located there, had maggi and chatted for a long time. We were given crampons and gaiters for the summit trek. We collected all the things, had dinner and came back to our tents. In the night it again started getting very cold. Next morning we had to start our trek by 7:30 in the morning.

Day 4 – KK base camp(11250ft) – KK Summit(12500ft) – KK base camp(11250ft) – Hargaon(8900ft)

We woke up at 6:00am. The previous night was very difficult. Many people were not able to sleep due to extreme cold and it was not possible for all to go to summit trek. Finally it was decided only 14 of us will go to summit trek and rest of the people will go down to Sankri. We were getting ready and I saw my shoes were frozen, I was not able to put my foot inside the shoes as top of the shoe became very hard due to ice. I tried a lot and finally after lot of efforts I was able to wear my shoes. This was one of the most difficult tasks I ever did :D…But now I had to wear crampons and gaiters also.Finally with the help of Garima I wore them and was ready for the trek. I was not very hungry so I skipped the breakfast which turned out to be a very big mistake. We started our trek to summit, we were asked to move fast, our target was to reach the summit before 12 noon. Initially I was fine and was moving at a normal speed. But after sometime I started feeling weak and was not able to move. My trek leader Binayak gave me the ors and something to eat and asked me if I am fine and can move ahead or not. I said I am fine and I will move ahead. I started moving slowly. Binayak kept checking with me regularly if I am feeling fine or not. When we reached near summit, I was totally exhausted but was very happy that I finally made it. 

After clicking some pictures at the summit and spending some time there. We started descending. One of us started sliding down in the snow and then all of us followed. It was a fun experience. We were later told by our trek leaders that in march we can actually slide from the summit to campsite.

We reached back to KK-base camp met the next batch trekkers, had our lunch and started moving towards our next camp site Hargaon. The trek to Hargaon was very slippery but we finally manged to reach the campsite in the evening. It was looking very beautiful from the top.

It was a long day but there was a satisfaction of completing the summit trek. We kept our things in the tent, had tea and were sitting around the campfire for a long time. It was less cold that last 2 days so we were able to sleep properly.

Day5 – Hargaon(8900ft)-Sankri(6400ft)

It was the last day of the trek. We had the best breakfast – puri and chole and started our journey back to Sankri. It was very slipperly and most of the people were slipping at one point or other. We were clicking pictures, recalling the trek memories and were moving ahead. Oh I forgot to mention there was a dog which accompanied us throughout the trek. We clicked a picture with him.

We reached Sankri in the afternoon had our lunch and went to the guesthouse. In the night myself, Garima and Kapil were sitting outside and were looking at the stars. That is the best thing about Himalayan treks the sky filled with stars. The trek was over and next morning we had to start our journey back to Sankri.

Day6 – Sankri-Dehradun-Delhi

In the morning we collected our trek certificates and started our journey to Dehradun. We reached Dehradun late in the afternoon. Finally I called home after 5 days and informed them that I will reach Delhi next day.

This was a very beautiful trek. For our batch the weather made it difficult but it is not a very difficult trek. Do this to enjoy the most beautiful campsites in Himalayas :).

P.S. Photos in the post were taken by Chirag.

Learnings

Two years back I left Qualcomm to take a 3 months break to figure out what I actually want to do in life, Its been two years and I am still figuring that out. Was it a right decision for my career I don’t know but I don’t regret it. Professionally I may be at the same place as I was 2 years back or may be I have taken a step backward but I am actually enjoying this exploration process.

My life was pretty simple, there was no confusion. There was a straight path defined which my mind also accepted. Take maths, prepare for engineering exams get into a good college, score good grades and get a good job. But I never knew what after that. I tried setting my goal as climbing up the hierarchy in  the job but this time I could not set it as simply as I did before. Probably because I started asking myself is this really what I want to do. And then started the state of confusion there were times when getting promoted was the most important thing and then there were times when it was of zero importance. There were times when I wanted to go back to college and do research and then there were times when I wanted to do completely different things. I was really not sure what I wanted to do.

One more mistake which I did during this time was I allowed my life to entirely revolve around work. There was no space for anything else in my life and I know my family and friends had a hard time with me in those days. Everyone around me was advising me to maintain a balance but I was not understanding the importance of balance. After 2 years I slowly started to realize that I should take time out for doing things other than work but I actually reached a stage where I did not know how should I start working less. I was totally confused, I was spending all my time working in office when I was not sure about my career goals. I tried for six months to work only for fixed hours of time but I was not able to do it.  In these six months I actually worked less but spent more time than before in office. Finally I decided  to  take a break, to give time to things which I wanted to do and in parallel decide what I should do next. I left my job and for the one month I exactly did what I planned I traveled, I learned to cook some new dishes and I explored some options of what I can do next but after a month when I could not reach a decision I got scared about future and I  made a mistake of hurriedly deciding of doing a job again. I started giving interviews and luckily got into Microsoft. As I took the decision in a hurry, I was still not at peace and again left my job after one year but this time I am very clear that I will not get affected by anything. I will take my own sweet time and decide. I am currently exploring if I want to continue doing research. I am still not sure about it. May be someday I will go back and do what I was doing before but this time the decision will be because I want to go back, not because I got scared.

These 2 years have taught me so many things about life that I am not regretting anything I did. Even though I made mistakes but they actually taught me something. I truly understand the importance of work life balance now. I understood family and friends play a big role in lifting you up when you feel down. It is important to work but it is also important to give them the time they deserve. I traveled and traveled a lot, met many new people, heard their experiences got to know different aspects of life. I learned not to judge anyone for anything. We can never understand what a person is going though unless we are living their life. Previously I used to have a very strong opinion about someone doing something but as I met different people heard their experiences got to learn somethings from my experiences I understand that its very easy to pass judgement when you are looking at things from outside without knowing the details. When I accepted this, I felt like I have actually grown up a bit.

Most importantly I understood the difference between being content and  complacent. There was a time when I was so satisfied with my life that I did not want to do anything. But now I want to keep moving and keep doing things which make me happy. I want to be better than what I was yesterday (not necessarily professionally but in one aspect or other). Being content is good but being complacent is not.

The Ultimate Chadar Trek

First time I checked the indiahikes website and read about Chadar Trek, I added it to my bucket list. The idea of walking on a frozen river for 7 days and surviving in inhospitable conditions looked challenging and interesting. I heard more about it from fellow trekkers on Kashmir trek last year and my desire to do the trek further increased. After coming back from Kashmir trek(Aug 2013) the first thing I did was to register for the Chadar Trek. I registered for the 11th jan 2014 batch and booked my flight tickets so that I reach Leh on 10th jan and get an extra day for acclimatization. As the time was passing by I was getting nervous about the trek. I was not sure whether I will be able to survive the cold. I read blogs on how to prepare yourself for extreme low temperatures and was trying to prepare myself mentally that I will be able to survive and complete the trek successfully.  Then I thought it will be better if I do a winter trek before going for Chadar trek, so I registered for Kedarkantha trek in December 2013. Kedarkantha trek was an experience in itself and I will write about it in a separate post. But after completing the Kedarkantha trek and surviving in -17 C  temperature I was confident of successfully completing Chadar Trek.

Day0 – 9-10 Jan 2014 – Hyderabad-Delhi and supposedly Delhi-Leh

I had connecting air india flights from hyderabad-delhi and then delhi-Leh. Hyderabad-Delhi flight was on 9th jan night and delhi-leh flight was on 10th Jan at 6:30 in the morning. At Hyderabad airport I was not issued the boarding pass of delhi-leh flight as it was on next day.  I reached Delhi airport at 10:30 in night. I did not sleep the whole night but still missed my flight(Well that’s me and airindia:D).  I checked the counters, the next air india flight was on 13th jan which means that I will not be able to join the 11th jan trek group. Then I called my trek leaders who were present at the Delhi airport and they took me to terminal 1 to check the status in other airlines. There was a ticket available in Go-Air for 12th Jan but it meant that I will not get any time for acclimatization, as we had to start our trek on 12th. I wanted to do the trek at any cost and somehow I got the feeling that if I don’t go now, I may not get a chance to do it again. So I told my trek leaders I am confident of completing the trek, please allow me join the 11 jan batch and start the trek on 12th. They agreed as I did Kedarkantha trek only 2 weeks before. I booked my ticket in 12th Jan flight. Now I had to stay in delhi for couple of days. So i called my friend Raina who as usual happily welcomed me to her home.

Day1- 12 Jan – Delhi to Leh and Leh-Tilat Sumdo

I reached Delhi airport and was continuously praying that nothing wrong happens and I reach Leh on time. Luckily everything was fine and I reached Leh at 10:00 in the morning and then reached hotel at 10:30.  Everybody was waiting  for me to come so that we can start in the bus to our base camp at Tilat Sumdo. We could see the zanskar river from the bus and it looked amazingly beautiful. I was very excited and wanted to put my first step on chadar as soon as possible  . We reached camp site at around 2 in the afternoon. We could see chadar from the top but we had to climb down through a dangerous path to reach our campsite :)…Chadar trek was supposedly a flat walk but for us it was not :)…This was the start of many ‘flat walks'(read climbing up and down :D) we did during our trek.

We all finally managed to get down. And now came the most awaited moment – First step on chadar. It was scary but finally we managed to cover the distance on chadar and reached our camps. The feeling of walking on a frozen river was amazing. The campsite was so beautiful and so peaceful.  After reaching our campsite I asked Varuna if I can share the tent with her. Myself, Varuna and Ayesha shared the same tent and we 3 along with Parvindar,Varun and Shiva had lots of fun in the coming days. We had our lunch and in the evening we went for a  walk on Chadar. While returning we decided to have a campfire but we couldn’t see many wooden logs around. There was a big wooden log lying and my trek mates carried that huge log of tree back to campsite. Next day was the real start of the trek.

Day2  – 13 Jan – Tilat Sumdo To Shingra Korma (9.5kms)

We woke up at 6:30 when the bed tea was served to us in the tents ;). We packed our tents and after breakfast our trek leader Preet briefed us about the day. We were given crampons so that it will be easier to walk on the ice. Some people choose not to wear the crampons but I thought its better to wear it as I have the habit of falling even on the flat roads :D. The chadar was not fully formed so there were portions where we had to climb up and down through risky rock patches. We were all thinking who said chadar is a flat walk,for us it is certainly not. One of the path was very scary, perhaps the most difficult part of the trek. Almost everybody slipped on that path. Good thing was all of us were safe in the end.  We stopped in middle for lunch. After having tea and maggi we continued walking and reached Shingra Korma in the late afternoon. The day’s walk was less on chadar and more on rocks. After reaching campsite we arranged our tents and gathered around the fire in the evening.

Day 3- 14 Jan – Shingra Korma – Tibb(14kms)

There was snowfall in the night, so when we woke up the campsite was all white. It was freezing cold and I dint feel like getting out of my sleeping bag but yes I wanted to walk on chadar again :). So finally I got out of my sleeping bag. We packed our tent, had breakfast and were ready to move after a briefing from our trek lead. I decided not to wear crampons as yesterday’s trek had more of rocky patches and crampons need to be removed there. Initially I was finding it hard to move without crampons but it was fun. We were moving and came across a small frozen waterfall. I was amazed. Myself.Vineet, Milind Sir and Devesh decided to take a pic near waterfall. After taking the picture when I was coming down, i made the mistake of choosing a slippery path and had my first of many falls :)..And that’s when I realized ice hurts :)…

We continued walking, saw different forms of chadar and were mesmerized by its beauty. We reached near our camp site but before that we had to cross a very narrow ice path. I was scared, if I slip I will definitely fall in the river. I was looking at people in front of me how they are going hoping that I will not fall. I tried walking very slowly but I slipped very badly. Our trek lead Tenzing came and helped me to cross the patch.

 

We reached our campsite around 2:30. Though we covered more distance than first day it took less time as there were less climbs ;).

Day4 – 15 Jan – Tibb – Narek(12kms)

Morning when we woke up we heard that it may not be possible to move ahead as chadar is not formed completely and there is no alternate path available through hills also. We were all very disappointed. We had one buffer day which was kept for situations like this. But if chadar breaks again while returning we might have to wait one more day. I came mentally prepared that I will make all my efforts to complete this trek. So I was ready to wait one more day. We all were waiting thinking about what to do for the rest of the day, that’s when Varuna shouted we might be able to go. There were some porters who were coming back from Narek and they said its possible to go. Our trek leaders talked to porters and said that we are moving ahead. I was happy and relieved. We were told that chadar can break anytime so we have to move fast and we can not take breaks and there will not be any lunch break also till we cross the risky patch. Myself and Varuna decided we will move in front and we will not stop in between. We continued moving taking only couple of minutes break whenever we were too tired. Finally we reached a point where we were told now there is no problem. We will be able to move to Narek without any difficulties. Everyone was very happy. After walking for some more time we reached the magnificent Narek waterfall. I can not describe the feeling in words. I wanted to touch it but was scared to move close. Finally I went near the waterfall. We had a group pic there :).

After walking for some more time, we reached our campsite. Indiahikes arranged for a homestay in Narek. After three days we will not be sleeping in tents but on floors. That’s what a trek does to you, normal things in life starts giving you happiness :)…

Day5,6,7 – 16-17-18 Jan – Narek – Tibb(12kms) Tibb – Shingra Korma(14kms) Shingra Korma – Tilat Sumdo (9.5kms) – Leh(in bus)

We woke up, packed our sleeping bags and were ready to move back. We had to follow the same path by which we came. I read before that even though you walk on the same path chadar will never be same. So there will be new experiences. I felt the same as I was moving ahead. There were places where we had to climb the rocks but now the chadar was fully formed. We all were a lot relaxed while moving back. The uncertainty whether we will be able to reach till end was not there and that was replaced by a sense of accomplishment. While coming back most of the chadar was formed so it was more of a flat walk but due to this we were able to appreciate the opportunities we got to climb different paths, as it made the trek a lot more interesting and challenging. We spent a lot of time with each other in Tibb and Shingra Korma. Myself,Varuna,Ayesha,Parvinder,Varun and Shiva spent a lot of time in tents chit chatting and playing games. In Shingra Korma we had camp fire and all of us sang different songs. We reached Tilat Sumdo and were so happy to successfully complete the chadar trek. The happiness was visible on our faces.

We had maggi for our lunch and now we had to climb up the same path by which we came down on first day. We reached at the top and everybody was so excited that they started dancing in the bus on some laddakhi song. We stopped at Patthar Sahib Gurudwara on our way back to Leh. We reached  hotel and met the other group who were starting their trek next day.

Day8 – 19 Jan – Leh local sight-seeing

We had an extra day in Leh, so some of us went for local sightseeing. There are some places on earth which look more beautiful in photos then they really are and then there is Leh and especially for Leh in winter you can say its much more beautiful than any photograph could capture. We first went to Hemis- one of the biggest monasteries in Asia. The monestary was very big. There was a buddha statue at the top which was very beautiful. Next we went to Thiksey monestary and Shey palace. After that we came back to hotel, took rest for some time and then went to Leh local market. We had dinner in a nearby restaurant and went to sleep. Next day we had to take the flight and return back to our homes.

Day 9 – 20 Jan – Leh-Delhi-Hyderabad

Ready to go back to normal routine?..Not really I just wanted to stay there. A part of me was still hoping that flight gets cancelled  and I don’t need to go back to routine,but that was not practical. Myself, Varuna and Parvinder went to Shanti Stupa in the morning and from there went to airport. We met other members on the airport. We exchanged our numbers and bid goodbye to each other in the hope of meeting again soon :).

Chadar trek was the experience of a lifetime. It was not the most difficult trek I have done neither terrain wise nor conditions wise(I found it more difficult to survive on kedarkantha trek even though temperature was less in chadar, may be because that was my first winter trek)  but there is something unique about this trek which you can not experience in any other trek. The beauty of chadar is beyond words. You need to be there to feel it and experience it. If you like trekking make sure you do this trek as soon as possible.

P.S. The photos in the post were taken by Vineet/Varuna/Ayesha/Devesh.

 

Kab aur kyun

Kab tak chalta rahega ye sansar

aur kab tak rahenge is sansar mein dukh

kab tak rahega is dharti par manav

aur kab tak karega manav ek doosre se nafrat

 

Kyun log aapas mein milkar nahi rehte

kyun jaati dharm varn ke aadhar par hai ladte

kyun ek doosre se ye grihna karte hai

Kyun ek prithvi ke tukde ke liye yudh karte hai

 

Kab tak chalta rahega ye nafrat ka yudh

Kab tak log khade rahenge bankar but

kab bharat aur pakistan rahenge milkar

aur kab aayega is sansar mein shanti ka kal.

 

Kyun in prashno ka koi uttar nahi hota

kyun har burai ka khatma nahi hota

kyun hum sirf soch kar ya keh kar chup ho jaate hai

kyun hum apne vicharon ko amal mein nahi laate hai

 

Kab aayega wo samay jab sab prayatna karenge

kab aayega wo samay jab hum milkar rahege

kab aayega wo samay jab koi bhedbhav na hoga

kab aayega wo samay jab ye ‘kab’ na rahega

Solo trip to Srinagar and my first himalayan trek

It was January 2013 when I came across indiahikes website and saw the details of Kashmir great lakes trek. I decided to do this trek this year. I asked some of my friends and we registered for the 11 Aug batch. It was still 7 months but I was very excited and was eagerly waiting for it. I booked my flight tickets to Srinagar for 9th Aug thinking that we can use the 2 days to roam around Srinagar. As the months passed by, one by one my friends had to cancel the trek due to some or the other reasons and in the end I was the only one left.  I was waiting for the trek for so long and did not want to cancel this but was in a dilemma whether I should go alone or not. Suddenly I remembered the lines I read on one of the trek blogs

“You may chose to go alone or with friends but you will always be walking alone. Your exhaustion is your own. Your fear of maybe falling on slippery terrain at the edge of a valley is your own. Your conquering your fear is also your own.”

And then I made up my mind to go for the trek. The next big task was to convince my family to let me go alone for the trek and also to allow me to spend 2 days in Srinagar on my own. Luckily they got convinced with the only condition that I will keep them informed and will take good care of myself.

Day1 – 9 Aug 2013 – Hyd-Srinagar

I reached Srinagar around 11 in the morning. I had booked a houseboat in Dal lake through booking.com. I took a prepaid taxi from airport – Dal lake and then took a shikara to go to my houseboat. I met my houseboat owners Tariq and Riyaz and they were very friendly and warm. I had my breakfast and went to my room to rest. In the evening I took a Shikara ride to roam around the dal lake. I was amazed to see the lake which is spread over 22 sq. kms and has everything vegetable gardens, shops, restaurants, flower gardens.

Dal lake in the evening

House boat owners stay in Dal lake and like we use to go to school on cycles, their kids take out their boat to go to schools. I was told that previously in the winter the lake used to freeze completely and kids used to play cricket over the frozen lake. I enjoyed viewing the lotus garden and vegetable gardens and then asked the Shikara driver to stop at a cafe in lake to have the famous kashmiri kahwa. The shikara ride in Dal lake and to try the kashmiri kahwa should be on your must do list on your trip to Srinagar. I roamed around the lake for around 2 hours and then came back to my house boat for the dinner. I asked the houseboat owners to arrange a cab for the next day so that I can go for local sightseeing.

Day2- 10Aug 2013 – Srinagar local sightseeing

I started at around 11 in the morning from my houseboat and went to land to take my cab. The plan was to first go to Shankaracharya temple and then to mughal gardens. The route to Shankaracharya temple was very nice and view from the top was beautiful. After that I went to Nishat Garden and Chashme Shahi, as it was a holiday (next day of eid) there was lot of crowd and it was a big task to get the entry ticket. I came back to lake side around 2pm and had my lunch in a nearby restaurant.

Nishat Garden

After taking rest in the afternoon in the houseboat I came back to lake side in the evening for a walk. The lake looks beautiful and the walk was pleasant. I met three Kashmiri girls and had a chat with them. It started getting dark around 7:30 and then I went back to houseboat. Next day I had to meet my indiahikes group at tourist reception center.

Day3 – 11 Aug 2013 – Start of the trek – Srinagar(5000ft) – Sonmarg(7800ft)

I reached tourist reception center around 1pm and met the other trekkers there. We introduced ourselves to each other. It was inspiring to listen to trekking experiences of others. First I met Rushikesh who just came from Vaishno devi and was planning to go to Amarnath after the trek. I got tired only after listening to his plan and he was actually executing it. He helped me a lot in coming days by walking with me at my pace and guiding me along the way. Next I met Guruprasad sir who was 65 years of age. He started trekking at the age of 55 and has done vaishno devi, amarnath, Mt kailash, Roopkund and what not. Previously I use to feel I should have started trekking early and it’s too late now…but after meeting him I realized it’s never too late. His stories were a great source of inspiration.

After that I met Archana and Geeta who became my future tent mates J. Some of the trekkers were going to join us directly at Sonmarg. We started our journey from Srinagar – Sonmarg in the cab. The drive was of around 3 hours and was very beautiful. There was a landslide in between Srinagar and Sonmarg and so we had to cross that patch on foot. Due to landslide and bad weather our base camp in Sonmarg was shifted.

Once we reached our new basecamp we met other fellow trekkers and indiahikes staff. There were total 30 trekkers including 10 girls and 3 senior citizens. It was great fun to meet all. I met Rajni, Ursula, Shubhada and Abhijit here. They all had lot of trekking experience and helped me a lot with their experience. We had our dinner and slept in the night eagerly waiting for next day.

Day4 – 12 Aug 2013 – Sonmarg base camp(7800ft) – Nichnai(11500ft) via Shekdur

We packed our lunch and went to our original base camp in cabs from where we started the trek. My backpack was too heavy for me to carry so I gave it to mules and decided to carry only a daypack with essential things such as water, rain jackets, packed lunch and extra sweater. I forgot to carry the daypack and when I told it to people over there, one of the horseman quickly arranged a bag for me.

We started our trek at 9:30 in the morning. It was pleasant sunny weather when we started our trek. From the height Sonmarg was looking very pretty with Sindh river flowing alongside.

The route ahead was beautiful with green trees all around. We were walking with little breaks in between till we reached Shekdur where we had our lunch and took the much needed rest.

After lunch we started walking again. The route ahead was full of rocks and suddenly it started raining. We continued walking in the rain over the rocks, trying to avoid slipping as much as possible. Whenever we saw some tent we hoped it will be our destination but we were proved wrong each time. The last leg of the day’s trek seemed more difficult than complete day. We finally reached beautiful Nichnai camp site at around 5:30 in the evening where hot tea and pakodas were waiting for us J. We walked 13kms and gained an elevation of about 3800ft.

The camp site was beautiful with river flowing next to it and mountains all around. I always wanted to stay in a tent at such a beautiful place.

Myself, Archana and Geeta were going to share the tent. We arranged our tents and went for dinner. While coming back Archana asked me to look at the sky. It was so beautiful with lots of stars. I had never seen so many stars before. The day ended with our trek leader giving us the instructions and information about next day route.

Day 5 & 6 – 13 & 14 Aug 2013 – At Nichnai waiting for the rain to stop

When we woke up in the morning it was raining very heavily. The tea and breakfast was served in our tents and it was decided that once rain stops we will start ascending to Nichnai pass. We waited and waited but rain did not stop till evening. We spent whole day in tent talking to each other, hoping that rain will stop. The rain stopped in the evening and everybody came out of their tents. We had one extra day in our trek schedule, so there was still hope of completing the trek. But it started raining again in night and we could not proceed with the trek on next day as well. I was getting very disappointed and Archana and Geetha were trying to cheer me up by saying that we will do this trek next year in the same batch. They both were of great support during these 2 days. Slowly I also started to realize there is nothing we can do other than to accept the fact that we cannot fight against nature.

I realized that there are people who came from US and Europe especially for this trek and they will be much more disappointed than me. I realized that in this short duration of trek I have not lost anything but learnt lot of things. I am more confident now than I was at the beginning of trek that I will be able to finish this trek successfully whenever I do it.

Day 7 – 15 Aug 2013 – Nichnai- Sonmarg – Srinagar

The rain stopped for some time in the morning and as the weather was still not stable we all decided to end the trek and move back to Sonmarg.  It was 15th August so to celebrate the day we sang our National Anthem and then started to descend. Due to rain the trail was completely filled with mud, and itincreased the weight of our shoes by atleast a kg ;). We reached Sonmarg around 12:30 and took cabs to go back to Srinagar. We all parted our ways in the hope to meet again next year 🙂

Some important points

1. If it requires x amount of courage for you to do a solo trip then it requires at least 3x amount of courage from your family members to allow you to go alone (especially if you are a girl). So communication becomes very important. As the prepaid connections don’t work in Srinagar, my mobile was not working. Though I called my family atleast twice a day to inform them about my whereabouts, it would have been better if I would have changed my connection to postpaid before coming to Srinagar.

2. You can fight against anything but nature. You have to accept what nature has decided for you and respect that.

3. I learnt to be happy in all situations – It was great to see how the indiahikes people were giving us the food in our tents when it was raining heavily outside. They always had a smile on their face and were making sure that we don’t have any problem in our tents.

4. Special thanks to indiahikes and their staff for doing a great job of arranging the trek and taking the right decisions at the right time to make sure everyone stays safe. They also have a fair policy which allows us to do this trek for free next year as we could not complete it due to bad weather.

5. Thanks to everyone on the trek for some good memories. Hope to meet you all again next year 🙂

Untitled

I dont know what title should i give this post so let it be untitled 😀 . If you can find one feel free to tell me 😀

Mummy was clearing my cupboard at home and she got one paper. It has some lines which i wrote when i was in class 7th. I lost the diary in which i wrote the complete poem, but paper had some lines. The lines were outcome of what my parents told me when i was very disappointed by my half yearly exam result (I laugh at myself now that i used to care so much for marks :D). My parents told me that success and failure are part of life and you should accept them in the same way. Be happy whatever the situation be. You should not get carried away from the success and should not get disappointed by failure. You should accept failures in a positive way and learn from them. The lines which i wrote were

Ye zindagi mere liye ek paheli hai,

jisme kabhi khushi hai to kabhi gham hai.

Khushiyan jeevan ko naya roop deti hai,

dukhon se zindagi ko nayi disha milti hai.

Khushiyon ka swagat to har insan muskarakar karta hai,

par dukhon ko hanste hue apnane ka naam zindagi hai.

I forgot the exact lines…but the meaning they carry is the same.

P.S : Agni won the throwball tournament \:D/ . Well done girls 🙂

P.S1. : Emon out of Indian Idol 😦 . But i liked the way he took it.

P.S2 : India lost the series. England played well but major credit goes to Aleem Dar 😛

P.S3 : Hope India will do well in 20-20 world cup.

P.S4 : Indian hockey team won the Asia Cup. Thanks to Chak de India, now i at least check the results of hockey matches.

P.S5 : Currently listening to : Ek din fursat (Zindaggi Rocks) lovely song.

P.S6 : This is the end 😀

Yahaan…Naam Ada Likhna

Pooche jo koi meri nishaani
Rang hina likhna
Gore badan pe
Ungli se mera naam ada likhna

Kabhi kabhi aas paas chand rehta hai
Kabhi kabhi aas paas shaam rehti hai

Aao naaaaa aaao naaaaa
Jehnum mein beh lenge
Vaadi ke masuam bhi
Ek din to badlenge

Kabhi kabhi aas paas chand rehta hai
Kabhi kabhi aas paas shaam rehti hai

Aaoon to subaha jao to mera naam saba likhna
Burf pade to burf pe mera naam dua likhna
Zara zara aag vaag pass rehti hai
Zara zara kangde ke aanch rehti hai

Kabhi kabhi aas paas chand rehta hai
Kabhi kabhi aas paas shaam rehti hai

Raatein bunjhane
Tum aagaye hooooo

Jab tum haste hooooo
Din ho jata hai
Tum gale lago tooooooo
Din so jata hai

Doli uthaye ayega din to
Pass bitha lena
Kal jo mile to
Mathe pe mere suraj uga dena

Zara zara aas paas dhup rehegi
Zara zara aas pass rang rehenge -2

Pooche jo koi meri nishaani
Rang hina likhna
Gore badan pe
Ungli se mera naam ada likhna

Kabhi kabhi aas paas chand rehta hai
Kabhi kabhi aas paas shaam rehti hai -2

Kabhi kabhi aas paas chand rehta hai
Kabhi kabhi aas paas shaam rehti hai -2