Agar Firdaus bar ru-e-zamin ast, Hami ast o- hami ast o- hami ast.
If there is heaven on earth, it is here, it is here it is here.
It actually
started when we were doing Kedarkantha trek with Indiahikes. It was my second
Himalayan Trek and first with
Indiahikes.Indiahikes founder Arjun Majumdar was with us on our return
journey from Sankri to Nainital. One of the tyre of our bus got punctured and
while the driver was busy changing it,Arjun suggested that we must do GR8 Lakes
of Kashmir trek.
Actually when I
was young n unaware of the conflict of KASHMIR, I rather naively use to think
that if they want Independence, let them have it . We may need a visa to enter
the Kashmir then but atleast we can peacefully explore this Paradise on Earth which
hypnotized even poets across the world………How wrong I was in my thinking is not the point here but the fact
that I wanted so very desperately to land on this magical place n see n
experience it first hand as soon as possible is the moot point.
As the day
of trek drew close there was hectic planning about packing a rucksack. Its an
exercise I find most difficult one before the trek. First of all, sitting in
Mumbai Summer heat its very very difficult to imagine the cold you may encounter
in Himalayas. There is every possibility that you may under or over
prepare….both can be costly in terms of coping with cold or carrying the extra
weight on your back. Too add to our woes
was extremely fragile weather in Kashmir on slopes with rain, snow n sunshine
possible and to be accounted for. If this was not enough, just few days before
,Aashish forwarded fotos of people walking on snow from earlier batches. It
meant more woolens , more space in rucksack and complete rethinking about this
so called Summer Trek and complete re-alignment of Rucksack . My ABCDEF of
Rucksack was on the verge of going for a toss already.The trek dates were so
chosen by us that we would be working till Friday evening, catch an early
morning flight , come back next Sunday evening
and join back office from Monday… Hardly any time/scope for things to go wrong
at any stage. But what is an outing if
all the things go as per your plans? This time the otherwise trusted Jet
Airways decided to put some excitement in my life by changing my flight
schedule in such a way that at Delhi airport Arrival of my Mumbai flight and departure
of flight to Srinagar was at same time
ie 1010 hrs. After frantic calls,
talking with dumbest of call centre guys, threatening, shouting, abusing, I
managed to restore the booking .Anyways, on the eve of my flight, learning from
my previous Himalayan trek experiences,
I made sure that I had a good hot bath at 0330 hrs knowing that next such occasion may be good eight days
away.
Mumbai Delhi n Delhi Srinagar flight was uneventful
but I managed to click some breathtaking pictures of Jammu n Srinagar
from top. I was in love with Kashmir even before actually touching down.
Totally prejudiced n biased about its beauty. Little did I know that what I saw
was just a glimpse and as SRK or Shreyas
Talpade says in OSO “ पिक्चर तो अभी बाकी है मेरे दोस्त ”…..
Anyways,
one by one our trek mates started arriving from different flight and our
transport vehicle also arrived. Since we were not having anything important to
do we took it upon ourselves to ask n gather all trekkers near our vehicle. To
save time and taking initiative we also climbed on top and arranged all our
rucksacks. We had a little ice breaking session at parking lot itself and met
Madhav-Vartika from Pune , Deep from Delhi, Anish, Juwal, Bala ,Parikshit,
rajesh and chinmay from Banglore. And there was Ashwin joshi… poor chap had to fill in for his Father at last minute.
All of us
were extremely hungry and though it was a bit unfare to ask our Driver who was
observing Roza Fasts to stop at restaurant for a quick bite,but we had to . The
popular eatery suggested by the driver was overcrowded so we settled for the
one which did not have anyone
.I was probably so much ill informed about
Srinagar that I was surprised to see many Vaishnav Dhabas serving hot veg food.
Srinagar is probably the worst city
in terms of traffic discipline that I have encountered ….Its BAD.
We quickly
put our sacks in the allocated Tents and just breathed in the beauty….Our other
trek mates had reached good 30 min before us and we had a small introductory
session with our Trek Lead Suman.This was the start of our assembly n headcount
at mornings n evenings for next six days and believe me, it was only on the
last assembly that we could manage to have all 32 accounted for in one go….
We had an
extremely heterogeneous batch of 32 enthusiasts , many first timers while one
had already done the Everest Base camp trek just to give the level of
experience.
To Be Continued......
The day was
approaching fast and even the extended
summer was not motivating enough for me to be regular on walking or jogging
exercise. My gut feeling was trying to warn me but body was not in mood to
heed.Finally out of sheer scariness I suggested to Aashish n Santosh that we atleast do one or two treks in
Sahyadris as warm up. We ended up doing
one short and one moderate trek before the big one and that soothed the nerves
a bit. It was a good reality check on body n mind.
As the day
of trek drew close there was hectic planning about packing a rucksack. Its an
exercise I find most difficult one before the trek. First of all, sitting in
Mumbai Summer heat its very very difficult to imagine the cold you may encounter
in Himalayas. There is every possibility that you may under or over
prepare….both can be costly in terms of coping with cold or carrying the extra
weight on your back. Too add to our woes
was extremely fragile weather in Kashmir on slopes with rain, snow n sunshine
possible and to be accounted for. If this was not enough, just few days before
,Aashish forwarded fotos of people walking on snow from earlier batches. It
meant more woolens , more space in rucksack and complete rethinking about this
so called Summer Trek and complete re-alignment of Rucksack . My ABCDEF of
Rucksack was on the verge of going for a toss already.The trek dates were so
chosen by us that we would be working till Friday evening, catch an early
morning flight , come back next Sunday evening
and join back office from Monday… Hardly any time/scope for things to go wrong
at any stage. But what is an outing if
all the things go as per your plans? This time the otherwise trusted Jet
Airways decided to put some excitement in my life by changing my flight
schedule in such a way that at Delhi airport Arrival of my Mumbai flight and departure
of flight to Srinagar was at same time
ie 1010 hrs. After frantic calls,
talking with dumbest of call centre guys, threatening, shouting, abusing, I
managed to restore the booking .Anyways, on the eve of my flight, learning from
my previous Himalayan trek experiences,
I made sure that I had a good hot bath at 0330 hrs knowing that next such occasion may be good eight days
away.Mumbai Delhi n Delhi Srinagar flight was uneventful
but I managed to click some breathtaking pictures of Jammu n Srinagar
from top. I was in love with Kashmir even before actually touching down.
Totally prejudiced n biased about its beauty. Little did I know that what I saw
was just a glimpse and as SRK or Shreyas
Talpade says in OSO “ पिक्चर तो अभी बाकी है मेरे दोस्त ”…..
We were
informed that only post paid connections work in J& K, thankfully I had one
,so calling Aashish was not an issue. But I lost internet connectivity
immediately after landing which meant that my Whats App n FB sanyas was
effective immediately…..not that I was complaining but an update from Srinagar Airport would not have
hurt either…
As expected
Aashish was at airport waiting after saying Goodbyes to his Family. We had good
two three hrs to kill before our transport to base camp would arrive.I don’t
know wthat is it with me n Aashish that
even if we don’t meet or talk often, we seem to be able to chat away
endlessly…I guess its more to do with Aashish ( He loves to talk)than me….So we
whiled away our time at airport waiting for Santosh and others.
There is
absolutely nothing you can get outside Srinagar Airport apart from a tea or
biscuits . Eggs if you are lucky. The airport was extremely crowded with
Amarnath Yatris. Aashish broke the news that there was curfew in Srinagar the
other day and some problem in Gurudwara
at Baltal which simply meant our journey to Sonmarg could be in jeopardy.
Anyways,
one by one our trek mates started arriving from different flight and our
transport vehicle also arrived. Since we were not having anything important to
do we took it upon ourselves to ask n gather all trekkers near our vehicle. To
save time and taking initiative we also climbed on top and arranged all our
rucksacks. We had a little ice breaking session at parking lot itself and met
Madhav-Vartika from Pune , Deep from Delhi, Anish, Juwal, Bala ,Parikshit,
rajesh and chinmay from Banglore. And there was Ashwin joshi… poor chap had to fill in for his Father at last minute.
After
a safe n quick lunch we started our journey through Srinagar to
our base camp before Sonmarg. The Drivers all over are same in nature. They conveniently forget the use
of B(Brake) in ABC while driving. Ours was in so much hurry that he actually
used to accelerate at speedbreakers. It was his driving skills and our prayers
which saved us from any major occurrence.
 |
| Development Touching Base with Srinagar ---Adding to traffic Chaos |
Once we left Srinagar, the remaining
journey was completed in Oohs, Aahs and Wows with cameras clicking.
There was so
much security that almost every kilometer or two there were CRPF/J&K Police
or Army Jawans….It was unnerving to say the least.Enroute we made the tempo
stop to click pictures and finally around 1800 we reached the diversion of
kachcha road before Sonmarg.
Again me n Aashish being "बिन पगारी काम भारी "volunteers, took all rucksacks down . It’s a good 500-750 mtr walk to the base camp site and we were greeted by our ATL ( Assistant trek
lead).
Finally we
had reached the base camp and It was Simply Beautiful.
The mountain,
the
streams,
the road and a village far away…Breathtaking…
Again little did I know
that in coming days I will be falling
way short on adjectives to describe the beauty of this magical land with my
extremely limited vocabulary…
We quickly
put our sacks in the allocated Tents and just breathed in the beauty….Our other
trek mates had reached good 30 min before us and we had a small introductory
session with our Trek Lead Suman.This was the start of our assembly n headcount
at mornings n evenings for next six days and believe me, it was only on the
last assembly that we could manage to have all 32 accounted for in one go….We had an
extremely heterogeneous batch of 32 enthusiasts , many first timers while one
had already done the Everest Base camp trek just to give the level of
experience.
Our Trek
Lead Suman was a tough Task master and very briskly and somewhat curtly he laid
out do’s n don’t’s about trek, timings, food, AMS etc etc. It was getting dark
n cold and we desperately wanted to unpack, rearrange our rucksacks. Suman
successfully managed to put some fear in our minds about the days we shall be
encountering and health dangers we may face. Some unpleasant occurance on
Roopkund trek meant that Indiahikes was extremely cautious about AMS and we
were warned urged in no uncertain terms to report any small illness or change
in our fitness condition.
With loads
of instructions, apprehension and bustling with excitement we retired in our
tents after a sumptuous hot dinner… It was probably all new experience for
Santosh but being a Management Guy he never showed much of it…
To Be Continued......
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