Experience
Showing posts with label Experience. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Experience. Show all posts

THE PURPOSE





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A short trek to Poonhill - DAY TWO


'It’s cold' is the first remark you will make if you wake up at this altitude in the month of February. Imagine the struggle to brush your teeth and wash your face. Day 2 started like that, soon engulfing us in the wet woods, ferns and big rocks boulevard. The sound of waterfalls, chirping birds and dripping water droplets from the branches above is only trounced by a distinctive sound of bells tied to the neck of the asses used primarily for transportation. Safe Drinking water spots are available at every next settlement but take this suggestion of mine if you ever hike, carry a small bottle of Water purifying tablets or solution and taste the natural spring water.

You can guess how excited we were for snow when I let you know that we bothered almost every person we came across asking about what lies ahead of us and what they left behind them. Some agreed to our enthusiasm, some presaged but each person replied with warmth. Drenched enough in the rain the earlier day, none of us wished for a rain yet it showed up, like everything that we don’t want happens.

Almost immediately, our annoyance melted as the rain droplets started freezing and transformed itself to tiny white ice crystals. SNOW! We danced, jumped, slipped, played, photographed and carved snowmen out of mud mixed snow. We were witnessing snow, first time in our existence of 22 years (in average). Warming up our internal system with a cup of black tea cost us Rs.20 each cup. Still in budget.

The greens were slowly covered with white as we climbed up. Cold Clean Cottony White. Whites overlying the blue roofs, white where once used to be red rhododendrons, white above the yellow grass blooms, white wherever our eyes dwelt. No differentiation between any elements of nature; all white. 
Our trekking poles supported us while we passed small bunches of tea houses still comprehending the first feel of snow; and then we reached Ghorepani, approximately six hours later we started.





Bargaining mode on. We reserved a warm cozy place and looking out of the window at that heavy snowfall, thanked our decision of staying at Banthanthi instead of Ulleri the previous day. Despite the weather outside, we passed that evening warm, not just because of the burning woods in the central heating system, but because of the affection and matchless generosity of the Tamang couple who looked after the Guest House where we were the only guests that night. Paying a little more for a stomach-full won't seem a big deal considering how difficult it is to carry food up there where nothing grows.
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19th Jestha, 2058 B.S

I was ten. Happy and zestful as always. Hopping from 4th standard to 5th, I had my results that day and holidays were in full swing. Holidays were always welcome, they still are. The more, the merrier.

That year, I was at my ThuloMom's home getting pampered, getting to eat all the kinds of junk foods, packed foods, candies, whatever i asked for (chauchau with MSG loaded masala, cream sandwiched biscuits, chips, cheese balls). I could sleep till midday. The playground was infinite and potato couching unlimited.

I noticed that that dawn phones rang more than ever. Some talks, some unfinished business, I reckoned. I had my share too. Dad called me to congratulate for I had excelled the school. I was on cloud nine. Little did I know I was going have a downward plunge the next moment. No, nothing to do with my results. I heard my dad's voice, the flat voice. At that age, I was not skilled enough to register either of the tensed tone or the sad pitch. 
There was a certain resonance echoing his sorrow and mourning; his grief. 

Grief of losing a father figure, not just his but the whole nation and to have let go of the thought that the supreme royal family was invincible.
KIng Birendra and The Royal Family
Nepal misses you, terribly.
I may not have been able to understand the agony but I sure felt endangered, like we were a group of hatch-lings waiting for our parent birds to return and they were shot dead by a random hunter. I feel that ache now, the anguish and the exasperation.

But helpless as we always have been, the most we can do is offer you condolences. This obituary is not for the ones who died but for the law and our duties as our beloved king's subjects which simultaneously deceased with our royal family.

I'm grown up now and I realize the bargains I made to God at the age of ten were of no use. I would have eaten boiled foods instead of those junk, or starve myself. I would have agreed to repeat 4th standard. 7 days school was fine, who needs holidays? I would have happily turned the TV off; stayed up all night and sacrificed my pleasures, I would have done and will still do everything if that day could just change.
But Change had come...that day.
-Jestha 19th, 2058 B.S.
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