Festivity, Fun and Fearless Fantasy (The North Remembers)

Chapter 1 - THE PLAN

     Me and Abdul planned for a trip. A trip to the north. This time it was just the two of us. Our plan was simple. Literally simple. He said, "We go to Chennai, board the train to Delhi. On the way, we'll plan where to go and everything else. " That sounded like a pretty plan to me.

     Next week I came home, it was a Sunday and we suddenly planned to move the next day to Chennai for the trip. Even we dint expect it to happen so fast. It was easy to pack our things as we did it for the last trip. That evening I skipped my play so that I could get my backpack ready.

     We were roaming around and that's when we had the worst idea to move the next day. So we checked the tickets online. This time, we booked it to Nagpur. As usual, there were no tickets to Delhi. Next day, we boarded a bus to Coimbatore.
We had to stop somewhere in the middle to get a DSLR camera from a friend.

     Once we got that, we moved to Coimbatore. We boarded the bus to Chennai. We boarded by 10 AM so that we might reach Chennai by 8. I was like, "Dude, like last time there should be no running and chasing. So we'll move earlier. " It was a A/C sleeper and we were discussing where to go next. That is when we thought to call Jo for the trip.

     Jo is a friend of Abdul who studied with him in his college. So we called Jo.
'Jo, where are you.
I'm in the office da' , said Jo.
Abdul : We are planning to go north are you in?
Jo : No, I have office tomorrow
Me : Ask him to apply for a leave.
Abdul : Not tomorrow morning, come by today evening. It's Holi tomorrow. So take leave.
Jo : Where do you want me to come and where are you guys heading?
Abdul and Me : We are going to celebrate Holi!
Jo : I'll join you guys.

     So we booked him the ticket in the Rajadhani express to Nagpur. Yes, with his money!
So, we added another person to our unplanned trip.

     We noticed that the bus was going slow. We came off from our seats and went near the driver and asked him to drive faster. Within minutes he stopped for lunch. After lunch, we never left the driver. We pestered him to drive faster. He never stopped for any breaks.

     When we reached Chengalpat, the point where we reached the Chennai border, few passengers asked the driver to stop for tea and recreation. The driver had to stop. We made sure that the bus took off within minutes. It was 7 pm and we are nowhere near the railway station.

     We were in this situation before and we knew exactly how to proceed further. The bus pulled off near Tambaram and we got down and managed to catch the local train. We reached the station before 5 minutes and we had to run 1 kilometre to the Central railway station. We reached there at time and Abdul's sister came to the station with his clothes. From there our journey to the unplanned destination began.


Chapter 2 - THE CITY OF ORANGES

     We calculated the timing of our train and of the Rajadhani and booked the train to Lucknow. The train was at the evening. Next day morning, we reached Nagpur. Dinesh would reach by evening. So we started to roam around the streets of Nagpur in search of ATM.

     We had our unpleasant lunch and noticed the peculiar crowd of people in Nagpur. The tickets to Lucknow was not confirmed till evening. Only by then, we noticed that we booked the tickets for the next day. We had nothing to do in Nagpur but to stay for one night. We took a room nearby the railway station and waited for Dinesh. We bought a lime juice. It created an urge for water. We had no idea what caused it.

     Dinesh came with a huge smile on his face. When we said about the train, the smile faded away. We had no other choice but to explore Nagpur. That evening, we went around the streets buying colours for the holi. We bought some oranges as Nagpur was famous for the oranges. We had lime juice several times and only after that we noticed that they are adding some substance like jeera to the juice which causes thirst.

     Next day we had nothing to do, so we planned to visit a zoo. The zoo was very big and we went in with a camera to capture the wild animals in it.
We were shocked to see couples cuddling and romancing around every corner in the zoo. We found nothing but a tiger which was laying around counting it's last days.

     Every corner there were couples and we were guessing whether we paid money to see the animals or the couples. It was a total waste and we left as soon as possible. We roamed around the streets and found that there was nothing worth seeing. We took our bags and headed to the railway station. We boarded the train and spent our night playing business game.


Chapter 3 - FESTIVAL OF COLOURS

     We reached Lucknow in the morning, managed to check in at a hotel. We had our breakfast and it was Holi. We started celebrating Holi on the way to Anjali's house. Finally, we reached Anjali's house and the very first thing they did was, they took the wallets and phones from us and started to pour water and apply colours on us.

     Then they started serving is with sweets and chocolates to celebrate Holi. They stopped the Hindi music and started playing Tamil music. They enjoyed the tune and played with us. They splashed water from one end and colours from the other. After sometime, we stopped playing. We thought it was done. From there, we moved to Renuka's home. We were greeted with sweets and once again they started to splash colours on us. We played for hours and finally ended with a group photo.

     I looked at myself and noticed that I've never been so colourful in my entire life. My face was red with black and gold colours everywhere. I never thought about the difficulty in washing those. We stood long enough under the sun and made sure that we were dry. We had no idea about washing the colours when it is dry. Each of us took nearly 1 hour to wash ourselves. We used scrub, soap, shampoo and whatever we got in the bathroom.

     Every now and then, we checked our faces in the mirror. No matter how hard we tried, the colours won't wash off. After a long struggle, we gave up on the fight with the colours and looked at eachother. We knew that no one was back with their original condition. Still we made fun of each other. We got ourselves cleaned and were ready for the lunch.

     Renuka took our clothes for washing but Abdul insisted not to clean his shirt. He wanted to keep his shirt as a souvenir. We came downstairs and were able to guess the menu for lunch as a good smell of the roasted chicken pulled us straight to the dinning table. They served rice with chicken gravy, chicken fry and variety of different dishes. They served much and didn't let us leave the dinning table. We could barely walk to wash our hands.

     Then came the second turn. They served ice cream which we couldn't resist. We managed to swallow it. Then came the sweets. The laddu was one which no one could forget. I had as much as I can. It tasted too good as I urged to have more despite the fact that my stomach was full. After few minutes, they served tea. Not only tea, but with the sweets and snacks that was made for the occasion. We knew that their family does not understand the word "NO" that day. So we had to have everything that they gave. Not that we dint like food, but were eager to try everything and there was no space left in our stomach.

     We spoke to Renuka's father and came to know about many things. He was their best cook. Her family welcomed us happily throwing colours on us. It was too hard to say goodbye to them. Her sister in law dropped us near Anjali's house. We were amazed by the way she drove the Innova. We got down near Anjali's home and said goodbye to them.

     Once we went in Anjali's home, her grandparents welcomed us. He spoke to us about the old times when he came to south India and worked here. We had a good time with them and they left early. We spent sometime with Anjali and soon Renuka joined the party. It was fun spending time with them. We planned for the next day. They wanted us to come by 9 or 10 in the morning. They had some plans for us. We left them and travelled back on our own to know the places.

Chapter 4 - BADA IMAMBARA

     Renuka and Anjali had some classes next day, so our plan was postponed. We started by 10 in the morning and checked Google for the best places to eat and visit. We went to Bada Imambara. It was a fort. It was mighty and took several hours to check every part of the fort. There were several statues of Nawabs who built it. It had one way to enter and other to exit. We kept an eye on our pockets and wallets now and then as it was heavily crowded.
   
     There was a warning sign stating, that people get lost in the caves within the fort. People used guides to help them into the fort. And there was us, who never take the help of guide to explore. We went to several parts and were lost. Few started following us and finally knew what we were upto. So they left us on half way. We managed to enter into every possible entry.
   
     Few caves or man holes lead us into different part of the fort. We walked in circles and finally found the exit and checked into a common path to the top of the fort. It was way too crowded. We managed to reach to the top. The was no shortage for couples. We could barely get a good place to get a click.
   
     On the way down, we took a detour and was able to reach to the ceiling of the first floor. We could see everything down without being caught. It was a safe place to hide. We explored every nook and corner which lead us to a dead end. We had to go all the way back to reach the common path to head back to the ground floor.
   
     The fort was way too old with lots of history. Alongside was another Imambara. But a small one. There was a mosque nearby within the premises. We spent several hours outside the mosque taking pictures at different angles.


Chapter 5 - THE CITY OF NAWABS AND KABABS

...

Too Knowledgeable?

Is it wrong to know much?

There's a saying, "Katrathu kai mann alavu, Kallathathu ulaga alavu". Which translates to "What one knows is only a handful, whereas the unknown is the size of the world."

For example, if a person is in a sales department, Is it wrong for him/her to learn computer programming or human resource management or psychology in addition.

I ask this, because, many recruiters or people are confused to categorize such kind of individuals and are also not sure whether they would be suitable for the position which they are hiring.

One cannot blame the person who has knowledge in various departments. Because, it's the individual's interest to learn new things.
If a candidate is put on a waiting list or rejected, for knowing a lot, then, what is the use of saying that Knowledge is Power.
Does the term Multi Talented do exist?

Even, school students learn different subjects.
They are supposed to know each and every subjects taught and are meant to score well in all the subjects.

Is the knowledge gained should grow as a tree with lots of branches or is it confined to one single department? 

Life built upon LIE

Does Earth has an expiration date?
You will find amazing views for the above question below.

People say that Earth will never last long. Earth's core is heating rapidly and the global warming plays an important role for the rise in sea level.
Frequent news of asteroids falling into earth's orbit has made people to panic.
Search for extraterrestrials has made public and the information of earth has been stored and sent into space.
Search for life supporting planet has begun.
Humans are the cause.


Earth's core is said to be heating rapidly and the temperature has spiked as never before. Due to this, natural calamities like volcanoes and storms have increased. Unusual storm pattern and tornados has increased resulting in loss of numerous lives and properties. Increase in Earth's temperature has pushed the life on earth to the brink.

Global warming is the term used by the government to address the people and to convince them that the world is going to extinct. As per records, earth has sustained or had times when the temperature was more than the current temperature. There was a time when Antarctica was not covered with ice.
Please note that Antarctica is situated on a peak. If it is covered with ice, there was a time when it wasn't. Then the other parts of the world had to be covered with ice. Earth's spinning axis has a lot to deal with it.

Global warming is a term coined by the scientists to make people believe that they are going to perish and each of them are required to do something for the survival. No one would support an idea without a proper cause. Inorder to expand the knowledge of space and to travel in space, global warming became the required cause.

If you think that all these were planned recently, then you're wrong. Everything started with the moon missions during the cold war. Humans wanted to colonize other planets. It was a cover-up for the point that they've started to kill the Earth. As a result, many countries started to send satellites to several planets and the moon including the moons of Saturn.

The organisation involving in the research are funded by the private than the government sector. Even Elon Musk's SpaceX, has the mission to colonize Mars. Everything is confidential as they are preparing for something big. People are kept away from the truth. It is unknown why Nasa is looking for habitable planet in and around our galaxy.


Since the Roswell incident, it is hard for the government to address the people with the information of the extraterrestrials. Therefore, some harmless information has been shared to the people through fake news and theories. This is done in such a way that it does not have a great impact when the truth about the extraterrestrials is revealed to the people. Therefore, there is less panic among them.


There are some group of people who think that humans are the cause for the global warming and the climate change. They also think that the humans are the virus and the Earth has raised a fever to fight the virus. The fever is the global warming and the climate change. The defence mechanism of the Earth has been triggered which involves in earthquakes and volcanoes. The sudden increase in storms are a part of the defence mechanism.
Therefore, this group makes sure to keep the balance by fighting the virus (humans). They start to genocide to reduce the population.
This genocide is also done to increase the profit of the wealthy through pharmaceutical industry.

Pharmaceutical industry is currently in its peak and the main cause is the advancement in the creation of different diseases and viruses. The industry is responsible for the viruses and the cure as well. Therefore, they earn more than half of the entire humans income. If anyone plans for a better investment, please check the pharmaceutical industry.


Even the government is embracing for a future in space. 

A MUNDANE MONDAY

    It was a Monday and as usual I overslept. Also, due to some things to take care of, I had to go late to the office. Usual timing is 6 pm, but I went for work only by 8.30 pm. It is a 9 hour job and so I could only come back by 5.30 am. That was the first time I'm working up that late in the office.

    The work was mundane and I dint feel good to work as well. As soon as I logged in the system, I took a small tea break to come out of that mindset. Within few minutes, one more break. I couldn't snap out of it as I spent sometime doing non work related things.

    Navneeth and myself planned for the dinner at 11 pm. We managed to go by 10.40 pm and to our suprise, we were served with better quality food with better quantity as well. We ordered few chappathi and chicken fry. The bonus part was the chicken gravy, which even had few chops. The vendor provided with more quantity and that's the first time we were experiencing it from the vendor.

    After the break, I started my work and I felt refreshing. Guess, it was the food that did the magic. Funny!! After few silly questions, I managed to complete half my work by 12.30 am. Usually Navneeth is the one who would ask me for a ear phone. This time it was the opposite. When I asked him, he refused to give and gave some silly reasons. So I replied back saying, "Remember, next time you ask for it, the same will be my response (Karma) ". I dint mean it and he knew this and were making fun of it.

    We went for our last break by 1.10 am. Prabhakaran shared some of his thoughts and the events of his weekend. We went for a tea and came back to work with a topic of traveling. He said that one of his friend is planning to climb the Everest. They completed their work by 2.45 am and while I was doing my work nice and slow as I had to work till 5.30 am. They left the office by 3.00 am trolling me and mocking at me.

    Next 2½ hours was so boring as I managed to complete all my work by 4.30 doing everything slowly. I managed to get an ear phone from Guna and started to hear songs. After 4.30 am, everything in the computer started to process slowly. I started to go through some news feed in my phone.

    That is when, one of the leadership member came right towards me. I removed my ear phone and responded to him. He asked me regarding my shift timing and went. I was puzzled with his actions. Then as usual I resumed my playlist, Maroon 5- Girls like you.

    By the end of the song, it was already 5.35 am and I was happy to leave the office. I felt a moment of relief. I went with Guna on his scooty to my room. We saw people going for morning jogs, exercises to start the day fresh. Whereas, we are going to sleep.

SWEET RASCALS

     It's a real-life story. It had the most beautiful things to ever happen to a set of people. Started as a simple equation that turned to be an identity. It had the love-hatred, friendship-malevolence, laughs-tortures, happiness-pain still young and reckless. This is about a crew, who came together for a cause. The cause was literally nothing. And that became a cause.

     Each member of the crew had their own story. Together, they made a story for the team. It's all about the fun and exciting things they did, which made them feel happy whenever they remember those moments. The story has been passed down like the knowledge, that is passed down by the ancient people. It includes Vodafone, prayer and the Beats.

     It was not a good day, but still a day. We were in the class feeling a bit sleepy after the boring physics period. Suddenly our chemistry sir came in and started to teach. Frank and Nithish had no chemistry books. So, they kept their physics book on the desk pretending it to be the chemistry book. Our chemistry sir kept his book on the first bench and came near Nithish and took his book and started to teach.

     Meanwhile, we couldn't pretend like we were listening and stop laughing as well. He went from alcohols to monochromatic light in few minutes. He explained the formula of alcohol and soon went the part, "when a thin monochromatic light is passed through a prism..., Monisha tell me what happens then..."  Few girls were shell shocked, as others were half asleep. We waited for the time, when he would realise that it's a physics book. Time went on. Before 5 minutes for the break, everyone started to laugh and only then he came to know about it. Then he didn't know how to react and questioned Nithish about the physics book. Soon the bell rang and his glory spread to every students.

     We started to practice for the upcoming basketball tournament. We did this one differently. While most people practice by playing together, we practiced on each other, literally. It was like this movie Space Jam but without Michael Jordan. In the  movie Jordan teaches others to play while others do insane things.

     Day one of the practice went well with normal lay ups and shooting drills with a small game at the end. Day two dint turn really well. We all were around 5 ft and we could barely touch the ring. Still wanted to dunk the basketball.

     So, we came up with an insane idea. Finny bent down on the ground while Arif came running towards him. He set his foot on Finny's back and Finny gave a slight push so that Arif could go up high enough to dunk the basketball in the ring. It went well as Arif dunked the basketball perfectly. Then Finny performed the dunk followed by Frank.

     Finny's dunk attempt was one to remember as it went down so hard. Frank was on the ground bending, while Finny was running towards the ring. At the last moment, Arif called Frank. "De Frank, " "Enada". That's it! Frank turned towards Arif, his shoulder bent down and Finny performed the dunk (somersault). Instead of going towards the ring, he went away from the ring. He went down hard and we couldn't stop laughing and so did he. No more dunks thereafter.

     We played well and there were several memorable moments. Robin's lay up was one of them. He used to go fast and lay the ball in the ring. That's when we learnt the 90° angle. Because, everytime he takes a layup, the ball would go straight up and come down to the place he released it.

     There was this guy, whose name was John. When others did the crazy things he too wanted to be part of it. So he did a 360° layup. It is a layup, where a player comes running to the ring and spins himself to a 360° and then releases the ball to the basket. (Guess this guy watched the Michael Jordan's 360 the previous night). He came fast did the spin, released the ball. But the poor guy focused only on the spin but not the landing. He couldn't control what was happening and went crashing on the basketball post. Everyone saw the birds flying above his head.

     From then, no one had the thought of doing crazy things in basketball. Not even the winning part. Totally insane people.

     One afternoon, after a heavy lunch, we sat down for a physics class. We listened to the dreams/class as our teaches sung the perfect lullaby. Suddenly, Frank shouted "VODAFONE". The whole class woke up. So did our teacher. Except for Frank himself. There was a moment of silence, not untill everyone started to laugh and Frank finally woke up and knew nothing. Even our physics teacher was searching where there was something in the book called Vodafone. From then, the day went only via Vodafone. 

A Child's Play With The Pawns

If God made man in his image and likeness, then check my following theory.


God is a child who wants to play with toys. So he created us. He got bored that he couldn't find anything amusing for a longtime. That's why it took for him to think about something new. That's how the story of creation began. He created several things but it dint get interesting. So here created man on the final day of creation. Day 7.

Before that, he might have indulged himself with several other things which we were not meant to know. He played with the new toys for sometime. When he got bored i.e, he stared to grew up, he felt alone and wanted someone to play with. He created some spirits who are according to us known as the angels. They made him feel better.

After sometime, God got bored of it as these so called angels assisted him in playing the game. Nothing would be interesting if only one player plays a game. He wanted a opponent who could challenge him but not defeat him. So, he chose one of his best and most loved angel to be his worthy opponent. That worthy opponent is according to us is the devil.

Lucifer Morningstar was not the fallen angel who turned to be the devil. He was the only angel who could fully embrace the hate that the future could hold. God blessed Lucifer with power to challenge him and still listen to Him.

God still felt bored in the game as it was One Vs All. So he made some of his angels to switch sides. Now he felt interesting which resulted in several wars in heaven. Since all were eternal beings, the war lasted long. He got fed up of the game and threw the challengers out of heaven.

He made them a new place where they could test and arm themselves, more like an arsenal. Several angels switched sides and the war went on. God still got bored as this went for a longtime. He realised that a game without audience was boring. So he created the audience.

The Story of Creation begins here. He created several types of audience but was not satisfied. He finally created man and felt that was good. So, he took a day off (Sunday).

Inorder to make the game interesting, he made several plots, twists and turns so that it might last long and interesting. He even changed the rules whenever the game was less interesting. It is a game of chess, where we were his pawns. Game began at the Garden of Eden, with a small apple. It still goes on.

When the devil leads with most number of people, God turns the table by natural calamities. Both the God and the devil use their special abilities to win the humans. Whoever has the most number of fans will be the winner. The final day of the game is often meeting by the humans as the Judgement Day.

Interesting part of the game is that, God offered the people (audience) with free will to choose sides but with strings attached. No matter what, we end up with God.

Is God a good being or the bad? Guess what, He is the Ying and Yang. Or a child who plays a game, where the child decides the rules and the players. 

THE NORTH REMEMBERS

Chapter 1 - THE HUSTLING FOUR

    It all started with a plan to go for a trek. The plan was confirmed only at the last moment and the green light was given by ourselves. Only few knew about this plan. And only we knew the timing of this plan i.e. just two days before. The plan was to go for a trek, climb a mountain and come down. If there’s more time, then we could go around for new places.

    We packed our bags, got whatever we could. Most important things were trekking shoes, winter jacket, gloves, cap and a torch. We moved from our homes early in the morning. Abdul and myself started the travel on a bike to Coimbatore. On our way, we bought medicines for cold, fever, pain killers as a safety measure.

    We reached Coimbatore and we bought a sleeping tent and made our way to the bus stop. We met Plato and Arun who were also accompanying with us for this epic journey. We boarded the bus by 1 pm to Chennai. We stopped at a place for the lunch where we purchased few clothes. After few hours, we noticed that our departure of the Delhi train was at 10.30 pm and we were running late. So we went to the driver and asked him to drive fast.

    The driver was friendly to us and he did his best to go fast. At one point, the driver said that the bus wouldn’t go past the 100 km/hr mark as the speed control was enabled in it. Still the driver gave his best efforts. Abdul and myself dint move from the front seat. We stayed with the driver till the end.

    We came to know that we would never make it. So Abdul asked his friend to come to a stop named Tambaram. The driver risked everything for us. Then we got down and went to a stop called Perungalathur. Plato clocked around 110km/hr on that heavy traffic road and we made it to the Perungalathur stop. We carried our bags, which weighed around 8-10 kg and ran through the platform to board the train.


Chapter 2 - TRAGEDY OF TRAIN

    Unfortunately, we missed the local train. We boarded the next train and were heading to the Central Railway Station. We got down and ran all the way to the platform 6 to board the Tamil Nadu Express. We could not make it as it took of 2 minutes earlier. We acted quickly and booked tickets to Nagpur. In few minutes time, the counter was closed. We just booked the tickets in time.

    We had around 40 minutes for the train so we came out to have our dinner. After dinner, we had to search for the train and we boarded it. Luckily, we got our tickets confirmed in a matter of seconds and that too the same compartment and same bay.

    We thought we would catch the Tamil Nadu Express as it was 1 hour late. But next morning, we came to know that our train was 6 hours behind the Tamil Nadu Express and we couldn't catch it. So we planned to book another train from Nagpur to Delhi.

     We booked the train from Nagpur to Delhi. It was around 2.30 pm and our train was supposed to reach there by 2 pm. Shockingly, our train was 2 hours late and we dint know whether we could make it in time. We even thought that, if the train was operated like a bus, we could convince the driver to go fast. Funniest thing was that, we got the ticket confirmation for the Nagpur tickets as well. The journey, whether we would make it or drop it depended on the train.

    To our surprise, the train reached the station by 2.40 pm and the Nagpur train was 15 minutes late. We boarded the Nagpur train and continued the journey to Delhi. We managed to get a glimpse of the railway station as there was few minutes to spare.

    We bought some oranges as Nagpur was famous for oranges. We boarded the train to Delhi and only then we found out that they were not oranges but mozambi. All we were thinking was about the train and were blindfolded.

Chapter 3 - TO THE ROADS

     We spoke about these all night and went for sleep. Next day, we were closing into Delhi and a person asked us to look a mountain closely. We dint find anything special about it. When we came closer, we came to know that it was the garbage dump of Delhi, that turned into a huge mountain. It was too big.

     We came out of the station and boarded a bus to the ISBT (Inter State Bus Terminal). No one knew hindi, but we managed to ask some people and finally boarded a bus to ISBT. The only Hindi we knew was, "ISBT bus hey, kithna time hey". From there, we booked the tickets to Kulu, Himachal Pradesh. We had to wait for 3 hours for the bus to come.

     It took nearly 15 hours to reach Kulu. We reached there by 5 am and were shivering. We boarded another bus to Kasol. We reached Kasol by 8 am in the morning. We booked a room and rested for a while.

Chapter 4 - KNOWLEDGE, FUN & EXPERIENCE

     We explored Kasol, visited the Manikaran valley and the hot springs in there. Later that day, we ran out of money as there were no ATM’s. We were able to get back to Kulu. We had money for 2 persons to make it to Kulu. If we couldn’t find ATM’s working it would be an one way trip. Fortunately, we got the money from an ATM and continued our journey.

     Our next stop was our trek to Shrikhand Mahadev. We spent some time in Kulu before boarding the bus. We had our breakfast there and explored the city. We had momos for the breakfast. It was the first time I had momos. We went in each shops and started to bargain all the things we saw. We had around 2 hours to board the bus and we wanted to do something useful.

     We got some information about the trek and few places to explore. Later, we boarded the bus to a place called Aani from Kulu. It took around 8 -10 hours of journey. We made friends with the driver and the conductor. We came across lots of apple trees. We went through a traffic congestion. It was a small road and only one vehicle could pass at a time.

      It took some time for our bus to pass through. That was the time, we planned to make use of. We got down the road and managed to gather as much as apples we could. When the owner came, we were no where to be found. We were in the bus and the driver understood what had happened, so he switched the headlights off and we moved pretending to be invisible.  We shared it to everyone and still we had around 2 kg of apples left.

Chapter 5 - Aani and Base camp

   

We reached Aani and rented a room. We met a person there, who has been to Shrikhand twice. He said that it was a tough trek and it would take a minimum of 3 days to complete it. We spent that night there. Next day, Abdul and myself got up early as planned but Arun and Plato couldn’t get up. They said that they would come next day. So we had to leave them and headed to Rampur.

     It was nearly 3 hours of journey and we got down before Rampur as per the conductor’s instruction.
We found few people who are heading towards the Shrikhand. We spoke with them and travelled with them to Shrikhand. They were Virender, Satpal, Rajesh and their friends.

      We made it to the first base camp, where we were issued with medical certificate and had to register ourselves. We moved around 1 km and had our lunch and started the trek. We managed to keep half of our luggage in a storehouse, including the tent. So we had only the necessary items in our bags. Still, our bags were heavy.


Chapter 6 - Day 1

     The total trek was 72 kms. According to us, it was divided into several sectors. The jungle, rocks, woods, rocks, flowers and finally steep hills with snow.

     Our friends whom we met, asked us to wait in a camp as we moved fast. Once we reached, we bought some noodles which was the only food that we got. It costs around Rs.80 -100. We waited for the others there and once they came we continued our journey. We stopped in a camp for the nightfall with our new friends. It was too cold out there, despite the sweater and the jackets we wore.


Chapter 7- Day 2

     We got up in the morning and started the journey. We checked the altitude now and then. We really got upset only when we climbed around 3000 meters and had to go down for 1000 meters. It was the only way, and we made it through. It was during then, we saw the glacier for the first time. It was a great sight.

    After few kilometers, we had to cross a huge glacier. We could even see water flowing underneath it. It was not that safe as it would break anytime. We crossed many glaciers and it served as the source for fresh water.

     Finally, we made it to the last base camp at noon. We thought of going to the peak, but the entry was closed. So we had to wait in the last base camp. On our way to the last base camp, so many people asked about us and encouraged us to make it to the top. They were unable to reach the peak, so they wanted us to reach there.


Chapter 8- Day of Hustle

     Next day, we started by 3 am leaving all our bags in the tent, as it would be the toughest part of the journey. It was raining and it made the trek even tougher. We climbed the mountain as fast as we could. At one point, I went too fast and got slipped due to the rains. It was a slope and thank God, that I had a pole to support. Then, Abdul and myself started to take the lead. We went so quick as if we knew the way.

     I stopped him and asked him, whether it was the correct way and he said, “in order to reach to the peak, we had to go top”. I was convinced, but then there was no way. So we turned and shouted that it was the wrong route. Suddenly, they started to move right and we found the way. Since we moved way too top, we had to cross a glacier while others had to cross a river.

   
After so much of hustle, we made it to the top. I was so happy, but it dint last long. They said that it was the Mansrover, the last water spot. I hardly found any water, everything was ice. I didn't find a way from there. All I could see was a stee hill. Actually, the real trek started from that point.

Chapter 9- Trek

     We made up our minds and dint wanna go back, so we started to climb the hills. It took lot of effort. Like, we used our hands, legs and even our body to support us, but we made it top. We had everything but that was our weakness. We had a pole, water bottle and a torch to climb the hill. But, we can't use them if we need to climb the hills. I kept the water bottle in the winter jacket and put the torch in my mouth. Only then, I could use my hands to climb.

   It was 3 am and the only light source was the torch. So, we had to do something. At one point, we had rocks covering both the sides. After that, when I turned to my left, all I could see were clouds. We were like standing above the clouds. After few minutes, once I climbed another rock, there was nothing to support me. I was on the peak of some mountain and I had walk over it to the next peak.

     Suddenly, we had to come around the peak, as it could not be climbed. We got to move quickly around the corner to maintain our balance and to reach the other side. In some situation, we faced ice around the corners of the mountain and we had to support ourselves with the poles and move slowly. This was the dangerous part of the trek.
Once we completed all those, we had to walk straight to a mountain. Then, we had to climb the final glacier to reach the peak of Shrikhand Mahadev. It took some time to make it to the top, but we made it to the top. It was a glorious moment, as the sun started to shine like we were gifted with enlightenment.

     We were sitting on top of a rock for 20 minutes talking for sometime and still couldn't believe that we made it to the top. We saw only around 25 people who made it to the top. We surely were gifted. When our friends came they asked us to move closer to the peak. To the Shivling. We would've moved earlier, but then it was a footwear restricted area. Can you imagine that a place above 4300 metres high and covered with ice was a footwear restricted area.


Chapter 10 - The Peak

     Yes you've read it right. It was a very big Shivling sitting right on the peak. That's why it got the name Shrikand Mahadev. We dint wanna remove our shoes but then wanted to go closer. So we had no choice but to remove our shoes. It took some time to make that decision. We even thought not to go any closer. But we got the chance to reach top that many have desired.

     We removed our shoes and dint know where to keep our legs. It was shivering. Everything was covered with ice. It just lasted for few minutes. Then, we dint feel a thing. We took part in the ritual. We thought it was over, but one of our friends asked us to go around the peak. We went with him.

     We had to step down and then move around the peak, yet another treacherous path. The way was too small and only one person could pass. According to me, if one has to pass through, they had to lean to the peak. The are more chances to fall if we miss step. At one point, we could barely keep a foot. We had to move through inorder to make it to the other side.

     On the other side, they had some tridents or thrishools for worshipping. We came around 80% of the peak and I thought there could be a way from there. To my disappointment, there was no way but to go back through the way we came. I found it difficult as I was complaining to Abdul about the small pass. Everyone found it difficult and I was the only person to speak about it. All these took around 20 minutes and we've been there for 40 minutes. We took some pictures with our new made friends and they left as soon as possible. Abdul and I took some time in wearing our shoes and were amazed by the beauty of nature.

     After few minutes when we found everyone leaving, we also started to leave. We spent nearly an hour there at the peak. It was on our way down, that I realized that going top was easy when compared with coming down.



Chapter 11- Memories

     We clicked few pictures on the way to the last base camp. Since we started early in the morning and faced lots of hardships, we were not in the mood for photographs. But once we were nearing the peak, we started. We kept our phones inside our jacket so that it stays warm enough.

     Our phones worked only few seconds before shutting down. We had to come up with other ideas to capture the awestruck landscape. We used a power bank to power our phones and it worked. It lasted more than few seconds. So, taking pictures also was not easy. We couldn't check whether the picture was good or not.

     We made sure to capture as much pictures as we could. It was tough time operating the phone wearing gloves. The touch screen doesn't work and so we had to remove the gloves, which was even more terrible. We improvised it by using selfie stick. No matter what we did, it just lasted few seconds.

     Our phones doesn't work due to the severe cold and altitude issues. So we thought that from next time, to use a cam instead. That would do the trick.

     We took lots of pictures on our way down. Every five minutes, the clouds change and provide spectacular views. We never wanted to return but stay. The flowers in the Parvati valley were amazing. It was sad that we had to go through the Parvati valley early in the morning. Since we started by 3 in the morning, we never knew what was in our way. Only on our way down, we realised how beautiful it was.


Chapter 12 - Way Down

     We couldn't stay on the peak for long, so we started our way down. Some were skiying on the glacier. We had to be careful on the glaciers. So it took some time. We tried to ski but turned out bad. We couldn't control the momentum. We moved slowly and on our way down we saw people who wanted to make it to the top so badly that they don't care how their body responds.

     We were so lucky that we were young and made it to the top where many failed to reach. A proud moment filled our hearts. We had to go back the same way and that means to cross all the glaciers and treacherous paths. A person in front, suddenly slipped and fell over a slope. To be precise, it was a slope of a mountain. My brain processed a notion that he's gone. But to our surprise he stopped at the edge and somehow made it top. We nearly witnessed an accident. From then, we took extra effort to be safe.

     People who are afraid of heights never look down once they are top. But in this case, no chance. We had to climb down a cliff. At one point, there was nothing in front. We had to place our foot at correct places to maintain balance. Worst scenario was looking down. We were above 4000 ft from ground level.

     Once we reached the Manasrover, the end of cliffs, we sensed a moment of relief. There were lots of rocks and we had to go over them. It wasn't the correct way. But still, we took it. The local people there were so fast in moving over the rocks. They jumped from one to the other. We couldn't do it for long. Finally, we came to the end of Manasrover.

     Our eyes were set for the most beautiful things, as we came across the valley of flowers. It was a beautiful sight until we realised that was the way we took top. Soon the valley of flowers were not that good, as we stomped our way through it and the early morning rains made it worse. What a wonderful sight it would be to see the valley of flowers untouched!

     We made our way back to our tent in the last base camp. We had some food and slowly started our way down to the foothills of Himalayas. We couldn't stop taking pics as the landscape kept changing every now and then. We stopped at every camp to have some tea as it was too good. We managed to come half way down by nightfall. We gazed at the countless stars and dint wanna move from that place.

     Next day we started a bit late and made it to the exit by noon. It was hard to depart from that place but still we said goodbye our new friends and headed to Rampur. We checked for the bus from Rampur, unfortunately there was none and we had to spend the night at Rampur. We bought some apples, oranges and charged our mobiles in a nearby shop. We stayed all night and finally boarded a bus to Rehkong Peo.


Chapter 13 - Monastery and Rekhong Peo

     Rehkong Peo is the closest place to Chitkul which is the last Indian village. We woke up early in the morning and were awestruck by the roads. We were indeed traveling through one of the dangerous roads in the world. We made it to Rehkong Peo by noon. We checked in a hotel and dint waste anytime and started to explore three place.

     We went in a Buddhist monastery and found it amazing as it was peaceful. We are the only people there. We spent sometime and sat over a slab until we fell asleep. Our body was so tired as we had no rest after the trek. Once we realised it, we went to the hotel and slept for a while. We woke up by 7pm and found the climate to be shivering.

     We had some food in the hotel. The hotel had pictures of Himalayas. View of Pokhra lake, Everest, The Annaporna range and more. We admired the interest of the hotel owner and put them in the list of places to visit in the near future. The food felt so tasty as we had only noodles and tea for the past 3 days.


Chapter 14 - Last Dhaba and the border

     Next day morning we packed some bread and Hershey's for our breakfast and headed to a nearby fishery. After that, we had our breakfast there. Then we boarded the bus to Chitkul by 12 in the noon. We reached Chitkul by 1.30. We made some new friends on the way. From Chitkul, we heard to the Indo-Tibetian border. We had to walk for 40 minutes and we came to know about our new friends on the way.

     When we reached closer, a cop came and warned that we are not allowed after that point. Even photographs were not allowed. But we managed to click some. We spoke with him and then he bought us a ride back to the village. On the way back we clicked some pictures of the border which we were never meant to. We had to come back soon as the last bus to Rekhong Peo was at 3.30pm. So we made sure that we are on time. We said goodbye to our new friends and headed back to the hotel.

Chapter 15 - Cross roads of destiny

     Next day, we planned to go to Kalpa. While waiting in the bus stand, there was a bus to Tabo and we boarded it. A sudden change of plans. Tabo is a village in Leh. The roads were so dangerous as we had to stop due to falling off rocks. There was a crew whose job is to clean the fallen rocks from the road. The roads were so thin that only one vehicle can pass at a time. It would be a one hell of experience for the bikers. 

     On the way, there were so many river crossing, sudden land slides and we can't expect anything on how the roads would be. It was a great journey. We stopped at a place called Naco. It was the only place looked green. We met someone from Tiruvanamalai in South India. He worked for the government and was there as a minister was visiting the place. We spoke with him and moved to Tabo.

     We reached Tabo by 4 in the evening. We had no money and thank God there was an ATM. Then we moved into a monastery and checked in for the night. We roamed all over the place and the next day, we explored as much as we could and headed back to Rampur. 

Chapter 16 - Chandigarh and way down

     We managed to get some apricots and dry fruits. From Rampur, we boarded a bus to Chandigarh via Shimla. We stopped at Shimla by night. It was cold and we had no time. So we headed to Chandigarh the same night. Next day morning we reached Chandigarh and we reached our room. We spent sometime with our friends talking about the experience we gained in the trip. We roamed on the roads on Chandigarh and started to explore it for a while, as we had to wait for our friends Plato and Arun.

     That night, we went to the Sukna lake. We had a spectacular view of the lake and spent few hours there and finally headed back to New Delhi for our train to Coimbatore. We reached Delhi by time and boarded the Tamil Nadu express and we were all set.

Chapter 17 - Running, Chasing

     It was a two day travel to Coimbatore. On the way back, our pockets were empty. We had to buy food for the night and the next day. There's no way of withdrawing money from the ATM. We checked the timing of the train and came to know that it would stop in Vijayawada for 5 minutes. That was the maximum time it would wait. So, Abdul and myself planned to go to the ATM in the railway station and come back within 5 minutes. 

     The train reached Vijayawada and before it stopped, we got down and were running on the platform. On the way, Ticket collector stopped us. He understood our emergency and showed us the nearest ATM. To our bad luck, the ATM was not working. We went outside the railway station and managed to withdraw money and came back running to the train.

     The train already started to move and I managed to get in but I couldn't find Abdul. He managed to get in the last compartment of the train and we were lucky. We finally reached Coimbatore and managed to get home with nothing but empty pockets. We shared the apricots as many started to rot. Thus our North trip was filled with running, chasing and sudden change of plans. 

       

                                    THE END