I apologize for not posting for such a long time. Here's the second part of "My himalayan trek". Its really long so there will be 4 parts in total...........
In the evening of the first day, we had proper introductions. We were given the camping equipment like back packs, sleeping bags, parkas, pick axe and such stuff. The other girls were from the state of Madhya Pradesh and spoke mostly hindi. So one of us was asked to give a speech in hindi. And since I was most proficient in hindi than the other two, it was upto me. I’m normally a good orator, but an impromptu speech in hindi was a lil too much. But the girls there were more engrossed in analysing us than the speech. So I made a short speech without choking or fainting and that was the end of that.
We were told that every morning we’ll have to do roller blade skating in the courtyard with the other girls. Now they had been roller blading for some time. Infact they had plans to go on a roller blading tour kind of thing too. Which means they were experts. And we amatuers (a nice way of telling we had never done it before) were very ungracefully pushed into the middle of it all. Now these other girls were very gracefully skating around in circles, some would even show off a figure of eight. Amidst all this we were taking our first lesson: learning how to stand still (lesson zero was trying to get up after wearing the roller blades). I find it hard to stand still while I’m wearing shoes. So standing still with roller blades?? Really not my cup of tea. So I had my first of many ‘bum hits ground’ experiences. More than the physical pain, it was the embarassment that bothered me. Because you see, on one side of the courtyard, there were broad steps, just like those in stadiums and people sat there watching and also laughing. From the second day it was almost house full. We slowly learnt to stand. Then he told us that we must learn to walk wearing the roller blades. And then slowly he asked us to push our legs a lil further, every time we put are foot down. And so gradually we were skating. But of course not gracefully. We had to lean forward with our hands strteched out b4 us to maintain balance. Definitely not graceful. We looked like a couple of blind gals who accidentally slipped into roller blades. But towards the end we were sorta ok.
On the second day of our trip we went trekking up a mountain (actual mountain). But since the other girls had already done this, we three were alone in this too. Of course the abominable guard was there too. We were given a pick axe like thing with which to climb the mountain. That thing was just a dead weight though. Just think, would you, when faced by a steep precipice, hook your pick axe with the help of that?? NOT ME!!!!! Anyway we set out. Our Mam kept up a running commentary of the sights we saw, to the extent of distracting me. There were some tough sections where we had to struggle through, though the abominable guard walked with his hands in his pocket (and a smirk o his face). At some point we were tired and decided to rest. And as luck would have it, I sat on some thorns. When I got up hastily, my bum was some sight (there werent too many sounds thanks to LEE jeans). Most of them fell off on dusting, but Priyanka had to pick out the rest. I wasn’t very inclined on resting after that. So we set off again. Now after a while, Priyanka started getting a lil worried, and then scared. Turns out she’s sort of aftraid of heights. She insisted on returning, but our adventourous Mam wanted to go on. And I was indifferent (still mulling over the thorns). Then Mam finally suggested we take some rest and maybe Priyanka will feel better and we could go on. Here I jumped in (as fast as I had jumped UP at our previous rest stop) and tipped the scales by voting to turn back. Priyanka was grateful and I was sincerely against resting.
On one day we went to this village mela (which was in my imagination something like the kumbh ka mela). We rented a bus and all of us piled in. The cook had packed copious amounts of food for a picinic dinner at the mela. Puris fried in sarson ka thel and some-very-healthy-but-tasteless-vegetable bhaji was the menu. I kept looking at the two baskets in dismay while constantly shaking my head. The mela was a sad thing, more like a small exhibition that we see in our place. It did have quaint souvneirs on sale, but no man breathing fire or brandishing his arm with a torch. Just some dumb parrots hanging on a thread and things like that. And when it was dinner time, the Head Of Camp (whom I shall call the HOC from now on. I really forgot his name, though I remember he looked a lot like amrish puri) spared me the pain of saying ‘no, I’m fasting’ by telling us we could have anthing at the stalls as we arent used to such food. We happily rushed off to a nearby stall and ordered pav bhaji. And when it arrived…. We decided to fast. Maybe the local Manali godess would bless us.
On another day we went to this plateau (its name starts from S but I cant seem to remember) to try our hands at para sailing. The whole lot of us boarded the bus and played antakshari while I cringed. Finally we reached there and lo!! One more picnic lunch, courtesy our cook. The lunch was some kind of rice. Now there was no escape here as there was no other source of food on that plateau. But I refused again saying that I cant eat before parasailing, as it would upset my stomach. The cook was ok with that. I really lost weight during this trek you know. Anyway the parasailing guys arrived with their equipment. The process was something like this: the person is strapped into the seat that was like a canvas bag. Then the parachute is spred and arranged behind you on the ground. And we had to take of running down the hill. You barely run a few feet that the chute lifts off and you start flying off. We had been shown the controls to navigate left and right. Becase we were novices, the trainer would never let go off the seat of the chute. So we werent allowed to fly more than 7 or 8 feet off the ground. On one of my runs the trainer lifted off the ground along with me too. he had to struggle a great deal to get his feet back on the ground. And in the ensuing struggle, we almost crashed into a tree and I eventually landed…. Ya you guessed it… on my bum.
But it was a great experience. The funny part was our Mam trying to force the trainers to let her try. They refused on the grounds that she was too heavy and she would never lift off. But she was persistent. They reluctntly gave in. And two trainers struggled to get her into the seat. And then she took off. Actually I should say she toooooook ooooofffffff, as it was rather slow. Anyway, the lack of speed and the weight combined resulted in the predicted outcome. She didn’t take off the ground, and in an attemp to bend her legs to lift off the ground, she fell and the chute softly collapsed over her. She made 2 attempts, both to the same effect.
To Be continued.....
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