UP ABOVE THE WORLD SO HIGH

                                 UP ABOVE THE WORLD SO HIGH

(The Nag Tibba Exploration)

You know how they say; every experience good or bad teaches you something. Or how, you will laugh on this a few years later, or it’s all just in your mind. Well sometimes all it takes is a small journey to teach you all these philosophies of life. A journey that changes your perception towards all the things you believed in. I undertook a similar journey, a week ago.

I was walking. I kept walking through the rocky trail as my body could feel the weight of every step I took.

The sun shone bright, but the air was still chilly. I looked around, gazed at the majestic Himalayas of the Garhwal , dipped in the shade of green. I could feel the duffel bag on my shoulders trying to pin me down. The wooden stick that I held for support was wet with my sweat. Our aim was far enough so as to not to be seen. I was on the Nag Tibba Trek, in Uttarakhand.  A trek that classifies itself as easy to moderate but at that moment, it was anything but that.

It all seemed treacherous, yet in its own way it was beautiful.  We had started from a hill village called Panthwari located at an altitude of 1300 meters in the Garhwal region of Utttarakhand. It was a steep climb over a rocky terrain, and our feet carefully refrained from stepping over any loose rock or soil. We placed each footing conscientiously. The clear blue sky that stretched afar embraced the mountains at its peaks. We walked on, troubled yet determined with an enigmatic smile on our faces. The view kept changing, as we crossed thatch roofed villages, shepherds grazing their cattle, village folks whose smile seemed to be the only source of motivation, gargling water springs the water of which could only taste sweet to our dried up mouths and then there were the friendly chatter of my 8 co-trekkers, musings and laughers; circumstances and situations that either made us compete or bound us together. We were sure to have completed at least 3 kilometers after an hour and a half of trekking, but Shubham, our 15 year old trek guide hailing from Panthwari, much amused by our snail pace, stunned us by declaring how we had only covered 1.5 kilometers so far. The rocks continued to bark the path and all of us pined for the forest trail to start. But we still had a few more kilometers more of stones and occasional animal bones to get through with. The trek got tougher but the scenery only more breath-taking with each passing step.

We occasionally stopped for breaks, as we sat down silently panting, looking around and wondering how much more beautiful can this world get, staring at the queer shaped dense mountains, or the path that so prettily twirled around it. The valley that we over saw, made us realize how high we had come up and then we overlooked at the towering cliffs above us that we were still to cross, but suddenly it didn’t seem that difficult anymore.

We continued our trek, through the narrow trails.

The rocky path had now ceased to exist for I could feel the dry leaves crush beneath my feet, and the cool shade of the trees above my head. Aah! The beginning of a 5 kilometers forest trail, I was ecstatic. There was something so amazing about the forests. The mystery that they entailed, the so many secrets that they hid amongst its twirling –winding paths, dense bushes and hovering trees. The occasional alarm calls from one animal or the other, and the weather that had now considerably cooled down gave the chills to our exhausted bodies. We had been trekking now for around 4 hours and were not even half way through. However there was something about the wilderness, something about these pristine jungles, which instilled a new energy into us. I remember coming across an open field, lined with soaring Deodars.

The sun was setting and the sunlight peeped through between the trees giving incredible shades and hues of yellow, orange, green and pink. It is at that moment that I realized that nature was capable of so much. How naturally it showed its many shades to us. It changed every passing moment, showing us a new face of its splendid beauty, each passing moment. It looked like a scene from a fairy tale. The woods where Red Riding Hood came for a walk or where Snow White got lost. Such was its fascination.

Gaining some inspiration just from the thought of those fairy tales, we continued the trek. The last one hour was probably the most difficult, for our bodies had almost given up. It was pitch dark now, the animal calls and the hustle bustle behind the bushes and on the trees was spooky. Figuring out the path in the dark and dragging our bodies through the trail, my heart exclaimed with joy as I caught a glimpse of our tents.

We had finally, after 7 hours of trekking through the rocky terrain and the forest trail reached the Nag Tibba Base Camp at 2600 meters height.We were elated.

After being allotted our tents, the first thing I did was gaze upwards. The night sky dazzled with twinkling stars. Hundreds of them, just looking down on us. I had forgotten what a sky full of stars looked like. One didn’t get to see it in the city. It was breathtaking, the kind of beauty that left you gasping. How I wished it wasn’t so cold, for I could have stayed up all night gazing at those stars. A bonfire was lit and we all sat around it. As we warmed our bodies, our conversations too warmed up. I had been traveling with my best friend from many years and although I felt we had grown apart when we went off to separate colleges, all those memories and cherished times came back as we chattered playfully, laughing and recollecting and reminiscing memories of the past. We were the same, nothing had changed. The Great Outdoors, the wilderness, the majestic Himalayas that lay right in front of us- the stars that shined, the trees that stood with all their might, the soil we sat upon, the wind that blew, everything –it had the power to humble us down and make us realize how powerless we were in front of the natural world and also how it was also our guardian. The night in the wild didn’t seem to scare me. In fact I felt secure. We had emerged from here, we were a part of it and as long as we respected it, no harm could come unto us.

 Dinner was served. As we ate and chatted, with the fire burning bright, I couldn’t help but look at the stars above, every once in a while. They seemed to appear and disappear. But the sky still looked phenomenal. After dinner was done, and the fire had almost died down I could feel my fingers go numb because of the cold. My feet ached like anything, but I knew in my heart that all I had was this night to absorb this spectacular allure and make the most of it, so I  set up my tripod which was a rather difficult task given that my fingers just refused to work in that jack frost. Worst was the fact, that the campsite was pitch dark and I had to work with a torch. After the set-up I started clicking the starry night with the aim to capture its divinity as it is, but my failed attempts at night photography got me nowhere near that. After just 20 minutes my fingers had given up and I stopped, looked up. “I guess my camera tonight cannot do justice to the radiant sky”, I thought to myself. Packing up, I got ready to sleep. The tents were tiny and I was glad to have been sharing it with my best friend. My body was tired, exhausted to be precise but my mind still felt fresh. Maybe it was those mountain hills or maybe it was just the excitement of being in such a fascinating place. I got into my sleeping bag and waited to fall asleep. But I did not. Neither did my friend.  We were too cold to fall asleep. Our tent was wet too with the dew and thus after failed attempts at sleeping we continued our crazy conversations through the night. I went out of the tent to pull out woolen clothes from my bag to warm myself and what I saw left me mesmerized. There was a pin drop silence; the mountains around me looked beautiful. It was not pitch dark, but the sky was sort of deep-purplish and it glistened with stars and this time the sky was full. The stars I realized, they shine the brightest in a clear sky. I realized how this was a metaphor to life. One has to let go of all inhibitions and insecurities-clear their mind and only then they would achieve success and be able to shine like the stars that twinkled in that amazing night sky.

 My friend and I did not sleep a wink that night, we had shivered through the night, desperately hoping it doesn’t affect our performance as trekkers. The next morning, we got up rather early, the dawn hadn’t yet arrived, and it was still twilight. Somehow I struggled out in the cold with a bottle of water to freshen up. (There were no bathrooms). My fingers became pink and seemed to swell up as they came in contact with the cold water. I washed my face- telling my mind I could take this frost, and that it is all in my mind. I could do this. After freshening up, I held my bottle in the arm so that I could warm my fingers in the pocket and went to the big kitchen hut to fetch water for my friend so that she too could get sleep off her eyes.  Shuddering and shivering, with my teeth clattering, I struggled to get my hands of my pocket. Extending the bottle to the kitchen bhaiya, I asked for water. “Lijie Garam Pani lenge aap?” (Would you like warm water) he asked rather cheerfully …. I stared at him in bewilderment. There was hot water? Here I had risked  my life to hypothermia by washing myself with that ice-cold water , completely oblivious to even the existsnce of hot water in this cold godforsaken land and now this guy was offering me hot water. I kept my bottle down … “just pour some on my frozen hands”, I said and as soon as the hot water trickled on to my palms and fingers, I felt a sudden rush of life into myself. Nothing could have felt better than that. Carrying hot water for my lucky friend, I told her of the incident and she burst out laughing. Nothing like laughter to start the day with.

We were supposed to trek up till the summit of Nag Tibba that morning. I was excited to see the world up from there. We stopped at the Nag Temple on our way over there. A simple sloped roofed temple which was closed but Hanumanti Ji, Shubham’s father and our trek guide for the day told us about its fascinating history. It is very difficult to find water on the hills in the absence of any river. Apparently this temple had a ‘kund’ that has been become a natural source of water for all the villages on the hills. In fact the people here are avid worshipers of the Nag Devta.

In fact Nag Tibba itself is believed to be the abode of 'Nag Devta' or snake god, from which it borrows the first part of its name; 'Tibba' is a local word for hill or peak. Local villagers come here to offer their prayers to Nag Devta for the protection of their cattle.

After our visit to the temple we continued to ascend the hill to reach the summit of Nag Tibba. The trek although was not as tough, but the lack of sleep made us really slow climbers. The trail though was beautiful and the morning breeze made it all the more amazing. The chirping of the birds, the fresh whiff of air and a distant view of the Himalayan snowline, it was picture perfect. After about an hour and a half of our climb up, we saw the peak decorated with flag posts that came alive with the sunlight that fell directly upon it. I looked below my feet at the dew drops that had freezed overnight on the green grass and with the kiss of the sun; they appeared to be a fantastic shade of pale blue.

They went up till the peak, and me and my friend rushed towards it. We were here, we had done it. 3022 feet-up above the world so high, we had successfully trekked the highest peak of the Garhwal region.  As we stood there, our heads held high I looked around in amazement. It is true when they say, “Climb mountains, not because the world can see you, but so that you can see the world”.

The green mountains that we had been for so long surrounded by, had turned white. I felt at the top of the world literally. At that moment all our fatigue, our worries, our inhibitions seemed to go away. The sun shone perfectly, and we just lay down there to feel the calm and the tranquility that the moment brought. A 20 minute nap under the sun seemed enough for our drained bodies, and thus after a picture session we all trekked down leaving our footprints and our hearts at the Nag Tibba Summit but carrying back cherished memories with us.

Treks downhill are what I dread the most. One wrong step and down you go. And that’s what made me slow down on our trek downhill. We reached back at the basecamp, where we were certified for our achievement of reaching the summit. 

I wasn’t particularly keen to trek down. A part of me wanted to build a house up there and never go back but we all find out motivation, don’t we? A slight comment on my and my friend’s slow speed on the trek downhill from the summit seemed to trigger us off and we acquired supersonic speed just to prove everyone wrong.  We were trekking down through the forest trail, not stopping even for once, and we came at par with the fastest trekkers of our trip- 3 Jaatt men from Haryana. We weren’t being accompanied by any of our guides and this was the first real adventure trek, as we were supposed to find our own way for a while. And like all legendary adventure epics, we were destined to get lost.  Debates, arguments, affirmations all sparked, while the 5 of us tried to convince ourselves that we had indeed taken the right path. All the trails in the forest seemed similar. One on the 3 Jaat men came up with a theory that we were in fact on the other side of the hill whereas someone said we had taken a longer route and it would take days for us to get back. Calls for Help, map drawings on soil, everyone had their own theories. Getting lost was a thrill in itself and we had no option than to continue trekking down. “We will reach somewhere, let’s just continue walking” I said, until we came to an open field that looked like a dead end. Now almost all of us were convinced we were lost, but I was happy, I at least had a story to tell. The arguments died down and the silence that followed made us hear footsteps and voices. Finally humans. YES. We shouted at the top of our voices. “HELP, WE ARE HERE…HELLOOOO???? WAIT UP THERE A VOICE YELLED BACK”. And our trek camp director came out from the bushes, almost like a hero. “What is your speed even, quite impressive though?” He remarked. “I had warned you that one wrong trail and it would take days to find your way back but lucky for you, this is a rather difficult shortcut that you guys took”. And just like that we realized what had taken us 3 hours the previous day took us just two hours this day. 

 We continued descending down, came across friendly women who seemed to walk down so easily, that too smiling and talking amongst themselves. Funny how what was life for the poor, was adventure for the rich. We trekked down the rocky path which was the most challenging and after 5 hours when I saw the sight of those thatched roofs and village huts, my heart did a little dance. No matter how much I had enjoyed yet detested this trip, coming back felt good. A hearty evening snack, a few jolly conversations, and promises to keep in touch, and our Nag Tibba trek came to a happy ending. Our bodies were exhausted, but our souls were overjoyed.

The Nag Tibba Trek- we had despised it during our ascend, during our sleepless night, but there had been beautiful moments that had overpowered the distress. The nap on the summit, the wallop of getting lost, the dazzling night sky,  the opportunity of meeting new people, the winter chill, the green hills, the snowy peaks,  the many happy conversations, the smiling faces and most of all the journey that had obliquely taught us not only about nature and wilderness, but about finding our own motivation, relying on our own strength and will power, confronting each situation optimistically and most importantly to never ever give up, because ahead of a difficult journey lies a wonderful exploration that makes every drop of sweat, every aching body part, absolutely worth it. The Nag Tibba gave me many beautiful insights, the best one being,

Somewhere, something amazing is waiting to be known and if the mountains are calling, then you must go!