A Traveler's Memoir

The Three of us, myself, Dinakar Das and Ramesh were planning on hiking up to Hemkund Sahib when Akash asked us to rest at his campsite before we climbed up the next day. Ishwar Bhai promised to meet later as he had to catch up with everything that happened in the past 6 days. The story of one great Expedition ended there as we slowly marched towards Ghangaria, a few more kilometers of hike. Coming back to the crowd took some time for me to accept but it already made me unhappy, without any choice I marched as fast as I could to reach the helipad and waited for them. We then reached the given location to be welcomed by Sanjay. We were supposed to pitch our tents when Sanjay said we were told to stay in a hut and guided us there, served us tea and asked if we needed hot water to take bath? That was a moment of happiness, both me and Ramesh nodded a big yes. As we stopped our tea, he brought a bucket full of good hot water. After me I told Dinakar to wait for another bucket, he denied an...

As we left the Sadhu, we glided down the slopes enjoying the speed but for Dinakar he had to give himself some push whenever the cycle stopped. Turns out he parked the cycle in good condition at an ashram before going to Satopant and when he returned someone had broken a connecting part between the gear and frame. We planned to stay at the Gurudwara at Govind Ghat which we reached around 4 in the evening. Turns out Dinakar smoked too so while Ramesh rested we went out to have a smoke. Later that evening a Sadhu came and took a bed next to ours and joined in the conversation. That's when I heard the name Khagbasundi for the first time, Dinakar spoke about it before saying it was one of the toughest treks, both me and Ramesh were interested the moment he said it was one of the toughest treks. Ramesh watched a video and looked confident enough to do it. We had no clue about the distance or how many days we had to plan for but we knew we had to carry out groceries. After making sure we...

We all woke up in the morning when Dhaval wanted to stay back another day. Luckily we had a window without rains to get down but he insisted to stay. Prateek and Prem both knew the weather would turn bad so they were keen on leaving. Dhaval had to agree and we all started our hike back down. I washed some vessels for the Sadhu for the good care and food he served us while living with limited resources himself. Though we climbed down at our own speeds we waited at some place making sure all were together, leaving the place felt very sad but the cold was testing each one of us to the extreme. As we glided down, it started getting sunny with the clouds building up fast too. As we reached Jassu Bhai's place, Dhaval stopped for a smoke while me and Ramesh were hungry to grab some food. After a point we both choose different paths while he reach the room and I reached the market. I rushed myself into a shop to feast on a couple samosas, finished a packet of biscuits dipping in tea and a ...

The following day 9 September, Villagers were going to another temple Bansi Narayan, 10 kilometers away, from there again they went ahead 6 or more kilometers in search of Brahma Kamal for the offering at their traditional temple. I don't know what triggered him, Dhaval said he will take us and it sounded safe and comfortable for all. Ramesh needed a sleeping bag and winter wear so he went to joshimath. I asked him to buy a used rain jacket for me. At noon Dhaval said lunch will be at the temple, and as we reached there he said he was on his way. While me and Ramesh waited, a sadhu called us to his shelter. I had seen him earlier near the temple where a few other sadhus lived. He made us sit and made some tea with A bowl made of tin, that I'm sure is used in cooking everything possible. He added water, a lot of jaggery, some tea leaves and simply let it boil. We lacked glasses so he simply found a plastic bottle, cut it into two and made a glass of it. Tea was too sweet but sin...

At a point as we pushed I saw a very incline slope so I asked him that we stop to eat. Later in the evening we found a perfect shelter, we bought some chicken to make a gravy and ate with rice. That's when it slowly starts to rain and it pured for a long time. Ramesh at first was ready to sit and relax without the tent but as the food was loaded we both needed some sleep to ride further next day.  It was our 6th day and we were just 30 kilometres away from Urgam Valley which was my first destination. Though the first 15 kilometres were pretty easy, then came the 12 kilometres of uphill through unpaved roads to reach Urgam. It wasn't easy at all and that's when the rains started pouring. Since two hours we hardly managed to climb 4 kilometres and were really exhausted pushing the loaded ride. At one point I was so tired but to wait there meant danger with roads filling up and making it a struggle to pass. We had literally put ourselves to test, both of us simply exhausted we...

Waking up with Lekhana by my side, my charming princess had just passed 7 months and I was ready to leave on another adventure to the Himalayas. My wife Janya, expecting me not to leave, helplessly hid a lot of emotions behind her eyes. My train was booked for tomorrow but I had to make sure that I reached Bangalore safely without having to hustle with time. I got ready and went to pick up Kiran. We loaded the van, and started off as I kissed my wife and daughter. Nithin joined us in kudige and Akshay Somanna called me to say he was at the station too and wanted to see me off. Darshan was missing since he was plowing in the fields, I was really happy that he kept busy. All of us were not related by blood but my relationship with each one of them was very personal and valuable to me.  What just started as a part time job for Darshan and Kiran changed over time as they became my family. I met Nithin and Vivek through them. Nithin was a passionate biker and Vivek had already started h...